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August 10, 2006
life in durham
seen on a van:
"Church of God in Christ Jesus, New Deal, Inc."
Are odd church names peculiar to my area, or are they found all over? In my neighborhood there are a lot of churches with long, difficult to understand names like this one.
Posted by lisa at August 10, 2006 10:03 PM
Comments
I think of it as a Southern thing, or at least a Southern thing in poorer and less urban areas. Where I went to high school a couple hours south of here, it seems there are little splinter churches all over the place. Someone gets pissed off at someone else, and the next thing you know, half the congregation has left, and starts meeting on its own in an abandoned grocery store or something. You'd think they could all luv Jesus together, but no.
Posted by: Joseph H. Vilas on August 10, 2006 10:29 PM
When I was living in Providence I would often walk by the First Baptist Church in America. And I thought, "that's ridiculous. there's a bajillion 'first baptist' churches and that's a stupid way of naming a congregation." Then I found out it was the first Baptist church in America.
Which is a long way of saying that distinctive names don't seem like such a crazy idea to me, now that you mention it, if it keeps everything clear.
I wonder, though -- what if they did it like internet sites? "Sorry, FirstBaptist is already taken. Suggested alternatives FirstBaptist12, FirstBaptistDurham, 1FirstBaptist, etc."
Posted by: Phil on August 11, 2006 12:38 AM
Just a few miles south of where you live, on the Durham-Chatham County line, during the late Eighteenth Century, was a hotbed of dissention from the powerful Methodist church of Francis Asbury. James O'Kelley was a Methodist minister who broke from the Methodists and formed the Church of Christ. He was one of many championed a severe anti-authoritarian streak in the protestant churches. His branches often co-mingled with other Congregationalist-style churches. In the great migrations westward after the Revolution, many of these parishoners moved into Kentucky, Tennessee, and the deep south. O'Kelley's branch often co-mingled with Congregationalist-style churches of New England migrants and various Churches of Christ, Church of God, etc. continued to branch out. (aside: There is a denomination called simply, The Christian Church, which is actually a small group, despite the name. Their college in North Carolina is Elon, which up 'till recently, were called the Fighting Christians.) They all received a great boost from Barton Stone's 2nd Great Awakening out of Kentucky. Interestingly, the congregations that decended from Alexander Campbell (Campbell University), James O'Kelley, Stone, and others, washed back east and in the peculiar environments of the regions, led to the anti-slavery movement up north, and the anti-evolutionism of the South. They all received another boost with the fundamentalist outbreak of the late-Nineteenth and early-Twentieth Centuries. All the while the congregations kept dividing like amoebas (sp?) but the well of real good names has dried up, I guess.
Don't know if that helped...
Posted by: Chris on August 11, 2006 09:24 AM
ok, so a) your comment won't post right away because i have to approve it first and b) you might get a server error but your comment probably posted anyway and c) previewing doesn't work so i've removed the preview button.