The Untied Church of God has published new guidelines for a new youth educational instruction program, "UCG Youth Instruction Program—A Deuteronomy 6 Model."
Like all COG's these days, the UCG is not able to keep it's youth from remaining tithing members once they hit college age. Most leave because of the hypocrisy they see daily or have easily proven that the law is NOT to be kept, or that they are just plain sick of religion.
The following quote from the United News is stirring up a lot of talk on various COG related sites. What has struck many people is the list of things that people can do to entice children to stay involved, starting at a young age. What many are noticing is that the list sounds much like what pedophiles do to groom children into becoming compliant. While I know that was not UCG's intent, it still is rather creepy! Nothing makes a COG feel more successful though than having brain-numbed compliant children and adults.
One thing that is painfully obvious is that no where in the list of points below is there ANY reference to Jesus. They just cannot handle the guy! If they did, they would have to admit their Old Covenant silliness is wrong.
While God clearly lays the primary responsibility for teaching children on the parents, He also indicates that the Church community at large must be involved in passing on His ways.As a church, we are assessing how to be more effective with youth instruction by emphasizing a Deuteronomy:6:6-7
“parents first” model, where the Church supports and supplements parents’ teaching, but does not supplant their responsibility.
So how can you as a Church member be involved and help pass on God’s way of life to the children in your congregation?
Here are some tips:
• Get to know every child’s name and have conversations with him or her.
• Make a point to acknowledge, smile, talk to each child every Sabbath or at other times when you see them. It is important for them to know you care about them as an individual.
• Get to know one thing about him/her that they enjoy doing.
• Ask how school is and what do they want to do when they grow up.
• Find out who their favorite Bible hero is.
• Find out what their favorite Bible scriptures or stories are. Why do they relate or like those the best?
• Where are they going for the Feast and what are they looking forward to learning and doing?
This is so pointless. Note that the focus is never on leading people to Jesus Christ. It's on indoctrination. Roy Holladay knows no other way to think, like all of his colleagues.
ReplyDeleteLook at the language:
"...passing on His ways"
"...obey his commandments"
"...help pass on God's way of life"
"...talk to each child every Sabbath"
It's completely built around law-keeping and doing what UCG (in the historical HWA model) insists must be done. For support, Holladay cites a scripture that talks about how God "gave his laws to the people of Israel and commandments to the descendants of Jacob." Huh?
The concern isn't with people's salvation, young or otherwise. It's about keeping them in the UCG. That's it. There's no emphasis on leading people to Jesus Christ because UCG and the other COGs don't know how to do that. They can't imagine preaching Jesus and him crucified and then trusting people to express that belief how they see fit. No, people must stay in "the church." It's silliness.
That's why this stuff doesn't work, and never has. It's why the WCG historically lost, up to the time of the doctrinal upheaval, half of its members. It's why young people leave these groups in droves.
This kind of window-dressing isn't going to change anything. The Armstrongist COGs don't lead people to Jesus Christ. They lead them anywhere but. Thus, the slow, steady decline continues.
For decades we sat in the Radio Church of God / Worldwide Church of God, believing, in our hubris, that we were all believing the same thing.
ReplyDeleteThen the Tkaches came along.
We quickly found out that we didn't have a clue to what the people sitting next to us in services all those years really believed (let alone practiced).
So what we have is a cult of strangers pretending to be family.
That's as close to the Mafia that they are going to get. And knowing who (and what) other people are isn't going to get any better.
It's a cult.
There are no socially redeeming values for children or adults.
Oh How Horrific!!
ReplyDeleteSuch personal filthy questions.
How will the kids survive this rabid assault on their psyche!
Ditto what the first commenter said. But that's not all...
ReplyDelete1) Armstrongism, including UCG, claims to be bible-based.
2) Armstrongists, including UCG preachers and baptized members assume that the reason why they are mixed up in their god's one and only troo church thing is because they are among the precious "few" who are called, chosen, elected, predestined from the foundation of the world, and have thus been sprinkled by their god with either singular or multiple portions of the magical "holy spirit" pixie dust as a token of their specialness. (Isaiah 41:4, 8-9, Matt 22:14; John 6:44, 15:16; 2Timothy 1:9; Romans 8:14-30; Ephesians 1:5-11)
3) IF (a big if) they really ARE special, then 1 Corinthians 7:14 says that their children will be special (sanctified) as well, and thus, if the parents are soooo lucky, then so are their children, hence:
Acts 2:
:38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
:39 For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
But is the bible true? Does this "promise" extend from parent to child? COG experience says the bible is wrong. And how many shall the lord god call? Experience answers, "almost none."
4) Therefore IF (a big if) the reason why the parents are mixed up in this cult really is because they were supernaturally led by their holy spirit to be mixed up in this cult, then that same holy spirit should supernaturally lead their children to an equal degree to also be mixed up in this cult. Shouldn't it??? Thus no indoctrination programs should be necessary. Their god and his holy spirit (which WCG always taught was working with baptized member's children) should be taking care of this. So EITHER the bible is wrong, OR the parents are not the special people they have merely assumed they were! They need to pick one.
Does UCG really believe that their god "calls" people, or do they teach and believe that other authority figures, such as apostles, pastor generals, ministers and parents really do this calling? Their child indoctrination program, their billboards and seminars, their "broken rung" theories, suggest that they believe mere mortals do this "calling."
If any of this fantasyland stuff really were true, and Armstrongism really were the real deal, revealed once again after 1900 years (to a pedophile), then UCG's god would be calling its children, and adults afar off as well. Telling that he is not. Hence, UCG feels it needs to "fill in" for its god, and swell it's ranks with people they've "called" instead of their god. It's either that or admit that nobody in UCG is "called" by any god.
The group of suggestions seems to be dedicated towards making the young people believe that their church is a caring, nurturing environment. The problem is that you can't command or manufacture that sort of feel. It has to be spontaneous, heartfelt, and sincere, ie a natural by-product of the way of life, or it comes off as being fake.
ReplyDeleteFor whatever reasons, there were always a small, select number of "special" people who came across as being natural and sincere, as opposed to putting on the approved front. When I was a young person, that was always the group that made me think that being in the church was being on the right track. Not the typical parrots.
BB
All the Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia expect members and children to be transformed from the outside in by practicing physical rituals, rather than a transformation from the inside out.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with using external inducements to change someone, once the external inducement is removed, the change begins to deteriorate through entropy.
If someone is truly transformed from the inside out from their base inner core, then, all things being equal, they will actually be a different person. This is called Christian Conversion.
This is and always has been a problem from the very first where you had a very perverse man corrupt to his very core, narcissistic, filled with hubris, self-willed and self-aggrandizing attempting to transform others into spiritual Christians, there was no method or process to deliver.
At this point, the leader becomes the center of the social group, defining its mores, exhibiting an outward appearance which is nothing more than a thin veneer, the very definition of cult.
Nothing can fix this and Armstrong is stuck trying to transform when it lacks the will and the tools to do so.
This proves that the UCG, (contrary to what they would want you or their children to believe )is very much a mind control cult.
ReplyDeleteCorporations are incapable of showing love, compassion or concern.
ReplyDeleteDo you think your company really gives a shit about you? Think again!
If someone started questioning my children in that manner, I would tell them to mind their own business.
ReplyDeleteTo me, all of this points to a Hitler attitude.
I hope the parents in this group would finally put all this together and pack up and leave.
Just in the course of living life, people seek standards that they hope will make them more functional. They look for a better way of dealing with, of channeling, and in some cases even freeing themselves from their very human emotions. This is why it is natural to seek out the types of people whom we suspect may know more about these things than we do, and to follow or imitate them.
ReplyDeleteThe basic Armstrong philosophy introduces more quandaries into one's life than its proponents claim that it resolves. There is the exploitation factor, and the use of patently ridiculous theories to prop up and support the entire system. When kids come of age, and are not as readily fooled by some of these things as were their parents, they are going to seek answers elsewhere. Showing interest in them, or being nice to them is not what is going to keep them in the fold. People stay or go based on whether or not they see things as working, or not working. As a personal example, in 1975, I realized that the prophecy which had been used to motivate and control us was broken, non-working, dysfunctional. It also became painfully obvious that the leaders were not living the lifestyle which they were teaching us to lead. To this, I actually found it preferable to have NO answers, to aimlessly meander around for decades, living life.
If ACOG leaders expect each new generation to remain in the fold, they need to fix their religion, to present changes in a loving fashion, and to live their lives in an exemplary way.
BB
It is quit easy to imagine the conversation at the board meeting of the UCG.
ReplyDeleteWe have to do all we can to keep the youth of the church,(potential tithe slaves) from leaving. We must make them feel more accepted, welcomed and important, (condition them to have unquestioned loyalty) so that they will stay in our fellowship. They are the future,(we need them if we are to keep our well paid jobs) of the church.
The problem in these churches is that the people who would normally step up to the plate and assume the primary financial burden when the retirees downsize and go on Social Security would normally be these kids who are leaving. The ones who were excessively disciplined are going to remember their abuse more than they will whether Deacon Smith or Farmer Brown smiled at them and asked them what their hobbies were.
ReplyDelete~Miguel de la Rodente
You are going to regret the day you mock God's church and people. God is going to cut your sorry asses to the curb where you will be begging to eat the crumbs of UCG members.
ReplyDeleteThis problem cannot be solved.
ReplyDeleteAll the leaders of the group and the senior members would have to change who and what they are and that transformation must be an internalization of morals and ethics from the inside out. They would have to become the people the youth would want to become.
It isn't going to happen because they are the sort of people no one really wants to become: Their moral compass has become degaussed and they set a terrible example as Church Corporate Cult shills believing that the end justifies the means.
Besides, they just don't provide the kind of environment that maximizes dopamine levels, particularly for youth that is entering puberty.
Not only is this problem unsolvable, entropy is going to make the problem escalate exponentially.
UCG ministers treated us like shit while growing up, always the stern disciplinarian, never caring what a child or teen was going through, what our interests were or what was going on in our heads, so long as we outwardly behaved and were generally viewed as "good kids."
ReplyDeleteThat said, this program would have probably been worse in some ways. The cold, distant ministerial threat of old and this new warm, superficial brainwashy fakery would have both been huge turn-offs.
Youth aren't leaving because they aren't engaged. They're leaving because the COG doesn't hold the same values as the Millennial Generation, something that will extend to the Homeland Generation. No amount of involvement in a kid's life is going to change that. It's a simple example of Evolve or Die. The COG has made its choice.
All their lives within Armstrongism, these kids have been taught obedience-based love, as opposed to unconditional love. In that type of environment, sudden deeper interest is going to appear to be intrusive, possibly even as spying activity for the purpose of ratting to the parents or ministry. And, a kid would be right to be very guarded, because they know that the "brethren" have been conditioned for decades to tattle on one another. People have earned enough brownie points to be ordained as deacons or elders through such tattling!
ReplyDeleteAncient underground AC limerick: "He knows that he has ratted; he knows that he has squealed! He knows he's got enough brownie points to be sent into the field!" (sung to the tune of "Santa Clause is Coming to Town")
BB
@ Doug:
ReplyDelete"All the leaders of the group and the senior members would have to change who and what they are and that transformation must be an internalization of morals and ethics from the inside out. They would have to become the people the youth would want to become.
It isn't going to happen because they are the sort of people no one really wants to become: Their moral compass has become degaussed and they set a terrible example as Church Corporate Cult shills believing that the end justifies the means."
If you've got no transformation, then, according to the bible and their own literature, they've got no "holy spirit" (Romans 5:1-21; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 2:20; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Romans 12:2; Matthew 19:26)
If you've got no "holy spirit," then you haven't got any god backing you (and no salvation either)
No god = fraudulent, moneygrubbing church
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteYou are going to regret the day you mock God's church and people. God is going to cut your sorry asses to the curb where you will be begging to eat the crumbs of UCG members.
November 9, 2014 at 12:18 AM
Commenting on how UCG tries to brainwash children is mocking God's church and His people? Armstrongites are no different from ISIS, and is it mocking Allah to comment on how ISIS brainwash children? The country's educational system is no different. Since when is commenting on the educational curriculum and the state of education of a country a form of mocking that country's educational system? We are not mocking any God's chosen here, for Armstrongite cults are not children of God but children of the devil. These religious cults do more harm than good and pointing it out is not mocking.
Yea, all the crazies asking your kids questions to >SPY< on you for the asshole ministers.
ReplyDeleteI'm still mad!!
If you've got no transformation, then, according to the bible and their own literature, they've got no "holy spirit" (Romans 5:1-21; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 2:20; 2 Corinthians 3:18; Romans 12:2; Matthew 19:26)
ReplyDeleteMy great apologies.
I've never intended to imply to hint that there is one shred of competence within the Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia.
I should have made it clear that we're dealing with completely carnal unconverted infidels running a fraudulent Cult Church Corporate.
My apologies.
Sorry.
UCG booklet: "Is God a Trinity?"
ReplyDeleteHa, ha!
New booklet: "Is God a Binary?"
Roy Holladay is only trying to do what good cult leaders do.
ReplyDeleteRecruitment and retention are two major focuses of cults.
They obviously suck at the recruitment and retention of adults, so they're now grasping at straws by trying to retain the children.
What's next- Kiddy recruitment? (Telling the kids to bring a fellow preschooler or gradeschooler with them to church next week?)
I can imagine a conversation between a UCG minister and young UCG child, Timmy-
UCG minister Mr. Dickbrain: "Wow Timmy! So glad your preschool friend Jimmy will be joining us next Sabbath!"
UCG child Timmy: "I told Jimmy he'll be able to meet Jelly, and he's excited!"
UCG minister Mr. Dickbrain: "GREAT! Joey may turn out to be our first new member in years!"
UCG child Timmy: "I also told Jimmy he may be able to visit Cowboy Joe's ranch and ride a real cow and learn how to shoot hungry people who come looking for food there!"
UCG minister Mr. Dickbrain: "Oh, don't tell Jimmy how Cowboy Joe and his bad-ass wife plan to shoot hungry people. You see, Jimmy is ready for the milk but not the meat, yet."
UCG child Timmy: "OK, Mr. Dickbrain, I think I get it. Only tell Jimmy about the happy stuff until we get him hooked?"
UCG minister Mr. Dickbrain: "PRECISELY! Also, don't tell any of your fellow classmates that they'd have to stop fun things like Christmas, Easter, Hanukkah, Purim and Halloween."
UCG child Timmy: "And the tithes, too?"
UCG minister Mr. Dickbrain: "And the tithes, too, Timmy!"
UCG child Timmy: "Jumpin' Jellies, Mr. Dickbrain! You've thought of everything!"
UCG minister Mr. Dickbrain: "Actually, Mr. Armstrong thought of everything. That's why we have a giant portrait of him hanging prominently at our headquarters!"
@Old EXPCG Hag,
ReplyDeleteYou admit to being a hag?
Isn't that self defeating?
Be proud of haggism.
I know I would be, if i was one that is.
@ Doug
ReplyDeleteNo, no. I apologize. I never meant to imply that you had implied that we're dealing with anything other than completely carnal unconverted infidels running a fraudulent Cult Church Corporate.
As if there was any such thing as "converted" to make it possible for anyone to be not that.
I was just pointing out how each member has all the information they need for an overwhelming inductive argument against the notion that there's any deity backing up any of their religious theories. All any of them have to do is stop, assess their progress, take stock of their situation, bring the jury in, and then ask for the verdict. They only reason why there's any tithepayers left in Armstrongism is because they keep the jury out and refuse to hear the verdict, pending more evidence, hoping that some other, different sort of evidence comes to light. But the evidence they're hoping will show up eventually isn't ever going to.
ReplyDeletePhil said...
@Old EXPCG Hag,
You admit to being a hag?
Isn't that self defeating?
Be proud of haggism.
I know I would be, if i was one that is.
November 10, 2014 at 3:30 PM -
To: Phil said...
Obviously, my sense of humor you do not possess!
PS...be Nice,Phillip
ReplyDelete