below is a transcript from a recent “nancy grace” telecast (a program on cnn). (nancy grace is the one that always talks about the missing children and sensationalize the mundane). i think ms. grace brilliantly displayed her lack of journalistic integrity by using the murder of a church of christ minister to tear down an entire denomination and subsequently tearing down this very minister himself for his association and leadership in what she and another determined to be a “cult”. my biggest beef is with the ignorant baptist minister who helped lead ms. grace down this path. i guess john 17 doesn’t mean much to this ignorant, arrogant sob.
TRANSCRIPT:
NANCY GRACE: A well-respected and much beloved minister in the Church of Christ, Selmer, Tennessee, gunned down in his own home. His wife, according to many reports, has confessed to police. They say whodunnit is not the issue, it’s why she did it. That is the question.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.
why do the idiots seem to get air time? i guess stupid people attract more stupid people.
why do we as the church continue to disparage other denominations in the public square? why can’t we ever seem to come together and be beneficial to one another–especially in the midst of a tragedy? why do we feel the need to lie in order to build up one’s denomintation over another? i guess it’s just easier to beat a horse while it’s down. so much for unity in the body…
(ht: travis stanley)
Related posts:
- i’m so disgusted right now
- the future of youth ministry?
- a postmodern meditation on romans 12. (part 3)
- home sweet home
- a postmodern meditation on romans 12. (part 1)
