Need info on Church of Christ for a novel I'm writing!

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Anne,

Yes, I’m sorry. I misspoke. I meant the “blood” in a churches of Christ Lord’s Supper is referred to as “fruit of the vine” and is grape juice only. My bad.
 
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GoodME:
They are Armenian?
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GoodME: Actually, they’re ‘ARMINIAN’. The other word refers to citizens of the good country of ‘Armenia’.

While I don’t want to play down the importance of getting one’s basic facts straight, I feel I need to remind some folks here that what REALLY counts in a good novel is character development and a good plot. One of the problems with writing for a philosophical or religious purpose is that folks get a little bit heavy-handed in trying to make the characters who represent the ‘correct’ view virtually immaculate, while the folks with the ‘wrong’ views are too often fools or dastards. Too often this makes ideological fiction highly forgetable. In Soviet Russia, this was the ‘preferred’ way to write, and as a result, ‘Political Realism’ produced some truly atrocious pablum.

One can see some parallels to this in the novels "We the Living, “The Fountainhead”, and ‘Atlas Shrugged’ by Ayn Rand. Even though Rand’s earlier novels were pretty good, especially “We The Living”, one can see a deterioration in her plot and character development as Rand became ever more ideological. “Atlas Shrugged” in many ways is a deplorable novel, and relies way too heavily on Rand’s earlier work, and the appeal of her socio-political philosophy, to carry the reader through. Another example of this would be the “Left Behind” series, whose characters are SOO wooden as to be unbelievable. (Of course, the ‘Left Behind’ books are some of the biggest-selling books of all time, at least in the ‘religious fiction’ department–so my sense of literary aesthetics may be a bit out of touch with the popular temper).

If one is seeking to create fiction likely to have a lasting impact–and most writiers of religious fiction ARE seeking to do so–one needs heroes who experience a bit of angst, self-doubt, temptation, and mebbe even a bit of outright sin; and anti-heroes who are likeable, capable of decency and compassion, and usually at least as certain that THEY are in the service of the Right and the Good as the heroes are convinced of themselves. The ‘balancing act’ is that if your heroes are too flawed, or your anti-heroes too good–the moral landscape gets reduced to a twilight grey.

Anyone who has ever tried to write fiction–I did it in college–is often appalled to find the effort much more difficult than it ‘looks’. A good novelist spends a LOT of time learning about human psychology and ‘breaking apart’ the daily human interactions of the ‘real world’, which otherwise we all take for granted. CS Lewis warned that this impulse to write can sometimes ‘burn out’ the zeal and fervor of a new convert–see “The Screwtape Letters”. But the same process can be a true spiritual pilgrimage, a real opportunity to grow and appreciate and love humanity the way God loves us–as we are, in all of our human sinfulness and frailites. Hence, my inclination to encourage Bluerose to keep working on her novel even if she ultimately never makes an effort to publish it. I hope she doesn’t get discouraged by some of the negativity that pops up in this thread.
 
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Importer:
To be honest I don’t know enough about theological terms to say. Basically I don’t know the definition of Armenian. 🙂 Here’s the church of Christ’s doctrine on the five points of Calvinism (TULIP)

Total hereditary depravity: The church of Christ does not believe in hereditary depravity, nor in hereditary original sin. All will stand condemned due to their own sin. (Romans 3:23)

Unconditional election: The church of Christ does not believe election is unconditional. Those in the church are elected by God, those not in the church are not “elected.” The term “elected” probably means something totally different to the church of Christ than it does to a Calvinist. I think in this respect the church of Christ is much like the Catholic church: the belief is that anybody can be saved. In order to be saved a person must believe and be baptized (Mark 16:16). Bet your standard Calvinist or Protestant doesn’t teach that! 😉

Limited atonement: Not sure I’ve ever fully understood Calvinism’s belief on this one. Christ’s grace is available to all, so in that sense we do not believe in “limited atonement.” John even says, “[Christ] is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.” (I John 2:2) But certainly that doesn’t mean that all people will be saved; the church of Christ does not believe in universal salvation, either.

Irresistable grace: God calls everyone, anyone can accept or decline.

Perseverance of the saints: “Once saved, always saved.” No way! This is so out of harmony with the Bible as to be laughable. Almost the entire New Testament is written as a warning to Christians to stay faithful to Christ so they will not be lost!

Does that make the church of Christ Armenian? I have never heard the word “Armenian” from a member of the church of Christ. Only on the Internet, from people of other faiths. It was my (possibly wrong) understanding that the Catholic church was neither Calvinist nor Armenian; the same is probably true of the church of Christ. (Please correct me if I’m wrong.)
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Importer: The entire Restorationist movement (Church of Christ, Independent Christian Churches/Churches of Christ, Disciples of Christ) is explicitly Arminian. I don’t want to distract from the point of this thread–nor of this forum–by expounding on Calvinism. It comes up a lot. In general–there are five views fairly-well developed variations on soteriology: the Eastern Orthodox view, the Roman Catholic view, the Lutheran view, Arminianism, and Calvinism, sometimes also called Augustinianism. Calvinists often write-off the other four views as semi-Pelagian or Pelagian. (Pelagius taught that one is saved by good works, the ‘first work’ of which is faith; semi-Pelagians teach that one is saved by faith PLUS good works. Both views are considered heresy). Calvinists in turn are denounced for making God a monster who willfully damns at least some of His creation to Hell.

This issue generates a LOT of emotion and is difficult to work through–all sides of this debate talk ‘past’ one another and caricature each other badly. I will say this: as spelled out in your post above, you would be not an Arminian but a semi-Pelagian, and therefore no Christian at all. Of course–you aren’t trained in theology and probably would qualify your position on careful reflection and study. The ‘space’ between Calvinism and Arminianism is not so great as sometimes popularly understood. I ‘moved’ from Arminianism to Calvinism (Augustinianism) as I struggled to think in strictly Biblical terms, but this took a number of years and a lot of reflection. Some of my early posts in this forum discuss this topic and suggest some books to read about it.

That said: in my experience, the Restorationists in general spend a great deal more time expounding upon why they reject about Calvinism (especially the 'Once Saved/Always Saved aspect) than they do in refuting Roman Catholicism. In fact, the RCC probably comes in a distant ‘third’ behind Calvinism and Pentecostalism in many of the churches I attended. While the nature of Bluerose’s novel means there will be some ‘distortion’ in the direction of anti-Catholicism, she may want to note as I have said earlier that the CofC pastors often spend a great deal more time and energy defining themselves apart from other Protestant sects and movements than they do in ‘preaching against Romanism’.
 
Whoa… I take a few days off to get some Christmas shopping done and things take on a life of their own!

As stated before, I most certainly HAVE done some research… perhaps I didn’t make it clear but I have read books on different denominations… few made any reference to actual practices, like the things I’m trying to find out about (not that I had a ton of books to research from… the local library isn’t that big). And again, I am NOT making the CofC the antagonist. The pastor isn’t necessarily “the bad guy” because he’s anti-Catholic… his motivation for discouraging the relationship is the fact that his granddaughter, the apple of his eye, has set her cap for the young man in the story. If you will, if he has anything against Catholics, it’s most likely the fact that the young man in the story fell for one instead of his granddaughter!

I chose this particular church for the following reason: the person who is the model for the young man in the story is a member of the CofC. Now, you have to realize, in spite of the fact that the nearest town has a population of 30K, there are 5 (count 'em, FIVE) Churches of Christ there. I happen to know people who belong to three of them (having worked with them in the past when I used to live in that town)… none of them know each other. Depending on who you ask, you’ll get a variety of answers on different topics. For instance, the friend who’s the model for the character in the story? Okay, his family doesn’t own a TV or have much use for doctors (Baby No. 9’s delivery was a do-it-yourself home project) and is very family oriented–I mean, just about everything they do is as a family. Mom stays at home and all the kids have been homeschooled. They celebrate Halloween and all the kids (of the 9 who are old enough to read) have read the Harry Potter books. Another lady I used to work with owned a TV (with cable), was a hypochodriac who never met a doctor she didn’t like, decided two kids was enough, believes women should prepare for a career “just in case” and thinks homeschooling stunts children, but she abhors Halloween as “training children to worship the devil” and wouldn’t let her kids watch “The Wizard of Oz”, much less read Harry Potter (she even had a problem with Scooby-Doo, all right?)

Both belong to the Church of Christ… obviously not the same one. As I said, they don’t even know each other. So to ask them: Preacher, Pastor, Brother? Depends on who you ask. The Lord’s supper? Either every week or every second and fourth Sunday. Wednesday Bible study? Either “Mandatory” or “gee, I have to do my nails”. I may as well be here on the boards, where everything is written down and I can make an outline!

The main point of the whole story isn’t “CofC bad, Catholic Church good”. The point is, there is a lot of opposition to this relationship and yes, some of it relates to religious differences. The fact that my character falls for a girl from a different religious background won’t make for an interesting conflict if his church/family/pastor feels there is no problem with that. There would be no conflict if HER parents didn’t care that she was giving up discerning a vocation to the religious life for a NON-Catholic (especially since there IS a Catholic man in the offing–her dad’s boss’s son, to be exact.) Among many other conflicts I’ve alluded to and some I am valiantly trying to keep secret. And I admit, I am writing it from a Catholic perspective and, if you haven’t figured it out by now, the young man will eventually come to embrace the faith… maybe (depends on how the the story progresses… I don’t plot out every detail, I let the characters take the story wherever they want to go!)

I refused to take the “easy” way out by making the young man a “heathen” who finds love and salvation with a young woman who “saves” his soul and mends his heart. Blech. Too many writers of “inspirational” fiction and Christian romance have done that to death. The religious differences do create conflict, conflict that could either end or strengthen the relationship.

And thank you, flameburns, for the encouragement. Not that negativity has ever stopped me 😛 . After all, you know the patron saint of authors is St. Paul, don’t you? His critics not only blasted his writing, they chopped his head off… and yet his work is about the most widely read and revered.

Nah. I don’t think a little negativity will bother me!

Peace to all and if I don’t hit the keyboard before then, a blessed Christmas to all!

BlueRose
 
If you want to learn more about the church of Christ the following publications are put out by sound churches of Christ:
The Gospel Journal
Spiritual Sword
Contending for the Faith
These are excellant publication!!!
 
BlueRose,

I don’t know if you still check this thread, but if you do your book sounds fasinating. Any chance I’ll find it in a bookstore anytime soon? I think I could really relate. I was raised and born in a church of Christ, but have recently embraced the Catholic Church 😃 , which I was introduced to by my boyfriend. So I think I could relate to your main characters.

Good luck in your endevors,

alh
 
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