Exposing the underbelly of Armstrongism in all of its wacky glory! Nothing you read here is made up. What you read here is the up to date face of Herbert W Armstrong's legacy. It's the gritty and dirty behind the scenes look at Armstrongism as you have never seen it before!
With all the new crazy self-appointed Chief Overseers, Apostles, Prophets, Pharisees, legalists, and outright liars leading various Churches of God today, it is important to hold these agents of deception accountable.
Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web of Corrupt Leaders
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Monday, June 4, 2012
Dave Pack and the City of Wadsworth: It's All About The Money
"Certainly it is my privilege to be here on behalf of the city," she
said. "What an exciting day and exciting time for your church and quite
frankly, for the city of Wadsworth. This is quite a project and it has
been much anticipated ... Wadsworth is a wonderful community and I know
that you have enjoyed being here as we have enjoyed having you here. I
didn't fully realize the economic impact your employees bring to
Wadsworth, and from what I have seen tonight, I anticipate that many
more will be moving here as the years go on. The one thing that sets
Wadsworth apart is that we really are a community of faith. We have
multiple congregations with individuals who are dedicated to their
faith. They provide many good works for the community and they also
influence others around them to improve their lives. ... So once again I
just want to congratulate you for your efforts and congratulate you for
all that you are doing."
Special greetings and letters of congratulations were also received from
U.S. congressional representative and former Wadsworth mayor, James B.
Renacci; Ohio's governor, John R. Kasich; and William G. Batchelder, the
speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives. After several personal
comments, Pack conducted a "virtual tour" of the new campus.
Yes, I hope Pack doesn't feel special or annointed as a result of the interaction with his community. This is all just standard Chamber of Commerce stuff. If they took an active interest in what he actually teaches, it'd make them want to vomit.
I assume Pack never received a loan and is paying the costs through church members. If that is the case, there is a large, out of place auditorium in Edmond, OK that serves as a cautionary tale.
Of course that won't stop Pack but I wonders how many members are thinking about that fact.
Give me a freakin' break ! What kind of economic boon do they think he is going to bring. By the way, they won't be reaching out to the community with any type of serivce as they believe that God will fix everything later. C'mon you ever think you are going to see Dave with a silver ladle at a soup kitchen? I worked with the homeless this past winter. They are smelly, they are mental and they don't care about salvation. You just have to look past that if you want to fulfill the command of housing the homeless. Do you think they will even thank you? Maybe one or two, the rest will go their way the next morning without so much as a nod. Ya think the Grand PooBa Apostle could handle that? Probably not. He needs leaders bowing down and kissing his golden toe to make his claims worth their while.
Sorry to sound so bitter but, where the heck is the Lord? Feeling very abandoned by him right now due to trials going on here and I really am sick of everyone from the Pope with his tailor made "fragrance" to those mega apostles in the COG and their gold/silver shovels. Is that what impresses God? If so then us plain folk who suffer for doing good are just rags in his site. What a depressing prospect.
Ah, yes, the Wadsworth Post. Boy, they really did their homework on this one -- essentially reprinting Pack's grandiose press release announcing the gala ceremony...the one when all the "headquarters" staff gathered to watch Dave in his hard hat as he dug a hole in the middle of a dirt right-of-way, while people doing real work in nearby office buildings and store fronts peered out their windows and said, "What the hell?"
Pack actually serve his community? Yep, you're right, good luck on that. He probably wouldn't even help homeless, gay and lesbian, alkies or druggies, or other non-mainstream RCG members, not that he'd acknowledge that such members could exist.
Well, it's better than the backward state of Kentucky, whose Legislature's members were tripping over each other to provide millions of taxpayers' dollars to support one of the stupidest pieces of Christian garbage in human history- the 'Ark Park' by the Answers in Genesis nutcases who believe the Earth is only 6,000 years old, and that there were dinosaurs on "Noah's Ark"!
Right on Norm. The Chamber could care less about Noah and the folk getting the story right as they do about the satellite buisinesses.
Hotel Bethlehem Jesus Fries and Burgers Christcream Cones Apostle Pie Temple Tacos Calvary Internation Hotel A petting zoo Disciple Chocolate Delites Barnabas and Noble Books
Etc.
The next day after the groundbreaking the kind folk at the Chamber are laughing at Dave and RCG.
And RCG brings money THROUGH Wadsworth, not TO it.
The "Christcream Cones" concession should be a moneymaker.
It's high-tech. As you leave the Christcream Cone concession, infrared lights above are triggered, to melt your Christcream Cone which then plops to the floor. Then, sensors on the floor are triggered to start a large screen playing, telling you how your flattened ice cream cone on the ground is like the TRUTH of the Earth being flat.
And that's followed by a "Would you like to OBEY God and give a generous offering(all major credit cards are accepted)?" pitch.
Watch out! I heard that Bob Jones University is hiding dinosaurs in the Thurston Howell Memorial Science Building, to unleash on you next Tuesday, because of your bad attitude!
Prophecy Update- The attack may be delayed, because the Skipper and the Professor can't agree on whether Ginger or Mary Ann should be riding the T-Rex.
The people in charge of Wadsworth are shills, spreading hope that is nothing but manure that is toxic and will grow nothing, let alone grow a local economy.
But the good news is that if the Feast is held there, fines for DUIs may help defray the expense for the police force.
Because Pack has such a tiny organization the economic benefits of a few buildings being built there will be hardly noticable. That is if these buildings are ever completed, if they are he certainly will not be able to hire more then a handful of under-payed employees. In a nut shell, the economic benefits of his new HQ being built in Wadsworth is tiny at best.
A part of Christian living that many won't acknowledge is the fact that God sometimes goes silent, seemingly leaving us to our own devices. Fact is, human parents sometimes do this with their kids. It's a part of the learning process both physically and spiritually.
In trials, it can be difficult to know what God is trying to teach us. I've found it helpful to ask Him to make more graphic or more plain with me as to what the trial is supposed to accomplish. Generally the answer comes to me during personal prayer or Bible Study.
I admire that you made the effort to work with the homeless. That is definitely thinking outside of the Armstrong box! I wish it had been a more rewarding experience for you, but you may have helped some one or some persons in ways that were not communicated back to you. Sometimes, just knowing that you tried to make a difference is a reward in and of itself.
Hang in there and keep trying to make an impact in the right directions. Energy can neither be created, nor destroyed. That means it's just got to go somewhere!
I don't know what challenges you are facing at present Mish-Mash and it's not for me to pry or to make sense out of it, but Byker Bob's right. On days when I feel like I can't take it anymore the poignant words of the late Pastor Covington rolls through my mind giving me a sense of much-needed perspective: I'm where I'm supposed to be. Lessons are to be learned and this is the only way for them to be learned. Whether I like it or not this is the only way for real growth to occur just like kites rise highest against the wind, not with it. Such is the playground of life with its scrapes and scratches, bumps and bruises, tears and cheers, my friend.
There was a time when I felt abandoned by God too. But I don't feel that way anymore.
For some reason, I view the LORD as a hypothesis. Within the context of my life, either I find evidence to accept it or else I fail to find such evidence. For many years, I accepted social proof (everyone else in my life believes it, surely they can't all be wrong), but this is not evidence, even though I mistook it to be evidence.
In the last few years, I've been forced to re-assess and re-evaluate. I've had to admit that I have failed to find any evidence to support the LORD hypothesis. I'm not bitter about it though, I'm actually relieved. It means I can stop having to pretend that the LORD has been doing anything within my life. If I subsequently find evidence for the LORD hypothesis, then I will gladly accept it, but for now, the needle just has to point toward the "reject" portion of the meter. It makes me crazy to have to disconnect my intelligence from my own sense of it, forcing my needle to point to the "accept" portion for absolutely no reason. Now, I don't feel abandoned or let down by God anymore.
So, maybe what you're going through isn't a "trial," it's just part of the ups and downs we all face as time and chance has its way with us. Maybe we don't have to worry about "impressing" the big man in the sky, and maybe just because evil men prosper for a while, it doesn't have to mean that we are rags in anyone's sight.
I am setting out to prove whether Dave Pack is an apostle or not? After all he appears to be doing the "work", and trying to follow in the footsteps of HWA. He claims that miracles have happened over and over in RCG. I'm certain that he considers this building project to be a sign of his apostleship. Who can match all this sensational news!!!!
"A part of Christian living that many won't acknowledge is the fact that God sometimes goes silent, seemingly leaving us to our own devices."
I must have missed something somewhere. Just when and where did "god" break his silence and speak. I've heard a lot of claims by people overimpressed with themselves but I'm certain that if "god" had clearly said anything, it would have been all over the news. He hasn't even clearly acted in any of the horrible tragedies we've experineced in my lifetime alone -- like the holocaust and many other "ethnic cleansings."
Claims by human beings don't impress anyone who is thinking. I have the ability to think, and I exercise it these days.
So, again, just when did "god" say something? Clearly and unequivocally do something? Please be kind enough to point it out and present the record.
Just one other point about "god" trying to teach us someething.
He's not very "apt" at it. "Inept" comes to mind.
Just in my lifetime, we didn't learn a damn thing about the Great Depression and the Rethuglican policies that only deepened it. We're right back to people falling for the same old Dickensian way of doing things that results in a 1% aristocracy and millions of no account serfs who are getting worse off every day.
Expecting people to learn from history just doesn't work very well because the average person finds such facts boring. They'd rather get lost in some sitcom or The Bachelor, etc.
Time for "god" to get wise and take the direct one on one approach, wouldn't you say?
Of course, he's have to actually exist for that to be a possibility.
I am so impressed by the kindness my fellow commenters are posting for me. You all have inspired me more than my local clerical affiliate. Its so nice to hear compassion and understanding without judgement. Not one of you said anything about becoming "bitter", which a friend said to me which made my head spin. Same old COG line. A person can be sad, depressed and angry without bitterness.
I realize this is a crossroad of some sorts. Life is like that whether you are a believer or not. I realize I'm not the only one who ever cried a tear, but its hard when not only you are affected, then a family member gets sick in the midst of your own crisis. Wow, not fun.
Sorry if I sounded suicidal in my posts. Just coming down off of a trauma of an adopted dog attacking my husband. Whole story on Dennis' post about drama.
We all need some fun, let's go to Dave's construction site and hold an "Occupy Wadsworth" to protest. I hear you can daisy-chain bull horms and it gets the message out REALLY loud. :) MM
Yes, I hope Pack doesn't feel special or annointed as a result of the interaction with his community. This is all just standard Chamber of Commerce stuff.
ReplyDeleteIf they took an active interest in what he actually teaches, it'd make them want to vomit.
BB
I assume Pack never received a loan and is paying the costs through church members. If that is the case, there is a large, out of place auditorium in Edmond, OK that serves as a cautionary tale.
ReplyDeleteOf course that won't stop Pack but I wonders how many members are thinking about that fact.
Give me a freakin' break ! What kind of economic boon do they think he is going to bring. By the way, they won't be reaching out to the community with any type of serivce as they believe that God will fix everything later. C'mon you ever think you are going to see Dave with a silver ladle at a soup kitchen? I worked with the homeless this past winter. They are smelly, they are mental and they don't care about salvation. You just have to look past that if you want to fulfill the command of housing the homeless. Do you think they will even thank you? Maybe one or two, the rest will go their way the next morning without so much as a nod. Ya think the Grand PooBa Apostle could handle that? Probably not. He needs leaders bowing down and kissing his golden toe to make his claims worth their while.
ReplyDeleteSorry to sound so bitter but, where the heck is the Lord? Feeling very abandoned by him right now due to trials going on here and I really am sick of everyone from the Pope with his tailor made "fragrance" to those mega apostles in the COG and their gold/silver shovels. Is that what impresses God? If so then us plain folk who suffer for doing good are just rags in his site. What a depressing prospect.
Wait til the Chamber of Commerce finds out Dave teaches the christians of Wadsworth outside RCG have "faith falsely so called."
ReplyDeleteM.T.Pews
Ah, yes, the Wadsworth Post. Boy, they really did their homework on this one -- essentially reprinting Pack's grandiose press release announcing the gala ceremony...the one when all the "headquarters" staff gathered to watch Dave in his hard hat as he dug a hole in the middle of a dirt right-of-way, while people doing real work in nearby office buildings and store fronts peered out their windows and said, "What the hell?"
ReplyDeletePack actually serve his community? Yep, you're right, good luck on that. He probably wouldn't even help homeless, gay and lesbian, alkies or druggies, or other non-mainstream RCG members, not that he'd acknowledge that such members could exist.
ReplyDeleteWell, it's better than the backward state of Kentucky, whose Legislature's members were tripping over each other to provide millions of taxpayers' dollars to support one of the stupidest pieces of Christian garbage in human history- the 'Ark Park' by the Answers in Genesis nutcases who believe the Earth is only 6,000 years old, and that there were dinosaurs on "Noah's Ark"!
ReplyDeleteNorm
Right on Norm. The Chamber could care less about Noah and the folk getting the story right as they do about the satellite buisinesses.
ReplyDeleteHotel Bethlehem
Jesus Fries and Burgers
Christcream Cones
Apostle Pie
Temple Tacos
Calvary Internation Hotel
A petting zoo
Disciple Chocolate Delites
Barnabas and Noble Books
Etc.
The next day after the groundbreaking the kind folk at the Chamber are laughing at Dave and RCG.
And RCG brings money THROUGH Wadsworth, not TO it.
M.T.Coffers
Dinosaurs on Noah's Ark. What a hoot. Thanks for the laugh, Norm.
ReplyDeleteM.T.Coffers,
ReplyDeleteThe "Christcream Cones" concession should be a moneymaker.
It's high-tech.
As you leave the Christcream Cone concession, infrared lights above are triggered, to melt your Christcream Cone which then plops to the floor.
Then, sensors on the floor are triggered to start a large screen playing, telling you how your flattened ice cream cone on the ground is like the TRUTH of the Earth being flat.
And that's followed by a "Would you like to OBEY God and give a generous offering(all major credit cards are accepted)?" pitch.
Norm
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteDinosaurs on Noah's Ark. What a hoot.
ReplyDeleteI believe Jurassic Park taught us the folly of penning in a T-Rex
(Much less 2 plus velociraptors)
Noah: "Everyone to the lifeboats! Oh...this IS the lifeboat!"
Dennis,
ReplyDeleteWatch out!
I heard that Bob Jones University is hiding dinosaurs in the Thurston Howell Memorial Science Building, to unleash on you next Tuesday, because of your bad attitude!
Prophecy Update- The attack may be delayed, because the Skipper and the Professor can't agree on whether Ginger or Mary Ann should be riding the T-Rex.
Norm
It's all about delusion.
ReplyDeleteThe people in charge of Wadsworth are shills, spreading hope that is nothing but manure that is toxic and will grow nothing, let alone grow a local economy.
But the good news is that if the Feast is held there, fines for DUIs may help defray the expense for the police force.
Other than that, nada.
Because Pack has such a tiny organization the economic benefits of a few buildings being built there will be hardly noticable. That is if these buildings are ever completed, if they are he certainly will not be able to hire more then a handful of under-payed employees. In a nut shell, the economic benefits of his new HQ being built in Wadsworth is tiny at best.
ReplyDeleteDave will probably pay his staff in script to be spent on the grounds at the church grocery, healthfood and bookstore (booklet store)
ReplyDeleteM.T.Registers
Mish Mash, I'm concerned for you.
ReplyDeleteA part of Christian living that many won't acknowledge is the fact that God sometimes goes silent, seemingly leaving us to our own devices. Fact is, human parents sometimes do this with their kids. It's a part of the learning process both physically and spiritually.
In trials, it can be difficult to know what God is trying to teach us. I've found it helpful to ask Him to make more graphic or more plain with me as to what the trial is supposed to accomplish. Generally the answer comes to me during personal prayer or Bible Study.
I admire that you made the effort to work with the homeless. That is definitely thinking outside of the Armstrong box! I wish it had been a more rewarding experience for you, but you may have helped some one or some persons in ways that were not communicated back to you. Sometimes, just knowing that you tried to make a difference is a reward in and of itself.
Hang in there and keep trying to make an impact in the right directions. Energy can neither be created, nor destroyed. That means it's just got to go somewhere!
BB
I don't know what challenges you are facing at present Mish-Mash and it's not for me to pry or to make sense out of it, but Byker Bob's right. On days when I feel like I can't take it anymore the poignant words of the late Pastor Covington rolls through my mind giving me a sense of much-needed perspective: I'm where I'm supposed to be. Lessons are to be learned and this is the only way for them to be learned. Whether I like it or not this is the only way for real growth to occur just like kites rise highest against the wind, not with it. Such is the playground of life with its scrapes and scratches, bumps and bruises, tears and cheers, my friend.
ReplyDeleteSorry Mish-Mash.
ReplyDeleteThere was a time when I felt abandoned by God too. But I don't feel that way anymore.
For some reason, I view the LORD as a hypothesis. Within the context of my life, either I find evidence to accept it or else I fail to find such evidence. For many years, I accepted social proof (everyone else in my life believes it, surely they can't all be wrong), but this is not evidence, even though I mistook it to be evidence.
In the last few years, I've been forced to re-assess and re-evaluate. I've had to admit that I have failed to find any evidence to support the LORD hypothesis. I'm not bitter about it though, I'm actually relieved. It means I can stop having to pretend that the LORD has been doing anything within my life. If I subsequently find evidence for the LORD hypothesis, then I will gladly accept it, but for now, the needle just has to point toward the "reject" portion of the meter. It makes me crazy to have to disconnect my intelligence from my own sense of it, forcing my needle to point to the "accept" portion for absolutely no reason. Now, I don't feel abandoned or let down by God anymore.
So, maybe what you're going through isn't a "trial," it's just part of the ups and downs we all face as time and chance has its way with us. Maybe we don't have to worry about "impressing" the big man in the sky, and maybe just because evil men prosper for a while, it doesn't have to mean that we are rags in anyone's sight.
I am setting out to prove whether Dave Pack is an apostle or not? After all he appears to be doing the "work", and trying to follow in the footsteps of HWA. He claims that miracles have happened over and over in RCG. I'm certain that he considers this building project to be a sign of his apostleship. Who can match all this sensational news!!!!
ReplyDelete"A part of Christian living that many won't acknowledge is the fact that God sometimes goes silent, seemingly leaving us to our own devices."
ReplyDeleteI must have missed something somewhere. Just when and where did "god" break his silence and speak. I've heard a lot of claims by people overimpressed with themselves but I'm certain that if "god" had clearly said anything, it would have been all over the news. He hasn't even clearly acted in any of the horrible tragedies we've experineced in my lifetime alone -- like the holocaust and many other "ethnic cleansings."
Claims by human beings don't impress anyone who is thinking. I have the ability to think, and I exercise it these days.
So, again, just when did "god" say something? Clearly and unequivocally do something? Please be kind enough to point it out and present the record.
Just one other point about "god" trying to teach us someething.
ReplyDeleteHe's not very "apt" at it. "Inept" comes to mind.
Just in my lifetime, we didn't learn a damn thing about the Great Depression and the Rethuglican policies that only deepened it. We're right back to people falling for the same old Dickensian way of doing things that results in a 1% aristocracy and millions of no account serfs who are getting worse off every day.
Expecting people to learn from history just doesn't work very well because the average person finds such facts boring. They'd rather get lost in some sitcom or The Bachelor, etc.
Time for "god" to get wise and take the direct one on one approach, wouldn't you say?
Of course, he's have to actually exist for that to be a possibility.
Dear Byker Bob, Andrew and John,
ReplyDeleteI am so impressed by the kindness my fellow commenters are posting for me. You all have inspired me more than my local clerical affiliate. Its so nice to hear compassion and understanding without judgement. Not one of you said anything about becoming "bitter", which a friend said to me which made my head spin. Same old COG line. A person can be sad, depressed and angry without bitterness.
I realize this is a crossroad of some sorts. Life is like that whether you are a believer or not. I realize I'm not the only one who ever cried a tear, but its hard when not only you are affected, then a family member gets sick in the midst of your own crisis. Wow, not fun.
Sorry if I sounded suicidal in my posts. Just coming down off of a trauma of an adopted dog attacking my husband. Whole story on Dennis' post about drama.
We all need some fun, let's go to Dave's construction site and hold an "Occupy Wadsworth" to protest. I hear you can daisy-chain bull horms and it gets the message out REALLY loud.
:) MM