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There are several tribes within the Church of God. The one that probably gets the most attention is the one that equates holiness with harshness. Or if not quite that, then with the belief that if others aren’t doing it like we are doing it, then they are going to hell, are poor Christians, etc.I was raised in a conservative Church of God home (pretty much all of us of a certain age were). But I do not recall a single instance of hardness or harshness toward others. As a matter of fact, for no reason outside of perhaps the influence of those outside my family, I when through a season there where I think I was the most conservative (in that my attitude was overly-strong about what others were wearing). In fact, I didn’t even know that bobbing one’s hair was considered worse than jewelry or makeup in some quarters. All I knew if that my mother and sister didn’t wear pants or jewelry (later my sister backslid and started wearing jewelry–I hope she can get right before Jesus comes!), and from that and hearing the teachings read every time someone joined the church, I gained a conservative view.Another tribe was those folks who, knowing good and well what the Teachings said, would wear jewelry, pants, makeup, etc. While I happen to know folks who were dressing liberal before we changed the teachings, and know they were true-blue Christians, it still didn’t feel right. After all, if you agreed to join the Church of God and those were the teachings, it seems that you are obligated to keeping them.Then I started noticing that the wives of some of the highest, most visible ministers in the Church of God would dress that way even at campmeetings that were very conservative (like Florida’s!). That tribe created a bit of the problem, I think….There was a very strong reaction to that in some quarters. Sometimes the reaction was to feel that we now had permission to do what we wanted to do. But the reactions that I saw the most (back before the teachings changed) was a kind of sorrow at feeling like the Church of God they had joined was no longer the same Church of God…or that we were starting to lose ourselves. Some, though, instead of sorrow or sentimentality, were adamant in their righteous indignation, and they didn’t mind letting everyone know about it.In, I think, 1990 (maybe a year earlier?), I visited the Western North Carolina Campmeeting (Charlotte). The Florida Campmeeting had ended and I had some time off, so I went to North Carolina. Bro. Dennis McGuire was the Overseer then. And while I may have misread him, I seemed to detect that he felt the pressure. His daughter was, like many other Church of God young ladies, not as walk-the-line as some conservatives liked. I remember Bro. McGuire almost humbly saying something about the criticism (or perhaps just hinting at it), and then saying something like Give me a chance. That is, give him a chance to deal with such things, since he was not going to alienate his daughter. In any case, T. L. Lowery preached the campmeeting, and it was just incredible. I felt like I had stepped into a time warp and went back about ten years in time. That is, ten years earlier, the Florida folks would have been dressing the way most of the folks at the campmeeting were dressing. It was just glorious!Since we received the Paw Creek Church of God newsletter every so often, so on Sunday, I decided to visit there for Sunday morning service. I must tell you that it was about as dead of a service as I have ever attended. I know those folks are good folks, but I believe they had allowed the way others were doing to get in their craw…and I was only too happy for the service to close. I hate to say that, but that’s how it was.Now take the Dallas, NC, Church of God. That is a conservative church, but if I lived in the area, that would be my church (probably not my wife’s, since she, too, is backslid and wears jewelry and makeup!). So I believe it was weighing on Bro. Chambers’ heart so heavy that it might have taken the service down. I seem to recall seeing him at campmeeting and noticing that he didn’t seem all that enthused.(Florida typically had the best campmeetings anywhere. In time, though, with conservatives and liberals all attending, that likely sapped a little of its thunder. Which is why I was so glad to have stepped into the time warp. Thankfully, over time, the folks who attend campmeeting have largely gotten over their differences. The ones who haven’t? They don’t come to campmeeting–they hold their own campmeetings. Probably not a good idea for them to attend a revival since, if they don’t like everything they see and hear, they’ll sit down on it.)

Re: Cojak…

Georgiapath

Heres the deal, Aaron. Son, the minute we got soft on the wimminfolk wearin makeup, brain balancers, broaches, mommas pins, an all, they was a heap a backslidin what took place. What is a brain balancer?

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