There is an ultra-conservative Armstrongist group on Yahoo Groups that only discusses HWA and church teachings prior to 1986. Their god was only at work in HWA's life and the Church of God till he died. No truth has come since then. They tend to be appalled by everything happening in the COG today. From women dressing like hookers to talking about football, the grievous sins abound in the various COG's. Heaven forbid if you dare to go out to lunch or dinner on a Saturday after church for a nice conversation.
These are some of the sins in the church today.In addition to immodest feminine apparel, the following sins have been quite common in congregations I have attended through the years:
- Talk about sports, celebrity gossip, or politicians instead of whatever topic the minister might have presented in his sermon.
- Going out to eat at restaurants on the sabbath.
Oh the humanity!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Talking about sports on Saturdays! What else can one do when he/she has just sit through 1.5 hours of the most incredibly BORING sermon ever preached expounding point after point? If a minister can't deliver his message in 20-30 minutes then he needs to quit. These bloviating windbags need to give it a rest!
- Multi-level sales drop offs, (everything from ladies cosmetics to nutritional supplements to precious metals and coins), recruitment, and the collection of email addresses or other contact information for further sales efforts.
5 comments:
How about false prophets?
It should be obvious, but this is one of the most common effects of obsessive rulekeeping. Suddenly its not about your performance, its about everyone else's.
When you set an example from the pulpit of criticizing everyone outside of your own little group, it preestablishes a behavioral pattern in which members will eventually criticize those inside of the group, including the leaders.
This criticism could come from the perspective of a sudden awakening to the evils which have always been present in the organization, or result from a personal taking of the plethora of rules to an illogical extreme. Either approach creates imbalance in one's life, as one attempts to act in the valence of one's leaders, the "acceptable" example of strength.
BB
You have an error, HWA taught it was ok to eat out on the sabbath. I grew up in the 80s and everyone ate out at the feast and after services on the sabbath. My father the pastor had been doing it since the early 70s and was and Ambassador grad.
He says those that do not eat out on the sabbath are weak, and can't eat meat.... Also you can find online transcripts of HWA saying it's just fine, even good, to eat out on the sabbath.
So you have the sabbath issue with HWA 180 degrees off.
Interesting that for ultra conservative Armstrongists, wearing immodest apparel on the wrong day, going to a restaurant on the wrong day, talking about sports on the wrong day, and networking on the wrong day are the heinous crimes against humanity that are bringing mankind to the brink of apocalyptic catastrophe.
All of these "sins" are connected to the pharisaical, ritualistic observance of only the 4th commandment. I doubt any of these people would be aghast at the wearing of even less modest apparel, such as a conservative one-piece swimsuit to the beach on a Tuesday, going to the Olive Garden on a Wednesday, talking about golf on a Thursday, or neworking come Monday morning.
Of those who perform this ritual, it seems some have different ideas about the level of performance that, in Tkachian terms, is "required for salvation, I suppose. Imperfect ritual keeping, as we all know from all the "odd" weather, causes god to smite everyone.
But we shouldn't think that "odd" weather has only been happening since humans walked the earth. Since it seems likely the dinosaurs fell victim to some "odd" weather 65M years ago, we have only to ask ourselves one question: "Were the dinosaurs up-to-snuff regarding their ritualistic sabbath-keeping?" Obviously not, hence the obvious cause of their extinction.
Also interesting is that among things that are NOT sins according to ultra conservative Armstrongists are the idolatrous worship of HWA (1st commandment), taking god's name in vain (3rd commandment), adultery (7th commandment), the wholesale swindling of the members, ministerial embezzlement and tax fraud (8th commandment), lying and prophesying in the name of god falsely (9th commandment), plus other sundry biblical and non-biblical offenses such as alcoholism, pedophilia, and self-righteousness...
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