I was a member of the Disciples of Christ, commonly called the Christian Church, by many up until 8 years ago. I was raised in it from an infant. The church house is one mile from my house. The "institutional" DOC became corrupt to the point that they refused to state that Jesus Christ is the only way to be saved to eternal life. They ordained gay priests, gay marriage, and just generally went off the deep end. Our local church fellowship voted unanimously to withdraw from the denomination. Good decision. Jim Jones, of the infamous Guyana mass suicide, claimed the DOC as his denomination. Most of the denomination was horrified and embarrassed by the association he claimed.
I left that church and became a Southern Baptist 8 years ago, with not one iota of regret. We're certainly not perfect either, but the SBC seems to be one of the last bastions of conservative belief in the sanctity of the Scriptures, the sanctity of life, and the Lordship of Jesus. It has had embarrassments of late as well, in the sins of some leadership.
Point is, the "institutional" church of many Christian denominations is corrupt, to some degree. That, however, does not mean the members in God fearing local church fellowships, far removed from the national offices, are.
There reaches a point, for some of us, when association with a corrupt organization requires that we separate ourselves from it, for the sake of a weaker brother if nothing else.
SRH
