According to the dictionary, an "oddball" is "a person or thing that is atypical, bizarre, eccentric, or nonconforming, especially one having beliefs that are unusual but harmless."
I do not say that every Hardshell is an "oddball," but I firmly believe that many of them are such. When one begins to speak of their peculiarities, they will often respond by saying "the Lord's people are called a peculiar people." (Titus 2: 14) They do the same thing when one points out the general ignorance of the Hardshell people, biblically speaking. They will say "the apostles were also ridiculed for being 'ignorant and unlearned.'" (Acts 4: 13) Of course, neither of these passages bear on the point being made here. First of all, the peculiarity of "the Lord's people" is not what one only finds among the Hardshells, unless of course, they and they only are "the Lord's people." Secondly, the verse in Acts does not lend credence to the attitude that Hardshells in general have towards religious education.
Now, I got my college degree in Sociology, and I tell you that the Hardshell people would make a fascinating study in that field! I also spent many years with the Hardshell people. I know their idiosyncrasies. Many of them are just weird, hard to figure out. They have a group psyche and general spirit and it is an oddity indeed. They have their own Hardshell "worldview." They see things through their unique denominational spectacles and are blind to everything else.
I have been wanting to say this in the past, but thought I might as well make a short listing of it now. Who can doubt that the "kookiness" of the Hardshells is evident in the way they have historically interpreted the Scriptures? Their history is filled with "wacky" interpretations of the Bible.
Perhaps I can enlarge upon this in the future and give some concrete examples of what I am talking about.
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