[bchris02]

Fort Smith is known for bluegrass...not blues. Big difference.

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

I am just wondering; If it is reformed what did they start out with? I mean if the original isn't any good how can a reformed chuch be better? I mean lets say that Jesus started a church here on Earth, if that one isn't the correct one does reforming it make it correct again? Wouldn't all churches that are Protesting the Catholic Church make up some form of reformed church? They didn't like the way that the Catholics were doing it and they all broke away to start their own churches, reforming themselves I would suspect. I guess that would make the majority of churches reformed churches. What of those that broke off the break offs? Are they reformed reformed churches? Is it possible to reform a church back to the original? Just wondering how that would be and if it would be ethical. I mean isn't the Church supposed to have some kind of authority? Who gives it this authority? With all these churches they can't all be right because God just isn't the author of so much confusion. One church is the right church and it is up to you to find out what that is.

[nmnita]

Originally Posted by strumpeace

Just a couple of comments --

The OP wrote: I have never had such a hard time finding a good church to attend in Arkansas, and Fort-Smithers are just plain wrong when they think this is a Bible Belt city overrun with churches. It is actually a trashy, backwards place to live.

Dude, I've always considered 'Bible Belt cities' to be the ones that are trashy and backwards. But that's just me.

I would add that if there's not a Reformed Church in Ft. Smith, that's the fault of the Reformed Church denomination, not the citizens of Ft. Smith. Typically, denominations 'plant' churches in a town.

Anyway, as a child of the Delta, and as someone with blues in my bones, I've never once in my life heard of Ft. Smith as having any kind of real blues history or culture. Not once. Where did you get that idea?

rarely to I agree with you, but I certainly do this time.

Nita

[edjarhead]

It's intriguing to see what stands out to people about all this.

Obviously I was misinformed about the blues situation here. I don't necessarily feel betrayed by the fact that this is not a blues town, but it IS supposed to be a good town for live music. But it's more like the karaoke capital of the universe. You know if you surf around or talk to folks you'll find that the downtown area is advertised as an attraction in Fort Smith and music is supposed to be a big part of that. But downtown looks like a run-down mess and it's just one crappy bar after another, full of skanky women and fat dudes screaming and sweating. A majority of the historic sites are not maintained. There's like a slab of concrete and a couple half walls down there that I think is supposed to be where a courthouse was or something....I don't know, to me it's just a waste of space and an eyesore and it just doesn't make sense to me. They should tear most of those buildings down since they obviously haven't cared enough to take care of them.

The eye pollution is one aspect I forgot to mention. It's not just downtown. Everywhere you go you will see old abandoned buildings and houses (historic sites mayebe??), old gas stations with gas prices still posted from over a decade ago, just crappy crappy crap everywhere. Ugly po-dunk-looking signs and eye clutter everywhere. This is a dirty, old rundown town. They seem to make no effort to attract people to the area. I mean you gotta take care of the major arteries in any city and have a clean, obviously maintained downtown area and do some things to show people that something is going on around here. The people in charge of this town should all be fired.

In this particular case it is wrong to assume that church planting efforts are not been made in Fort Smith. Do ya'll assume that I automatically blamed Fort-Smithers for there not being a Reformed Church here? I called the Reformed Church of America and asked them "what the heck man??" They put me in touch with a couple pastors and one in particular from the Bentonville area. I drove up there, met the man and he's made three major efforts to plant a church here and failed. He found it easier to plant churches in Romania. Okay and this is supposed to be the Bible Belt....a Christian is going to expect to find a place to worship if they believe all the hype about how Fort Smith is full of churches. Well there's lots of churches but they're all the same. Go to usachurch dot com and you will see what I mean. If you ain't Baptist or Pentecostal you're going to have a hard time finding a place to go. That is quite unusual for a "Bible Belt" town over-run by churches and bible-thumpers. It's really just full of meth heads and jerks.

My purpose here is not to get into a religious debate or split hairs about music genre. The whole "Bible Belt" discussion is like a Plato thing, you know some people define the term one way, other folks define it another. What I'm saying is that Fort Smith Arkansas is an anomalous southern city. It is not a spiritually healthy city. Most of the church-going population here attends one of three churches which is strange to me for a city this size and frankly makes me wonder about people around here.....it's like cult-ish and it makes me uneasy (like I said before, Tony Alamo was here for years).

My impression is that church is more a social networking thing or status situation or something like that around here.

If you come to Fort Smith to live you're going to find people are persistent in these misconceptions because this is such a bad place to live that violations of intellect are impossible to avoid. I guess I don't totally blame people for lying to themselves around here....poor bastards have been here all their lives.

[bluenoter]

I'd say Ft. Smith is known more for country music or death metal.

Originally Posted by bchris02

Fort Smith is known for bluegrass...not blues. Big difference.

[31st State]

Originally Posted by Dr. Foosball

What is a "Reformed Church"?


I didn't mean to start a theological war; I was agreeing with the first post that spoke about the yearning for a reformed church. A reformed church focuses on the sovereignty of God compared to Arminian churches which focus on man's sovereignty in terms of soteriology (doctrine of salvation). Reformed churches follow the famous - T.U.L.I.P. Google it and you can find tons of info. One last point Martin Luther, Zwingli, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards and George Whitfield were all reformed. These are usually identified with the reformed churches.

There are a lot of drugs transported across Arkansas on I-40. I am assuming that is what you were traveling on. These drug smugglers are not locals, but usually traveling from Cali, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, etc. The police profile, and it is effective.

You are right, we were traveling east on the I40. I don't mind being pulled over especially if the police think we were tramsporting drugs. The bigger point was the aggressiveness of the cops. They were not nice people and we were very calm and obedient.

[bluenoter]

A cop can't pull you over because he thinks your carrying drugs. Law enforcement exists to enforce the law, not harass people. I would be irate if a cop pulled me over just to see if I have drugs & no other reason. This sounds like backwoods stuff.

Originally Posted by 31st State

You are right, we were traveling east on the I40. I don't mind being pulled over especially if the police think we were tramsporting drugs. The bigger point was the aggressiveness of the cops. They were not nice people and we were very calm and obedient.

[OhZone]

Lack of churches make Ft.Smith a bad place?
I was thinking of moving to Arkansas, but worried about it being a “bible belt state”. Me being an atheist with a on -religious family in tow.
Are you saying that Lack of the Toxin Fluoride is a bad thing? Are you aware of the increase in Cancer in all place where it has been used?
I guess you see that the war on drugs isn’t working huh?
I don’t like places that flood easily, so I won’t go to Ft.Smith. Thanks for the info. Actually, I was thinking of the Hot Springs - Little Rock area.

[edjarhead]

"Lack of churches make Ft.Smith a bad place?"

It might if you like to go to church. Like I said in my first post, even if you don't go to church you're going to have to deal with these people. I like to go to church but I don't like many people in Fort Smith. I don't care if they go to church or not...people are rude and indecent here.

And church is supposedly a big deal around here.

"Are you saying that Lack of the Toxin Fluoride is a bad thing?"

My purpose here does not include getting into a debate about water fluoridation. But, here is my position: my girlfriend's daughter makes an outrageous amount of money here as a dental hygienist.

"I guess you see that the war on drugs isn’t working huh?"

I don't think the "War on Drugs" ever worked. I think it was a bad idea in the first place. I'm a libertarian.

"I don’t like places that flood easily, so I won’t go to Ft.Smith"

I'm not exaggerating this. The city does not drain well at all and no one denies that. It's just awesome.

Hot Springs is cool. I love Eureka Springs. Everyone can have fun in Eureka Springs. The Passion Play is pretty cool. And I imagine most of Arkansas' "alternative" lifestyle folks live there, too. Of course both groups complain about each other but the truth is it's actually really cool. I've seen people from both of those groups get along famously. I've had a couple of tattoos worked on up there. I've seen people there talk and try to understand each other, have fun together and make it a really cool town.

Unfortunately there are not many job opportunities in Eureka Springs. You should definitely visit though if you get the chance.

[jenni-b]

"You know when fluoridation first began? Nineteen hundred and forty-six. Nineteen forty-six! How does that coincide with your post-war Commie conspiracy, huh? It's incredibly obvious, isn't it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That's the way your hard-core Commie works."

you know, since church is so important to you, I'm not sure why you wouldn't determine whether your church is represented in a town before you move there. because Bible Belt = Baptist, pretty much, and somehow I kinda thought everybody knew that. small southern towns are the last place you wanna look for denominational diversity.

anyway, between that and the Delta Blues thing, I seriously have to wonder where you were getting your information! 'cause they oughta be sued for malpractice.