The disgusting filth that is the Philadelphia Church of God continues its record of abuse towards its members. Elder abuse seems to be an ongoing issue with the PCG, especially when they are set to reap financial gain from bleeding a member dry.
How many more lives and families need to be ripped apart by the revolting polices of this destructive cult?
Excerpts from the Exit and Support letter: My Mom Finally Saw the Truth About Philadelphia Church of God
I have read about the abuse of the elderly in Philadelphia Church of God and thought it might be time, now that my mom has died, to provide yet another testimony concerning this issue. This one has an added difference. She was the widow of a minister in the PCG.
Now for her story. I don't know about the widows of all of the ministers, but I can testify that this widow received no pension or help from PCG headquarters. After she had given a great deal of her inheritance to the PCG, and being only on social security and still tithing that little sum, she requested third tithe assistance as her rent had gone up. You know this is the tithe that is supposed to be used for the widows and fatherless. Well, they took several months to get back to her. It took so long that she had to renew her lease and was on the hook for rent for another year. Finally, her regional pastor, whom I won't name, but his first and last initials are the same [C. C.], called her and told her that if she had been a better steward of her money she would not need to "beg from the church." You read that right--beg. They thanked her for her donations and then accused her of being a poor steward of her money because she needed help.
-----She was devastated. I suggested she ask for her money back so that she could show them what a good steward she could be if not being coerced into giving all her money to them, but she wouldn't do that. She decided she couldn't live on her own anymore and, like a good PCG follower, she counseled with her regional minister about moving in with her son, my brother. He told her she was not been allowed to move in with him because he was "toxic." This minister didn't know my brother. He had never been in a "church of God" [WCG offshoot] but he had made it quite clear to our stepfather minister how he felt about the whole thing. She decided she was going to move in with him anyway and did. Yay to my mom! This was the beginning of her thinking on her own.
-------She was in and out of hospitals and rehab centers for a couple of months and during that time was anointed at least three times by the ministers from the church I attend and visited by those she had formerly shunned who had never gone to the PCG. I might add that she never did believe the shunning was right and a lot of the people in the PCG don't believe it either. They live in fear. These were her own words. She told me she feared the regional minister more than God and came to realize that was not the way to be.1 There is no love in the PCG ministry. She indicated her previous minister, Aaron Eagle, was a much better person than the minister she had at the end and she thought that he was put out because of it. She saw that God is trying to build a family and that Satan, through PCG, is trying to destroy families.
In the end, Mom had to recant what she said when she told me she had to shun me for my own good, about being poor, blind and naked when she realized it is the PCG that fits that description.2
12 comments:
I don't even know what to say. I don't know if I'm angrier at the ministry for being so cruel or the members for putting up with it and calling it godly.
Luke 12:45 is being fulfilled; what puzzles me is that many in the cogs out of a blind sense of loyalty and faith continue to tolerate this kind of abuse; indeed people are sheeple; may God be merciful and reward her for what she has had to endure...
This is merely a small sample of what it would be like in a 'Kingdom of God' if Armstrongists were allowed to run it.
From the linked story it appears that daughter & son are also hooked (in UCG) and son's house burned down due to old defective wiring (sounds like a familiar COG story)(well there's somewhere they could have spent some of the family fortune instead of giving it to GF!)
It also says the mother voluntarily handed off most of the fortune to GF after true believer husband died. Then daughter says "why don't you ask for it back so you can prove you are a good steward?"
Well, she's already proven she was not good with money. Must have been a large amount, maybe half a mil - would keep HWA Auditorium running for a few months, subsidizing the Performing Arts for Oklahoma's wealthy.
I got the feeling towards the end right before I was disfellowshipped in Feb. 2012 that Brian Davis and his brother-in-law Andrew Hessong (Uncle Andy) were jealous that I had inherited land and several houses. Those creeps don't want, (especially) women, to have anything.This is exactly what those abusive ministers will end up with in the end...NOTHING!!
To Brain D. and Uncle Andy...
lalalalala, I have more than you do. hahahaha!
It is time to contact Paul Morantz.
From the front page of the Painful Truth:
Need legal help?
'Paul Morantz is an American attorney at law specializing in the prosecution of fanatical cults, religious or otherwise, and their leaders for harmful conduct. Specializing in the prosecution of those whose victims suffer through the undue influence of coercive persuasion.'
http://www.paulmorantz.com/
This is undue influence. The PCG needs to return the money to this poor women.
Relationships are built on mutual trust. Surely, we've all seen skits from seminars in which people, as part of the role playing exercises are encouraged to pair off, close their eyes, and fall backwards as their partner catches them.
The people who have given their all to their ACOG have already demonstrated their trustworthiness, done their part of the role playing by "catching" their financially falling church. The problem is, when there comes a time when these donors need for their church to "catch" them, the church proves to be totally unreliable. They cannot be trusted to fulfill their part of the equation.
Because of the history of these things, and they had their roots in old school WCG, because that's where the example came from, people who are considering giving large sums of money to an ACOG should make it a loan, and should have the papers for this loan carefully and explicitly drawn up by an attorney of their own choosing. They should fully expect exercising their right to legal counsel to be met with the hostility of their local minister and fake apostle or fake prophet. Those people don't want loans, or any sense of honor, they want gifts with no strings attached, and will shame and threaten members in any way possible to get that. When this happens, members should realize that they are dealing with dishonorable, money-grubbing cretins, and should search for more deserving recipients of their resources. That would be being a good steward!
BB
"Satan got to the person."
Yes, indeed, Satan got to the person. No doubt about that. Satan got to everyone in the PCG. That is why they are in the PCG. If Satan had not got to them, they would not be in his PCG.
Laws define what a society has established over time to be equitable (not abusive) "boundaries" between individuals literal and fictitious. Though I'm not sure what the best legal angle is, if the ACOG cults are abusive in a financial sense, which they are, then there should be by now at least one point of law which a good case can be made that they stand in violation.
It would be awesome to see a class action suit against the ACOGs for their tithing doctrines/pressure for bequests. It would be a long shot against a "church", but sometimes long shots pan out.
Even if you believe the bible is divinely inspired, the Sabbath, holy days, tithing ect.. was given exclusively to the Isrealites and not to the gentiles.
I am shocked at how many mainstream churches push the sheep to tithe when it was clearly not a Christians responsibility to do so.
How many elderly are abused by mainstream ministers that con them out of large sums of money that they need to live off of.
This is much more wide-spread then just the COG's.
Yes, when my mother's semi-erratic behavior started ramping up and I took control, I found she had donated huge sums to Joyce Meyer that she'll never get back. Enrages me... but nothing to be done for it now.
RSK, I empathize with you. Joyce Meyer is a total con artist, yet effective in selling her con and raking her dupes for untraceable and nonreturnable millions of dollars.
It's good that you were able to take control and put the brakes on it. Too many have been taken in by her, giving every last dollar to what they thought was the best cause imaginable.
She's one of the nastiest ladies inhabiting the Mainstream Christian landscape.
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