Just before the annual Church of God Festival that portrays the millennial peace that the world will be dwelling in, UCG and COGWA went to battle over stolen cattle.
Victor Kubic started it off on October 5, when he announced that cattle that his organization had given to UCG brethren in Zambia had been rustled in September by "former friends and acquaintances" of the "victim-farmers." That was double speak that Church of God a Worldwide Association members were stealing UCG cattle.
The unhappy report that we received and verified related that these cattle were forcibly taken away by former friends or acquaintances of these victim-farmers. These former friends now belong to a Church of God fellowship largely comprised of former members and former ministers of the UCG. It is also our understanding from this report that the leader(s) of that fellowship refuse to intervene to stop the theft of these cattle by their members, nor have they condemned the actions that their members are taking.
More can be found here: Zambia COG Members Stealing Cattle from UCG Members
Then Church of God a Worldwide Association swiftly hit back with a broadside calling Victor a liar.
It is disappointing that I am being drawn away from necessary preparation for the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles to respond to the public message which you have disseminated on the Internet and among God’s people. Based on the level of upset and division you are causing within the Body of Christ, you leave me with little choice but to personally respond to your false claims and set the record straight. This is an open letter, and it may be shared with others. While I would normally try to avoid a public response to false allegations such as these, it is necessary to give an answer to your outrageous charges.
The entire letter can be read here: Zambia COGWA Calls Out Kubic For False Allegations
Then the COGWA minister kind of went AWOL and no communication happened with him. (He was probably at the Feast) The Zambia UCG members went to the police and finally got them to act. The Police ordered some of the cows to be returned.
Kubic had the following up on his site about this:
Updated October 10, 2011
GREAT NEWS!! In one of the areas where the cattle given by LifeNets "Pass on the Gift" program was taken, the police ordered that four head of cattle be returned to owners immediately without conditions. We have not heard yet from the other area which is some distance away. We are appalled by the false stories circulating minimizing the huge consequences on poor people. We are leaving for the Fall Festival in Estonia in a few moments, but wanted to get this update to you. After the Festival, we will have written reports exact detailing all that happened. We thank you for your prayers and are thankful for the redemption.
Updated October 14, 2011
Police have ordered that ALL LifeNets cattle that were stolen must be returned. We are just going to wait until after the FOT for the matter to be resolved. Thank you for your prayers to protect our beneficiaries' livelihoods!
Cattle rustling timeline on Kubic's site: Rustling of Members' Cattle in Zambia
I guess none of us should be surprised at this normal behavior between COG groups. There has been bitterness and acrimonious behavior between all COG's as they have split and split and split over the last 70 some years. There are well over 600 some splinter groups from the original mother church, "The Radio Church of God." None have ever worked together in harmony or made any attempt to. Each considers itself to be "the one true church." and all others are imposter's and heretics. HWA got that bad behavior ball rolling when he started arguing with COG7Day. With labels like, "they are Sardis," "they are blinded to the truth," "they have turned their back on the truth," etc, the present COG has followed suit and have thrown that wedge up between themselves and others.
Armstrongism has made it standard practice to mock Christianity for it's many different churches, yet Armstrongism is just as fractured and probably WORSE than mainstream Christianity. At least a broad majority of Christian churches work together in all kinds of ways. They may not believe the same in different minor areas, but will still work together as brothers and sisters towards a common goal. But not so in Armstrongism. Accusations fly, bitterness rules the day. Families are destroyed, marriages broken and friendships destroyed. Even the right-wing evangelicals hatred of liberals pales in comparison with the Armstrongite acrimony that exists.
With that sad legacy that stains Armstrongism it is no wonder that people are leaving all the splinter groups. Church attendance is dropping in all COG's. Flurry's group is down 4,000 from last years Feast. LCG's is down from last year. UCG is dramatically down due to the split.
Armstrongism has no future. It's various cult leaders are aging out and will be dying off. The youth are leaving in droves. That is certainly some legacy to leave behind.
19 comments:
Holy Cow!
Gird up the beef of your loins
COG's always have some kind of "beef" with each other.
M.T.Stalls
Ah yes, the Church of Brotherly love in action once again. How disgusting! I am so glad I am no longer a part of the COG.
Being a light and an example to the world...NOT!
One of those moron "ministers" will eventually come up with the idea to cut the cows in half, then the one who really loves them will speak up, "Oh no! Let the other one have them. I don't want to see them cut in half!". Then, the "righteous minister" will know who to give them to, and they'll all go to McDonalds for lunch. Bullshit!
"Brothers" not going to court?
Allow yourselves to be defrauded, rather than get entangled in the world?
Come out of Babylon, my people?
Agree quickly with your adversary?
A soft answer turns away wrath?
If you are having problems with all of this, you are not alone, moooooove over.
This might be a disturbing picture, but you can complain until the cows come home and nothing will change.
Don't have a cow, man!
The Lord truly moooves in mysterious ways.
Maybe Malm can provide the Udder Truth on the matter.
Norm
Why don't cows(COG members)have any money?
Ans: Because farmers(ministers)milk them dry.
I wonder how Armstrong Maninga(one of the Zambians who had cattle stolen by dissident COG sect members) got his name.
Other questions arise, too.
Will Little Joe(perhaps with Hoss and Adam) hoof it over there to put a stop to the cattle rustling?
Is HWA, in his 'soul sleep' dreaming of the song, "Keep movin', movin', movin',
Though they're disapprovin',
Keep them doggies movin' Rawhide!
Don't try to understand 'em,
Just rope and throw and grab 'em, Raw-Tithes!"
You might think the where at whats of this case might install a more level headed approach by those in charge over here. But pettiness and infighting have no bounds in the Armstrongites. They will argue over cows in undeveloped countries as easily as about buildings and parking spots in this country.
Would anyone here care to argue that if the ACoGs actually go to their "Place of Safety", that it would be anything but a Death Camp?
If I was a COG member and received word to flee to Petra I would have second thoughts. Can you imagine the scene at that narrow entrance gate as the Flurryites, Meredithites, Packites, Coxites, Weinerites, and UCG are all fighting to get in. The day would end in killings as each group fights to see who is in control and who's leader gets to stay outside in the Marriott. No thanks! Let the bigots and legalistic hate mongers that make up these organizations have it to themselves.
NO2HWA, I know that the Great Tribulation is supposed to be great misery, but to tell you the truth, I would be hard pressed indeed to even consider to spend 3.5 years with the Armstrongists in the Place of Safety (even if it were real, which it is not) and might certainly consider taking my chances with the Great Tribulation.
And yes, it would be a choice about which existence would be more godly.
Can you imagine the people with special needs: Medicines for diabetes, APAP for Sleep Apnea, even people having need for continuing medication for severe mental disease like schizoaffective disorder, people needing to be treated for all sorts of chronic diseases without which they would die?
I would suppose that they would be told that they would just need to have faith and be anointed to be healed or else they can just be left in the desert to die amongst the scorpions and poisonous snakes for the good of the whole (a few have to make sacrifices!) while the righteous live it up in luxury (more like Israelites in the wilderness complaining).
Could they murder one another?
Of course, we have the example of Jim Jones and David Koresh to give us pause. It's a wonder that hardly any such camps have sprung up yet -- you have to admire the restraint while times are still halfway decent. Imagine when times get tough: It could end up almost Biblical.
Douglas: You forget that as the people will enter Petra that all illness and special needs will be healed immediately so that the future universe rulers can be trained properly.
A cloud will cover Petra to keep the bombers away, food will miraculously appear and water will spring forth from the deep to keep everyone clean and fresh.
Just think, no more contact solution, heart medicine, glasses, pills, supplements, hearing aides, batteries, etc will no longer be needed.
Divisions and acrimony will cease and everyone will be living in La La land as they hug and kiss.
No more pagan Jesus lovers talking about grace and love. No more filthy heathen Sunday worshipers. No more satanic Halloween, Christmas and Easter. No more birthdays. No more pagan Thanksgiving.
Doesn't it all sound wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NO2HWA, this has all been tried before at Port Austin.
There is no particularly good reason ever demonstrated that any Place of Safety scenario would ever end any other way than badly.
The instant healing and provisioning is rejected out of hand because none of the ACoGs really has the faith and manipulating people's perceptions won't be powerful enough to overcome people's sense of survival.
What is so laughable about all of this is that even participating in programs such as LifeNet is vintage Kubik! Who else, in any of the ACOGs would ever think of getting involved with compassionate "worldly" programs such as this, or Habitat for America, or even poor old AA?
Supposedly, COGaWA came out of UCG because UCG had become too worldly, and now COGaWA wants to keep the cows from a "worldly" program! Typical!
BB
I think the cows should be placed between Armstrong Maninga and Vic Kubic.
Let the two of them call out to the cows, and see who the cows go to.
The cows' response should make it clear where the cows belong.
However, if the cows start humping one of them, the results may be iffy.
Norm
It would be a mistake to underestimate the CoGWA. This particular issue has not seen the end of the story yet.
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