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Recognizing Con Artists,
Tyrants, and
Spiritual Abusers
in Leadership
Available in both PDF and published hardcopy
FROM THE INTRODUCTION: Suppose
you move to a different area, and are keeping your eyes open for a good
group to belong to (a social club, a church, a synagogue, or service
organization). You visit one such group where the people are very
friendly, loving, and give you individual attention. The group has a
variety of programs: a rehabilitation program for drug addicts, services
and nursing homes for the elderly, help for the poor, and free clinics.
The leader inspires the disillusioned, the disenchanted, and those who
have been rejected elsewhere. He is well-known and respected in the
area, and the mayor gave him a position as Director of the City Housing
Authority. Would you join this group?
Suppose you spend four
years in college and nearly two years in graduate school to prepare for a
career in Christian music. Then the ministers of your home church tell
you that you are not needed in
their music program. Shortly afterward, you find a new group that
welcomes you with open arms. They really care for people. The leader of
this group has fascinating Bible studies. You and everyone else are able
to sit and listen to him for several hours at a time. Would you stay in
this group?
If you answered "yes" to the first situation, you
joined the church led by Jim Jones who led over 900 of his followers
into a mass suicide murder. If you liked the second group, you became a
follower of David Koresh who led over 80 of his followers to die in a
blaze of fire.
A wolf in sheep's clothing is a short and simple description of a cult leader – as these men were.
Are there any warning signs that a group and its leader are dangerous? That’s largely what this book is about.
To read more about this subject, click here to download Stephen Martin's e-book. |
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5 comments:
The Very First Con of Herbert Armstrong
This must be told in the venue of those who accept Christianity or those who are convinced of the Christian "ideal".
Herbert Armstrong may actually be the first to bring "the gospel of the kingdom of God" in 1900 years, although it is doubtful, seeing as how he plagiarized everything. Nevertheless, those who had sincerely studied the Bible to find their truth accepted that the gospel is not about some Corporate Kingdom run by God as the CEO with Jesus Christ as President with a hierarchy of underlings exercising AUTHORITY over the masses. The various churches, even the Sabbath keeping churches instead, believed in the gospel of salvation through redemption.
The gospel of the kingdom of God is perfect for an ego-driven sociopath who wanted nothing more to be the center of attention of "superior people". This driving force of the kingdom, rather than salvation, was presented as a rulership with Jesus Christ's return as being the most important even in human history, rather than his sacrifice of redemption and the reconciliation of mankind to the Father. This way, Herbert Armstrong could get everyone excited about how awful the world today is, and get them even more excited about the Great Tribulation (where he could paint himself subtly as a savior who would teach you in the Place of Safety, if only you would submit yourself totally to him). The gospel represented the Kindom in which he would be very important and for now, he would be the most important man to live on the face of the earth: The very end time Apostle of God!
Many people are puzzled about why Jesus is not the center of what was the Radio Church of God and the Worldwide Church of God. This is the explanation. Herbert Armstrong set himself up not just as the minister of light, but God as God is God -- in a way where people would completely commit to him and obsess on every word out of his mouth as he touted the Power of the Work and it being the MOST IMPORTANT WORK ON THE FACE OF THIS EARTH TODAY. The truth is that he was calling his work as being the most important, making him the most important person on the face of this earth. He set himself up as an idol to be tacitly worshipped.
This was not in keeping with the gospel taught by the Church of God Seventh Day (I confirmed this with a Church of God Seventh Day minister this past week -- that the gospel they teach is one of redemption and not of the "Kingdom"). This was beside the fact that Herbert Armstrong thought he be in charge of the CoG7. The CoG7 would not have been able to tolerate Herbert Armstrong, and he certainly couldn't tolerate them because they were too limiting by not letting him run everything and be the Supreme General of their church.
Herbert Armstrong also picked up what has been proved to be scientific heresy by preaching British Israelism and the attendent disastrous falacies which made him a false prophet.
Lies and Ego make for abuse.
If you want to recognize Con Artists, Tyrants, and Spiritual Abusers in Leadership, you need look no farther than the example of Herbert Armstrong with his lies, deceptions, narcissism and great swelling ego, to capture the pattern of the iron fisted despot who just has to get his own way.
The vulnerability of the people he proselytized lies in the innate need to follow a Nimrod Strong Man who promises to empower them through his positive unshakable presentation of self-important self-righteousness without one shred of humility, being, as it were, an eigth grader who was an expert in absolutely everything without one shred of qualification, and someone who had a great distaste for manual labor, expecting to be the hero while everyone else did the heavy lifting.
It seems he taught his legacy religious Mafia leaders well.
And it doesn't hurt either, to have someone whitewashing those scoundrels in his Journal.
Some of the leaders of the Armstrong movement are so blind to themselves that they might even recommend that their congregations read this book! Fact is, that might be a really good and brazen psychological ploy for them. If they are recommending it, (the reasoning goes) how could it apply to them?
BB
I was reading some of his co-worker letters that someone had archived from the forties onward. In every single one of them, he browbeats, saying that income has dropped off AGAIN and people have become complacent about the work of GOD! In every single letter he writes that this is an emergency situation, and that he must place this burden upon YOUR shoulders, and never before has he asked with the urgency with which he asks now. You must give extra, above and beyond your normal tithes and offerings. If you can spare two dollars, send it in. If $1000, send it, if $5,000, send it. No amount is too small or too big. Anything you can spare. Now is the time to put your shoulder to the wheel as never before!
Are these, or are these not the words of a con artist?
1) If the bible is true as he claims it is and says what he claims it says, then he has no right to ask people to send in more than their tithes and offerings.
2) How many times in a row can you write that you've never begged for money before like you're having to beg for it now before it becomes like a broken record or the boy who cried wolf? How many times can you claim that each successive financial emergency is bigger than the last one before it becomes obvious that there are no emergencies, and that it has all been invented to con you out of your hard-earned cash? And believe me, during the depression and WWII, nobody had a spare $5,000 just laying around. That would have been the value of least $100,000 in 2011 dollars. Of course no amount is too big. What a ridiculous (not to mention revealing) thing to say. How many times can I put my shoulder to the wheel as never before, before that has no meaning? There is only 100%. There is no 101%.
3) If he really is having an emergency, how dare he try to place HIS emergency on MY shoulders? Remind me why I should care? Let us just say that he was telling the truth about his financial woes. Perhaps he should stop overextending himself financially on such a regular basis. Maybe he should start behaving in a fiscally responsible manner for once?
Well, I suppose he was successful because he didn't shy away from the cringeworthy work of high-pressure selling. Most people can't do it because they know that they have to downright dirty and deceitful in order to be any good at it. But some people don't mind, and they are good at it because they have no conscience and they have no soul. But that's okay, there appear to be plenty of suckers willing to hand theirs over to you for free if you yours seems to have gone missing...
Look at the original documents written on the man's own typewriter. He declares himself to be a con artist. He tells you everything you need to know about him, straight from the horse's mouth.
How to recognize Con Artists, Tyrants, and Spiritual Abusers in Leadership?
Here is the short version:
When they ask you for - tithes, offerings, special offerings, contributions to the all important building fund while they are telling you time is short and the end is near; ask you to mortgage your house and sent the proceeds into HQ; include them in your estate planning; declare themselves as God's Apostle and one true church, and micromanage every aspect of your life - then chances are you dealing with a con artist, tyrant and spiritual abuser.
Richard
"When they ask you for - tithes, offerings, special offerings, contributions to the all important building fund while they are telling you time is short and the end is near; ask you to mortgage your house and sent the proceeds into HQ; include them in your estate planning; declare themselves as God's Apostle and one true church, and micromanage every aspect of your life - then chances are you dealing with a con artist, tyrant and spiritual abuser."
Richard
MY COMMENT: "Chances are"?? I'm sure you're being facetious.
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