David Hurd's Psalm 51
It's not about giving up chocolate, sweets, meat, dropping a dollar in the swear jar, or other things. It's about being authentic to yourself and to God, while you get off your rear end and make a difference in the world around you.
Growing up in Armstrongism I listened to endless sermons by ministers and evangelists mocking and deriding those that kept this day as insincere and a total waste of time. Meredith came up with some of the most absurd and inaccurate comments that anyone could dream up. Actually what he said was and still is, a blatant lie!
Seeing the wide eyes of little kids kneeling in front of you with tears in their eyes, or huge smiles as they experience something that only a child can through untarnished minds. They look into your eyes with a look of awe. And then they turn to their parents and look them in their eyes with a deep connection only a parent can ever see. Probably like the kind of look we should be having with God. Totally free with no baggage. Oh, to be a child again!
I saw a blind young man tonight who is wheelchair bound with a body that is wracked by cerebral palsy, rhythmically moving in slow motion due to the muscles in his body twisting and writhing about, sit there with tears streaming down his cheeks as he attempts to stop his body from moving when the ashes are placed on his forehead, clearly and distinctly saying 'amen' afterwords. He does the same thing when the Eucharist is brought to him. His body stops moving as he takes the wafer in his distorted hands and places it in his mouth and sips the wine. He understands something that I probably never will. Something deeper and more meaningful than any HWA sermon, booklet or book ever did. Something deeper about the mystery that surrounds us, the mystery of the unknown yet knowable, the grain of the universe that calls to us into something we cannot fathom, something so foreign to us that we let it slip past us the minute we walk out the doors of the church into the real world.
I saw people in attendance tonight that I know are agnostic and a couple of atheists who have no idea what or who God is. Yet, they admit something draws them back, week after week. Something they cannot understand but want to be a part of. They are involved in feeding the homeless, knitting prayer shawls for the sick and dying, caring for those with AIDS, working in hospice or visiting the sick and homebound. They too have the opportunity to delve into something deeper and more mysterious with new ways of looking and understanding that I can never have. It is a delight to be around them
I am grateful for my journey out of Armstrongism. I regret many opportunities lost because of its aberrant, absurd, and irrelevant teachings, yet there was a lot I treasure. How I came out halfway sane is a miracle! :-) I am grateful for Gavin's web sites and blogs over the years and for Dennis's unwavering self examination and willingness to question without apology. What a ride it has been and continues to be!
Gary, 2011
Addendum 2025
Who would have imagined I would still be serving at an Ash Wednesday service as I did at noon today so many years later. In fact, this is now year 25 doing this.
I was reminded of the original post that I did in 2011 (above) after reading Bob Thiel's sophomoric understanding of Ash Wednesday and Lent that he posted the other day. His thinking was inherented from equally sophomoric men from the Worldwide Church of God and Ambassador College.
This explanation that I saw on X today establishes the Christian thought behind the season of Lent.
Lent was never meant to be easy. It was meant to break you.
For centuries, Lent has been seen as a time of mild sacrifice—giving up chocolate, social media, or coffee.
But the truth? The origins of Lent are far more brutal, far more raw. It wasn’t about self-improvement. It was about spiritual survival.
In the earliest days of Christianity, when faith was a crime punishable by death, Lent was a preparation for war.
It was a time of fasting so intense that bodies weakened, a period of prayer so fervent that the line between heaven and earth seemed to blur.
Those who took part weren’t just giving up luxuries—they were stripping themselves down to nothing, purging everything but faith, because they knew what was coming.
Baptism on Easter was not a ceremony. It was an initiation into a life that could lead to the arena, the stake, or the sword.
The forty days of Lent mirror Christ’s own forty days in the wilderness, where He faced the devil as a starving, vulnerable man.
And yet, He endured. That’s what Lent was always meant to be: a confrontation with the darkest parts of ourselves. A reckoning. A test.
But over time, the world softened it. It became a season of small sacrifices rather than total surrender.
We made it comfortable.
Yet true Lent, real Lent, was always meant to cut deep. To leave scars. To change you.
So, the question isn’t what will you give up?
A couple of todays readings:
A reading from Joel (2:1–2, 12–17)
Blow the shofar in Zion! Sound the alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the people of the land tremble! For the Day of our God is coming — it is near — a day of bleakness and gloom, a day of fog and dense clouds. A vast and countless horde appears like soot spread over the hills; it is like something never known before, nor will be seen in ages to come. “But know this,” says our God: “Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping and mourning. Tear open your heart, not your clothes!” Return to your God who is gracious and deeply loving as a mother quick to forgive, abundantly tenderhearted — and relents from inflicting disaster. Who knows? God may come back, relent, and leave a blessing behind — grain and drink offerings for your God. Sound the shofar in Zion! Order a fast! Proclaim a solemn assembly! Gather the people! Purify the community! Assemble the elders! Gather the children — even infants at the breast! Let the bridegroom leave his bedroom and the bride her canopied bed! Let the priests, the ministers of God, stand weeping between the portico and the altar and say, “Spare your people, O God! Do not let your heritage become an object of ridicule, a byword for the Nations! Do not let the peoples say, ‘Where is their god?’”
A reading from Isaiah (58:1–12)
“Shout for all you are worth, raise your voice like a trumpet! Proclaim to the people their faults; tell the house of Leah and Rachel and Jacob their sins! They seek me daily, they long to know my ways, like a nation that wants to act with integrity and not ignore the law of its God. They ask me for laws that are just, they long for God to draw near. Yet they say, ‘Why should we fast if you never see it? Why do penance if you never notice?’ Because when you fast it is business as usual, and you oppress all your workers! Because when you fast, you quarrel and fight and strike the poor with your fist! Fasting like yours today will never make your voice heard on high! Is that the sort of fast that pleases me — a day when people humiliate themselves, hanging their heads like a reed, lying down on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call fasting, a day acceptable to God? On the contrary! This is the sort of fast that pleases me: Remove the chains of injustice! Undo the ropes of the yoke! Let those who are oppressed go free, and break every yoke you encounter! Share your bread with those who are hungry, and shelter homeless poor people! Clothe those who are naked, and do not hide from the needs of your own flesh and blood! Do this, and your light will shine like the dawn — and your healing will break forth like lightening! Your integrity will go before you, and the glory of God will be your rearguard. Cry, and God will answer; call and God will say ‘I am here—provided you remove from your midst all oppression, finger-pointing, and malicious talk! If you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your shadows will become like noon. God will always guide you, giving relief in desert places. God will give you strength to your bones and you will be like a watered garden, like a spring of water whose waters never run dry. You will rebuild the ancient ruins and build upon age-old foundations. You will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, and Restorer of Ruined Neighborhoods.’”
37 comments:
It has been over 40 years since I renounced Catholicism, but listening to the music brings back a special nostalgia. Always loved listening to the music of the monasteries and church.
I was a Lutheran attending a Catholic Parochial school from the age of five through the eleventh grade.
Can you imagine the frustration of being forced to bow down and kneel before idols in the chapel, when you knew it was wrong? Can you imagine the frustration of knowing that the whole venue was wrong, but forced to remain silent?
To me, making an ash of yourself is just another part of a pagan mystery religion, no matter what anyone feels about it.
We still need to examine whether the RCC is even a force for good or not.
http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/2011/03/is-catholic-church-force-for-good-by.html
RCC a force for good?
These days it doesn't seem to be a force for anything at all.
Well, on the other hand, just last night there was a report on the national news of another priest and... at least it is a force to drive some news reports.
Douglas, check out the link above.
Stephen Fry makes a very compelling argument that the RCC is NOT a force for good, even after one dismisses their atrocities of the past.
I'm not a Catholic, never said I was. I guess there is too much baggage left from the filth that Armstrongism taught.
But, I will say this. The Catholics I know are far better Christians than the vast majority of COGers I grew up with and worked with. Instead of sitting on their butts saying, "God has a better plan for them in the end. They are unconverted now so they will get another chance later on" they are out feeding the homeless, taking care of the sick and elderly, doing hospice, palliative care, helping alcoholics and addicts reconstruct their lives, and the list could go on and on.
Call me what you want. I don't care.
NO2HWA:
When I was in high school, I had a 30-hr. week part-time job working in the rectory at the Catholic high school I attended.
There were 4 priests. One was a cross-dresser who also frequented the X-rated theater down the street once a week, which he said he did to better counsel married couples; one had a serious drinking problem; one was having an illicit affair with the principal (a nun) at the elementary school; but the 4th was a very decent guy.
It doesn't matter whether they are ministers in the WCG or Catholic church. It's really all the same. Except there are probably far more pedophiles in the RCC than in the WCG.
I can't denigrate the sincerity of most catholic people, but that church is evil personified and no amount of good deeds by the rank and file or an occasional priest can change that. Of course, so are the protestant churches. Militant ignorance is militant ignorance, no matter how you slice it. I look forward to the end of deception and ignorance, but I won't hold my breath for it.
Catholic schools, hospitals, charity, and hospice? No problem.
While we are at it, we need to examine whether the Muslim Imams in our country preaching in post 911 mosques hatred of the US, Muslim schools radicalizing youth here to hate American "infidels" are a force for good or not.
I found this a little difficult to understand. First Gary seems to professes a Christian walk and he winds up by thanking Rumney and Diehl. Yet Rumney turned his blog concerning the WCG into a salon for atheists and Dennis Diehl has never been able to understand that his WCG experience, as a privileged minister, is radically different from that of a laymember. There is a disconnect here.
-- Neotherm
Ignorance is CoG person who thinks he knows the Bible. The truth is if you follow any of Herbert's teaching then you are off track. Truth be told, Catholics are closer to the truth than any Armstrongite.
"We still need to examine whether the RCC is even a force for good or not."
By hearing only ONE side of a "debate"?
Stephen Fry, your loudmouth lobbyist for the atheist, militant homosexual lobby against the Church.
Now, that's a force for good, Baywolfe.
Any religion who has their people bow down before idols can't be all bad. It works well for Buddhists who happily and cheerfully admit that they bow down to idols -- in fact they are proud of it and gives them great satisfaction and peace.
Think how much happier Roman Catholics would be if they would just cheerfully admit to their idolatry instead of trying to defend it by claiming they don't do it -- it's so counterintuitive and the freedom to be lawless would be so empowering.
Jeez.. Leave it to some to take Gary's point that he was moved and grateful for his journey and encouraging those in his care, and turn it into a food fight over what is the right way to be or how stupid those who be what they be really are.
Nice going.
How about a little attitude about your own gratitude?
Gary, I've been attending an Episcopal Church for two years now. Regularly for the last year.
This past Wednesday was my first Ash Wednesday. As a participant in the pilgrim's in Christ program I was honored to apply ashes as well.
I'm still in the process of working through a lot of my old WCG issues. So I couldn't help but draw comparisons between Passover in the old WCG and this service.
I ended up sending an email to the priest thanking him for his message that night which was an additional help in seeing that my present reality is not the same as my past.
Yeah well......Perhaps you could help me cover up Pavarotti's "Cathedral props" in the Auditorium for his "Manon recital."
nck
" Thumbs up."
I so can relate 7:35! I grew up in an Italian Catholic household and I went to a state primary school where I met my best friend who was Baptist and would share with me his collection of Chick tracts and comics as well other books on Christianity. From all of these I learned of the cons of the Catholic church and its history. Suffice to say growing up as a teen I was uncomfortable about the church and its unscriptural teachings and traditions to the point I didn’t want to be Catholic anymore. It was tough especially since I wanted as a child to be a priest and all my childhood friends knew it and some even called me “Father” or “Pope” for fun despite my attempts to tell them to stop calling me such especially later on when I no longer wanted to be Catholic. I also grew to dislike the empty rituals—even though I know others like my cousins actually found it comforting. Anyway now I believe it’s an apostate church or cult among a whole army of apostate churches and cults that have existed since the first century that have deceived and doomed countless to despair and death. I can only cry and sigh for God’s Kingdom to come and that right soon.
a pagan mystery religion >>
indeed it is the case sadly how fake apostle had us all well trained and bonds can't be broken.
It’s a good practice. The cogs at this time say to examine yourselves. This is a call to examine and make changes. To do and help others. Cogs could take some lessons from this.
Lent is pagan.
Few of the Catholics I know do any good deeds. Some of them are even in the army killing people.
Watching nothing in particular on Tv the other night and switched over to Fox News in a moment of inspiration lol.
And came across a few presenters with dark crosses painted on their foreheads, including Marco Rubio. It wasn’t till now and thanks to this post I now know why. Had heard of Ash Wednesday but was unfamiliar with it and its practices. Interestingly no one on CNN and MSNBC had said cross painted on their faces, neither did Democrat Elizabeth Warren.
Anon @ 8:38:14 AM PST,
‘Few of the Catholics I know do any good deeds. And some of them are in the army killing people’. Perhaps one of the most bizarre comments posted here.
I could elaborate but my head is spinning at the moment. When I stop laughing, and I spilled me beer sadly, I might put up a ‘serious’ reply to the above. But what I will say is, this is a classic Armstrongism comment, at its very best lol.
Typically, I'm not a big fan of "religion" in general or the CC in particular. Some of that could be due to my COG experience. However, I have discovered on YouTube a very interesting and well produced Catholic podcast I highly recommend, "The Council of Trent", presented by Trent Horn.
He covers everything, politics, culture, economics, religion of course, he debates atheists, and he doesn't whitewash the Pope or CC!
Tune him in. You may be surprised how much the CC and ACOG'S actually have in common.
And um , just what good deeds to the Armstrong cults do? What a joke of a comment. As to the 'killing people' allegation this is non sensical and something fitting for a Armstrongist or Jehovah Witness.
Concerning the comments labelling Lent as pagan>
; Matthew 4:1–11
; Luke 4:1–13
). Mark tells us that Jesus was tempted by Satan, but it is in Matthew and Luke that the details of the temptation are fleshed out. All three accounts say that Jesus went without food for the 40 days.
This is a meaningless and typical Armstrong approach. Designed to demean and intimidate people.
Lent today is observed by many Christians because it is connected with the 40-day fast that Jesus undergoes (Mark 1:13
To drag out some alleged ancient pagan practice is meaningless given the Christ centred nature of the Lent period. It portrays the ignorance behind the statement. Like the argument of Armstrongists /Jehovah Witnesses that the cross is pagan.
.The transactional or conditional love aspect of Armstrongism had left me with a total void in all matters family. Very negative. When I left in 1975, I really had no concept of the love exhibited in a real family, nor had I been gifted with a good sense of ethics. And, then a funny thing happened. I went to work in a small, family-owned business. These folks didn't just hire employees, they practically adopted those who worked for them. Their religious faith? Catholic! As it began, I had many reservations remaining about Catholics. But I needed the gig, and they seemed to like me. Once hired, my son and girlfriend and I were invited to all their family activities, including birthday parties, weddings, cook outs! I got to witness the genuine love with which the kids were treated, and how they not only loved their parents, but actually enjoyed being around them. There was guidance, as the males, including sons in law and some of their buddies from high school who were working for the company, were mentored to by the dad, and sent to classes geared to improving their skills. It was amazing! When any of the kids were getting married, the parents sent them to Catholic marriage encounter weekend. They were never overpowering with their beliefs with the rest of us, but living their values was an outstanding example for all of us.
Some of these examples did not really sink in at the time I was experiencing them, but they were memorable later on as I was navigating some of the rough patches of life. It saddened me in retrospect how we had been conditioned to pretty much write off Catholics, because what HWA and the ministers had told us was not at all what I had seen during my time with that family. I was very happy about 15-20 years ago to finally learn that the Catholics were not the demon spawn of Simon Magus, but rather descended from Paul's gentile churches, who lived under Noahide law and kept Sunday in memorial of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The HWAcaca certainly poisoned us against any number of very sincere people, people who attempted to live the best life possible, often in more exemplary fashion than did we ourselves! Unfortunately, a cult blinds one to reality by pre-instilling doubts and prejudices against anyone who is not a member. In other words, anyone who could provide a valid or useful second opinion. That's what control and conditional love are all about. They immunize us against the truth.
BB
"Few of the Catholics I know do any good deeds. Some of them are even in the army killing people."
Good grief! This has to be the dumbest thing I've read here lately.
A good history you recall. People living by Christian values had a lasting impact on you. The Armstrong system excelled in the art of poisoning people against all other churches, in their false endeavor to claim they were the only true church. How completely different from the truth that turns out to be. Cheers
Reading all this comments, I can tell none are related to staunch Catholics.
Oh, 11:26, we did have staunch Catholics in my family. Italians. The problem is, back in the '50s and '60s, Herbie had us distance ourselves from "unconverted" relatives. Where do you think Flurry got his ideas on who church members should be permitted to associate with??? Bottom line is, we really didn't get to know our relatives closely,, so all we "knew" about Catholics was what the ministers taught us during Sabbath services. You know, "whore of Babylon"? I learned early on not to ask kids at school too much about their religions. One of my friends had asked for my help in studying his Catechism, and I made the horrible mistake of sharing that info with my Mom. Oddly enough, he was learning about the Holy Trinity, which is quite the popular topic around here.
I did occasionally attend mass during the years in which I was married into a Latino family. My advice to anyone searching for a church is to cast a broad net, and don't allow anyone to set rules for you about how to find the true church. Use your own mind, and figure that out for yourself, because the people who want to set such rules always stack the deck so that only their church can meet the standards. It's entrapment.
BB
5:19 here…I forgot to add that it was in my last two years of school that my legal studies teacher asked if any if us were Catholic and I raised my hand. But he obviously sensed something in my response as I vaguely recall he then asked me a couple of questions and then described me as “non-practicing Catholic.” Was the first time I ever heard that phrase but I smiled at him and thought to myself that’s what I will go with from now on…until I officially left the CC some years later.
I really do not like rituals. They become meaningless and boring eventually, some sooner than others. The Bible even teaches us about vain repetition. Catholicism has many of them.
Also, I learned in the WCG environment, you don't really want to attract the attention of the ministers, which is really difficult because you end up attracting their attention by trying not to. This is especially true when you are in a relatively small congregation. Pasadena was so big that it was pretty easy to fly below the radar. In Catholicism, the system forces you to interact with the clergy regularly through confession, and communion. Interestingly enough, the devout ones saw that as a positive or advantage. I was told by a Catholic friend that he did not trust those who practiced the Jewish religion because they only had to go to confession once a year! (his terminology, but that was his reality).
I may be wrong on this, and I've heard that there is high Episcopalian and low Episcopalian, but there's a general impression floating around out there that Episcopalians are "dishwater" Catholics (again, someone else's terminology).
There are also those who believe that amongst religions most similar to the Catholics, the Eastern Orthodox Church is truer to the identity and traditions of Paul's gentile churches.
I'm enjoying this discussion. It's not often that we get into detailed discussions about other Christian denominations. WCG figuratively filed them in their junk folder, yet it's quite obvious that all of them, if practiced as taught and intended, do have some merit.
BB
BB: Some Episcopalians like to call themselves "Catholic lite." The difference is there is no recognition of the Pope as the final word. Many times, they do not even recognize the directives of the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. His directives are seen as mere suggestions.
There are a lot of "recovering Catholics" in the Episcopal church. They left over the abuse scandals and the treatment of women.
The Catholic churches here in Pasadena tend to trend to the more liberal side of things and are quite progressive at times. They all have huge congregations and each one has a large school on the grounds that are filled with non-catholic and Catholic kids.
Churches are everywhere in Pasadena. The largest is Lake Avenue with over 10,000 members and seats 4,300. The Nazarene church in East Pasadena seats 2,300.
Regarding confession, Episcopalians believe "“All may; some should; none must.”
Gary, back in the 1980s, there was a small trend in the Catholic Church in which priests were leaving the priesthood for different reasons, some to get married. I don't know what cosmic accident caused this, but I knew two of them somewhat well. One moved into the apartment building in which my wife and I lived. He was having a rough time. His wife was pregnant, and they had lost their first child through miscarriage. You can just imagine the paranoia they must have been experiencing over every little hiccup in this latest pregnancy. He did not lose his faith, as they had become Episcopalians, and he had started anew, was in the Episcopalian priesthood and was also leading a support group actually assisting other former Catholic priests in adjusting, and in working through the incredible issues that they all faced. He and I had a number of conversations, as I somewhat understood what he was going through based on my experiences with Armstrongism. Obviously, his experiences and my experiences were different, but in many ways they were the same in that we both experienced crises in faith, and were seeking fresh answers. My wife and son and I moved into a little house shortly thereafter, and I lost touch with the people from the apartments, but hope that everything worked out well for the man and his wife.
The second former priest I met came to work with us at the company owned by the Catholic family I mentioned in my comment above. Just to show you what good people they were, they realized what this man must be going through, knew he needed an opportunity, and hired him. By the time he came to work with us, he had gone through L.A.Trade tech, and had worked at Leach Printing Equipment in L. A., which was then one of the majors in our industry. He was not a natural with machinery, but we all worked with him, sharing our insights, and he really applied himself. Several years after I had moved on to another opportunity, I was told that he had become quite an expert technician. I can't imagine what it must have been like for him, coming down from the experiences of conducting mass, hearing confessions, counselling his parishioners for marriage and literally becoming "one of the guys" at a company selling and servicing machinery, but he did have a very successful second career, and worked for my fine Catholic friends until he retired.
I don't feel that as WCG members, most of us realized the depths of other peoples' experiences, their sincerity, and frequently the level of their compassion for fellow man. I remember so many lectures and sermons while I was in Pasadena, which touched on other believers in such negative ways. To us at the time, these people were just ones whom God was going to use the Germans to punish. We reduced them to that status, when if we had gotten to know them better, we would have realized that everyone struggles, and most people make a sincere effort to do the best they can, live amongst their loved ones, and to put food on the table. I've learned so very much from the "outsiders" who helped myself and others along the way, people that my former church had written off and blinded me towards. Of all people, based on our former indoctrination, the last people from whom I would have expected good were the Catholics. And yet, here we are.
BB
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