It is that time of year again when families in the COG travel all over the world for family reunions at different Festival sites. New friends are made and old acquaintances rekindled. That is of course unless you are part of these two COG splinter groups who carry on with their same old exclusivity on determining who is in and who is out.
The first is from Dennis in a comment on another thread concerning Living Church of God's treatment of people:
Just
sharing a current FOT family experience:
Sister, whose husband now deceased, was full time WCG minister, and
nephew were going to spend half a feast this year with LCG in
Cobbleskill NY. My nephew, formerly of UCG was sent a message that he
could not attend until he talked to the Minister in charge of the site
Mr.______ _______.
Sooooo he and my widowed COG sister decided to screw it and go see
family. Nice going LCG!!!
Go ye therefore.....
Ans this one is from a report by person who visited Glendora on their way up to another COG site here in CA. WCG?GCI has allowed for a regular Feast site to be held in Monrovia this year.
We stopped by to visit with some old friends before heading up to Monterrey for the COGWA Feast. We also wanted to see what WCG was up to these days. The WCG site had around 40-50 in attendance. I was shocked at how small the attendance was. As far as I know the WCG no longer even does the cruises because I could not find anything online about their sites this year. The Monrovia site is headed up by Carlton Smith. Most of the people in attendance believe the Feast still should be kept on the regular days.
Smith was railing against adulterers, gays, abortionists, fornicators and other types of people that obviously irritate him. The godless people are destroying this world. Smith also said that the Holy Spirit was present only for those people in the room. I guess all other COG members not there are without hope.
We had a sermon by the former Auditorium manager talking about pure religion and how a local industry made up of ex-gang members exemplifies that. Kind of weird considering how Smith thinks no one outside the COG has God working through them.
What I found disturbing was the same old exclusive attitude that has always permeated Armstrongism was still present in the "new and improved" WCG. It was "us vs them." Those that were in the know and those who were not. Those called of God and those who are not. Those in and those out. I would have thought WCG had progressed a little farther than this tired worn out mentality! That exclusivity that Herbert Armstrong taught still has not been eradicated. Both LCG and WCG have practiced this past week.
Why doesn't Smith to the right thing and take all 50 members out for a work day and serve in a homeless shelter during the Feast. That might actually be something considered Christian for once!
I am sure there are other horror stories from the groups. Lets see how many are reported.