I know many you are secretly junkies when it comes to your Stone-Campbell history. You won't admit in the public arena, but quietly, alone with your laptop, you check this stuff out.
If you find that some aspects of your religious upbringing were not ideal. Maybe you don't like the exact stance CofC's have taken on some issues. You might be tempted to blame this on the early leaders.
One of my great surprises in acquainting myself with the early leaders is that many of their convictions are very contemporary. A great deal of the rigidity came with later generations. The earliest leaders were espousing convictions and ideas quite similar to the cutting edge ideas of today.
John Mark Hicks has been noting some of the views of David Lipscomb. These are drawn from DL's editorials in the Gospel Advocate in 1912. This is the same year our congregation was formed.
Check them out--> DL 1912 #1 & DL 1912 #2
Friday, April 10, 2009
For the junkies out there...
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2 comments:
"There is no virtue in believing, repenting, and being baptized for the remission of sins, and then doing nothing to lift up and help men as Jesus did."
WOW! I think this 97 year old writing sums up most of the problems with modern Christianity. Instead of squinting to see the leaf, we should open our eyes to see the forest.
The people I know that have fallen away, left, or are on the fringe will understand the truth of this statement. I think of my own family (and even myself)- taught to believe, be baptized, and go to church. Then when life didn't magically fall into place and discouragement set in - sitting in an formal "class" on Wednesday night or going to a pot luck didn't fix anything.
I'm glad you found something you liked.
John Mark Hicks has written a fair bit about what he describes as the Tennessee, Texas, and Indiana traditions among the Churches of Christ. David Lipscomb is a representative of the Tennessee tradition, a tradition that (as I understand what I've read) was overshadowed by the Texas tradition.
I find myself drawn to this "Tennesse tradition" because of the appeal of the ethic. Lipscomb and his ilk emphasized a definite distinction between the kingdoms of men as opposed to the Kingdom of God. This is quite apart from our present-day merger of Church and culture that has left us confused and ineffective.
I most appreciated Lipscomb's reference to God's condescension to human weakness and suffering, and the counterpart, that the Church should embody such a condescension to our fellow weak and suffering humans. That could preach!!!
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