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.
7 comments:
New and Improved! Again!
One of the Feast sites with a fair number of attendees (over 150) at a posh resort with high prices, have taken to speaking about avoiding "Church Corporate" as an improvement because so many have been "harmed" by it.
Between services, people are talking about false prophets, like Gerald Waterhouse. There have been other sorts of snide remarks.
But no real divisions, since there is peace in the church at the Feast.
And from the pulpit, the ministers keep saying "Mr. Armstrong said...".
"And from the pulpit, the ministers keep saying 'Mr. Armstrong said...',"
If we could turn time back to about the fourth century, what "Mr. Armstrong said" could soon be weaseled into the cannon and the people of today would fall for it enmasse, just like those credulous dumkopfs at that feast.
Ah, yes, there was one statement Herb liked to use that was dead on. When he referred to the membership as "dumb sheep."
Groan. We were. We were.
Sadly, some still are.
I wondered where Carlton Smith had hung his hat. I got his phone number from Bryce Clark and tried to call several times. He evidently screens his calls and he never picked up the phone.
I worked under him as an assistant in New York City and wanted to just make a friendly call. I guess he's aware of where I stand today and doesn't want to dirty his righteous hands by communicating with me. I see he hasn't changed a bit.
Ah, Calton Smith. Tell me Dexter, was he some kind of depressive? Every Feast we heard about people coming up in the Second Resurrection and having to have bathrooms for them.
I had one very unpleasant experience with him just before a Bible Study. He was having a tape recording played of some jack booted Nazis and in setting up the player, I asked him what speed it was supposed to play at: 3 1/2 inches per second or 7 inches per second on the reel to reel. He looked at me as if I had two heads and I went with the slower speed. You can imagine what happened. He called me stupid in front of everybody there and I got the correct setting to lay it OK and he gave the credit to someone else he counted as being smarter.
Then there was the story during the Days of Unleavened Bread where he was taking a group of ministers out to breakfast in his car and drove to a pancake house!
It's been hard for me to imagine how I could have a lower opinion about him until it was disclosed he's in the GCI.
Just the sort of Immortal all-powerful god Guard you would want over you in the millennium. Can you not imagine the level of misery that would be without even reading "The Lucifer Effect" about the 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment, or, if you prefer, the Church of God Pasadena Ambassador College Prison Experiment.
Doug, I don't know how to categorize Carlton psychologically. We were all goose stepping fanatics back then and he was totally dedicated. Used to brutally spank his little girl in front of the whole congregation.
We were so deluded and fanatical that all of us had lost the ability to think straight, just like a bunch of storm troopers, and that lasted for me for many years. This was in 1960-61.
I see he hasn't wised up at all.
Yes, my mom learned to beat us kids from Mr. Smith's tutelage. She would brag how she used 3 fingers to whop the thigh of my 3 week old sister when she cried in the middle of the night. Trust me, she has been one huge mass of insecurities most of her life and didn't really know why, but then, she really DID know why. Sure surprized he is still kicking, isn't he about 90?
No, Carlton would be in his late seventies. I think he's about my age or a year or two older. He came to college before me, but I didn't go until I was 21. He may have started at an earlier age.
I stood up and officiated a wedding yesterday and cleaned several hundred feet of carpet today. So, I'm not surprised he can still preach.
Post a Comment