OF MOTES, BEAMS & 'ANTIS'

Some of you are familiar with the issues that divided many churches of Christ during the second half of the 20th Century. These boiled down to what is labeled 'Institutionalism', a broad term that included the support of parachurch institutions (colleges, missionary societies, etc.) out of the church treasury. Those who opposed doing this were anti-institutional, NI for short, or, in a somewhat less kind description: 'Antis' (the 'i' is pronounced as a long 'e'; say it with a bit of a sneer to get the full effect). For full disclosure purposes, I would be considered an 'Anti'.

With that bit of background one can perhaps appreciate this 'Contending for the Faith' lectureship in Spring, TX, which is, well, anti-Anti. The best part, however, are the Thursday lectures in which the speakers insist that despite all the things that they are against they themselves could never be considered (gasp!) 'Anti' (remember the sneer). Here are a few of the Thursday topics (snide comments in brackets are provided by your humble weblogger):

9:00 AM Opposing Support for Colleges from the Church Treasury is Not Anti-ism [why, no, of course not]

10:00 AM Are We Practicing Anti-ism Because we will not Fellowship the Denominations? [never!]

11:00 AM The One-Cup Doctrine Refuted [anti-one cup, but certainly not 'Anti']

3:30 PM The Hats and Hair Doctrine Refuted [anti-hats and hair?]

7:00 PM Are we Holding a Form of Anti-ism Because we Oppose False Doctrine and False Teachers in ACU, OCU, Harding U, FHU, Lipscomb U, and the like?

8:00 PM Are we Occupying an Anti Position When we Oppose The Church of Christ Disaster Relief Agency?

Self-reflection is good, right?

The entire lectureship is available via streaming audio. Enjoy!