With mounting negative publicity shining a bad light on UCG's "christian charity" it has hit back through Kubik with a letter regarding the Zambia Cattle fiasco.
November 18, 2011
In recent weeks, a number of people have weighed in concerning what they claimed happened or is happening regarding members of the United Church of God in Zambia. This includes one person who directly wrote to a family member of a former UCG COE member, copied to leadership of the Church of God, a Worldwide Association (COGWA), asking that an “open letter” be published on anti-United Church of God websites “and anywhere else it can find a home.”
As is evident by the now-published material, that request has been carried out, apparently with no one who received that request asking that it remain private for determination by the appropriate authorities. This “open letter” includes a distorted summary of events, as well as what can only be described as a completely fabricated story about an “apology” that simply never took place.
What is particularly sad and tragic is that, what started out as a legitimate prayer request for God to intervene and straighten matters out regarding the loss of cattle harming the livelihood of some UCG members, has now become a public campaign to bias the facts. While we were not interested in a war of words, this public misinformation requires a reply, lest silence be taken for agreement of the false information being broadly circulated.
What we would desire, and what we believe is the position of the United Church of God, would be that a spirit of civility be restored among those who were once dear friends working together, that property be restored in a spirit of honesty to whom they were intended and that all of this be done according to the will of God.
With this, we humbly renew the prayer request, asking that God positively and lovingly intervene and set these matters aright. Since this simple prayer request, which did not include any other factors in Zambia, has been inaccurately portrayed and escalated publicly by others, it is necessary that we provide the following summary of events so members can focus their prayers.
In early January 2011, our now former pastor along with some other members of the United Church of God in Zambia announced that they were no longer going to be affiliated with United Church of God, an International Association and, instead, became affiliated with Church of God, a Worldwide Association (COGWA). However, these people decided to claim a continuing control of the name United Church of God in Zambia (and with that control and ownership of its physical assets). Members in United Church of God in Zambia who desired to remain affiliated with United Church of God, an International Association also claimed that they have the right to the name and property of United Church of God in Zambia and dispute the right of this now COGWA affiliated group to that name or assets.
Last February, United’s former pastor in Zambia, who is now a pastor for COGWA in that country, wrote that they would not relinquish control of the UCG-Zambia name or its assets unless “proof” was produced that they were required to do so by simply claiming that they have the legal right to use the registered name of the United Church of God and declaring in writing that they “had never left this church,” they claim ownership. The fact that most members of United Church of God in Zambia continue to maintain that they remain, as before, affiliated with United Church of God, an International Association and desire continued use of the United name and its property does not matter to them.
There is no question that the property they are keeping was overwhelmingly the result of gifts of people still affiliated with United Church of God, IA. Yet they still refuse to walk away and build their own separate COGWA entity in Zambia. And to add insult to injury, when announcing their break with us last January, they stated that they “sincerely appreciate the financial support that the United Church of God, an International Association has provided in the past years.”
As a consequence, litigation was initiated about last summer by two United Church of God elders in Zambia to seek a ruling on those issues, which case is slowing proceeding in the Zambian courts. A judge has indicated that the issues involved are questions that appear to require adjudication in a trial to essentially determine which of the two groups is the “true” (from a legal standpoint) “United Church of God” in Zambia entitled to use of that name and ownership of its assets.
Similarly, at the same time last January, members of the breakaway COGWA group in Zambia who happened to be directors of the LifeNets (International) local Chapter in Zambia also announced the severance of their affiliation with its International sponsor, but retained the local Chapter name and its assets. They have rejected LifeNets (International) call on them to relinquish that name and assets to those seeking to maintain an affiliation with LifeNets (International).
Of course these former members are also well aware that Beverly Kubik, wife of Mr. Kubik, personally assisted in raising much of the funding that made possible the purchase of the property and erection of buildings and their furnishings for United Church of God activities in Zambia as well as projects (such as the Heifer gifting program) and other assets for LifeNets outreach in Zambia. Many photographs of the Kubiks’ trips to Zambia to help brethren have appeared in several publications. They demonstrate the direct engagement of the Kubiks in helping Zambia members.
Attempts were made to peacefully resolve the cattle taking issue privately but to no avail. Members who had their cattle taken were understandably upset and traumatized by these actions. Thus a worldwide prayer request was issued to ask for God’s direct intervention.
We call on COGWA and its affiliate in Zambia to honor its ethical promise of last January that “We will respect all property of our former affiliation (tangible, intangible and intellectual) and will promptly return all such items to the local congregational leaders of United Church of God (Hebrews 13:5). This can be done by returning:
1) The United Church of God property donated for our Zambian UCGIA affiliated members – a Festival site and youth camp, etc. – and LifeNets gifted property are returned to these rightful owners (those who remain affiliated with UCGIA and LifeNets (International), including vehicles and the $42,000 in the Zambian account that was to be used to finish the buildings on the property. This would honor all donors, and particularly the two UCG members who contributed the vast majority of funds (over $100,000) required to purchase the property and build the facility. It would help restore peace, honor God and give use of the facility to the majority of Zambian brethren who have chosen to remain affiliated with UCGIA and who, this year, were forced to pay for an alternate Feast site and youth camp elsewhere in Zambia.
2) The remaining cattle gifted to individual members or to UCG Zambia, but not yet returned to those owners must be returned immediately, as planting season has already begun. It should be noted that no efforts by these COGWA affiliated people have been made to take cattle away from cattle owners who benefited from the LifeNets Heifer gifting, but who are affiliated with the COGWA fellowship—they only took cattle away from members retaining their affiliation with UCGIA.On a visit to Zambia in about mid-January 2011, Victor Kubik tried to have discussions with the former Zambian senior UCG official who had resigned from UCG when these actions first occurred. Contrary to what has been publically posted, this former senior UCG official wrote that he would not talk to or meet with Victor Kubik. This was prior to any involvement by any attorneys writing to that former UCG minister objecting to their continued use of the UCG-Zambia name and property in late January and February, 2011.
It was on a later trip to Zambia in April 2011 following another request by Victor Kubik to meet that Mr. Kubik received the e-mail, now publicly posted, listing that former UCG elder’s pre-conditions for any meeting. A meeting could have taken place before any legal action was filed (that occurred sometime later)...
We also reject the proposition that we are “taking a brother to court.” The recovery of the exclusive use of the name United Church of God and of that Church’s asset is against people who are former members of United. They are falsely claiming to be members of United Church of God while belonging to (and attending the Feast site of) another church (COGWA) and who refuse to relinquish Church owned property. They are not “brothers.” They do not recognize any person in our Church as having the authority to act as arbiter in this matter.
We do not appreciate the posting of selective correspondence that leads to false conclusion that we did not try to resolve this matter face to face before being forced into a different course of action.
LifeNets and UCG have gone to great lengths, with personal visits, phone calls, e-mails and meetings to be circumspect and accurate in what has been written above. This response is in answer to posts, asked to be made public, that paint an inaccurate picture of events.We bear no animosity, but we do seek equity and God’s intervention in all the related matters in Zambia. It is the fiduciary duty of the leadership of UCG in Zambia to protect the integrity of their projects and the assets given to and for use of Zambian members who did not leave our fellowship.
6 comments:
“What we would desire, and what we believe is the position of the United Church of God, would be that a spirit of civility be restored among those who were once dear friends working together, that property be restored in a spirit of honesty to whom they were intended and that all of this be done according to the will of God……..Thus a worldwide prayer request was issued to ask for God’s direct intervention”
One would think a ‘non-profit ’ organization that promotes practical assistance to promote the well being and self sufficiency of disadvantaged people throughout the world could at least muster up enough money to buy those less fortunate, in a third world poverty country, a pair of cattle and thereby be an example of a Christ like attitude to others who need to see that Christianity is about serving others.
A simple ‘Christ like ‘ solution seems so obvious, at least to me.
Am I wrong in thinking Christ would help others even if they weren’t in His “organization”?
Do to others as you would like them to do to you.
Luke 6:31
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."
Rom. 12:20
anna
This is just my observation after experiencing many years of drama/trauma semi behind the scenes of the Wild World of God experience.
In order the lay out your arguement as to why you are right and all others wrong, or something is unfair, or "gotcha" or the sense of one being persecuted etc is exactly as this posting points out.
First you theologize the problem and bring "asking God to help," into the mix.
Then you ask the faithful to pray about it, which really means just to realize that your church, pastor, Apostle or Witness is correct so don't get to thinking otherwise.
And then you spend lots of print laying out your case under the guise of "we need to tell you all this so you know what to pray about."
It is really based in the fact that something has to be said, sides have to be explained, it has become public knowledge and "oh boy, what a mess."
Technically I expect UCG has a good point if this is how it all really is. I don't judge it.
If I was in this position and had the resources, I'd give everyone more cows, tell the offended brethren I am very sorry for the drama, that we miss you and will walk the extra mile with you in this world of realities that are not needed to be fueled by anymore selfishness, oneupmanship, animosity and "winning." No one wins.
"Bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things..." No one really practices this when stuff is involved.
I'm with the X Files on this: Trust no one.
One of the things which has become progressively more noticeable during 2010 through 2011 is the level of mental noise generated by Armstrongists: There really is no peace.
Most mental illness and mental disorders can be defined by both distorted perception and mental noise (reference Shadow Syndromes by Dr. John Ratey). There is certainly quite a lot of that in the ACoGs, particularly lately.
I'm going to go with Byker Bob on this (using some of his approaches): If someone is going to "listen" to the Holy Spirit, they need to escape the ever present mental noise of Armstrongism. For one thing, there are all those "duties" (of self-righteousness) to work through which are of constant concern: Tithes, Feasts, Sabbaths, what kind of food to eat etc. The conflict over keeping the form of religion to perfect the mechanics is stressful enough, but added to that is making a living, supporting a family and most important of all, maintaining an artificial social order where everyone pretends to believe the same thing without it being anywhere in the realm of reality but being more like the Outer Limits of the Twilight Zone.
Added to this is the constant hyperbole of conflict generated by self-righteous self-promoting narcissists, sociopaths, psychopaths and nut jobs of the so-called leadership. For the most part, the membership of the various splinters would be just fine if it weren't for the strife generated by the constant noise makers at the top disrupting the people and making divisions.
It takes leaving the whole messy stupidity and taking awhile to reassess what is important in life, then gaining an equilibrium of balance where the noise level reduces to a minimum. At this point, it is possible to leave behind concerns of supporting and helping leaders who absorb a tremendous amount of attention and resources with negative return on investment: You can finally stop pouring your time and money down a prairie dog hole where there is never enough to ever fill it all up and it goes for useless things which help you not in the slightest. Those leaders out there are selfish and have no interest or aptitude of improving your personal life one whit. For example, would Roderick Meredith come over to your house to personally help move you to a new place this afternoon if you needed help to move? I know Church of God Seventh Day ministers who would and actually have acquired all the equipment to be able to do so. You have to ask yourself if any of your ministers are even reliable to do even the minimum they promise. My personal experience is a resounding "no".
In fact, I've done a personal assessment and discovered that the paid ministers and leaders of the Armstrongist Churches of God have not only not done me and my family any good over the four decades I've been in the venue, but they have harmed, hurt and been a drain on resources for me and my family. There's no benefit to me and quite of lot of benefit to them from me. It hasn't made sense to me for some time now to continue pouring my resources down a rat hole -- and there are quite a lot of rats to feed out there.
For me, there is quite a lot less mental noise and except for the usual problems pretty much everyone faces today, I'm happy and at peace (except for these darned forums where I pour out well deserved bile).
The other thing I've noticed about leaving Armstrongism behind is that I can personally see more of myself and the mistakes I make to be corrected: Self-assessment is much easier without all that constant mental noise and concerns for people who don't really matter. It is my belief that until the Armstrongists escape Armstrongism, they will continue to be blind with a head filled with crashing noise as they try ever more and more to make their lives work in a totally stupid dysfunctional environment.
Ah, nothing like the sound of the Holy Spirit hard at work in the lives of God's Elect. Or not.
Well said Doug. There is something very "anti-zen" about Armstrongism.
I have been engaged in personal assessment for several years now, just digging down into and trying to sort out what is demonstrably workable and what is demonstrably not workable in my life. This search has consistently pointed to one, disturbing fact: that I was born into a looney bin!
I appreciate your concepts of mental noise and equilibrium. When I get down into the nitty gritty of it all, I realize that the entire set of COG "ministry" has a vested interest in the membership being in a perpetual state of disequilibrium. As long as you are unable to find equilibrium, you continue to think that you need them, even though the ideas that they put in your head are a major source of your problems. The end result is that you keep sending in that cash. And if the "ministry," trained by HWA, is so adept at doing this, perhaps it is because they were taught by an ABSOLUTE PRO. That's why I think HWA was an especially brilliant con artist. What an impressive feat, to be able to cheat people for decades, but also to get their heads so far up your ass that they then continue to cheat themselves even in your absence, and venerate you for cheating them for decades after your death.
Can you think of a better con than that? Oh, what's that? Karma, you say? What's that? I seem to have completely forgotten.
I want to find equilibrium, but I don't think I could ever, ever achieve it within the COG community.
The most troubling paragraph for me here is the declaration by Mr. Kubik that COGWA members are not "brothers."
I mentioned that at a UCG service this weekend, and it certainly surprised a deacon.
After studying the topic years ago, his surprise is understandable.
Well, speaking from totally their perspective, here we have two groups who have left what they at one time considered to be God's church, one once, and one twice, arguing over Christian values with regard to these cattle.
It's also quite interesting that this has been going on for how many weeks, and they are just now calling for prayer.
Only in Armstrongism....
BB
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