A Church of Christ Connection

This past Monday night, Nancy Grace hosted a news program on CNN Headline News concerning the latest news on the Matthew Winkler murder. Wanting to learn more about the church in which Matthew was a minister, Nancy called on Baptist minister, Tom Rukala, to appear on the show and provide some insight into Churches of Christ. Here is a portion of their exchange.

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. 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.

Now as a member of a Church of Christ here in Jackson, I will say that there is some truth to what Rukala is saying. (I won't get into his other factual inaccuracies.) I have encountered some people in Churches of Christ which would line up perfectly with this description. But the vast majority of Churches of Christ are not like this at all. To make a blanket statement saying that all Churches of Christ are a "kind of borderline cult," that's false and inflamitory. The fact is, there is a wide variety of opinion and practice in Churches of Christ. Since we have no governing body (thank God) we have no final arbiter of church doctrine or practice other than local church elders. Some churches are quite open while others are very closed. While I think you would be hard pressed to find a church that could be defined as liberal in the classic sense of the word, most Churches of Christ fall in the broad spectrum of conservative Christian churches in the United States. In fact, most members, even those in the most conservative COC are just everyday Christians trying to live their lives in a godly way.

But why would you call a Baptist minister to tell you about the Church of Christ? Would you call a Methodist minister to comment on the Catholic Church? If Nancy wanted to give her viewers some insight into Churches of Christ, why not call Milton Sewell, President of Freed-Hardeman University? He is in a position to provide insight into the broad majority of views in Churches of Christ in this region. Or why not ask Max Lucado, minister at Oak Hills Church. He was on the show the same night discussing Terry Shiavo's death last year. How difficult would it have been to find someone really qualified? My suspicion is that the producers have no interest in finding the real facts. Their goal is titillate and inflame their viewers with the most salacious details that they can find. Don't get me wrong, I don't fault Tom Rukala. He was speaking from his experience. The problem I have is with the producers of this show.

Personally, I have many friends who are members of other mainline religious groups. I accept them as brothers in Christ. I find it frustrating that these barriers to fellowship keep getting in the way of real unity on the Body of Christ. I'm not saying that we don't have real differences. We do. But those differences are made out to be much larger than they really are. I'm sure I'll be writing more on this later. For now, I think I'll change the channel.