Sunday, May 26, 2013

Gerald Flurry Disfellowshipment Policy And How He Deliberately Destroys Families




Some excerpts from The Journal article about Gerald Flurry's stance on disfellowshipment and how it relates to family members.  Flurry is truly an appalling sick man.

In an hour-long sermon before the headquarters congregation of the PCG, Pastor General Gerald Flurry, 70, expanded church policy to prohibit any kind of fellowship with former PCG members and all "Laodiceans," even if they are members of a church member's immediate family.
 
PCG members may no longer associate with their own children, parents or siblings if their children, parents or siblings are disfellowshipped PCG members or members of the WCG or any of its splinter groups other than the PCG. 
 

Mistaken notion
In his sermon Mr. Flurry, a native of Oklahoma City, explained the new, or at least clarified, policy on fellowshipping and disfellowshipping.
"In the past," he said "some members" have operated under the mistaken notion that "relationships" with family members are permitted "as long as religion is not discussed." But "that is not what God says."

The Bible "makes it clear that there should be a complete cut-off" of contact with any family member, no matter how closely related, with only two exceptions.

• One exception is an apostate or Laodicean spouse of a PCG member. Scripture, Mr. Flurry said, dictates that "that relationship should be preserved as long as the [disfellowshipped or Laodicean] mate is pleased to dwell." He cited 1 Corinthians 7:10-14.

A wife who is "pleased to dwell" with her PCG husband is one who is willing to live peacefully with him, with no tendency toward hostility or contentiousness. 

"But if that mate becomes hostile or stirs up contention, it [the marriage relationship] should be cut off," Mr. Flurry said. "Where there is hostility you must cut off every time."

• The other exception to the disfellowship rule is "unbaptized children" and other former PCG attendees who may have been baptized but were not "validly baptized."

Mr. Flurry noted that Herbert W. Armstrong, founder of the Worldwide Church of God, in whose footsteps Mr. Flurry conscientiously endeavors to walk, "had a relationship with his daughter" only because Mr. Armstrong "believed she was never converted." 

The fruits of Mr. Armstrong's daughter's lack of conversion "were there," said Mr. Flurry.
Mr. Armstrong had two daughters, Beverly Gott, who died in 1992, and Dorothy Mattson, who lives in Sun City, Ariz. 

Mr. Flurry did not say which of the two he was speaking of, but Mr. Armstrong did have working relationships with both his daughters in his lifetime. 

Mrs. Gott frequently traveled with her father on his trips to visit world leaders and the Ambassador College campuses in Texas and England, even though many members of the Radio/Worldwide Church of God did not consider her to be a member of the church. 

"As long as they [unbaptized or invalidly baptized former church attendees] were unconverted, we can have a relationship there," Mr. Flurry said, "but we do have to be awfully careful."

If church members aren't cautious in their dealings with these kinds of relatives and friends, they can fall into grave error by promoting fellowship--ungodly fellowship--with somebody who really had been converted. 

Therefore church members must make sure anyone they have contact with who formally attended the PCG was never converted--that is, was either never baptized or was invalidly baptized--because "we don't want to use this as a cop-out." 

Mr. Flurry said it again, just to make sure the brethren understood: 

Although they may associate with their children as long as they were never converted, "if your children have been baptized and left [the PCG], that relationship should be severed. We must obey God's command." 

He explained what he meant by "God's command" in this context by quoting the apostle Paul in Romans 16:17: "Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and avoid them." 

It just amazes me that PCG members would go to their minister to ask for help in the following areas.  What right does a minister have in telling you who you are allowed to visit with in your own family?


He did mention that the PCG could encounter some legal problems if church members prevent their Laodicean parents from visiting with their children; that is, the Laodiceans' grandchildren. 

In such cases, the PCG ministry could evaluate the situation and might allow the Laodiceans some contact with the members' children, as long as the Laodiceans are not hostile and contentious toward the Philadelphian church members. 

Mr. Flurry also talked about church members who work for Laodiceans. To preserve their livelihood, the members may continue their employment with Laodiceans (or, analogously, with employers who have been disfellowshipped), but they should work toward finding a new job as soon as possible. 

"The principle, remember, is this," Mr. Flurry said: "There should not be any contact with converted church members who have left, and that includes family members other than a mate."

Mr. Flurry did say that, when shunning disfellowshipped and marked former members and Laodiceans, PCG members should take care to be "as inoffensive as we possibly can and as kind and loving and as considerate as we possibly can, regardless of what attitude even they may have."

The exception to this rule would be if the ex-members or Laodiceans began "attacking" the PCG members.
In that case the PCG members do not have to be as inoffensive, kind and considerate as they would normally be.

Shunning, disfellowshipping, marking and avoiding Laodiceans serve the higher purpose, said the PCG leader, of sending an important message.
"Avoiding these people . . . get[s] a message across to them that they are influenced by the devil and we don't want to have anything to do with them."

If situations come up that he did not cover in this sermon, Mr. Flurry said, then members can check with their regional directors for more clarification of church policy. If a regional director cannot answer a question, he will pass it up the line to Mr. Flurry for a final resolution.

12 comments:

Redfox712 said...

Gerald Flurry has always been bizarrely obsessed with shunning "Laodiceans". This was true even in a 1990 edition of Malachi's Message.

Once I did a blog after I read a 1990 edition of Malachi's Message. Here's one part of it relevant to this discussion.

I quote:

""If the work to the world is basically finished - most of what remains to be done is separating the Laodiceans and the Philadelphians.... That should not taken very long - but it will be painful! Very painful - in some cases it will break up families." (p. 78.)

"My word! This has to be one of the most disgusting, horrid and shocking statements Flurry ever says in this book. Here is the terrible no contact policy in embryo. Although (as far as I know) the no contact policy was not yet in force then, it seems clear that the seeds of self-righteous hatred against so-called Laodiceans (WCG members and members of other COGs) is already there in Flurry's heart.

"He knows the hatred he is teaching towards those he defines as Laodiceans will tear up families. But it seems clear from these words he is determined to do it regardless, as early as February 1990.

"It is a terrible tragedy that Flurry found himself in just the right time to gain enough converts from WCG to became one of the major Armstrongite COGs."

End quote.

I have always been particularly disgusted at PCG's no contact policy, even when I was an Armstrongite.

Unknown said...

Flurry is now 78 years old. So this edict was issued 8 years ago when he was 70.

As the acting High Priest of Joshua here on Banned, I hereby DISFELLOWSHIP , MARK and BAN, any relationship with Gerald Flurry or his family for any readers of this blog.

THERE! TAKE THAT! --- Two can play this silly game!

Luv,
Joe Moeller
Cody, WY

Anonymous said...

Flurry need not fret over his policy of evil, that he presently has in full effect.

While in the PCG, my immediate family and other members never listened to a word I had to say, so they sure as hell aren't going to give any thought to my words of warning today.

Anonymous said...

In the PCG, HWA is believed to be the end-time Elijah who restored
“all things”, then it would follow that the PCG is unteachable, since they already have it all.

Anonymous said...

Thanks to the PCG, I can personally attest to the "brother will betray brother" portion of the Bible.

Anonymous said...

Brotherly love is in the name, but it sure isn't in the PCG.

Byker Bob said...

Probably the most revealing question an ACOG splinter member should be asking himself is: "What if I get to the Kingdom, only to discover that Jesus is exactly like my ACOG splinter leader?"

This is a deep question, and one could probably spend hours pondering it. First off, if your splinter leader is close to God, then it should indeed be the case that he is a virtual clone of Jesus. Also, (God forbid) but if Jesus governs the Kingdom just as your ACOG leader governs your splinter, would you even want to be part of that for all eternity?

Much has been made of the delinquency of some of the ministers' children here from time to time. I personally believe that many of these kids became very conflicted over their parents' teachings and basic lack of fairness, never drank the delusional Kool Aid, and therefore became nihilistic in their basic approach to life. Some made it back into reality, others unfortunately came back later for their serving of Kool Aid, while others lived debauched and ruined lives that were totally avoidable had there been more accurate theology instead of cultism.

BB

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...

How on earth is a 'no contact' policy toward 'Laodiceans' ever going to help bring them to the PCG?? All it does it make the PCG look un-Christ like, and in the process drives more people away from the church than to it.

Anonymous said...

What does one expect from Flurry? The poor little man has two dead false apostles whispering in his ears.

Gerald and his supporters have emulated Paul and Herbert to the extreme, and now we witness the results of their gullibility.

Anonymous said...

Unlike greedy Pack, grumpy Flurry has no desire to bring in more sheep. He is content, so long as the bills are paid, and he can send elite families on European/Middle Eastern vacations, and ministers to various other destinations. He has already condemned 50% of the "halfhearted" to the Lake of Fire.

The PCG runs on a .05 ratio, after 5% the doors are closed. Only the well-to-do need apply. The RCG can have all the rest.

Anonymous said...

The perfect PCG has a bad habit of scrubbing their comment section.

After approving a high number of comments (in order to generate high web traffic), they will go back months later and delete the ones that have the slightest hint of constructive criticism.

For example, their article entitled 'Respect President Obama' had over 50 comments, but now only has 4.

theTrumpet.com should stop wasting the time of others. They are attempting to change history by editing it.