Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Gerald Flurry and the Philadelphia Church of God Sink To A New Low



Just when you think the perverseness of Gerald Flurry and his cult cant get any more debased along comes another horror story.  This one involves the Flurry and the Philadelphia Church of God commanding members to NOT pray for a family who lost two children.  The idea that ANY church member would submit to such a vile admonition is beyond comprehension.

This is from the Exit and Support website and is a letter from a former Deaconess in the PCG..

PCG Continues to Tear People's Lives Apart:
August 18, 2014

Dear ESN, I wrote a letter on January 6th of this year about the heartache caused by the PCG's cut off policy. The recent news about Janet Privratsky is another perfect example. Some have commented on the lack of response from family or friends. I remember when the Bacon boy died [Jason Bacon  SEE BELOW], and we were actually told via a HQ CD NOT to pray for them. When is there ever a time that you cannot cry out to God? Within days his sister Crystal also committed suicide. PCG claims to be giving a message of hope, but the fruits show differently, and you'll know them by the fruits. [Matthew 7:16-20]

I recently heard of a beautiful family (he an ex-PCG minister now put out) going through divorce. I wonder if he had just seen enough of this nonsense and couldn't go along with it any more. Now another family is being torn apart. Where is the "God family" vision in that?! My oldest son was in his freshman and sophomore year with Janet at AC in Edmond. We knew the DeGennaro family from going to family dances in Canada. I've looked back through the Envoy, and my heart aches for that family. PCG has said only the very elect "sigh and cry" for the abominations in the WCG as the organization split. Now I sigh and cry for the abominations in the PCG, RCG, and every other WCG splinter I can think of. I remember obeying every detail, cutting off family, fasting and seeking only to be told by Cal Culpepper that it wasn't good enough. He actually said I would have to bend over backwards! Where does the Bible say that? When I actually did, his response was that he was not buying it.

It's been over four years since two of my adult children have spoken to me due to this cut off policy. I recently heard that my daughter is planning her wedding to a HQ member. Like the DeGennaros, we are not to have any part of these special life events. I miss them so. Isn't sharing your life what family is about? Dan DeGennaro's letter to ESN said he will make sure the truth is known. I hope so. We should write another book called, "Creating More Ruins," as a sequel to Stephen Flurry's book to show how the PCG has continued to tear people's lives apart all in the name of God. Our sincere condolence to the DeGennaros. We would like to let them know that we will support or help them in any way possible. --Ex-PCG deaconess, Lori Miiller


Deaths of Siblings in PCG:
May 15, 2010
I, too, heard about the recent deaths in PCG. [Jason Bacon and Crystal Bacon] The boy (only 21) had just been allowed back in PCG after being suspended and cut off for "sinning" for who-knows-and-who-cares-what. He went back because he didn't like being cut off from his family.

He was out of town with a friend, celebrating his birthday and a new job, and fell from a balcony. He was in a coma and died a couple weeks later. The ministry corrected his friend and wouldn't let him go to the hospital. He wasn't even allowed to go to the funeral!

Edmond people came to the funeral on Friday and there was a memorial Sunday. His older sister, who's been suspended and cut off before too, died Monday morning. The father, in another offshoot, was allowed to come, but they went back to cutting him off after the weekend. --Anonymous
Comment: Jason Read Bacon was born April 7, 1989 and died April 25, 2010. The obituary on him can be read here. A cached copy from stilwellonline.info had more info and said he died in Las Vegas, NV, had a graveside service April 30 in Westville, OK, with PCG minister Robert Brown presiding, and that he had 3 sisters and 3 brothers. 

Members Corrected for Asking Prayer for Jason Without Permission:
May 16, 2010
Members were "corrected" for asking for prayer for Jason without the ministry's permission. I sometimes wonder if PCG reads the same things I read in Revelation about the Nicolaitanes (Revelation 2:6,15), or even if they understand it. --Impacted by PCG

More on PCG Deaths:
May 16, 2010
Jason had been suspended and was back. He fell from the 8th floor onto the 4th floor swimming pool deck around 3:00 a.m. His older sister Crystal is dead, too. Cause of death not known yet, but she was an alcoholic prone to depression. She had been suspended before; not sure if she currently was. That may be the case and more reason for her "possibly" taking her own life. --Friend of Jason



19 comments:

Byker Bob said...

I keep asking myself how the people who teach and enforce such evil can even be allowed to continue to live.
That they claim to be doing it on behalf of God seems to be the worst form of mockery or even blasphemy.

One of these days, this stuff is going to come back on them. Young people practically have better chances of survival in the ghetto!

BB

Lake of Fire Church of God said...

"Members were "corrected" for asking for prayer for Jason without the ministry's permission".

MY COMMENT - Uh, planet earth to the dumb tithe slaves of the Philadelphia Church of God, who gave Jesus Christ permission to pray to God? Gerald Flurry???

Richard
Lake of Fire Church of God

Allen C. Dexter said...

I'm glad I never got into any of these splinters and was only briefly associated with Ernest Martin's foundation. I've made my own decisions about everything since 1974 and am thankful that none of these sleaze balls ever got their hooks into me. Philadelpia Church, indeed. There's no love there, brotherly or otherwise. It's as full of hate as ISIS!

Anonymous said...

You have her as an ex LCG deaconess, but the posting on Exit & Support says ex PCG, which makes sense.

NO2HWA said...

Thanks for catching that! Autocorrect on the iPad is a pain.

Redfox712 said...

I remember about that tragedy occurred. It's terrible.

Imagine being ordered not to pray for someone. What an obscenity.

It is abusive and controlling behavior like that which is why PCG is a cult.

And just imagine PCG is getting ready to release a 288 page book by Gerald Flurry, entitled, The Former Prophets: How to Become a King.

All these terrible things occur within PCG and he gets to write a book to lure new victims. The whole situation is just so wrong.

Redfox712 said...

Hey! Look at these words from Gerald Flurry.

"What if the royal family of Britain fails to heed this extremely strong warning? [PCG's "warning" that Britain will soon be conquered by Germans] God will send destroyers against the rulers sitting on David’s throne who forsake God’s covenant with David (Jeremiah 22:7-9). Jeremiah is very descriptive of their end. “Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory! He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem" (verses 18-19). The ancient rulers were only a type of what is to happen in this end time. The royal family of Britain will receive the “burial of an ass” if they don’t repent!" (Gerald Flurry, Jeremiah and the Greatest Vision in the Bible, 2013 version, Chapter 9, p. 110. Italics mine.)

If Gerald Flurry can be so contemptuous of the British royal family how much worse will his attitude be towards the powerless?

Redfox712 said...

Why would anyone stay in a group that did things like this?

Where did he get that urgency? “And the Lord hath sent unto you all his servants the prophets, rising early and sending them; but ye have not hearkened, nor inclined your ear to hear” (verse 4). God was always urgent and hard-working in sending prophets to warn Judah. Jeremiah was being inspired by God. Here is the key to our success in God’s Work. We must be urgent the way God is! There is nothing more urgent than getting God’s Work done! Are we filled with God’s urgency? That means God’s Work must become our work.

This is why so few people are doing God’s Work. Generally
an individual doesn’t love God and His Work more than he
does his own life. His individual work is more important than
God’s Work. The very elect know that they work for God. And
nothing is more urgent.
How rare are such people on this Earth. (Gerald Flurry, Jeremiah and the Greatest Vision in the Bible, 2013 version, Chapter 9, pp. 113-4.)

That's right. It is words like these that some PCG members think sacrificing for PCG is more important then providing for your family, advancing your career in order to provide for your family, meeting with your family, being loving towards your spouse and your children.

Flurry's writings are filled with highly emotive phrases like this designed to foster fanaticism for the benefit of the powerful few who run PCG.

And many PCG members have not yet woken up to the fact that they are being used.

old EXPCG hag said...

Yes I was there when Jason died. I remember how cold they treated his death, Chrystal too. I'm so glad I got out before they totally destroyed my family. People don't realize how easily you can get caught up in those cults, especially if it has been your only life and our whole family is in it.

Gerald Flurry is no better than Hitler was. He's evil!

Lake of Fire Church of God said...

Allen C. Dexter said, "I've made my own decisions about everything since 1974 and am thankful that none of these sleaze balls ever got their hooks into me. Philadelpia Church, indeed. There's no love there, brotherly or otherwise. It's as full of hate as ISIS!"

MY COMMENT - Allen speaks The Plain Truth!

Personally, I don't see how anyone who listened to HWA, GTA, read what they wrote in the 1960s and 70s, and listened to what was preached from WCG pulpits during that time period can be associated with the Armstrong movement 50 years later. In retrospect, the most important work on the planet - the Work of God - was nothing more than a self aggrandizing work of man. Time has proven HWA a fraud!

Richard
Lake of Fire Church of God

Sweetblood777 said...

I am very surprised that someone has not yet gone postal and put an end to these vultures.

Obviously their message is a message of hate. They are provoking the god they claim to worship and will receive double for their evil deeds.

Byker Bob said...

Flurry has deluded his members into myopia. God is much more expansive than the limitations Flurry has placed upon Him.

Other Christian thinkers teach that doing God's work, ie a Christian's sabbath rest, means doing God's will (not one's own) in every aspect of your life. In other words, making an impact as an ambassador of God's Kingdom on the prevailing culture surrounding one's work and community. The overall image Flurry and his group project to the world and members of other ACOGs appears especially cruel, evil, and based on very unattractive harsh and negative charisma.

With such negative PR for God, who would want to become a follower of Jesus Christ if it meant becoming the type of person exemplified by Gerald Flurry?

BB

Allen C. Dexter said...

They descended even farther than the original WCG. At the time I opted out, they did not demand that family members totally cut themselves off from those who left. My relationship with my sister and my parents remained solid. I was listed in their computer files as an inactive member. I still talk to my sister at least once a week, and I really don't know their religious feelings, but they're pretty inactive in any org.

James said...

Gerald Flurry. A servant of Baal.

Lake of Fire Church of God said...

You know what gets me right now?

Here we have the WCG and its offshoots including PCG preaching from pulpits for 80 years that they are the True Church and that their members will suffer persecution. As a teenager growing up in WCG, I remember sermons on persecution citing Fox's Book of Martyrs throughout the sermons. There was one scary sermon preached by Fred Kellers in 1969 on the subject "have you thought about your death" in which he said there was a good likelihood that many would die in the next 3 years. Three years from 1969 was 1972 the start of the Great Tribulation according to WCG belief. Be brave and die faithfully was his message.

Fast forward to 2014, I didn't die within 3 years, nor did the Great Tribulation start in 1972 with Christ returning in 1975. In fact, I don't think anyone that I am aware of in the WCG or its many offshoots over its 80 year history have died as a result of persecution for their beliefs. Terry Ratzmann doesn't count because he was a member of LCG killing his brethren out of frustration because he couldn't find a wife.

In contrast, as I write today Christians in Iraq are being beheaded and being persecuted for their belief in Christ - AND THE ARMSTRONGITES DON"T EVEN CONSIDER THEM TO BE REAL CHRISTIANS!

There has been 80 years of BS from WCG pulpits on the subject of persecution that ultimately never happened while as I write the "nominal" fake Christians in Iraq are laying down their lives "for thine name sake".

That's what gets me right now!

Richard
Lake of Fire Church of God

old EXPCG hag said...


That's what gets me right now!

Richard
Lake of Fire Church of God

August 21, 2014 at 7:05 AM

Yes isn't it funny, REAL PRACTICING CHRISTIANS get beheaded for following Christ but FAKE NON PRACTICING CHRISTIANS >PCG hierarchy< spend their whole life scamming money from members so they can SAVE their lives.

Sweetblood777 said...

No Richard, it isn't funny. It should raise the hair at the back of our heads.

Anonymous said...

In accordance with Scripture, Gerald Flurry is disfellowshipped. No one is to have any contact with him. He is turned over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh.

All are required to shun Gerald Flurry as an evil infidel. He is not to be allowed to any functions until he brings forth evidence of his repentance.

It might be well for him to go on
Dr. Phil so he can get the help he needs and go to the recovery center Dr. Phil recommends.

Anonymous said...

David Privratsky is getting remarried to Vanessa Skinner in Feb 2017, guess he's moved on without blinking an eye.