There are plenty of buffoons out there who like to claim they alone are the mouthpiece of God. All it takes is a simple youtube search to find all of the buffoons who truly like to claim that their knowledge is God's knowledge. Some of them seem rather tame and benign, while others go full out in apostolic clothing with a beard that would make Santa himself jealous. What is it that makes a person go so hogwild with their interpretations? What makes a person so special that they feel they alone have been hand-picked by God to carry out their message?
It really doesn't matter if it's the pastor at the local corner church, or some lone ranger on a youtube channel. They all think they alone are right. They've established their little piece of the religious pie, and are intent on getting anyone they can to take a bite out of it. These range from the scholarly to the absolute ridiculous - harping about on the latest thing that catches their eye that no one's doing, but they feel everyone must do. Yet, in spite of all of this, there is one thing that they all nearly universally agree on - tithing.
From the weird to the wacko to the strange and the destitute to the socially awkward to the pulpit pounder, you will find they all agree that you must fund their life so they can get their message out. Yet, in this day and age of free youtube and live broadcasting - why do they need your money to do it? They already have cable internet, or you wouldn't be seeing the message in the first place. They have a computer or they wouldn't have a way to broadcast the message. What they are really asking for is that you - as a watcher, or even a follower - would recognize the "calling" they recognize and then give them your money as agreement that they are God's mouthpiece for whatever it is they are so zealous about. Once you agree, whether it's a youtube "preacher" or a full on church member, you're in "the system".
Now this isn't to say that there isn't good out there in the world of corporate Christianity. But the bottom line of corporate Christianity is very simple - it's the word "Corporate". The religious industry is big business. It's tax-free, supposedly charitable non-profit business which rakes in millions to even billions of dollars, often pastors amd denominations benefiting the most from the deal with some notable and worthy exceptions. Many not-so-worthy individuals would love to get into that system with intentions that are not so good. And many already have.
From the background and experience of my life growing up in an Armstrongism Cult, many of these individuals have risen from the muck. Not of their own power, but because the muck has drained and their sorry heads pop out looking for whatever and whoever they can devour with their own pithy propaganda, believing they and they alone are God's Mouthpiece for "this end time" generation, joining the thousands and thousands of others who believe the same thing of themselves. Instead of getting out there in the business of love and service, as the hands and the feet of Jesus, they exalt themselves as whatever figure they see themselves at and dupe the fragile in the process. And the cycle repeats itself, over and over again.
"Look for the helpers", Mr. Fred Rogers would often teach. Perhaps his lesson was the best lesson - to avoid the pitfalls and snares of Corporate Americanized Christianity with all of it's love of money - and rejoin what true Christianity is - the simple act of helping, of loving, of caring, of giving, of being a kind and good person. Because - to all those who think they are somebody and they really are not - it's not about you - it never has been about you - and it never will be. It's about how you show Jesus to others, and even the world in your life. It's not about buildings, or bank accounts, or trees, or calendars, or this thing, or that thing. It's not about what day you worship, it's about how you worship, in spirit and truth, or lies and deception. It's not about if you go to Church in a suit and tie, but if you're willing to be "a helper" when the need arises. It's about being a light. It's about being the one people look to not because you are yelling at them to look at you, but because you are one of the helpers - a good and bright example of Jesus.
In my background, we were taught not to be "helpers". We were taught to be inclusive. Introverted. Self-withdrawn. "Away from the world". The only ones we helped were ourselves. It is this introverted legacy that infiltrates cultic thinking and even corporate Christianity. There's much more to life than what's shallow. Living is being a helper. And you don't have to glorify yourself to be just that.
Showing posts with label Armstrongism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Armstrongism. Show all posts
Saturday, January 4, 2020
Saturday, January 26, 2019
What Is it that makes Armstrongism SO appealing to those who support it?
It's a valid question.
What is it exactly, that makes Armstrongism SO appealing to those who fully embrace it's completely flawed ideologies? What is it about Armstrongism that has caused people to completely deny reality in their quest for truth and understanding?
Despite the full brunt of historical evidence which is a free and open library for the browsing, Armstrongist supporters wear blindfolds and earplugs in the face of such dramatic affronts to their concepts and mindless imaginations. Despite the full brunt of hardships and assaults on rightful living, and despite the full brunt of even half-ways intelligent rebuttals to some of their most easily dis-proven theological embarrassments, they continue to relish in the madness of constant deceptions and continual delusion. They do not believe it is deception, nor do they believe it is delusion. To them, it's reality - even though clearly, and without any legitimate dispute, it is anything but reality. It is clearly, and unarguably, complete non-sense - made up by one man, with one vision, and one dream, fueled by vanity, ego, conceit, and power.
With that framework clear - what is it, then, that makes Armstrongism SO appealing to those who support it? It is the clear embracing of the concepts and imaginative dreaming of exactly the mindsets of the one who started it all. Namely, vanity, ego, conceit, and power.
Armstrongism is a fairy tale land of make-believe for many who did not, in real life, achieve, attain, or grasp the lifelong dreams of authority they may have wanted in their human lives to that point. For others, it was an avenue to create within that very structure the very embodiment of real power, using ego, and vanity, and conceit to achieve just such.
For others, traditional religion had, for one reason, or another, burnt them severely - whether it was Catholicism, or Protestantism, or any other form of organized religion which had shown itself, to them, as a fully evident fraudulent system - Armstrongism provided bucketfuls of theories as to why Corporate Christianity was as untruthful as they had observed it to be. With stories of abuse and freshly laid paths that all led to evil and paganism from within their horror stories of Corporate Christianity past, they were more than eager to embrace a different, seemingly refreshing concept of what they took to be a new light of truth.
This new light of truth, in fact - was the spark that all of these people began to fully indoctrinate within themselves, regardless of what exactly their specific reason was. Their leader, Herbert Armstrong, or whichever splinter leader they bought into later on down the road - spoke with enough convincing argument and authority that - when juxtaposed against the lies they had bought in the past, simply seemed to make sense and were appealing to minds that rejected what they thought was correct in the first place. Perhaps, in previous experiences, they experienced the abusive Southern Baptist Pastor, or the deviant Catholic Priest. Perhaps, in previous experiences, they remember the commercialism of secular Christmases, or the perceived emptiness they may have felt chasing Easter eggs on Easter morning. Or, perhaps, they simply were not taught the tenets of actual, authentic, Christianity - instead trapped in a televangelist-oriented, money-abusing system bent on money, authority, and power - and fled it, only to be attracted to the exact same system by someone else who told them they, well, were not after their money, and were not, initially, believing the system was about money, authority, and power. In short - they were duped once, then were duped again.
In a majority of so many of these cases was one common characteristic that was embraced. The idea that what was before was wrong - so what is now must be right.
And you have to admit, from the surface - in the worldview that it was in the 20th Century - it seemed right. It certainly did seem right! Technology - the space age - in fact, the nuclear age - made a convincing argument to Herbert's theories. The rapid rise of Armstrongism and growth led a sense of credibility to the argument. It's hard to argue when your emotions are completely overtaxed with 14,000 other people who are believing what you believe, and are of the same mindset! If they are right, and you are right - well then, it must be right, and that's that, right?
And that - right there - was the seed and the trap that made it all appealing. Here's a new and different way of living and thinking that opened up new doors to a whole new world of opportunity. But with all of the available opportunities and traditions were the acceptance of unquestioned and unchecked power from those in charge of the system they were embracing. The kicker that said "I'm in" The belief that down the road, in just a few years - is the absolute assurance that Herbert's ideas were true - including you being a part of a World Rulership where you, yourself, would be one of those in the King's Inner Circle, ruling and governing in - you guessed it - authority, luxury - and power - right back to square one.
The only thing is?
Herbert's ideas were not true. They were lies. They were built on financial greed and empirical lust. They were built on irrational concepts of racism and superiority. They were built on worldly business models, with the capstone worldly treasures that would make the top rich and powerful in their world, and the poor impoverished and shackled. The promises of a Utopian government in 3 to 5 years were false. The promises of interpretations of prophecies were also just as false. The ideas of the majority of the ministers were - you guessed it - false. In fact, Herbert's empire was just as scandalous, just as abusive, just as divisive, and just as greedy as anything you'd find in what they came from in the first place. The end result was disappointment, disillusionment, and a deep hunger for facts without the emotional and/or spiritual concepts that hurt them so much in the first place. And what was created? Dysfunction, Distrust - and in many cases, agnosticism and atheism. And in most cases? Anxiety, depression, trauma - to name just a few behavioral issues that were born from the cesspool of Armstrong's Atrocities.
Bringing it back around to the original question. What is it then, NOW, that makes Armstrongism SO appealing to those who support it - despite all of the above, or the reasons, and what not?
It can only be one thing. And it's best described summarily in just five words.
It is, what it is.
Their entire lives, full extended families, decades of memories, and a host of other entrenched webs are simply worth more than what it would be to start new. So, even though there are other more appealing options that look available despite the disgust of the deceit they plainly see, not changing anything would be, to them - a greater risk of collapsing their entire life's structure than it would be to leave the structure and build new. In other words - they fear it would all collapse on them before they get out to start new.
Thus, the appeal the remains, honestly - in totality - is for many - rooted in just ONE word.
Survival.
Friday, January 25, 2019
1 John 4 -5: Armstrongism Revised Version
1 John 4/5: What Armstrongism REALLY is trying to get the scriptures to say they mean.
Actual scriptures crossed out. What Armstrongism actually says in their doctrines in pink.
Not official, my interpretation.
*****
Dear friends, let us
13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: We keep ths Sabbath by
19 We
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is
6 This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are
Saturday, January 19, 2019
On Exposing Christian Schools.
I am going through the hashtag "Expose Christian Schools" on the Twitter site and am reading thousands upon thousands of accounts of abuse that children have gone through in the name of professing Christianity.
Armstrongism seems to have been just a grain of sand on the beach to what Mainstream Christian Schools have taught, and done, to children.
Spanking, physical assaults, inadequate teaching, holding a Tourettes' student down in a bathroom to pray the devil out of her, expelled because hair was too long.
A girl who was told she would "go to hell" while being physically and sexually abused because she left home and was not being obedient to her family.
Racism, and holding black students back even though they met the qualifications to be promoted to the next grade.
Just to name a couple of the tweets out of the few hundreds I have seen out of the tens of thousands that have been posted.
And then I see a comment by a "Fox and Friends" anchor who <b>dismisses</b> the entirety of the testimonies by saying it's not a "real" trend, instead deflecting to all the problems at public schools.
It's not just Armstrongism. It's a culture of abuse that is not only tolerated, but widespread within the "Christian" community. It is a lack of love, and a spirit of fear and of hate. It is practices and acts that have scarred students for life. These "Christian" schools have not brought these kids to Jesus Christ. They've turned them against Jesus and religion in general because of their authoritarian, love-less, heavy-handed, biblically illiterate practices.
Look at all the accounts of people who have NOT come to Jesus Christ because of "Christian" education. They remember. Because those who posted such horrendous accounts were not shown love - only worldly, carnal, heavy-handed abuse by love-less authoritarians.
I will say this again, and again. Christianity is not found in "Corporate Christianity". It is not found in big "Churches" or "Christian Schools". It is not found in a SYSTEM. Christianity is found in relationship. It is found in relationship between you and God, God and you,and you to others, based on LOVE. Based on respect. LOVE is Christianity. LOVE - not hurting others - spiritually, emotionally, physically, or any other way you can imagine. LOVE is Christianity in full effect. Because love is where Christ is. Because as the Word has said - God IS Love, and Love IS God.
Jesus is only found within a person - in their hearts - and in their actions - and in faith, and hope - and is not found in any corporation. Jesus is found where love reigns and rules. It is not found in tyrannical, abusive, melevolent, dictatorial, money-hungry, corporate worldly systems who pass themselves off as Christians while sucking the life and soul out of people with what passes as Corporate Christianity today. This is why it is said, Narrow is the way - and few be it who find it.
Armstrongism seems to have been just a grain of sand on the beach to what Mainstream Christian Schools have taught, and done, to children.
Spanking, physical assaults, inadequate teaching, holding a Tourettes' student down in a bathroom to pray the devil out of her, expelled because hair was too long.
A girl who was told she would "go to hell" while being physically and sexually abused because she left home and was not being obedient to her family.
Racism, and holding black students back even though they met the qualifications to be promoted to the next grade.
Just to name a couple of the tweets out of the few hundreds I have seen out of the tens of thousands that have been posted.
And then I see a comment by a "Fox and Friends" anchor who <b>dismisses</b> the entirety of the testimonies by saying it's not a "real" trend, instead deflecting to all the problems at public schools.
It's not just Armstrongism. It's a culture of abuse that is not only tolerated, but widespread within the "Christian" community. It is a lack of love, and a spirit of fear and of hate. It is practices and acts that have scarred students for life. These "Christian" schools have not brought these kids to Jesus Christ. They've turned them against Jesus and religion in general because of their authoritarian, love-less, heavy-handed, biblically illiterate practices.
Look at all the accounts of people who have NOT come to Jesus Christ because of "Christian" education. They remember. Because those who posted such horrendous accounts were not shown love - only worldly, carnal, heavy-handed abuse by love-less authoritarians.
I will say this again, and again. Christianity is not found in "Corporate Christianity". It is not found in big "Churches" or "Christian Schools". It is not found in a SYSTEM. Christianity is found in relationship. It is found in relationship between you and God, God and you,and you to others, based on LOVE. Based on respect. LOVE is Christianity. LOVE - not hurting others - spiritually, emotionally, physically, or any other way you can imagine. LOVE is Christianity in full effect. Because love is where Christ is. Because as the Word has said - God IS Love, and Love IS God.
Jesus is only found within a person - in their hearts - and in their actions - and in faith, and hope - and is not found in any corporation. Jesus is found where love reigns and rules. It is not found in tyrannical, abusive, melevolent, dictatorial, money-hungry, corporate worldly systems who pass themselves off as Christians while sucking the life and soul out of people with what passes as Corporate Christianity today. This is why it is said, Narrow is the way - and few be it who find it.
Friday, January 18, 2019
The Legacy of Church of God "Ministers" and Deception.
Power.
It's quite the word in the Churches of God, because those in charge have had a lot of it.
Add money in, and you've got a narcisist's dream job.
Then add supposed divine authority - and you are a god.
That's the long and short of the story of the ministers in the Churches of God, who for over 70 years have convinced good-hearted and well meaning people that they are the inheritors of supreme authority on the basis of a supposition of the inheritance of diving power through top-down ordination. And when people buy into that belief, there's little - if anything - that you can say, or do, that they won't believe is right.
That has been the story in the Churches of God ever since Herbert Armstrong began his vain, narcissistic scheme of self-interpretation of religion for the furtherance of his financial empire and worldly success. It has been a story that Herbert's hirelings have written over and over again - with tragic mental and physical results.
Not every one of these people - named "Ministers" of varying rank and title - have taken advantage of members in various ways as many have. But those that have taken advantage of members for their own benefit, either personally or corporately - have done so vigorously, unashamedly, and forcefully, as they personally have benefited from their perceived deceptive power plays. From the beginning, it has been the minister who has been served by those they have been entrusted to serve. It has been a culture of privilege, superiority, arrogance, pomposity, and hubris that had encompassed their entire lives - all enabled and created by the headquarters corporate who developed a system that rewarded them for their heavy-handedness towards those who they were entrusted to spiritually develop.
From the beginning, the "ministers" who were ordained into full-time ministry into the Church were given "the Good Life". At the peak of their financial prosperity, due to conning the members to believe they were required to give 30 percent or more of their income to the Church, they were given handsome salaries, expense accounts, for a time utility expense, parsonage credit, a fleet car - and that's just financially. They also - well, many of them - used the members of the Church as personal slaves - car washers, lawn mowers, movers, or anything else that the members were willing to do. And their "work"? Many of them in some areas really did not have much to "do" during the week! Prospective member visits were low, visitations were not always required, the occasional wedding and/or funeral, and a whole week to write a sermon or sermonette. Those who did have large congregations and were constantly busy had high expectations - and were sometimes the most brutal with their unrealistic and supposed authority that they pounded home was, according to them, from God.
They also had the full backing of their boss, Herbert Armstrong, when it came to disputes or claims of malpractice. Herbert Armstrong had a policy of always believing the minister's word over the members' claim - and let that be known specifically - if there was no specific evidence against the minister. The weight of that kind of backing was something the ministers knew and wielded well, in many cases.
And then there was the belief of absolute divine authority, which many ministers claimed they inherited via ordination - and the belief that their every decision was through the guiding ministry of a higher portion of the Spirit of God within them. From the very smallest to the very largest decisions, such a mindset and belief caused a co-dependency from member to minister that was just as powerful as the dependency from a son or daughter to a parent. The difference between this child to parent relationship and a member to minister relationship? The parent-child relationship was temporary until adulthood. The member-minister relationship was eternal. In short, the members were never permitted to grow up.
The ministerial dominance of supposed authority extended well into the realms of discipline, as any rebellion, slacking, without full support, or disobedience in any way shape or form could result in not only extreme physical consequences (losing friends, even family, isolation and rejection, as well as separation from Church, either temporarily or permanently) but also spiritual consequences (loss of salvation, condemnation, rejection from the Kingdom, and being thrown into eternal cessation via being burned in the Lake of Fire). Some of these "ministers" fully abused such a belief that they had such supernatural, God-ordained powers to the order of complete oppression of their members, and fully hijacking every decision that members ever made in their lives in many cases. This was not the case with all of them, or all of the members. But it did happen. And it did happen often.
All of this of course created an atmosphere of excessive pride and arrogance within the ministry that they created their own super-culture that was far and above beyond the normal clique. It was a culture that created special seating, and roped-off areas. It was a culture of higher living that in many cases the regular member was not invited to nor ever could know. It was a culture of "We are better than you,and you well better know it." It was a culture of posh, arrogant hubris and superiority. It was a culture of superiority based on rank and position and power. They were them, you were you, and you better follow the rules, or you, who were next to nothing, will be nothing. This was the message sent and widely received by many.
Your expectations, spiritually and physically, within the dominant sphere of the minister's supposed authority, were both excessive and exhaustive. Submission to not only the rules and regulations required by the doctrines and dogmas of the Church's spiritual interpretations, and the rules and regulations of the local Church as interpreted and enforced by the pastor, dominated every aspect of the life of the member, the member's family, and all areas within. Personal decisions were expected to be ran by the pastor in cases of job, marriage, dating, finance, personal issues, sex, school, friendships, Church attendance, Church social lives, and all issues related to "the world" as to what was proper and what was not, including birthdays, holidays, events, gatherings, sports, and overall life, including what to wear, music, child-rearing, child discipline, and a host of other subjects that you were not "smart enough" to know on your own what was or what was not appropriate or expected of you. Your adherence to expectations was constantly analyzed, judged, disciplined, and reported to superiors on a constant basis. You were judged on your masculinity, your femininity, your handshake, your hair length, your dress, your suit, your communicative style, your personality, your macho or manliness, or your ability as a homemaker or wife. The minister's power within the marriage was nearly absolute when it came to marriage counsel - and for some decades, broke up or dissolved marriages based on their own interpretive judgements of what defined adultery. Make no mistake - lives were under, in many cases, the complete dominance and power and authority of the Minister, the one whom was Greatly to Be Feared.
This was the power they had - the power of deception. This deception was enabled by fear, first and foremost. Fear of God's Punishing Power. Fear of the Minister. Fear of the Church. Fear of Disobeying, and lastly but certainly not least - the Fear of Discipline up to and including dis-fellowshipment.
Once you had invested your whole life into the controlling powers of the system - who controlled your life in every way - who could ruin your entire life in one letter of disfellowshipment - or one order to quit your job - or one order to leave your spouse - or to reject a family member in some recent cases - you resigned yourself to their will. You resigned yourself to just obey them, because the consequences would be rougher than if you lose your entire social system. That power over the social system that the Church wielded was, and is, the biggest shackle and chains that grab onto and hold a member under their thumbs. The minister sits on them with that power with the full weight of a 400-lb tablet of stone. If they leave, they lose. If they leave, they fear. They believe it's the end.
Tragically, because of that belief, many have simply given up, fallen into depression, anxiety, hopelessness, and some have committed suicide according to many reports. This is the tragic results of drunk on power charlatans who have abused members emotionally and spiritually for far, far too long.
Those who have been abused sometimes do not think it's really that bad because they're used to it. They believe what's out there is far worse than what's "in there". They believe that what they have experienced for decades, is normal. They believe this because that's what they've been told to believe. They have been lied to, deceived, and had have their minds stolen, and many have lost the capacity to live on their own or even make the most basic decisions without help. All the while, their pastor and corporate church rake in their income, their assets, their estates, and their lives because of the love of sordid gain and the lust of mammon and riches. Their cold, calloused assault on the well being of their members is excused and rationalized away with the belief and statements that "Their donations and acceptance of the doctrines is voluntary" and no one is forced to do anything.
Of course, that's a lie.
When you threaten their eternal salvation because they aren't doing what you tell them to do. When you threaten their eternal salvation because they don't submit to your authority or every order. When you threaten their eternal salvation because they are not giving you the required donation. When you threaten their eternal salvation because they have failed in every expectation handed down from on high. And not just their eternal salvation, but their family's well being? Their jobs? Their social lives? Their marriage? Their everything? And you make the dastardly excuse that it's "voluntary"? There's nothing voluntary about it. You've deceived yourself into thinking you are doing nothing wrong.
And the well-intended, good hearted members who simply just want to do what they believe God has said for them to do end up in system of bondage and chains - thinking in full belief right is wrong, and wrong is right. The results are tragic.
The entire concept of ministry is to serve. The entire concept of ministry is to help those who are Christ's as a supporter, an encourager, a defender, and a protector - not an abuser, a parent, a fraudster, a charlatan, a scammer, a conner, or a robber. The entire concept of ministry is humility, not pride. The entire concept of ministry is not based on money or assets or estate, but on the spiritual health and well-being of the member. The entire concept of ministry is growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ - not the wallet, not mammon, not money, not corporate. The entire concept of ministry is not rooted in wickedness, or pride - and most of all, the entire concept of ministry is not rooted in abuse of a member. Whether that abuse is emotional, mental, physical, or developmental - abuse is abuse. And the truth is, the COG's have miserably failed as a whole in not only failing to stop abuse within the churches - but enable it, in the name of greed and presumptuous gain.
Those ministers who truly are ministering are out there - the few, and the faithful. The other ministers? The so-called ministers who have trashed everything Jesus Christ stands for - who puke and vomit on God's Word? The ones who got rich by making the poor poorer? The ones who idiotically stand in their pulpits enthralled in the stink and filth of their vomit-stained words, nauseating those who are shackled with their putrid arrogance? They aren't ministers.
They're a disgrace.
The members who are in bondage can regain control. They can regain their lives. They can be set free. They can live again. They can recover. But they can only do it through and by the power of the Living Jesus Christ. It is my prayer that through prayer, they can live again, and be set free.
It's quite the word in the Churches of God, because those in charge have had a lot of it.
Add money in, and you've got a narcisist's dream job.
Then add supposed divine authority - and you are a god.
That's the long and short of the story of the ministers in the Churches of God, who for over 70 years have convinced good-hearted and well meaning people that they are the inheritors of supreme authority on the basis of a supposition of the inheritance of diving power through top-down ordination. And when people buy into that belief, there's little - if anything - that you can say, or do, that they won't believe is right.
That has been the story in the Churches of God ever since Herbert Armstrong began his vain, narcissistic scheme of self-interpretation of religion for the furtherance of his financial empire and worldly success. It has been a story that Herbert's hirelings have written over and over again - with tragic mental and physical results.
Not every one of these people - named "Ministers" of varying rank and title - have taken advantage of members in various ways as many have. But those that have taken advantage of members for their own benefit, either personally or corporately - have done so vigorously, unashamedly, and forcefully, as they personally have benefited from their perceived deceptive power plays. From the beginning, it has been the minister who has been served by those they have been entrusted to serve. It has been a culture of privilege, superiority, arrogance, pomposity, and hubris that had encompassed their entire lives - all enabled and created by the headquarters corporate who developed a system that rewarded them for their heavy-handedness towards those who they were entrusted to spiritually develop.
From the beginning, the "ministers" who were ordained into full-time ministry into the Church were given "the Good Life". At the peak of their financial prosperity, due to conning the members to believe they were required to give 30 percent or more of their income to the Church, they were given handsome salaries, expense accounts, for a time utility expense, parsonage credit, a fleet car - and that's just financially. They also - well, many of them - used the members of the Church as personal slaves - car washers, lawn mowers, movers, or anything else that the members were willing to do. And their "work"? Many of them in some areas really did not have much to "do" during the week! Prospective member visits were low, visitations were not always required, the occasional wedding and/or funeral, and a whole week to write a sermon or sermonette. Those who did have large congregations and were constantly busy had high expectations - and were sometimes the most brutal with their unrealistic and supposed authority that they pounded home was, according to them, from God.
They also had the full backing of their boss, Herbert Armstrong, when it came to disputes or claims of malpractice. Herbert Armstrong had a policy of always believing the minister's word over the members' claim - and let that be known specifically - if there was no specific evidence against the minister. The weight of that kind of backing was something the ministers knew and wielded well, in many cases.
And then there was the belief of absolute divine authority, which many ministers claimed they inherited via ordination - and the belief that their every decision was through the guiding ministry of a higher portion of the Spirit of God within them. From the very smallest to the very largest decisions, such a mindset and belief caused a co-dependency from member to minister that was just as powerful as the dependency from a son or daughter to a parent. The difference between this child to parent relationship and a member to minister relationship? The parent-child relationship was temporary until adulthood. The member-minister relationship was eternal. In short, the members were never permitted to grow up.
The ministerial dominance of supposed authority extended well into the realms of discipline, as any rebellion, slacking, without full support, or disobedience in any way shape or form could result in not only extreme physical consequences (losing friends, even family, isolation and rejection, as well as separation from Church, either temporarily or permanently) but also spiritual consequences (loss of salvation, condemnation, rejection from the Kingdom, and being thrown into eternal cessation via being burned in the Lake of Fire). Some of these "ministers" fully abused such a belief that they had such supernatural, God-ordained powers to the order of complete oppression of their members, and fully hijacking every decision that members ever made in their lives in many cases. This was not the case with all of them, or all of the members. But it did happen. And it did happen often.
All of this of course created an atmosphere of excessive pride and arrogance within the ministry that they created their own super-culture that was far and above beyond the normal clique. It was a culture that created special seating, and roped-off areas. It was a culture of higher living that in many cases the regular member was not invited to nor ever could know. It was a culture of "We are better than you,and you well better know it." It was a culture of posh, arrogant hubris and superiority. It was a culture of superiority based on rank and position and power. They were them, you were you, and you better follow the rules, or you, who were next to nothing, will be nothing. This was the message sent and widely received by many.
Your expectations, spiritually and physically, within the dominant sphere of the minister's supposed authority, were both excessive and exhaustive. Submission to not only the rules and regulations required by the doctrines and dogmas of the Church's spiritual interpretations, and the rules and regulations of the local Church as interpreted and enforced by the pastor, dominated every aspect of the life of the member, the member's family, and all areas within. Personal decisions were expected to be ran by the pastor in cases of job, marriage, dating, finance, personal issues, sex, school, friendships, Church attendance, Church social lives, and all issues related to "the world" as to what was proper and what was not, including birthdays, holidays, events, gatherings, sports, and overall life, including what to wear, music, child-rearing, child discipline, and a host of other subjects that you were not "smart enough" to know on your own what was or what was not appropriate or expected of you. Your adherence to expectations was constantly analyzed, judged, disciplined, and reported to superiors on a constant basis. You were judged on your masculinity, your femininity, your handshake, your hair length, your dress, your suit, your communicative style, your personality, your macho or manliness, or your ability as a homemaker or wife. The minister's power within the marriage was nearly absolute when it came to marriage counsel - and for some decades, broke up or dissolved marriages based on their own interpretive judgements of what defined adultery. Make no mistake - lives were under, in many cases, the complete dominance and power and authority of the Minister, the one whom was Greatly to Be Feared.
This was the power they had - the power of deception. This deception was enabled by fear, first and foremost. Fear of God's Punishing Power. Fear of the Minister. Fear of the Church. Fear of Disobeying, and lastly but certainly not least - the Fear of Discipline up to and including dis-fellowshipment.
Once you had invested your whole life into the controlling powers of the system - who controlled your life in every way - who could ruin your entire life in one letter of disfellowshipment - or one order to quit your job - or one order to leave your spouse - or to reject a family member in some recent cases - you resigned yourself to their will. You resigned yourself to just obey them, because the consequences would be rougher than if you lose your entire social system. That power over the social system that the Church wielded was, and is, the biggest shackle and chains that grab onto and hold a member under their thumbs. The minister sits on them with that power with the full weight of a 400-lb tablet of stone. If they leave, they lose. If they leave, they fear. They believe it's the end.
Tragically, because of that belief, many have simply given up, fallen into depression, anxiety, hopelessness, and some have committed suicide according to many reports. This is the tragic results of drunk on power charlatans who have abused members emotionally and spiritually for far, far too long.
Those who have been abused sometimes do not think it's really that bad because they're used to it. They believe what's out there is far worse than what's "in there". They believe that what they have experienced for decades, is normal. They believe this because that's what they've been told to believe. They have been lied to, deceived, and had have their minds stolen, and many have lost the capacity to live on their own or even make the most basic decisions without help. All the while, their pastor and corporate church rake in their income, their assets, their estates, and their lives because of the love of sordid gain and the lust of mammon and riches. Their cold, calloused assault on the well being of their members is excused and rationalized away with the belief and statements that "Their donations and acceptance of the doctrines is voluntary" and no one is forced to do anything.
Of course, that's a lie.
When you threaten their eternal salvation because they aren't doing what you tell them to do. When you threaten their eternal salvation because they don't submit to your authority or every order. When you threaten their eternal salvation because they are not giving you the required donation. When you threaten their eternal salvation because they have failed in every expectation handed down from on high. And not just their eternal salvation, but their family's well being? Their jobs? Their social lives? Their marriage? Their everything? And you make the dastardly excuse that it's "voluntary"? There's nothing voluntary about it. You've deceived yourself into thinking you are doing nothing wrong.
And the well-intended, good hearted members who simply just want to do what they believe God has said for them to do end up in system of bondage and chains - thinking in full belief right is wrong, and wrong is right. The results are tragic.
The entire concept of ministry is to serve. The entire concept of ministry is to help those who are Christ's as a supporter, an encourager, a defender, and a protector - not an abuser, a parent, a fraudster, a charlatan, a scammer, a conner, or a robber. The entire concept of ministry is humility, not pride. The entire concept of ministry is not based on money or assets or estate, but on the spiritual health and well-being of the member. The entire concept of ministry is growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ - not the wallet, not mammon, not money, not corporate. The entire concept of ministry is not rooted in wickedness, or pride - and most of all, the entire concept of ministry is not rooted in abuse of a member. Whether that abuse is emotional, mental, physical, or developmental - abuse is abuse. And the truth is, the COG's have miserably failed as a whole in not only failing to stop abuse within the churches - but enable it, in the name of greed and presumptuous gain.
Those ministers who truly are ministering are out there - the few, and the faithful. The other ministers? The so-called ministers who have trashed everything Jesus Christ stands for - who puke and vomit on God's Word? The ones who got rich by making the poor poorer? The ones who idiotically stand in their pulpits enthralled in the stink and filth of their vomit-stained words, nauseating those who are shackled with their putrid arrogance? They aren't ministers.
They're a disgrace.
The members who are in bondage can regain control. They can regain their lives. They can be set free. They can live again. They can recover. But they can only do it through and by the power of the Living Jesus Christ. It is my prayer that through prayer, they can live again, and be set free.
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
Ramblings
Today, I just thought I'd ramble a little bit. It's been a little bit of a difficult day, in some respects, as certain things shift and move in the waves of life. But it all is a matter of perspective in the way one deals with the way the winds change, isn't it.
I've been watching with interest a few things in the Church of God Universe i wish to talk about. Again, it's more of a rambling sequence of thoughts in the form of print. I have not taken the effort to outline this particular thread in any consistent dialogue. Keep that in mind as I write this posting.
On Depression
At the Banned Site, there has been some reporting on PCG's stance, according to an article published by their group, on depression. Apparently, the PCG seems to think they have the scholastic and psychiatric training and ability to interpret and diagnose clinical causes of depression and mental health issues. Anyone mind if I take a moment to step out, laugh my head off, and run back in? You don't mind? Fine then!
HAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA.
Now I'm not an expert on the issue in it's clinical study, but I know enough about it - both from those who do know a little bit about it, and from personal experience - to talk about what depression is, and isn't.
Depression IS, in many cases, a bio-chemical imbalance in the brain, and may or may not be rooted in actual issues of life. Depression CAN be "enhanced", or even develop, or become chronic due to life's stresses and issues. And I can tell you, based on much evidence I have read over the years of PCG's Direct Influence on Life, that their doctrines and policies can be a direct initiator or enhancer of MAJOR depressive disorders.
For them to get on there, and act like they are the ones who can cure depression when they have directly caused so much for so many people is one of the most laughable and nearly ironic things that could be written in print.
Regardless of what they say the causes are, depression is extremely serious, and it is critical that those who suffer from depressive disorder get help to know what steps to take to isolate and proactively resolve any issues that are severely impacting and destroying their well-being.
On Certain "Ministers"
It is irking to watch certain self-appointed "ministers" attempt to assert themselves as some sort of "authority" to those who subscribe to their splinter or "church" body. One of the most irking - yet, strangely - amusing - ones that is setting themselves up as such an authority is the leader of the Continuing Church of God, Bob Thiel, who has to call himself an "overseer".
I have consistently said that many of those COG-types who attempt to present themselves as authorities set themselves up as some sort of spiritual "parents" who rob and steal the intellectual and adult abilities of those who "submit" to their ideas and claims. Calling ones self an "overseer" is certainly not subtle about it.
Then, there's the time-old lies that leaving their church body corporate is a spiritual death sentence. That is absolute rubbish and a lie from the pits of darkness. The CCOG is, in no way, shape, or form, any kind of "One True Church", and it's leader is not even - despite their claims to the contrary - ordained or appointed to any ministry. The arrogance and hubris is appalling. As in every movement no matter how insignificant, there are always a few who get sucked into the thinking of the leader of the subgroup. And let there be no doubt about this: The only "overseeing" power that Bob has is only the power that any individual person gives him. The only power any COG minister has over anyone is the power to deceive and make people believe their claims. When those claims do not pan out, then the evidence is clear they are not who they say they are. Sadly, many decide to stay with the lies then to pull themselves out into the light of truth.
On LCG
It appears, according to some LCG insiders, that a certain LCG minister is "recycling" "inspirational" messages each Saturday to their congregants, using the same material on repeated cycles.
Look, I don't see how this is any different, if true, then the same sermons being recycled over and over again! We all know this goes on in COG services. The same subjects, the same sermons, the same messages, the same material recycled over, and over, and over again. I don't honestly know how people - no matter what COG they go to - can sit there, and take the same dull and repeated and boring, lifeless messages time and time again - especially when given by ministers who have no clue how to give a sermon if their life depended on it!
I remember very well with my time in the COG's how I would have to endure a hopelessly borin speaker. It was much like listening to National Public Radio (No offense to NPR) when they introduce classical music. Anyone who has listened to NPR knows exactly what I am talking about! How is it that people put up with it?
Because they feel they HAVE to.
For the same reasons they feel they HAVE to keep the Sabbath, and they HAVE to keep the Holy Days, and they HAVE to do this, and HAVE to do this, "Or else". In the COG life, it's all about obeying commands militarily, instead of wanting to do things because they have the freedom and the ability to do so from the heart.
The Church was never supposed to be a military camp. But with the COG's, that's what people have voluntarily surrendered themselves to be - financial and spiritual slaves to their "masters".
And again - it's ALL about the money!
More interesting tidbits I'm not really commenting on at Banned about the big fiasco going on with CEM and the RLDEA people. I'm just going to say this:
How much evidence does one possibly need to conclude to the obvious answer as to what's in the heart and the minds of certain COG people? What in the world is it going to take?
A lavish expensive auditorium didn't do it.
The juxtaposition of the End of the World with the building of the auditorium didn't do it.
The threats of loss of eternal salvation because of lack of tithing didn't do it.
RCG's compound didn't do it.
Weinland's conviction didn't do it.
PCG's extravagance and jet airplane didn't do it.
The poverty lives of some COG members for the cause that turned out empty didn't do it.
The good life of pastors while the poor suffer didn't do it.
The evidence in co-worker letters 50 years back didn't do it.
What in the world will do it?
I say nothing is going to do it. They are willing to give up everything for the contemptuous sordid gain of a few bullies who capitalize on whoever they can devour. They attach like a leach and through lies and threats and shackles and chains pull the life out of whoever they can. And it's all deception. It's all lies.
It's a financial SCAM.
It's not like the evidence isn't there. It's literally everywhere. It's getting to the point where they just don't seem to care anymore. How is accepting lies in the face of truth any different than what they've been railing against in their own minds for generations???
That's it for now.
I've been watching with interest a few things in the Church of God Universe i wish to talk about. Again, it's more of a rambling sequence of thoughts in the form of print. I have not taken the effort to outline this particular thread in any consistent dialogue. Keep that in mind as I write this posting.
On Depression
At the Banned Site, there has been some reporting on PCG's stance, according to an article published by their group, on depression. Apparently, the PCG seems to think they have the scholastic and psychiatric training and ability to interpret and diagnose clinical causes of depression and mental health issues. Anyone mind if I take a moment to step out, laugh my head off, and run back in? You don't mind? Fine then!
HAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHA.
Now I'm not an expert on the issue in it's clinical study, but I know enough about it - both from those who do know a little bit about it, and from personal experience - to talk about what depression is, and isn't.
Depression IS, in many cases, a bio-chemical imbalance in the brain, and may or may not be rooted in actual issues of life. Depression CAN be "enhanced", or even develop, or become chronic due to life's stresses and issues. And I can tell you, based on much evidence I have read over the years of PCG's Direct Influence on Life, that their doctrines and policies can be a direct initiator or enhancer of MAJOR depressive disorders.
For them to get on there, and act like they are the ones who can cure depression when they have directly caused so much for so many people is one of the most laughable and nearly ironic things that could be written in print.
Regardless of what they say the causes are, depression is extremely serious, and it is critical that those who suffer from depressive disorder get help to know what steps to take to isolate and proactively resolve any issues that are severely impacting and destroying their well-being.
On Certain "Ministers"
It is irking to watch certain self-appointed "ministers" attempt to assert themselves as some sort of "authority" to those who subscribe to their splinter or "church" body. One of the most irking - yet, strangely - amusing - ones that is setting themselves up as such an authority is the leader of the Continuing Church of God, Bob Thiel, who has to call himself an "overseer".
I have consistently said that many of those COG-types who attempt to present themselves as authorities set themselves up as some sort of spiritual "parents" who rob and steal the intellectual and adult abilities of those who "submit" to their ideas and claims. Calling ones self an "overseer" is certainly not subtle about it.
Then, there's the time-old lies that leaving their church body corporate is a spiritual death sentence. That is absolute rubbish and a lie from the pits of darkness. The CCOG is, in no way, shape, or form, any kind of "One True Church", and it's leader is not even - despite their claims to the contrary - ordained or appointed to any ministry. The arrogance and hubris is appalling. As in every movement no matter how insignificant, there are always a few who get sucked into the thinking of the leader of the subgroup. And let there be no doubt about this: The only "overseeing" power that Bob has is only the power that any individual person gives him. The only power any COG minister has over anyone is the power to deceive and make people believe their claims. When those claims do not pan out, then the evidence is clear they are not who they say they are. Sadly, many decide to stay with the lies then to pull themselves out into the light of truth.
On LCG
It appears, according to some LCG insiders, that a certain LCG minister is "recycling" "inspirational" messages each Saturday to their congregants, using the same material on repeated cycles.
Look, I don't see how this is any different, if true, then the same sermons being recycled over and over again! We all know this goes on in COG services. The same subjects, the same sermons, the same messages, the same material recycled over, and over, and over again. I don't honestly know how people - no matter what COG they go to - can sit there, and take the same dull and repeated and boring, lifeless messages time and time again - especially when given by ministers who have no clue how to give a sermon if their life depended on it!
I remember very well with my time in the COG's how I would have to endure a hopelessly borin speaker. It was much like listening to National Public Radio (No offense to NPR) when they introduce classical music. Anyone who has listened to NPR knows exactly what I am talking about! How is it that people put up with it?
Because they feel they HAVE to.
For the same reasons they feel they HAVE to keep the Sabbath, and they HAVE to keep the Holy Days, and they HAVE to do this, and HAVE to do this, "Or else". In the COG life, it's all about obeying commands militarily, instead of wanting to do things because they have the freedom and the ability to do so from the heart.
The Church was never supposed to be a military camp. But with the COG's, that's what people have voluntarily surrendered themselves to be - financial and spiritual slaves to their "masters".
And again - it's ALL about the money!
More interesting tidbits I'm not really commenting on at Banned about the big fiasco going on with CEM and the RLDEA people. I'm just going to say this:
How much evidence does one possibly need to conclude to the obvious answer as to what's in the heart and the minds of certain COG people? What in the world is it going to take?
A lavish expensive auditorium didn't do it.
The juxtaposition of the End of the World with the building of the auditorium didn't do it.
The threats of loss of eternal salvation because of lack of tithing didn't do it.
RCG's compound didn't do it.
Weinland's conviction didn't do it.
PCG's extravagance and jet airplane didn't do it.
The poverty lives of some COG members for the cause that turned out empty didn't do it.
The good life of pastors while the poor suffer didn't do it.
The evidence in co-worker letters 50 years back didn't do it.
What in the world will do it?
I say nothing is going to do it. They are willing to give up everything for the contemptuous sordid gain of a few bullies who capitalize on whoever they can devour. They attach like a leach and through lies and threats and shackles and chains pull the life out of whoever they can. And it's all deception. It's all lies.
It's a financial SCAM.
It's not like the evidence isn't there. It's literally everywhere. It's getting to the point where they just don't seem to care anymore. How is accepting lies in the face of truth any different than what they've been railing against in their own minds for generations???
That's it for now.
Thursday, January 3, 2019
Materialism and Rest. Thoughts.
I've been reading but not really participating in great detail on the lengthy thread over at Banned by HWA on an estate fight going on over a late minister's estate.
I'm not going to get into it here. I'm not one to cast judgement, because I was not there, I don't know the details, it's all hearsay to me. But from the little I do know about what I am seeing, can I just say that I'm disgusted by the whole thing? Well, I am. Materialism is here today, and is gone tomorrow. And yet, what is consuming the attention of two supposed religious entities at this point? Materialism. Back and forth. He said, she said. Over what? Over property. Over money. Disputes. It's sad to watch this mess.
During the course of one or the other discussions over there at Banned, a subject came up regarding the Rest that Christians enter into. I'll just copy how the conversation started.
The original poster was a "c f ben yochanan":
Here, CF clearly states that the "writers of this blog", obviously including myself, "will simply not be entering into His Rest" - and then, in judgement, blasts them as doubters and scoffers, who will be weeping and wailing because of rejecting "the simplicity that is in Christ".
Pretty crazy stuff right there.
This commentator seems to know for a fact the spiritual condition and salvation status of each of the writers at the Banned Site. More than this, he has already judged that "they will simply not be entering into His Rest". In other words, he has judged me as a non-Christian. Pretty bold stuff, there, isn't it? Quite a convincing, judgemental statement, isn't it? I know for an absolute fact that such a judgement is absolutely incorrect - categorically incorrect. I know this because Jesus Himself saved my life, and Jesus Himself has guided and led my path. I know this because I acknowledge Him as Lord and Savior. This, and for a thousand other reasons I'm not going to get into here. Suffice it to say, YES, Jesus is Lord, YES, I obey and serve Him to the best of my abilities. NO, I am not perfect. But for someone to come on a blog, to a complete stranger, and state to them the judgement they have cast? Only believable in a religion such as Armstrongism.
Anyway, I digress. I responded in this manner;
I thought it was short, and to the point. I did not feel the need to go on and on about it. Armstrong followers have their minds closed, shut, locked and sealed. I don't want to waste my time or get my anxiety all up in an knot over this. It's not worth it for my health, it's not worth it - well, simply, period. But then, I get THIS response from an anonymous commentator:
What? Really? You have GOT to be kidding ME.
What were the words of Jesus? What did Jesus say? Any Christian should know the phrase and scripture by heart. Jesus said, "Come to ME, all you who are weary and heavy [burdened], and I will give YOU REST." And this writer really comes on and says that the only rest Christians have right now is the Sabbath each week? Really? Seriously?
Have I not noticed the condition of the world? Sure I have! I responded in this manner;
Sure, people can take a day of rest on the Sabbath Day. It certainly doesn't mean they're RESTING. It certainly doesn't eliminate the attitudes and carnality so freely evident even on the Sabbath in so many Armstrong related movements. Just because one is working without pay certainly doesn't mean they're RESTING! God is Spirit, and His worshippers worship in Spirit. It should go without saying that His followers also rest in Spirit.
You can keep the Sabbath. You can keep the Holy Days. You can tithe. You can serve the Church. You can be a pillar in the Church, and still not be in His Rest. This is evidenced by the fruits of a non-spiritually rested person. And we all know in Armstrongism there is an abundance of this out there, carnality and wickedness in all of it's ugly nature, whether it's on the Sabbath or not on the Sabbath. Whether it's on the Job or at the Feast. Keeping a day or a festival does not change the heart and soul anymore than wearing a suit cleans you up if you haven't been able to shower for a long time. You're still dirty. And if Jesus has not changed your heart and your mind, no matter how often you keep a DAY of rest, you still have not entered into HIS Rest.
There are many, many Armstrong believers out there who hold to the belief that because they keep the Sabbath and the Holy Days, that that's the sign they are Christians. Jesus had something different to say. Jesus said:
I can just hear Armstrongites say just as easily, "Lord, did we not keep your Sabbath? Did we not keep the Feast of Tabernacles and did we not tithe and follow Herbert Armstrong"? If Jesus was so strong about people who actually prophesied in the name of Jesus, or people who literally drove out demons in the name of Jesus - or even performed many miracles in the name of Jesus - what about those who believe they know Jesus just because of the days they keep or the festivals they keep? What makes them even greater than those who did not know Jesus who were able to use His power and His name? Their hearts were not in the right place. Their fruits were not evident. They were not in his REST. They did not have a relationship with Jesus. Jesus never KNEW them. And he even called those who used his name and his power evildoers - because they did not know the one who was the Source of that power.
Earlier in the chapter Jesus said:
For those who easily like to judge others who think a little differently then them - especially those who are Christian - this would be certainly some advice that might be worth a little bit of extra thought.
It is Jesus - Christ in You - the Spirit of God - that gives you rest - as you yield yourself to Him. As you turn from the things that are not of the Spirit - the things of wickedness and sinfulness at heart - like idolatry, greed, covetousness, immorality, abuse, heavy-handedness, sordid gain, and the love of money - things disrespectful to God and to others - things not done out of love but out of power and greed and lust - you enter into that Rest and peace through obedience, and by following the will of the Father - to LOVE God, and to LOVE your neighbor. When you love God, your neighbor, and do right - that's a peace and rest beyond all understanding. And that - in this crazy, selfish world - is a virtuous, and treasured gift to be valued and held dear.
I'm not going to get into it here. I'm not one to cast judgement, because I was not there, I don't know the details, it's all hearsay to me. But from the little I do know about what I am seeing, can I just say that I'm disgusted by the whole thing? Well, I am. Materialism is here today, and is gone tomorrow. And yet, what is consuming the attention of two supposed religious entities at this point? Materialism. Back and forth. He said, she said. Over what? Over property. Over money. Disputes. It's sad to watch this mess.
During the course of one or the other discussions over there at Banned, a subject came up regarding the Rest that Christians enter into. I'll just copy how the conversation started.
The original poster was a "c f ben yochanan":
yeah, afraid ur right: once they see the ancient writings of the Word of God fulfilled, particularly Luke 13:25 Spoken by Jesus, whom, ironically, the writers of this blog like to accuse the cogers of rejecting, then they will understand that they will simply not be entering into His Rest, and will go the way of every doubter and scoffer in the bible that has preceded them...
woe unto them, there will be wailing and weeping at missed opportunity to merely stay the course of the simplicity that is in Christ and receive Praise from the Son of David, son of judah...
c f ben yochanan
Here, CF clearly states that the "writers of this blog", obviously including myself, "will simply not be entering into His Rest" - and then, in judgement, blasts them as doubters and scoffers, who will be weeping and wailing because of rejecting "the simplicity that is in Christ".
Pretty crazy stuff right there.
This commentator seems to know for a fact the spiritual condition and salvation status of each of the writers at the Banned Site. More than this, he has already judged that "they will simply not be entering into His Rest". In other words, he has judged me as a non-Christian. Pretty bold stuff, there, isn't it? Quite a convincing, judgemental statement, isn't it? I know for an absolute fact that such a judgement is absolutely incorrect - categorically incorrect. I know this because Jesus Himself saved my life, and Jesus Himself has guided and led my path. I know this because I acknowledge Him as Lord and Savior. This, and for a thousand other reasons I'm not going to get into here. Suffice it to say, YES, Jesus is Lord, YES, I obey and serve Him to the best of my abilities. NO, I am not perfect. But for someone to come on a blog, to a complete stranger, and state to them the judgement they have cast? Only believable in a religion such as Armstrongism.
Anyway, I digress. I responded in this manner;
Christians have already entered into His Rest. The opportunity is not missed. It's here. Christians do not have to wait for a future event to experience Christ. Sorry to say it, your words and predictions are empty and without authority. Jesus is alive and well within His people.
I thought it was short, and to the point. I did not feel the need to go on and on about it. Armstrong followers have their minds closed, shut, locked and sealed. I don't want to waste my time or get my anxiety all up in an knot over this. It's not worth it for my health, it's not worth it - well, simply, period. But then, I get THIS response from an anonymous commentator:
"Christians have already entered into His Rest."
you can't be serious, have you looked around you lately? have you not noticed the condition of the world???
the only rest Christians have right now is the Sabbath each week (Heb.4)
What? Really? You have GOT to be kidding ME.
What were the words of Jesus? What did Jesus say? Any Christian should know the phrase and scripture by heart. Jesus said, "Come to ME, all you who are weary and heavy [burdened], and I will give YOU REST." And this writer really comes on and says that the only rest Christians have right now is the Sabbath each week? Really? Seriously?
Have I not noticed the condition of the world? Sure I have! I responded in this manner;
Did I say I was talking about the world? Did I say every liar, stealer, assaulter, and abuser is a Christian? Did I say that those who are on the "will not inherit the Kingdom" list are Christians? Did I allude to anything about that? What then is your definition of a Christian?It's just inconceivable that a Christian would possibly say that the only rest a Christian has is the Sabbath Day. This is exactly the evidence of what I was talking about when I say how Armstrong followers deny what Jesus Christ accomplishes and freely gives to those who seek Him, and receive His Holy Spirit. This is the evidence of why I have often called Armstrongism non-Christian. Because so many of them wholly deny that Jesus Christ gives Christians rest through the Spirit of God within them! And through that Rest, by Christ, one exhibits righteousness. One exhibits peace. One exhibits joy. Patience. Lovingkindness. Gentleness. Mercy. Self Control. And of course, LOVE. These are the fruits of a spiritually rested person. These are the fruits of a Christian. "Come to ME, all you who are weary, and heavy laden, and I will give you REST".
a Christian is one who has the Holy Spirit, Christ in them, and is known by the fruits they exhibit. The fruits they exhibit are directly correlated with Christ's Rest.
The rest is not physical. The rest is spiritual. It's emotional. It's relationship. All those with the Spirit of God, Christ in You, are inheritors of the Promise. They are confident in their future because they have been sealed by the Spirit. What you are doing is confusing Christianity as a corporate, which it isn't. Christianity is personal. It is a relationship. Those who have Christ exhibit Christ and exhibit through their fruits the evidence of His Rest.
Why is this so hard for Armstrong followers to understand?
Sure, people can take a day of rest on the Sabbath Day. It certainly doesn't mean they're RESTING. It certainly doesn't eliminate the attitudes and carnality so freely evident even on the Sabbath in so many Armstrong related movements. Just because one is working without pay certainly doesn't mean they're RESTING! God is Spirit, and His worshippers worship in Spirit. It should go without saying that His followers also rest in Spirit.
You can keep the Sabbath. You can keep the Holy Days. You can tithe. You can serve the Church. You can be a pillar in the Church, and still not be in His Rest. This is evidenced by the fruits of a non-spiritually rested person. And we all know in Armstrongism there is an abundance of this out there, carnality and wickedness in all of it's ugly nature, whether it's on the Sabbath or not on the Sabbath. Whether it's on the Job or at the Feast. Keeping a day or a festival does not change the heart and soul anymore than wearing a suit cleans you up if you haven't been able to shower for a long time. You're still dirty. And if Jesus has not changed your heart and your mind, no matter how often you keep a DAY of rest, you still have not entered into HIS Rest.
There are many, many Armstrong believers out there who hold to the belief that because they keep the Sabbath and the Holy Days, that that's the sign they are Christians. Jesus had something different to say. Jesus said:
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (NIV)
I can just hear Armstrongites say just as easily, "Lord, did we not keep your Sabbath? Did we not keep the Feast of Tabernacles and did we not tithe and follow Herbert Armstrong"? If Jesus was so strong about people who actually prophesied in the name of Jesus, or people who literally drove out demons in the name of Jesus - or even performed many miracles in the name of Jesus - what about those who believe they know Jesus just because of the days they keep or the festivals they keep? What makes them even greater than those who did not know Jesus who were able to use His power and His name? Their hearts were not in the right place. Their fruits were not evident. They were not in his REST. They did not have a relationship with Jesus. Jesus never KNEW them. And he even called those who used his name and his power evildoers - because they did not know the one who was the Source of that power.
Earlier in the chapter Jesus said:
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
For those who easily like to judge others who think a little differently then them - especially those who are Christian - this would be certainly some advice that might be worth a little bit of extra thought.
It is Jesus - Christ in You - the Spirit of God - that gives you rest - as you yield yourself to Him. As you turn from the things that are not of the Spirit - the things of wickedness and sinfulness at heart - like idolatry, greed, covetousness, immorality, abuse, heavy-handedness, sordid gain, and the love of money - things disrespectful to God and to others - things not done out of love but out of power and greed and lust - you enter into that Rest and peace through obedience, and by following the will of the Father - to LOVE God, and to LOVE your neighbor. When you love God, your neighbor, and do right - that's a peace and rest beyond all understanding. And that - in this crazy, selfish world - is a virtuous, and treasured gift to be valued and held dear.
Friday, December 7, 2018
Will Armstrong Apologists Ever Accept Reality?
The easy answer is no.
To the fundamentalist Armstrongite - the serious, hardcore, fully-indoctrinated believer in the methodologies of Herbert Armstrong - looks at reality in an augmented way. A good way to call their worldview is "Augmented Armstong- Based Reality."
Augmented means simply - to make greater than it really is. Which is their view of their role in the world, their vision, their reality, and their God, to be point blank. They have a distorted position from what reality really is. This is very provable - irrefutably provable - based on the track record of their claims vs. what really happened. Their realities, as claimed, never, not even once, have happened. Every last one of them has been humiliated by the extreme reality of the epic proportions of their failures. Yet, the cling on, in divisive, arrogant, unsubstantiated, ignorant, and uneducated blindness as to the reality of what they are proclaiming as irrefutably false.
It is not just one lone, isolated, rogue case among Armstrongites. This lies at the very core of their ideology. Every speculation. Every prophetic utterance. Every promise. Every prediction. Every claim, and every date has been proven - yes, proven - to be a lie. A misjudgement. An error. A presumption. They just call it "overzealous" behavior. Or, mistiming. Or, just a "partial revealing", only when fully revealed to be twice as false as the first revealing. They lead their believers on a wild roller coaster that always gets bumpier, and never has an end, an infinite loop of chaos and confusion, while running the meter the full trip. And yet, the hardcore believers seem just fine with it.
Ignored - willfully - is the abuse. Ignored, willfully - is the condemnation. Ignored is the dissonance, the abhorrent behaviors, the greed and the love of money and mammon, the harm it has done to themselves and their families, their income and their well-being. Ignored is the blatant untruths preached from the pulpit - and most ignored, and most obvious - the mind-numbing, unintelligent, theological bull which comes from the pulpit. Rinse and repeat, and settle for it all, like a failed and abusive relationship - which is really, what it is.
What's behind this? What's the real story? Why, or how - could anyone staunchly defend the indefensible? Why- or how - could anyone be involved in this level of emotional and psychological - and sometimes, physical abuse? How can anyone be duped into literally handing over so much of their income to be mismanaged by Pharisaical idiots whose greatest skill is how to bully, to lie, and to deceive? How does this happen?
It happens because of one word: Fear.
The Pharisaical Idiots have successfully deceived their congregants to believe that their physical organization is the way, the truth, and the life - not Jesus. The Pharisaical Idiots have convinced them that apart from them - whichever organization it is - or Armstrongism as a whole - they are lost. Doomed. Gone. Forsaken. Abandoned. Hopeless. and the dreaded A-Word - "Apostate". The believers believe these Pharisaical Idiots - because of years, upon years of mind-conditioning which is piled on layer after layer after later of the Paint of Fear on the fortress of the mind. They have grown to love the darkness, and have blinded themselves from the light.
Fortunately, this is not the case for everyone.
There is a continuing group of those who drank the Kool-Aid who are slowly coming around and waking up to the reality of what really has happened in their lifetimes. They are slowly awakening to fact, to reason, to reality, and many to the love of Jesus that Armstrongism has robbed them of for so long. They are slowly seeing what was the true story all along. These people - once they see - some, for the first time - are shocked, traumatized, stumbling babes - many of whom have been conditioned to believe the antithesis of reality in so many cases and situations. It's overwhelming. But evidence has shown they are coming to grips of the reality based on three words - Herbert was wrong.
I guess the answer to the question is yes - for some. Regardless of how great or strong the "awakening" may be - there will always be a subset of Armstrongism in the world. My prediction is , however - and this is becoming more sure - that in very little time, it will be as insignificant and unknown as the little church on the corner of your small town that no one's ever heard of but the locals. You all know what that church is in your town - and every town has one.
For those who refuse to accept reality? For those who staunchly defend the indefensible, and excuse the inexcusable? The power of belief is their reality. They have defined their hope, their dreams, and their futures based on their personal faiths. Their personal story will be based on their foundation. What that foundation is? That's only personal to them. My hope is it is built on Jesus Christ. Because any other foundation - according to the very Gospel they claim to know - is sinking sand.
There is a Boat, and his name is Jesus. His nets are drawn. His hands reach out. He urges them to come to Him. He pleads with them with love in his eyes and heart.
"Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy ladened, and I will give you rest."
Sunday, November 18, 2018
It's Not About Them.
Recently, Banned by HWA posted an article on the Philadelphia Church of God's ridiculous statements about the causes of the wildfires that have plagued California in recent days. In the article written by PCG, the group has said:
In his 2003 article “Is California Under a Curse?”, Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry pointed out that California’s problems go much deeper than wildfires. Multiyear droughts, crippling debt and eruption of racial tensions in the early 1990s are just a few of the problems that California has struggled with. Out of all the states in the union, why is this state especially suffering so intensely?In his article, Mr. Flurry pointed to the unfounded lawsuit that the state launched against the Worldwide Church of God and Pastor General Herbert W. Armstrong in 1979
It's been a COG constant for everything in their view - worldwide, regional, or local - to revolve around either them, or their history. In this case, they believe that California is under a curse because of something that happened in 1979.
Do I need to point out the Berkeley Fire of 1923, which destroyed 640 structures? This was before the Armstrong movement even got going. What about the Griffith Park fire of 1933, which killed 29 to 59 firefighters? Then there was the Laguna fire in 1970 which killed eight. There was the Rattlesnake fire in 1953.
But, "They're getting worse", they might cry! Why? "Wildfires in California are growing more dangerous as people build in rural burn areas." (Wikipedia.) Population sprawl building into areas which previously were uninhabited is causing the increase in wildfires. But what is the real reason?
Diablo winds, and Santa Ana winds. Which have been occurring in California for as long as it's geography has been what it is today. Click the links for information on to how these hot and dry winds happen, and how they fuel dry timber wildfires.
As far as PCG claims go? Let's be real, as I always tend to say.
This is fear religion. These are fear tactics, by a fear-based cult. This is an attempt to provoke fear and paranoia against "attacking" the "Church of God", or, the "PCG", as they view themselves as the modern day Church of God. It is an attempt to substantiate bad things with going against their religion. It is an attempt to say "This is happening because this has happened". It is an illogical, desperate, lie-filled line of reasoning that has absolutely no bearing on reality, historically, or otherwise.
The 1979 Receivership crisis in the Worldwide Church of God has no more to do with the current wildfire situations in California then the Philadelphia Church of God has anything to do with... well, pretty much anything! Bluntly, it has NOTHING to do with it. Because as it turns out, the State of California was not needed for the implosion of the Worldwide Church of God. They took care of their own implosion all on their own, no intervention required.
To even insinuate that the problem of wildfires in California is a result of the 1979 Receivership is an insult to history, to science, to those families who are affected by the wildfires, to the victims, to property owners, and to all who have been impacted for the thousands of years before 1979's receivership on a small California church ever happened.
Let's look at the facts. This is a church (Worldwide Church of God) that was abusing the funds and monies of it's congregations. This was a church that had been threatening their members with the Lake of Fire for not giving enough (when they were already giving 20 to 50% of their pachecks to the Church!!). This was a church caught up in immorality, vanity, conceit, infighting, scandal, intrigue, gossip, greed, power struggles, ministerial abuse, member abuse, lust, and covetousness. This was a church that had been for near 40 years been lying about world events for the love of money. This is a church that had been knowingly and intentionally lying to it's members about the return of Christ, about fleeing to Petra, about what would happen to them, in their lifetimes, to their friends, their families - about what would happen if they left the Church, about what would happen to them in the third ressurection. This was a church that used fear and negativity to beat down and shame their members in ministerial madness time after time after time. This was a church that was so worldly there was little difference between one of their top leaders and the likes of Hugh Hefner. This was a church where it's top leader had such an explosive and violent temper staffers trembled in fear when HWA got on the line, and students cowered in fear when approached by HWA. This was a church where HWA's aides constantly had to step in and intervene to save students and members from the wrath of Herbert Armstrong on a constant basis.
And yet, the PCG is saying that the current wildfires is because the State of California attacked such a holy, righteous, God-fearing, obedient, law-abiding church? What kind of world are they living in? What kind of delusions do they behold? How is it they can be so ignorant of the facts and the reality around them?
As a victim of the cult of the Worldwide Church of God, this is outrageous, and this is untrue. This is fear religion. And this is untrue. The Worldwide Church of God was not a shining light in Pasadena, being attacked for it's ever radiant righteousness in Sodom and Gomorrah. The Worldwide Church of God was part of the problem. The wildfires in California are not the result of a curse on California because of the State's pursuit of illegalities in the Church. They are a result of geography, of nature, and of timeless ecological conditions that have been happening for thousands of years - even before Christianity, and probably even during the times of Abraham, Moses, and Job.
This is not about them. This is about the victims, the people, the pain, and the suffering of those who have been severely impacted by these fires. The elderly, the handicapped, the sick, and the hapless who had nowhere to go when the fires came. The properties that were taken by the vicious infernos.
But it's about more than this.
This is about the firefighters, The public servants, the utility workers, the government workers. This is about those who have housed the homeless. Who have helped the hurting. Who have fed the hungry. Who are rebuilding for those who can't rebuild. Who are spending days and weeks helping to clean up. This is about the nurses, the doctors, the care-givers. This is about those who travel thousands of miles on their dime to help the hurting and the victims. This is about the compassionate angels of mercy who give of their time and their effort and their money to assist when needed. This is about Christianity in action. This is about basic human goodness in action. This is about compassion, and kindness, and empathy. This is about mercy. This is about caring. This is about LOVE.
It's not about a little small group in Oklahoma with a history of shunning family members of all ages who wake up to the harmful doctrines of it's leader, and it never has been. No, it's not about them, and it never will be. This is far bigger than any insignificant little church roaring like a lion with the effectiveness of a gnat.
Fear religion has no place in the hearts and minds of good hearted people. I applaud those who, with common sense, are out there, as they are able, helping, guiding, assisting, loving, caring, and comforting - in mercy, and in grace. As for those who write putrid vomit of self-absorbed cockiness and conceit and lies about disasters with no concern about the suffering of the victims?
Nothing I can write or say can express my revulsion. So, I simply pray it up to God, and say no more about it except one thing. Wake up, sheeple who accept such Godlessness as Godly!!
Monday, November 12, 2018
State of The Church #8
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| When All of the Churches of God Gathered for the First Feast of Tabernacles... |
No One could decide on the First Sermonette.
Friday, November 9, 2018
Disaster in California: This is Not the time to Judge. This is the Time to Help.
In Southern California, especially in Butte County, as well as in the suburban areas of Los Angeles, a storm of hellish proportions is engulfing properties and threatening lives clear down to Malibu. Many celebrities - such as Alyssa Milano, Caitlyn Jenner, and Kim Kardashian have been effected.
I can just see the scowl on the faces of fundamentalist Church of God members to the news. I can just read their thoughts. I can almost predict the posts that are due to come out, if they have not come out already. The hatred, the judgements, the "warnings" - they come out like roaring lions every time a disaster hits. They always roar out with snarls and hisses about what they believe the reason for the fire really was, and what they believe caused it. They do not hesitate to call it a judgement of God against those who blaspheme against His ways and His will. They show no empathy, no care, no concern, no heart, and most of all, no love toward anybody who thinks or acts differently than they do. To them, they've brought it all on themselves because of their rebellion and obstinate behavior towards God's Law. "Burn, Burn, you haters of God and his ways", they'll say, nearly drooling over the prospect of the wicked being subject to punishment - wishing for fire and brimstone, like with Sodom and Gomorrah. You can almost hear them say "Get 'em" to the fire. "That'll teach 'em", you can nearly see them say as they hunch forward in glee, as in watching their favorite runner with the football heading towards the End Zone. (Well, most of them. We know one who doesn't meet that comparison!)
What is wrong with this picture?
Everything is wrong with this picture.
First of all, and importantly - EVERYONE - you, me, your neighbor, your son, your daughter, your parents - have issues. EVERYONE deals with their own personal situations. EVERYONE goes through their own struggles and their own pain. It is not our place to judge someone else's pain and suffering when we all have our own issues to deal with. Speck vs. Beam!!
Church of God Members are vicious and quick to cast judgement on what they see as immorality and perversion among "the world" and are quick to condemn and cast judgement, using events as wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes, and other natural events as proof of the judgement of God. Yet they refuse to see the blatant idolatry, the immorality within their own ranks, the hypocrisy, the abuse, the oppression, the extortion, and the financial theft happening within their own ranks. Who are them to cast judgement when they don't look in the mirror? The hypocrisy is beyond wretched and reason.
Who are they to sit there and cast judgement on those who are not meeting their standards when they are blind to their own nest of sin and evil - as they define it? Who made them holier than thou? Who gave them the gift of spiritual discernment when their own nest has been scorched by the fires of wickedness? Who are they to laugh and scorn at the loss and pain of others, when they oppress the poor, abuse the weak, and take gain for themselves for their own comfort and security? What gave them the right to be such arrogant and hurtful pricks? They cast judgement in the name of God while their own hair burns and they don't even know it.
Just as bad, they feel they don't have to do a thing to help them, or to "show them Jesus", to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
Which COG Leader do you know of who will drop everything to go to California to help them? Anyone?
Which COG Leader will invite Caitlyn Jenner into their home? Which COG Leader will invite Allysa Milano into their home - or ANY person of different opinion into their property? Anyone? Hello!
Will a COG Leader open his property to the victims of the wildfires? Will he allow them to sleep on his rug in his palace? Will he allow them to worship God with un-laced shoes? Or non-white shirts? Will he bring in the unwashed into his closed gates? Will he permit the smell of scorched and burned clothes into his palaces? Will he comfort the hurting? Would he? Could he?
Will a COG Leader open up his headquarters to the wounded? Or would he make the excuse it's too far? Would he pay airfare for the displaced in California who lost everything, who aren't financially fortunate? Or would he only care about his own members - who were somehow supernaturally protected - or give those who were hurt "thoughts and prayers"?
Will local ministers in California do anything?
Will our self-appointed non-ordained minister open up his house or his vitamin house for any of the wounded or displaced? Will he use any of his money or proceeds to feed the firefighters of the police who are working day and night to protect and to serve? Will our crooked bookcase man give a sermon of hope and peace in Jesus to the victims - or will he do another horrible message on 50 topics while ignoring the state burning all around him? Or will he do a web post on how everything happening is God's punishment on a world that won't keep the Sabbath at Bob's butt-numbing church services - or go to his Feast of Tabernacles?
What COG minister will be moved to be there in this disaster? Anyone? What COG minister will tell people to keep their hands off of this tragedy because you can't interfere with God's judgement? Shall we name names?
What if we reversed the thinking?
What if this wasn't a judgement on the world - but a test of action of faith to people who profess Jesus?
What if these things were a test of love? Of how much those who profess Jesus would take action? Would help and serve? Who take in and show the love of God to those who think differently? Who act differently? Did not Jesus say to feed the sick? Or the homeless? Or the jailed? Or the widowed? Did he not say to do these things? Of course, the COG will just say "Well, that didn't mean THEM. He was talking about the Church."
God have mercy on those who spew such bull and vomit on the grace of Jesus Christ. God have mercy on them. Because these are the ones that Jesus would have ran to to help and to serve. Because God's love and God's grace and mercy know no boundaries. God's sacrifice knows no bounds. God is a God who is looking for those who give of themselves for the sake of others - ALL others - regardless of race, religion, disability, or mindset. God is a God of love. And his expectation is that his people put their faith into action, show Jesus, and love others. ALL others. Without prejudice, and with great compassion and healing hands.
California is burning tonight. But so are the hearts and compassionate care of hundreds of thousands who do not cast self-righteous judgement and Pharisaical condemnation against those who are not as righteous as their holier than thou saintly vessels of perfection and righteousness - whitewashed with soap and gleaming with sparkles in their oh, so magnificent splendor - are. There are thousands who are going without sleep, without eating, driving thousands of miles, taking care of displaced people, pets, horses, who have lost everything - to do the work of the Lord Jesus to all peoples - regardless of what they believe or who they are. These are the people who are showing the love of God. These are the angels showing mercy and love and compassion.
As far as the COG leaders - whoever may do what I'm describing here - you know, the ones who sit on their asses in their white shirts and pressed pants mocking those who have lost everything? Who sit there in self-righteous sneers as to how great they are and how wicked the world is? Who relish at the thought of the embers of fire and whipping destruction against those who despise and mock God's Law with drooling fervor, wishing the fire on - or worse, turning a blind eye?
Don't look at the specks in their eyes when a beam shoots out of yours. You make a mockery of Jesus, and spit, stomp, and reduce to ashes the word of God and the ministry of Jesus Christ. May God have as much mercy on YOU, as he shows on the world through the sacrifice and love of His Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ - so that you, too, may see how great and how deep and how wide is the love of God, who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son for everyone. And once you open your eyes to THAT. May God's spirit convict you and WAKE YOU UP to the pathetic attitudes that have come from the false Gospel you've embraced through the false apostle Herbert Armstrong.
But God is not going to force you to change your stubborn and hard headed minds. That's going to be up to you.
Wednesday, November 7, 2018
Ma! Pa! Git Out Here! Them Weston Boys Comin to Git Us!
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| LCG Secures "The Cowboy Channel" for it's Telecast |
Tuesday, November 6, 2018
You Have a Voice, and You Have a Right and a Freedom to Exercise Your Responsibility in Your Community.
Herbert Armstrong continually railed against the member's right - their constitutional right - to vote.
I know I said that I would not talk politics in this blog - and I won't. No politicians will be mentioned in this post. It cannot be ignored, however, that one of the long-standing dogmas of the Church in Armstrongism was that the right to vote. It was forbidden. It was said to be "involvement with the World" - because, we were supposed to be in the world, but not of the world. It was a method of control and the assertion of the strong belief that the Government of God was not democratic - it was autocratic - from the top, down. Any involvement with the world such as the right to vote was squelched by Herbert and Company.
There are many reasons why this was the case. One, Herbert didn't want people to get used to the idea that they could have a "say" in anything. Once one starts to get the mind set that he has a voice, then he might get the idea he could use it in the Church. This was not to be with Herbert. He despised people doing "their own thing", or not in agreement with his doctrines or principles, seemingly believing that they came from God and not himself.
Yet I think there was an even bigger reason. If a member began to get "involved" with the policies of the world - the government, the issues, the proposals - then they might actually begin to learn the methods that Herbert used on his church.
Herbert used a specific psychology in his methods of control on the members of the Church. This psychology was a combination of advertising finesse, sales tactics, and mind control. The last thing he ever wanted, or needed, was for a member to learn of those tactics or how they worked. This would make one intellectually smart as to his tactics and what he was doing. If someone was privy to sales tactics and influential - then the best thing to do was to absorb them into the collective - make them an ordained minister so they're on "his side". If someone was not, keep them away from any influence that could show them what was going on. Even those "absorbed into the collective" may not have been consciously aware of what was going on - but certainly some were. Garner Ted Armstrong was not shy about telling pastors about the "mind conditioning" and "psychology" used in publications about issues on religion, sex, and the like. This is one reason why he railed so hard against the world's "psychology" or psychologists. He wanted no one to learn the secrets of mind conditioning they used on the membership to assume mind control and full brainwashing.
Voting was just one small part of this piece of the puzzle. The main message of Armstrongism was obedience, submission, respect of authority and the government of God - and how well and how into serving the Church and supporting the "apostle" you were. Any involvement with the community - be it rotary clubs, community service, or anything of the "world" put you in danger of the "leaven of intellectualism", as he called it. It plugged up his control over the member, both of information, and of ministerial authority and his teachings. Which of course, directly affected the "bottom line".
This tactic of oppression - one of many - led to an isolationist, exclusive culture within the Church that caused one to completely lack any care or concern to their community, the issues of their community, or the people around them. They became, unintentionally, aloof, superior, and ignorant. They cast a blind eye to the concerns of the world around them because they were in it, but not "of it". They were commanded to be "separate". In other words, to not give a flying fig about anybody or anything around them. After all, to the average member, these were people under Satan's rule, and they weren't worthy of your attention to their issues because they were not called. We simply turned a blind eye and regarded them as uncalled, unsaved, blind and wretched inferiors to us, the royal kings and queens about to rule over them in the World Tomorrow. As such, we looked like arrogant and stuck-up, snotty rear ends of a donkey. If you get my drift.
One of the things that I have learned in my years in cult-recovery is the importance of being a part of the community. One of the individuals who I talk to told me something I would never forget. This person said:
"You are a part of the community. Everyone helps each other out, and watches over each other. Everyone takes part in the issues that concern them."
This concept struck me like a bolt out of thin air, because it was contrary to everything I ever was taught about community. I was taught to avoid the community. To avoid others. To avoid involvement with anything. To not care. To literally stick my nose up in disgust to the world, because the world was ruthless. It was an un-loving, un-caring attitude of total jerk-hood.
But what about this "be in it but not of it" that I was taught?
The answer is so simple. It means don't get involved in the sinful ways around you.
Galatians 5:19-21
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
This is being "of" the world, I believe. But when it comes to community involvement? Standing up for your beliefs and your principles? Exercising your right to vote? That's a personal right and a constitutional guarantee. No man has the right or the authority to tell you you cannot do what your principles tell you to do. This is the world you live in. And no matter what some spiritual arrogant know-it-all might try to make you believe, you do have a voice, and you do have a say.
Today is a day when those in the United States of America have a chance to make their voice heard. Do not let anyone tell you you do not have the right to have a voice, and to have your say in the world that you live in every day. If you feel you want to express your freedom - get out there and express your freedom and make your opinion count. If not this opportunity, next time.
Because no matter what the ministers of Armstrongism say. You matter. Your voice matters. Your mind matters. And you have the right to get out there and be heard.
Don't ever let anyone tell you any differently.
Monday, November 5, 2018
Friday, November 2, 2018
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
Setting Personal Boundaries With Your Minister
The Armstrong Church of God Ministers have consistently, in the name of what they call "God's Government", invaded the personal boundaries of their members in the enforcement of "the Law" within their congregations. Of course, members might think to themselves upon reading this: "What Boundaries?"
Throughout the decades, ministers have been trained, and thus feel compelled as principle, to ask and give counsel to the most private of questions, or the most trivial of questions. What would make most people gravely uncomfortable to discuss is commonly divulged by people within the Churches of God, believing the opinion of the minister is directly from Christ - because they've submitted themselves to "the Authority of the Government of God."
What is a personal boundary, anyway?
"Boundaries are guidelines, rules, or limits that a person creates to identify themselves what are reasonable, safe and permissible ways for other people to behave around them and how they will respond when someone steps outside those limits."*
Regardless of what you have been told, or what you have believed - all people - including ministers - are subject to respect and to follow the personal boundaries that YOU have set up for yourself. It is within your basic rights as a human being, and within your own standards and expectations of privacy, to set up boundaries that all must respect. If you say no, NO means NO.
There are many personal boundaries that must be respected by your spiritual advisors. Most of all, what it is that you decide to share if you are asked to divulge personal information. The ministers of the Armstrong Churches of God have had a history of asking questions that they were not qualified, nor trained, to counsel on. Even Ron Dart, a senior minister in the old Worldwide Church of God, admitted exactly that.
The emotional result of inappropriate boundary invasion by a minister (or anyone, for that matter) can be like:
"getting caught in the midst of a hurricane with no protection. You expose yourself to being greatly affected by others words, thoughts, and actions and end up feeling bruised, wounded and battered"*.
Yet the fear that a minister can attempt to seduce you to believe through the power of blind deception can make you feel like it's not "that bad" what they are doing, after all, it is "God's Government". The reality is that they are being spiritual and emotional vampires, sucking out any dignity, self-worth, and privacy for their own interpretations and unqualified judgement, leading you down the road of guilt, condemnation, and lack of self-worth.
What then can you do, if you feel within your heart of hearts that a minister has crossed the line of effective spiritual counsel into disrespect of your basic rights and violating your personal boundaries?
1) Pray for God's assistance to help you stand up for righteousness.
2) Assert that such questions are inappropriate and are making you uncomfortable.
3) If the minister is persistent and presses the issue, or threatens retribution, WALK OUT.
No person - not one - has the right to invade your personal boundaries once you request them to stop. There is no difference from a person refusing to honor the word "NO", whether it is a sexual request or an emotional request or inappropriate question where you have told them to stop. (This goes with physical boundary intrusions too, like when they used to go through your medicine cabinets decades ago!) If they persist, or threaten retribution, it is a violation. They have crossed the line. You no longer are subject to submit to their authority. (Secret: You never were subject to their "authority".) They relinquish any such authority the minute they ignore the word, "NO".
Yes, you may be disfellowshipped. You may be marked. And that is okay. You stood up for what is right, and for yourself, and have asserted the respect you deserve as a person.
The question is, will you allow yourself to remain in an abusive relationship of disrespect and violation of your personal space and rights - or will you assert your personal basic rights, and be free from the abusers who disrespect your personal space and privacy.
The era of inappropriate questioning and counsel in the Armstrong Churches of God by unqualified and untrained ministers must end. It must start with you.
*Quotes adapted from the Violence Intervention and Prevention Center from PositivelyPositive.com, outofthefog.net, Where You End and I Begin by Anne Katherine
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