Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web of Corrupt Leaders

Monday, March 26, 2012

Dennis On: "You Know You've SOLD OUT When..."





As Apostle, Evangelist, Priest, Watcher, Witness, Member or Minister,

You Know You've SOLD OUT When...

Dennis Diehl - EzineArticles Expert Author

No one belongs to or works for any human organization or movement and follows the beliefs, perspectives and goals of those above them 100%.  We trade our loyalty to and idea or a goal for the security that "belonging" gives us.   Under all the suits, lies the basic human need to survive and thrive and make it skidding into home plate fat, sassy and happy.

I remember when a minister having an Elder that built M-1 Abrams Tanks for a living.  As a young minister, that struck me as an odd thing for an Elder but I think he just said he only worked there and in an office.  Since it was obvious he was not about to look for another line of work, it never came up much. (HQ in Pasadena once told me to tell a member to shut down his grocery store over Unleavened Bread, but when even knowing this Elder, never seemed to bring that up.  I told the member with the store to keep it open and UB was an at home thing.)

I'm ending a stint teaching at a "For Profit College" first because they are closing the program I teach but have left early giving up whatever severance they had to offer months from now because  such colleges, once you see it from the inside , are and educational rip off.  They put those least able to pay in the most debt you can imagine.  Actually it began to feel very much like my church pastor experience and I wasn't going to make the same, "if your head says yes and your stomach says no, the stomach is telling you the truth" mistake I made by staying too long in WCG.  I am going to make my decisions this time just for the sake of taking charge of them.

When I debated a former WCG higher up minister in Dallas a couple years ago, and after it was over, a minister went out of his way to tell me what I had to say was right on etc.  I said, "so you'll be teaching this next Sabbath?"  Got a polite smile and we both knew what that meant.

I can't tell you how many minister types I have met in this town through hospital work and such that , when we talk religion, have said  "I know that is right, we studied that in seminary.  But if I teach that, I'll lose my job."  This intellectual and belief sell out is very common among ministers who work for organizations that think they can tell everyone what one thing to believe.  People don't really work like that but they do stay put out of security needs.  Most do.  The topic that touches the most nerves among and educated clergy is that old, "just why did Paul never quote Jesus," issue.  They all know the answer and won't tell their members. Holiday origins come next as do the mysteries of the Trinity and the sheer awfulness of the Old Testament God and Father of Jesus.

Selling out is what one does to stay a part of an organized group of any kind.  You go by their rules, not yours.  You give lip service to ALL their beliefs no matter what your private perspectives are.  You say yes when you mean no and you sit down on the outside when you are really standing up on the inside.

So how does a minister know when he has sold out?

You may have sold out when:

1.  You have quietly studied and read truly well written and researched by credibly credentialed  books on biblical issues and history and what you now see does not match what you are supposed to see, but "oh well."

2.  When you still are telling people to trust God for healing and then trust God and your doctor without telling the brethren yourself.  Saying, "Well, this is just reparative surgery," as if that is different from removing a diseased tissue, comes to mind.

(I recall a kid asking me what's the difference between a root canal and taking your gall bladder out?  All I could think of was that in one , the opening is already there to get to the problem. We both laughed.)

3.  When you live way beyond the means of the vast majority of your members, being able to do so because they give you money for the church.

4.  When you tell someone in your care to do something you really don't care much about yourself but tell them to do it because if you don't, they will tell others and it might get back to those who control your income or future what you said.

5.  When you treat someone who did something one way and someone who is not as close a friend to you another when both did or are doing the same thing you think is inappropriate.

6.  When you stand up and read directives, missives, letters, actions,  to do's or to don'ts to your congregation that in your mind you keep hearing yourself say, "this is bullshit," and yet keep on reading.

7.  When you think you have invested way too much, way too long and paid way too high a price to be where you are now and simply can't step out of line on those issues that are meaningful or real to you but not your church because, "I will lose my retirement."   (I have heard, "I am hanging on to retirement," more times than you can imagine.)  Do I understand that?  Of course I do.  WCG and all US Churches don't have to either take Social Security out of ministerial pay if they can get you young boy to believe it is "not trusting God," and "we will take care of you," or pay any retirement if they don't want to.  I call it the " Jesus Performed a Miracle and We Have No Money to Give You,"  two shots to the head theory.  (That was a Ron Kelly quote to me personally)  Sorry, obviously this is still a personal issue  lol  #7 stirred up the pain body :)  (Breathe Dennis).

Members sell out too in various ways to stay a part of their respective Churches in the good graces of the minister.  It's what humans do to gain respect, place and power.  People do it at work all the time.

It is not easy being one's authentic self no matter what.  I have met some who do it with ease but that is not the way of most.  But it is way ahead of selling out.


All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was.  I accepted their answers too, though they were often in contradiction and even self-contradictory.  I was naïve.  I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer.  It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with:  that I am nobody but myself.  ~Ralph Ellison, "Battle Royal"

God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.  ~William Shakespeare

He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon whittle himself away.  ~Raymond Hull

Most people are other people.  Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.  ~Oscar Wilde, De Profundis, 1905

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.  ~Judy Garland

The great majority of us are required to live a life of constant duplicity.  Your health is bound to be affected if, day after day, you say the opposite of what you feel, if you grovel before what you dislike, and rejoice at what brings you nothing but misfortune.  ~Boris Pasternak

Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another.  ~Homer   (Not Simpson:)

Amen.....Now brethren let's all take our hymnals , rise and sing..."We are not divided, all one body we, one in hope and doctrine, one in chariteeeeee."  like it's true!


Dennis
DenniscDiehl@aol.com


9 comments:

  1. Another great plain truth article, Dennis!

    The ministers who know you are right, but are "holding onto retirement" are spineless hypocrites. It took guts to do what you did by walking away from WCG and its "Honey, I shrunk the Church retirement plan", and I for one respect you highly.

    Dennis, you did not "sell out" your beliefs in the WCG upheaval Titanic disaster - and you paid dearly for it. Its refreshing in this day and age that someone will stand up on principle as a witness against the corrupt.

    Ron Kelley is a liar - plain and simple. He came in Christ's name and deceived you. There isn't an ounce of honesty and integrity in the WCG leadership cheating you of a retirment earned after 25+ years of service. As your attorney said upon reviewing your WCG separation papers, "This is a Church? You are f&$ked!"

    Your attorney said it all in my mind.

    Now brethren let's all rise and sing, "Onward christian soldiers
    marching to make little Joey Tkach a multi-millionaire", in our hymnals.

    Richard

    ReplyDelete
  2. I did stay too long with WCG and they let me go before I walked away just for the record. What I didn't do was join or start yet another form of WCG. I was done . WCG was my one and only run at ministry and I did spend a couple years in that "what the hell is going to happen if this keeps up" stage.

    I was in a boatload of denial and transitions can be very messy emotionally and in relationships for sure. Being part of "The Clergy Project" under Dan Barker, former Evangelical Pastor etc, has shown me the process is the same for all stuck in such dilemmas no matter the denomination.

    Then you go through the "nobody is going to tell me what to do or think again," and it brings a freedom mixed with some poor decisions and relationship issues.

    Working for this "for profit" has been a revelation as it feels exactly like WCG emotionally. Great students and an administration that makes very stupid decisions and has many requirements for teachers just to stay compliant and keep the money machine open. Personally I think this particular school is doomed to fail soon. Moral is in the sewer due to mismanagment and things not being as they appear. I am walking away from this one on my own on just to show myself I can without being pushed. The place sucks my soul out as did WCG at the end. I do care for my students as I did for the congregations I grew close to. But in the end, it did not matter.

    Selling out is part of human survival mode at times. I am not unaware of that and it is not just a church thing. People do it all the time at all kinds of companies and making all kinds of products for all kinds of uses.

    There will be comments I am sure about just the church/ministry aspect of selling out, but it is a way bigger and more widely practiced approach for millions in our cubicle based workforce.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I can't say yet another transition of employment and what and how to do this again isn't a challenge. I think I am finally starting to admit I'm not 21 any more..ha.

    I'm teaching a bit at a private school and endeavoring to rebuild a client base there. I have students at the old place that want to "follow me" (see, just like WCG lol) but that is up to them and I have nothing to do with if they do or don't. The difference in tuition is astounding however so there maybe a benefit to do so. I just don't wish to get blamed for what they do or don't do.

    I'm not the same person I was ten years ago and again not the same as I was three years ago. Experience seems to be the only real teacher. Speaking as openly as possibly and sincerely is cathartic for me I suppose. I also find it allows me to not be hurt by others as much when I am willing to be open and honest about how it has all been.

    I call it Earthschool now and I have found most go through much the same thoughts, experiences and outcomes though the personal situations and causes were different and varied.

    I'm concerned about how this all going to work out but also know millions if not billions of others have lives with questions marks in them as well, so I didn't invent this either.

    I believe I now struggle with being the classic underachiever due to decisions made in my youth and outcomes unforeseen or even imagined.

    "Life is what happens while your making other plans"
    John Lennon

    ReplyDelete
  4. I highly commend you Dennis for another excellent and relevant post! I left the UCG after I came across some material that made me question and conclude that some of their teachings were Biblically wrong or simply traditions of HWA. I felt that if I were to stay I would be, as you put it, selling out my integrity for lies. And I've done that all my life by catering to the expectations of my friends and family to the point that I've suppressed my true self and now have very little to show for it. As you said, "...I now struggle with being the classic underachiever due to decisions made in my youth and outcomes unforeseen or even imagined" and not a day goes by that my past doesn't invade my mind not unlike a carousel of sorts that goes backwards and forwards, round and around, to the places I ache to go again and do over. I might be a slave to my past still, but I refuse to be a slave to any person or organization that promises to give what is rightfully the Creator's alone to give. So many today equate loyalty to an organization or person with loyalty to God and either sell out for a paypacket or the promise of eternal life, which is no different to idolatry. And I think that's where Christians in general have missed the point of Christ's message since we see on numerous occasions by His interaction with the people and religious establishment of the day Jesus opposed dependence on any one organization or system for our connection with God and replaced it with Himself alone.

    ReplyDelete
  5. In your list of quotations, the one that best captures Ambassador College educational theory is the Raymond Hull statement: "He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon whittle himself away."

    The first thing the college tried to do for freshmen was "knock off some of our rough edges." I didn't stick around to become a sophomore, but I understand the process was supposed to continue with refinements until, as seniors, we had been given a fine polish. I detested the metaphor; I thought of education as a process of growth, not erosion.

    The metaphor of grinding us down pretty much captured the way we were treated. Females who used makeup were supposed to stop. People who made jam sandwiches with their biscuits at breakfast were told not to eat that way. When I decorated my lapel with my high school Honor Society pin, an upperclassman asked, "When are you going to take that vanity pin off?"

    The injunction to limit ourselves extended even to matters of writing style. Garner Ted made the pronouncement that writers should "get 'get' out of your vocabulary." Accordingly, Lynn Torrance gave our class the impromptu assignment one day to write down as many synonyms for "get" as we could think of, so we would be able to replace the offensive monosyllable whenever it cropped up.

    I wrote down "receive," "obtain," "acquire," "steal," "inherit," "become," and a few others. But then when I thought of "start" for "get going" and both "arrive at" and "receive permission for" as alternatives for "get to," it dawned on me that "get" is the core word for a whole host of idioms that make English the forceful language it is, and I realized writers could never get along without it.

    I was Torrance's best student, and he was sorely disappointed at how short my list was. In contrast, I have forever been grateful for the lesson. It is one of the incidents I had in mind when I adopted the motto "You can learn more from one bad example than you can from twelve good ones."

    ReplyDelete
  6. Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships by Janja Lalich and Madeleine Tobias demonstrates in its pages that a cult is a zero win environment: The demand to be "perfect" cannot be met and generally has components to it which conflict. As you point out, an Elder had a job with building "weapons of mass destruction" and could not actually be a member by fiat of the rules, yet he was in good standing. And the counter to that was to take someone vulnerable and make them follow silly rules which would bankrupt them.

    By the way, the same applies to Corporations and Government: Hypocrisy abounds and there is a constant opportunity to sear the conscience into a burning cinder: You do this thing you know is just wrong, or you will (die!) lose your job and won't be able to take care of yourself or your family ever again. Religion, Government and Corporations are pretty much amoral, without any conscience or empathy at all.

    It keeps getting worse as the bottom line and ROI short term is the sole guide to morals and ethics. [This is ably documented in "Moral Mazes" by Robert Jackall.] The truth is an endangered species. [This is ably documented in "The Management Trap" by Dr. Chris Argyris.]

    Opinion is now the answer to everything: And the people who hold the Judas purse have the greatest say in what you are to believe.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yeah, people act through valences. For some, adapting the personna of another or using a closed philosophy as a front makes them feel stronger.

    But, just because one or more churches prevent one from doing one's own due diligence, or allowing one to let one's conscience be one's guide, it doesn't necessarily prove that you can't have a personal relationship with God. Now, for sure you can't have a relationship with God by adapting a facade which someone has handed you. Anyone who would tell you otherwise distinguishes themself as being a false teacher.

    Bottom line is that this is a personal thing, and the "collectors" are always trying to horn in, co-opt, then rape, and pillage. The real deal is a real treasure, but you're not going to find it through some self-appointed guru. Independent knee work is what gets the job done, and then you have to be sincere and stick with it, and not compromise because of paychecks or opinions.

    BB

    BB

    ReplyDelete
  8. It seems so very, very wrong to me that these blokes claim they're assisting others to find the true God, whilst they can't be bothered to look for him themselves, or care to know him at all. It just boils down to whatever bollocks they've got to speak in order to keep their personal pay cheques coming in. It's the height of hypocrisy really.

    I am not sure if selling out is the cause of the hypocrisy, or if the hypocrisy is the cause of the selling out. It may be one way with some, and the other way around with some. How many in the ministry never had to sell out because they never bought in to start with?

    ReplyDelete
  9. Thanks Dennis. Great post as usual.

    I am out of COGPKG and not looking back. (I even have stopped looking over my shoulder!)

    I am getting my life back together and LIVING it. Mistakes and ALL! (gasp!) I LOVE all of my imperfectness and wallow in it daily.
    Cheers!
    Chacha

    ReplyDelete