Thursday, July 23, 2015

You Might Have Grown Up In The Church of God.....




Various memes on Facebook:















13 comments:

Anonymous said...

These are great! What a snapshot of Armstrongite stupidity!

JP said...

You might find this site interesting as people there are actually being influenced by Dave Pack. Very scary discussion.
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=75217

Anonymous said...

These are great! Some of them sure cut straight to the bone in their truthfulness!

Anonymous said...

"It's time you found out...Christ had a first name."

Well, if that don't say all...

Anonymous said...

Heck, I try to give thanks to Jebus at all times for the comedy of Armpitism.

James said...

JP said...

You might find this site interesting as people there are actually being influenced by Dave Pack. Very scary discussion.
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=75217
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SOmeone is looking for some blue ribbon tithe payers. The fool posting is no doubt a cheerleader for DP.

Byker Bob said...

Their schtick, in fact, the very church lifestyle, was based on creating a sense of urgency. "These horrible things are all going to happen in 1972-1975. It's from God, so man has no solution. But, there is an escape! The sabbath, holy days, and clean meats must all be observed so that you can qualify for the place of safety. And, God's financial plan for getting the message out to the world is based on your tithes and generous offerings. To be spared, you must acknowledge that we own you!"

70-80% of the sense of urgency went away with the failure of the 1972-75 dates. Funny thing. People don't take continuously failed or revised prophecies seriously enough to voluntarily submit to abnormal control. Another percentage went away as it became apparent that man has continued to solve, diminish, or negotiate around what often seem to be insurmountable problems and obstacles. It's part of what mankind does, and the reason why worst case scenario almost never happens. It is why mankind has survived as a species. Also, most people these days, if they want to be weird, do it on their own terms, not because some authoritarian imposes it. The coolness factor of going Goth, or illustrating your skin because you want to, seems to have much more appeal than shopping the thrift stores for 1940's fashions because someone tells you those are more Godly clothes, designed before society pandered towards sexual prurience.

Yep. We grew up in it. Thank God we didn't have to live our lives in it. Logic and choice are wonderful things!

BB

Anonymous said...

if i had not grown up in the Church of God i would likely have been just another gangbanger, drug addict, and yet another black guy with multiple baby mamas, so its not all bad...

Anonymous said...

"if i had not grown up in the Church of God i would likely have been just another gangbanger, drug addict, and yet another black guy with multiple baby mamas, so its not all bad..."

I agree that there are some people out there who sincerely need AA or NA to stay on the wagon. But what if I am not one of those people? Where is the benefit for me? Why should I participate?

I agree, there are some people out there who sincerely need some sort of extrinsic moral structure, such as christianity, to support them and keep them from being menaces to society, because they have little or no intrinsic moral structure of their own. But what if I am not one of those people? Where is the benefit for me? Why should I participate?

Now, what if you were told that if you DID'T go to the AA meeting every week and were not a true believer in Dr. Bob and Bill Wilson that you would be murdered in a coming apocalypse, be relegated to a second-class citizen in a next life, or worse, be thrown bodily into a lake of molten magma? All of which was a bunch of lies and hooey. Yeah, but...it kept some people sober, even if not me, so, I guess it's not ALL bad. Yeah, but you couldn't make much of a case that such a "self-help" group was much good either.

That's what Armstrongism was to me. A 12-step group with meetings every week, but with all those lies and scaremongering as a psychological control technique to keep your fears and imagination working overtime so you'll keep coming back and keep feeding cash into their pockets. BUT...even though it only harmed me and did me no good whatsoever, still, I guess it's not ALL bad. Even though it run by a child-molesting con man who used lies and deceit to financially bilk a hundred thousand people, including me, at one point, out of hundreds of millions of dollars per year, still, it's not ALL bad. Yeah, but you can't make a case that it had a net beneficial effect on the average person. It's possible to spin even the darkest cloud into a vehicle for a silver lining. This is just an attempt to sweep egregious and unnecessary downsides under the rug.

Whether it's ALL bad or not isn't the question. Is it good? NO! Is it bad? Heck yeah! Whatever you got from Armstrongist cults you could have gotten elsewhere, with fewer downsides, fewer lies, and for a lot cheaper. As for me, there really wasn't even an upside.

Byker Bob said...

It's not the end of the world because one person got something from Armstrongism that, yeah, was available elsewhere. Armstrongism was the vehicle by which I avoided the 'Nam. As John Lennon sang, "Whatever gets you through the night is alright, it's alright!" Let's be happy for a black brother who got at least one good thing for his trouble. He is totally correct when he says it wasn't all bad, and I respect the validity of his experience. Nothing is 100% good, and nothing is 100% bad. Good and bad often affect different people in totally different ways.

BB

Anonymous said...

the fact of the matter is that if you apply the Commandments of God literally then they work, and no amount of explaining and reasoning away, or subtle personal insult can change this;

true, mr. armstrong and the wwcg was a less than palatable means by which the VALIDITY of God's Law was delivered to my family and the family of my father's brother, but i held my nose and took the word of God for face value, despite this.

i ignored the hypocrisy, bigotry and self righteousness and instead focused on the Word of God...thas just life...

Unknown said...

Stop being a cry baby. David C. Pack and Mr Armstrong are correct on everything you will find out soon

Don and Ange said...

We were trying to google PCG to find out history on the founder of our organization and stumbled across your blog. Our cult was called New Testament Christian Churches of America, INC. and it's Founder, R.W. Davis came out of the branches of PCG Churches. His name was R.W. Davis and he kicked the bucket in March of 2015. He claimed to have left because the PCG's were compromising holiness standards, but he actually had a history of adulterous affairs and folks that knew him back in the 60's shared that he was a serial adulterer.

Reading about your former cult and ours, there are many similarities. The NTCC was basically a bastard child of the Pentecostal Church of God. Our former cult is a family owned business that fleeces the flock by preaching tithe or hell doctrine to the brainwashed masses. They also invoke the holiness or hell doctrine to place strict measures of control on it's cult members. They specialize in double standards which require the church schlubs to live strict, 'wholesome' lives while the royal families live high on the hog, in mansions, and driving luxury and sports cars while breaking many of their own rules. They are basically modern day Pharisees. Everything revolves around money which is hoarded by a very few overseers and executive board members. The NTCC has a history of child abuse, child molestation, child rape, rape, murder, triple murder suicide, and the list goes on. 90% of the congregation live way below the poverty line while they empty their wallets and bank accounts into the offering plates thinking that their sacrifices will bring the blessings of God down from heaven, but those blessings never seem to materialize. Looking at this blogpost reminds us of a blog post that we did called, "You just might be in a cult". It's amazing how many people have been hoodwinked by false prophets and hucksters.