By now, I know all of you have heard about the wife who confessed to murdering her husband who was a Church of Christ minister in Selmer, Tennessee. I am not sure, however, if you all saw or read about what happened on the Nancy Grace show on CNN not long after this murder took place.
Basically, Nancy Grace, who hosts a news talk show on CNN at 7:00PM CT, had a gentleman on her show on March 27 to talk about exactly what the Church of Christ is. The man's name was Tom Rukala and he is a Baptist missionary. Why this man was chosen and not a "member" of the Church of Christ or an expert on religions, I do not know. I will let you read the unedited transcript below of what happened when Nancy Grace and Tom Rukala began discussing the Church of Christ.
"NANCY GRACE: I want to go to pastor Tom Rukala, joining us tonight, a special guest, a Baptist minister. I've been researching the Church of Christ. I don't know that much about it. What can you tell me?
PASTOR TOM RUKALA, BAPTIST PASTOR: Well, the Church of Christ is a relatively new church. It was started about 150 years ago by Alexander Campbell (ph). And it's, unfortunately, a very legalistic sect, and they tend to use methods of intimidation and pressure tactics. They claim that they are the only ones going to heaven, and all other people are condemned to hell. So in case...
GRACE: Uh-oh, I'm in trouble. But I already knew that.
(LAUGHTER)
GRACE: Now, wait a minute. What more can you tell me?
RUKALA: Well, they claim that if you're not baptized by one of their ministers, that you're doomed to hell, even if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, which, of course, breaks completely from the traditional Christian view that all those who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved because we're saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and rose again. For the Church of Christ folks, that's not enough. You have to be a member of their narrow sect. It's a very exclusive group. And if you're not a member of their sect, you're condemned.
GRACE: You know, Pastor, you keep saying "sect." "Sect." You make it sound like a cult.
RUKALA: It kind of is a borderline cult, unfortunately. I don't want to make it out to be some kind of Hare Krishna group, but it has cult-like characteristics and...
GRACE: In what sense?
RUKALA: Well, in the sense of the exclusivism, the attitude that they are the only ones who know the truth. The tactics that they use are sometimes just -- not only un-biblical but unethical, and they can be very ungracious, unfortunately."
Pretty shocking isn't it? I am guessing you disagree with just about everything that is said above. I hope you do.
Well, what I could write about is the whole unity amongst believers thing, I could write about John 17 (one of the coolest books in the Bible) and how Jesus wanted all believers to be as one, I could write about how strange it is that a Baptist called our denomination unfortunately legalistic when Baptists themselves have several bodies of governance such as the Southern Baptist Convention or the National Baptist Convention. I could write about any of those things. But I'm not.
What I want to write about has been on my heart for a long time. I think I'll start with a question. Are you tired of people out there speaking for you as a Christian and telling the "truth" when it is so far from what you really believe? I am.
I am tired of Tom Rukala telling the world through CNN that church of christ is a sect and that we think that we are the only ones going to heaven.
I am tired of Pat Robertson saying things to America like, "You say you're supposed to be nice to the Episcopalians and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and this, that, and the other thing. Nonsense. I don't have to be nice to the spirit of the Antichrist. I can love the people who hold false opinions but I don't have to be nice to them."
I am tired of the Reverand Jerry Falwell saying things to America like, "If you're not a born-again Christian, you're a failure as a human being."
If you've seen the Rob Bell video "Bullhorn," I am tired of the man on the street with the bullhorn yelling to everyone who walks by that they are condemned to hell if they don't accept Jesus today.
But what can I do about it? I don't have a TV show. I don't have a ton of money or funding by Christian organizations. I don't even own a bullhorn.
The conclusion I have come to is pretty simple. If I am tired of everyone else speaking for me, then it's time for me to speak; and speak boldly.
If you look through just the book of Acts, it mentions Paul speaking or having spoke boldy about the message of Christ seven times. Seems like a lot of times to use that phrase in just 28 chapters. That is an example I need to follow. Will I ever be on TV? Probably not. Will I ever make enough money that I become important enough that people want to listen to me? Probably not. But I sure know people that are searching for the truth. So do you.
So I challenge myself and I challenge you to speak. Don't let voices of false teachers be wrongly portrayed across this country as the truth. It has happened for too long and it's time for a change.
At the Line of Departure seminar we went to in February, Brian Mashburn said something I will never forget. He said that the sign that is outside our church building is an incredibly bold one. It says "Church of Christ." Is that who we are? Is it false advertising? Do we live and speak what that sign says?
Speak love -- boldly.
Speak Jesus -- boldly.
Speak truth -- boldly.
RK
Sources: www.cnn.com, http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/foulwell.htm, http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/7027/patrobertson.html, www.biblegateway.com
Saturday, April 22, 2006
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4 comments:
An excellent post, as I've come to expect. A few points for consideration.
1) People love a scandal. It is in our sinful nature to love to watch a good fight. It is in media's nature to sell commercials. These two forces come together to do things like this CNN fiasco. The reason I make this point is that in no way does the COC described by the Baptist, or the opinions of the Baptist represent mainstream thought in either group. CNN could have sought opinions from Baptist or CoC scholars. While there are points of difference between the groups, the overlap is huge. But Christian Unity doesn't sell Sprite.
2) While we can agree that the descriptions and the describer in the article are representative of the "Bullhorn" faction of both groups, the growing and changing emergent church is at times walking a dangerous line. It is easy to identify and minimize the narrow-minded among the American evangelical denominations. But they exist. Clearly there are individuals in the Baptist church who believe the CoC to be a cult, and members of the CoC who told me I could not go to heaven because of my Baptist upbringing. As the emergent church, supposedly more "enlightened", what are we doing to reach out to the Bullhorn faction? It is an easy trap to fall into discounting some groups as having it too wrong for us to witness to them. The marginalization of some groups by the church (i.e. homosexuals, intellectuals, atheists, agnostics) is sad. Jesus reached out to all groups, including religious zealots, and left no one untouched. In our rush to differentiate from the "Bull horns" let us not forget to love and witness to them as well.
Another interesting article can be found in the Christian Chronicle at http://www.christianchronicle.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=284 It's almost as good as Ryan's, but that's a proud mother speaking.
Debi Kirksey
We actually talked about this at work the other day, it amazing the view of church of christ churches by those that are outsiders. Thats is why the way we act in the "real world" is so important in representing Southeast. Great blog Ryan.
They are a cult. Just look at what ex-CofC members who have formed a support group say about the church and the Mary Winkler case. Says all you need to know and not more church cover up and denial.
http://www.ex-churchofchrist.org/bulletin/viewtopic.php?t=1141&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=75
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