The social media phenomenon Facebook and the internet have forever changed the face of Armstrongism. The various COG's can no longer hide in the shadows with stupid rules and regulations for it's members. People no longer fear the Armstrongite cult leaders and have no fear in saying so.
Facebook is starting to have a lot of posts from people who have went to various COG Feast opening nights. Most were not impressed. The glory days with huge Feast sites and the air of excitement and expectation seem to be gone. Now that excitement is dampened by dueling Feast sites like UCG and COGWA in Tennessee who are meeting within miles of each other, yet discouraging members from attending the other site.
Ever since the break up of the mother church into hundreds and hundreds of harlot daughters, COG members who travel to Feast sites have been routinely Feast hopping. They start out at one Feast site and then jump to another towards the end. Usually this is done with a different COG. They are either bored with the sermons they are hearing and the attitude of the members attending, or they have family members or friends in another group that they want to be with. Others do it just to piss off ministers who think they can tell them what to do.
One woman writes about her last Feast when the "dumb leader," as she calls him, started inventing new control measures for his members. "...no flip-flops unless they were leather, no denim jeans for women or children, no pants for women on "holy" days..."
She further said, this leader even went as far as having every guest attending to sign a document that, "...they could be sued if they spoke out against any belief or practice of the church..." She says, "...it was a true cult with a wack job leader who demanded tests of loyalty and submission that clearly went against the word of Yahuah. He made people choose before he would give them status in the cult."
Another person notes that you can attend an entire eight day festival and barely hear
One person reports after visiting an LCG site is that he saw no excitement, just resignation. There were less than 500 people present. He wondered why people were not yelling to Rod,
Another person wisely notes:
"
19 comments:
Nothing like speaking the same thing...
the same boring thing...
in different places...
in different groups...
at mostly the same time...
yet not able to get together, having been divided by a common leadership.
Of course, as for the Calendar....
Stay home. If you want the Feast, watch it on the Internet with a live feed... feel free to switch organizations and time zones. If you eat out, you can pick places you know and like. And lodging is already paid for.
Handy, that, since there is no such thing as second tithe.
And given that Herbert Armstrong was a false prophet and the doomsday sermons are just too much for some people to bare any more (like my wife), maybe it's just better that if you keep the Feast, you keep it alone without British Israelism, false prophecies and Doomsday with a total lack of Jesus except in the opening and closing prayer (which can be avoided by ending, "In your son's name... Amen" -- let everybody guess).
That people would start to catch on was inevitable, really. The house of cards started tumbling long ago. On we go.
You just made my day! The more these little fiefdoms disintegrate, the better off everyone will be. The moon is beautiful here in Cottonwood, as it is once every month and I enjoy it when I'm outside in the evening.
No more worrying about sunsets, careening down highways toward overcrowded venues and wearing myself to an absolute frazzle for eight (or nine) days and being relieved to finally be on the way home, hoping nothing breaks on the old clunker on the way.
One of my best feast memories was the year I scratched my foot on a hide-a-bed and it swelled a bit so I could stay away from the meetings and nurse my "infection."
My fanatic wife drug my poor kids to both services every day instead of letting them stay with me.
Sorry kids.
The only Feast-site in the old testament was Jerusalem. There where no other feast-sites because this was the only city that God had put his name.
The internet is either a great promoter of freedom to some, or the way in which Big Brother will eventually control us all for perhaps the more paranoid amongst us. I've noticed for the first time this year that people who identify themselves as current members of the various ACOGs seem to make regular appearances on our dissident forums and blogs. They still post anonymously, but, hey, a start in the right direction can't be all bad, can it?
This may surprise some, but I actually did enjoy the feasts. They were a time when general merriment overshadowed the normal stark authoritarianism, and people weren't spying and ratting as much.
I know there isn't any such thing as second tithe, but it was kind of cool having 1/10 of one's annual income to blow over ten days (including travel time). Of course, I understand that after I left they clamped down on the investments you could make in stuff for your car, or new clothes, but the feasts weren't half bad while I was attending.
BB
I think it is absolutely hilarious some of the COGs have password-protected their webcasts.
If anyone is interested in listening to COGWA, the password given to me by my minister is FOT2012. Enter that phrase when asked on the webcast page, and you'll be able to listen to COGWA as much as you can stomach.
UCG and COGWA are also in Branson...along with Pack's RCG. LCG is in Lake of the Ozarks. Branson is a great place to have your worst feast ever! Nothing but a tourist trap.
As a child, at Jekyll Island and then teenager in the Poconos, there were 2 services every single day for quite awhile. It was grueling, but I never understood the pure endurance it took to be a parent and have to take your own kids, and keep them quiet and entertained for 4+ hours for 8 days. I shlepped up to 6 kids to the Feast by myself as my husband was not a member. It was exhausting.
And all the while there were chief seats and special parking areas reserved for, you know, the helpers of our joy.
When we first started in Jekyll Island, there were three services on Holy Days. Talk about pure hell for kids! We would either go home for food or trudge over to the Natatorium for food.
It took a while, but I finally figured out why the UCG goofball looked so familiar.
He's the quintessential single COG male - looks a little goofy, has no sense of current style, thick glasses from reading too much, attends every single event, all of which are guaranteed to start with a "singles biblestudy". No physicque, and no balls because the minister won't let him have any.
Of course, should he ever marry he becomes a tyrant in his own home, and often a drunken tyrant.
No wonder the females of the COG dread his every appearance at any social event.
The guy looks like a typical modern "hipster" - little hat, glasses with big frames, skinny, retro car. I am surprised his church org let's him even make those little films. Who is he?
Austin Observer
"The only Feast-site in the old testament was Jerusalem. There were no other feast-sites because this was the only city that God had put his name."
That's because the priests were headquartered there and they invented the whole damn thing after they returned from Babylon where they had studied and absorbed the Persian system and zoroastrianism. They had vast persian libraries of mythology to tap for a lot of their made up OT history, including that spurious exodus. They were as good at writing fiction as Joseph Smith and L. Ron Hubbard, and their subjects were just as hornswoggled.
Without a girlfriend he has more time and money for old, classic cars and his cool, blue, imaginary friend Jelly.
Hopefully he and Jelly won't get stalked too badly by any of those horny, much older women who just go to cults like the UCG, GCG, and PCG to prey on such guys.
Anonymous said...
"The only Feast-site in the old testament was Jerusalem. There where no other feast-sites because this was the only city that God had put his name."
You are correct in the sense that the Feasts Leviticus 23 were never permitted to be observed in any other place except in THE land. That place was originally on Mt. Ebal in Samaria in the area of Shecheem under Joshuah.
Later in the New Testament called Sychar (John 4) Several centuries later David moved it to Jerusalem. Herb was not one to be bothered with details. Or Grace. So the farce that the COgs are observing they call The Feast of Tabernacles further places them under the "curse of the law" that Paul explains in Galatians.
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