Qualities that the Church of God discarded decades ago.
Do any of the ministers in the Church of God have any integrity? For the last twenty some years were have seen hundreds and hundreds of them jump ship from one group to another. Very few seem to be able to stop and take stock of what is going on and say, "What the hell am I doing? I am a better man than this. This is bullshit" and walk away from it all. They just jump from one group to the next expecting there to be money and open arms waiting for them. Integrity never seems to follow them.
A reader here writes:
Bob Rodzaj has given outstanding sermons outlining the kind of loving government the Church needs to practice... and now he is going into the autocratic LCG, where Meredith's cruelty and arbitrary nepotistic rule go far beyond any excesses David Hulme has ever been accused of.
Peter Nathan just last month was telling COGaic brethren that there isn't any existing Church of God group practicing proper government. And now he is supporting LCG's form of government, which again makes Hulme's rule look benevolent by comparison. Just ask the COGaic members who came to COGaic from Global and Living.
Either these ministers have been deceived by Rod Meredith and his henchmen, or else they are hirelings of the most shameless kind.
A warning to these men: Meredith's pattern is to flatter new recruits by promising them great access or freedom or authority, or simply by making them feel like they are his special trusted advisors. But once you are in, just another slave on the payroll, the view changes from inside the prison. If you have any common sense left, please step away before you are trapped!
The reader/writer lost me as soon as I saw a capital "c" in "church." Get over it, already.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, Peter Nathan is now on his fourth splinter.
Ouch.
>>Meredith's pattern is to flatter new recruits by promising them great access or freedom or authority, or simply by making them feel like they are his special trusted advisors. But once you are in, just another slave on the payroll, the view changes from inside the prison. If you have any common sense left, please step away before you are trapped!<<
ReplyDeleteDavid Robinson in his book Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web (Chapter 15) provides an intriguing example of how Meredith flatters people into doing what he wants.
He mentions how in 1979 Meredith ordered him to leave his pastorate in Tulsa, Oklahoma and become a student at Ambassador College, Pasadena. Meredith assured him that he would have his friendship to make this sudden move attractive. Wisely Robinson did not trust this promise and soon afterwards Rader deposed Meredith and sent him to exile in Hawai'i.
Actually Robinson has some pretty enlightening words to say about Meredith in his book.
>>Peter Nathan just last month was telling COGaic brethren that there isn't any existing Church of God group practicing proper government. And now he is supporting LCG's form of government, which again makes Hulme's rule look benevolent by comparison. Just ask the COGaic members who came to COGaic from Global and Living.<<
It is my experience after reading what LCG, PCG, HWA and others said about government that it is often a cult word game used simply to denigrate all other COGs. Some COGs claim that only they have proper government and all others have abandoned proper government. In fact most COGs have the same one man rule that was practiced by HWA's WCG. What they really mean is that we are special because we say so, so all other COGs are worthless.
It is hard for me to sympathize with these ministers who joined LCG. I only hope they do not drag too many former Hulmites into LCG's fold.
Excellent post Rodfox.
ReplyDelete"Qualities that the Church of God discarded decades ago."
This is totally unfair, Gary. These are qualities the COG never had in the first place.
A (totally corrupt) hireling minister once told me that the only one who wasn't a hireling was Jesus. He was trying to defend himself and his cronies. Not a very good defense, given all the terrible things that the NT has Jesus saying about "hirelings." At the time I disagreed with him. But now that I'm out of xianity, I have to say, I think he was right. Just not in the way he meant it.
You show your fruits by your words on this page. You have not Proved anything except your own bitterness.
ReplyDelete