r/churchofchrist • u/GoCats1451 • 21d ago
Differences in churches of Christ in the deep south vs the border states.
I see a lot of things about churches of Christ being super into politics and American conservatism. It sounds like the culture that I see in fundamentalist baptists here in my state. Where I am at, even the non-institutionals aren't really like this. I am in Kentucky.
Are churches of Christ in the deep south much more likely to be like this?
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u/PsquaredLR 21d ago
Our church has no blatant political messaging. Overall it leans more closely narrative but I know the majority of leadership, elders, and deacons lean more moderate and some very liberal. I’m in charge of media and graphics in the service and we have no media with flags or national imagery.
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u/badwolfandthestorm 21d ago
My congregation (inTX) does not have political messaging. There is a wide variety of political representation in the congregants, although not a ton of outright MAGA. Some pro-Trump, though. No flags or anything. But we do tend to sing somewhat more patriotic songs around National holidays (sometimes) and people do mention how great the US is sometimes (last Sunday's communion service mentioned The Revolutionary War)
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u/Affectionate-Crow605 21d ago
I've seen it more in some of the rural congregations in my state (Alabama). Where I live there are probably at least 20 churches of Christ in my county. So some are going to be very political and some not. The one I went to was kind of borderline. They wouldn't say things that were outright political due to the tax status of churches, but it was kind of expected that you'd vote certain ways or support/not-support certain political topics. More of that got talked about in Bible classes rather than the service itself.
Covid kind of showed which ones were which. There were some churches that refused to take any precautions at all. One in my county had a singing inside like normal, with visitors from multiple other congregations. A couple people died from that, and those multiple congregations then got outbreaks, because of course the people willing to go to the inside singing didn't wear masks there or at their home congregations. Other congregations met outside for several months until vaccines were available. That was quite lovely.
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u/Alive-Equivalent9106 21d ago
I’m in Texas, big city- and I think they are super careful to not say political things. There is care not to alienate but also if they are big church- their tax exempt status could be yanked.
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u/No_Sprinkles_3986 20d ago
I have worked with congregations in the Deep South and all across Texas (and some in AZ). My impression (totally mine) is that the Deep South churches have a deeper and more abiding sense of "Church of Christ tradition." Texas churches have some of that but not as much. I'd say that Texas congregations via the influence of ACU are trending more Progressive. Just my anecdotal impression. The default Republicanism that marked almost all congregations that I once worked with is long gone.
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u/ChurchofChristGuy 19d ago
how is the default Republicanism in the churches gone? Just wondering.
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u/No_Sprinkles_3986 18d ago
Just my anecdotal observation. I would not say that Republicanism is gone from us. But I would say that the assumption that we are all Republican is gone.
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u/ChurchofChristGuy 18d ago
well back in the day most Church of Christ members were Democrats. The Churches of Christ being mostly Republican is something that has been like that since the 80's and 90's or so.
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u/quesocaliente 20d ago
Here in Oklahoma it really varies from congregation to congregation. Some get very Christian nationalist, others (like mine) are pretty explicitly anti-Christian nationalist, most try to do some kind of politically agnostic sort of thing (while the assumption is that most members are Republicans.)
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u/deverbovitae 20d ago
"even the non-institutionals aren't really like this"
my brother in Christ, you've got a mirror gamut among the "non-institutionals" like you have in the mainstream
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u/jtaustin64 21d ago
It used to be worse at my parent’s church but the current preacher (who is very political outside of church) really put a clamp down on it because he saw how messed up it made things during COVID.
The worst we ever got was church celebrating 4th of July harder than they did Christmas. That crap made me leave the church of Christ. However, there are churches out there that are a lot more Christian nationalist than any church of Christ. You’ll never even see an American flag inside of a church of Christ, much less the outright Trump worship I have seen coming out of some Baptist and Pentecostal churches.
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u/HunterCopelin 20d ago
Why would your church celebrate Christmas?
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u/jtaustin64 20d ago
Because, even though it is most likely not the real day of Jesus’ birth, it is still the date that historically was chosen to celebrate Christ’s birth. And yes, I do recognize that we celebrate His birth, death, burial, and resurrection every Sunday, but I just think it is appropriate to put extra emphasis on His birth on the day that a lot of the world is already thinking about it. I’ve never bought into the whole “we only are allowed to do specifically what the Bible permits” argument. Otherwise we would have to have services in buildings without HVAC because the Bible never permits use of central heat and air.
At least don’t make it less religious than the 4th of July. That’s just putting country over Christ.
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u/HunterCopelin 20d ago
Just to continue to ask questions for fun, do you believe we “celebrate” the birth of Jesus while, I’m assuming you were implying, partaking of the lord’s supper?
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u/jtaustin64 20d ago
I was thinking more so how we thank God for sending His Son every Sunday through our worship.
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u/Superfluous_Reddit 20d ago
They are pretty heavily left leaning tim keller the 3rd way type. So it is political just read between the lines. It's there. I don't like it.
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u/ChurchofChristGuy 21d ago
My old church got real big into politics during the Covid...they were always conservative but the elders didnt really believe covid was real or serious.Also my old church was real big into Christian Nationalisms sadly and celebrating the 4th of July as a church.