Click to enlarge in all of its appalling glory
Gavin Rumney had an interesting screen capture on Thursday that was written by Michael Germano. Germano is the "brains" by Living Church of God's fake "university" that is seeking accreditation. People have always assumed that Germano was a little more educated than many of the hierarchy in the Worldwide Church of God. He was also the one of the people behind the push to get Ambassador College/University accredited both times it went through the process. Germano was also part of BibArch "magazine" a pseudo-archeolology site that tried to prove many things from Scripture and to match things up with Armstrongite mythology.
His bio contains the following educational pursuits:
Just check out all of the "worldly" education he received. Contrast that to his mind boggling comments above:
Michael P. Germano, a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, holds earned doctorates from the University of Southern California and the University of La Verne. He completed post-graduate study in anthropology, archaeology, and theology at Southern Methodist University and Texas A&M University at College Station
I am sure the accrediting organization that is working with Living "University" would love to hear how degrading Germano is to them.The American academy has been overrun by an evil leftist ideology turning many college and university schools of arts and sciences into citadels of deception and factories of deceit. Many English, anthropology, history and political science departments are staffed with flaming leftists with a very few exceptions. It is almost impossible to find PhD faculty in these disciplines that reflect traditional American values. Their brains have not just been washed but scrubbed clean and reprogrammed. Part of the deception is that academic leftists not only see themselves as the most brilliant, enlightened and balanced people on the planet capable of governing everyone in every context but as moderates. It is impossible to have a reasonable conversation with members of this elite as they have convinced themselves of their indignant, deceptive righteousness. It boils over into lefty religion and includes some well-meaning evangelicals who have been attracted by it. The building of America has taken many generations but it is being shredded. As the saying goes, any old jackass (an appropriate symbol) can kick down a barn but it takes a skilled carpenter to build one.
Some in the Church of God thought Germano was going to be a "breath of fresh air" as he readily acknowledged that Christians are NOT bound to keeping Sabbath, unclean meat rules, paying tithes, circumcision and "holy" day observances.
Germano should be a breath of fresh air for LCG. Here's an excerpt from his article The Sinaitic Covenant and the Law of Moses: Irrelevant? Or, Do They Still Matter?
"In apostolic Christianity, Christians of Jewish or Gentile origin were free, as they remain today, to adhere to the Ten Utterances and observe various Mosaic Covenant traditions such as observing the Sabbath, celebrating the annual Sabbaths and associated festivals, abstaining from unclean meats, paying tithes, and circumcision, but they were not bound to do so."
(SOURCE: http://web.archive.org/web/20050302190114/bibarch.com/Articles/Article-The+Siniatic+Covenant.htm ). see University in a Broom Closet
My how times have changed! Germano knows better but has prostituted himself out to Rod Meredith's mindless rantings. For shame!
Consider Germnao's letter to the Worldwide News dated May 9, 1995:
The Germano's claimed to have been lead to grace during the changes in the Worldwide Church of God. Their lives were deeply enriched with the "fuller understanding" on what it meant to be a Christian. They claimed that the "veil had been removed" from their eyes." Yet they have become mouthpieces for the legalistic lies of Rod Meredith. Deep down they KNOW what Meredith teaches is WRONG yet they do NOTHING. The almighty paycheck still reigns supreme!The encouraging comments from our ministry all across the nation have been inspiring to my wife, Brenda, and me. It seems that each person had his or her own personal struggle in coming to understand what God is leading us collectively to know and do as his children.
Learning is painful; there is nothing easy about it. I used to believe, and preach, that the most difficult aspect of life was child rearing. I have now changed my mind. It is being a Christian.
Thanks to Mr. Tkach's leadership and relationship with God, we have been led by the Spirit of God to come to a deeper, richer, fuller understanding of what it is to be a Christian. The understanding appears to be wholly of the Spirit. When the veil is removed, all comes into place. Spiritual renewal is being worked out in a powerful and wonderful way throughout the Church.
At Ambassador University we have some on the faculty (both lay members and ministers) who have not been able to see or accept the
New Covenant understanding. The majority of the faculty, however, have and are deeply thrilled and excited about the new understanding. Some faculty and students have decided that they will work in active opposition. This is sad, but each person has come to his or her decision.
All of our children and their mates remain loyal to God's Church and work as it is administered by Mr. Tkach. I believe that by the early summer the Ambassador University community will all be of one mind once again, and we can go forward with the wonderful work that lies ahead. It is going to be a very large and exciting work, and I hope we can all grasp the vision and significance of it.
Our prayers and thoughts are with all our brothers and sisters in Christ—the ministry and the brethren. Please pray for Ambassador University. We love all of you and we know you love us.
Michael and Brenda Germano
Ambassador University
22 comments:
The cesspool that is the Living Church of God gets filthier every day. How pathetic!
If you take some of what Germnao wrote above and tweak it a little you have a perfect description of the Living Church of God ministry:
"Their brains have not been washed but scrubbed clean and reprogrammed. Part of the deception is that the LCG ministry not only see themselves as the most brilliant, enlightened and balanced people on the planet capable of governing everyone in every context but as moderates. It is impossible to have a reasonable conversation with members of this elite as they have convinced themselves of their indigent, deceptive righteousness. "
The elite of the LCG is corrupt to the core.
sounds like he was just trying to keep his job until he could find an orgnaization to join up with....
This wavering may just be one of the many side effects of that wonderful disease we know as Armstrongism. I have relatives who claimed to have a new understanding of the New Covenant in 1995, and then a couple years later were right back into the same old Armstrongism. Seems like that ends up being many peoples' deepest "understanding". Others transition onward and the new actually takes. There are cliches on either side used to explain this phenomenon. The specific problem for Dr. Germano is that he left a visible paper trail of his meanderings. Others have, as well.
Why would we expect the behavior of prominent individuals from an organization or movement to be different from the behavior of the movement itself? First there is some make up, then there is no make up, then there is. (Apologies to Donovan). Doctors are the modern equivalent of sorcerers. No, Doctors are very knowledgable, and sometimes God works through them. Jesus will return in 1975. Brethren, we never set dates, but rest assured He will probably return in 3-5 years. Sorry, your loving marriage of 15 years standing is not valid in God's site because in 1948 while on drunken shore leave, the husband married some gal he picked up in a bar, and though the marriage only lasted for a week, it was binding so long as she is alive. Since nobody knows where she is, we have to assume she is still alive. New truth, brethren! God forgives bad, past marriages just as He does other sins. Pentecost is on Monday! God would never allow the day on which His children first received the Holy Spirit to fall on the day the pagans worshipped the sun! Brethren, sometimes God just doesn't allow us to have full understanding. It appears that we were wrong in how we counted out Pentecost!
The thing is, in most cases, members reprogrammed themselves without so much as a blink, right on cue! This, no matter how deeply the beliefs had been believed and practiced over any number of years. The basic problem in Armstrongism today is that members no longer have Herbert W. Armstrong around to reprogram them, or to do their thinking for them. Nobody else is seen as having sufficient stature to be other than a temporary substitute for HWA.
I have believed for quite some time that if HWA himself had instituted the Tkach reforms, the majority of the church members would have accepted them, and the church for the most part would have remained unified, seeing it all as "new truths revealed to God's Apostle". That behavior would have been consistent with the primary programming, the primary programming being that Mr. Armstrong was God's Apostle. We can know for a fact that this would have been the church's behavioral pattern by how few people followed Raymond Cole in 1974. In modifying some of the key doctrines, such as D & R, Mr. Cole felt that HWA had literally left his own church. He based his own church, one of the first splinters, on the preservation of what he understood to be the "the faith once delivered".
So, no. Considering the background, that some would bounce back and forth amongst polar opposite views is not totally surprising. That isn't the normal progression one would expect on a forward journey to spiritual enlightenment, but then there was nothing particularly spiritually enlightening about Armstrongism. Robotics, yes. Enlightenment and transformation, not so much.
BB
James 1:8 springs to mind.
RCM offered him a paycheck and entry into LCG aristocracy. So he lacks integrity, transparency and character. He fits in perfectly at KCG headquarters!
Hmm. It's interesting to see this stuff side-by-side. Compare:
"Thank$ to Mr. Tkach'$ leader$hip and relation$hip with God, we have been led by the $pirit of God to come to a deeper, richer, fuller under$tanding of what it i$ to be a Chri$tian. The under$tanding appear$ to be wholly of the $pirit. When the veil is removed, all come$ into place. $piritual renewal is being worked out in a powerful and wonderful way throughout the Church."
with:
"The American Academy ha$ been overrun by evil lefti$t ideology turning many college and univer$ity $chool$ of art$ and $cience$ into citadel$ of univer$ities into citadel$ of deception and factorie$ of deceit. Many English, anthropology, hi$tory and political $cience department$ are $taffed with flaming lefti$t$ with very few exception$. It i$ almo$t impo$$ible to find PhD faulty in the$e discipline$ that reflect traditional American value$. Their brain$ have not been wa$hed but $crubbed clean and reprogrammed."
At first it looks like's he's flip-flopped, but when you read it more closely, you see that he's actually been pretty consistent...
The question shouldn't be is Michael Germano a hypocrite but rather is there a single member of LCG that ISN'T a hypocrite?
To Annon 1:13
All of LCG aren't hypocrits. Many are kind, genuine and truly trying to live Christian lives. There are also many in the ministry who are sincere.
The problem is centered with LCG leadership in Charlotte. These men are flagrantly abusing their power and authority with wreckless abandon and their egos are so hyper-inflated that they think they can go on doing it without consequence. Even now, with so many LCG members questioning the purge, the upgrades and the allocation of enormous amounts of tithe money to LU, the leaders think they are impervious.
While Mr. Meredith continues to ambush us to ignore the "loose bricks" and keep our eyes on "the big picture" many people I know feel that those "loose bricks" have now created such structural instability that destruction/division is inevitable.
Hypocrite originally meant "actor". When legalism is the imposed script, it doesn't come from the heart, so it makes one an actor, or hypocrite.
I was listening to a monologue today about Nazi Germany and the death camps. A survivor stated that the Nazis controlled every aspect of life, such as when you got up in the morning, when you'd get to eat, when you'd get to relieve yourself, and when you had to indulge in slave labor. The only thing the Nazis could not control was, according to the interviewed survivor, the individuals' reactions. I thought to myself, "Crap! In Armstrongism, the ministry even tries to control that!"
BB
If you don't like lies and hypocrisy stop being a member of the USA. It is all about lies.
Anon 5:19, As an LCG member of 10 years who recently left, I think I know what I mean when I say that LCG members are hypocrites. Or maybe I should call them Pharisees. Tomato/ Tomato. Never in all my life have I seen a group of people more apt to gossiping, backstabbing, and quick to condemn. There are a select few that are none of the above, however those few are a lot less than what you are claiming. And being that none of these people are still talking to me since I walked out of services, my guess is that they all assume I have "gone back into the world". I am not going to go into specifics of my personal experience, but I will say that I had more than my fair share of Pharisee like behavior thrown at me being that I am a divorced mother who wasn't "raised in the church". I admit myself that at times I partook of such behavior and for that I fully repent.
"All of LCG aren't hypocrits. Many are kind, genuine and truly trying to live Christian lives. There are also many in the ministry who are sincere. The problem is centered with LCG leadership in Charlotte."
First, I think you meant, "Not all of LCG are hypocrites." But this is not true, as hypocrisy does not require intent. One can inadvertently be a hypocrite.
Second, I would advance that, one of the main problems is fundamentalism. Armstrongists aren't alone in their legalistic inerrantism, but it is a major source of what's wrong with Armstrongism. Fundamentalism cannot help but turn it's adherents into hypocrites, despite their desire to be kind and genuine. And I would distinguish hypocrisy from abusiveness, which is an added bonus that you get when fundamentalists don't try to be kind or genuine.
Third, I would advance that the non-existence of the holy spirit turns people into hypocrites. They assume they have been transformed and "converted," by it, but they have not. They are taught that because of this supposedly "indwelling holy spirit," they are superior to others, when there is no difference between the population of Armstrongists and any other population. They genuinely wish they were but that translates into nothing. So "converted" Armstrongists are guilty of committing all the same sins, crimes, and misdemeanors that have ever been committed at similar rates as the general population. I just have to ask, What is this non-existent thing called "conversion"? The cognitive dissonance and hypocrisy created by the assumption the "holy spirit" is real, when in fact it is not, those things are real, and the only "fruit of the spirit" you will ever witness. One terrifying confirmation of this is how god is always ignoring your prayers. It's like you're not good enough or something. But what you don't realize is that everyone else is feeling the same thing because all they see is others "acting confident," so they think they're the only one god is ignoring...
Finally, as we've seen in the unfolding Josh Duggar incest scandal, in the disingenuous excuses that have been put forward, christianity can be used as a shield to avoid taking responsibility for one's actions and trying to cover them up afterwards. Josh Duggar used to claim that he accepted Jesus when he was 7, so, until recently, he would have told you that he was a true christian since then. But one of the things about non-real systems is that you can never really be sure about anything. Have you really accepted Jesus? Yes. Okay, but have you really REALLY accepted Jesus in your heart? Well, now that you put it that way... The difference between these two is undefined, however. But NOW he's a "REAL" christian? That is, until we find out what shenanigans he's currently up to. When light is shed upon that, the "REAL" status of his now-current christianity will be downgraded retroactively. Meanwhile, any "sin" you commit can be minimized with a false equivalency (all sins are equal, right?), blamed on satan, excused by the forgiveness of an imaginary friend, or made of no effect by claiming you were not yet "converted."
Speaking of Duggar, 8:17, it's ironic how COGers would no doubt shake their heads and "tsk, tsk..." about his conduct, yet go right on turning a blind eye to the multiple verifications by Armstrong family members of HWA's incestuous behavior.
I can't wait for this years Behind The Work video. I just love seeing all the Charlotte ministry parading around like important people.
Soooooo exciting!
Remember, the first four letters of Dr. Germano's last name are g-e-r-m.
~Miguel de la Rodente
Uncle Roddy used to make grossly defamatory remarks in Bible class and sermons about Italians. He included them in the general group of gentiles that would supposedly have the minds of wild animals until the "times of the gentiles" had been completed. The surname "Germano" would seem to indicate an Italian heritage. Probably, church members on the unflattering side of the Armstrongian hierarchy of humanity don't take these stereotypes personally though. They see the lesser eternal role associated with their birth heritage as being part of God's (HWA's) "wonderful" plan, and just shrug it off. They often don't realize that when there is any sort of disagreement or questioning of character or basic intelligence, Armstrong-schooled Anglo Saxon evangelists will revert to an opponent's heritage in an attempt to explain the controversy, as opposed to taking the "gentile's" position seriously enough to ponder it and implement a fair solution.
I remember back in the late '80s when I first started hearing about ZOG and the Mud People, I wondered if that wasn't an outgrowth or by-product of Armstrong theology. The fruits seemed pretty much the same.
BB
LCG, along with most of the COG groups have made many grossly defamatory remarks about various racial and ethnic groups, Byker Bob.
Black people will be the ones responsible for all the manual labour work in tomorrow's world because they were built for that purpose. The "white" people, particularly, the Anglo-Saxon will be responsible for law giving. It is in the blood of the German people to commit acts of savagery because they are the descendent of Assyria. It is like the history of the German people only constitute the twelve years of Nazism. I forgot what Asian people like myself are responsible for in the world tomorrow.
I also agree with one of the poster above that hypocrisy does not require intent. The members of LCG may not be intentionally hypocritical when they gossip, slander, not showing love to people who left or who have a lot of personal problems but they are hypocrites because they are acting contrary to what they claim to believe from the bible. They (lay members) would preach to others about these topics and yet, do all these things themselves.
Obviously, everyone is human and won't be able to do all those things "perfectly" but a fair amount of people in LCG are hypocrites. However, I will not say all of them are but those that are not eventually leaves. I was in LCG for 10 years and so, I knew most of the people in every congregations in Ontario before I left. There were sincere and genuine people but most of them eventually leave or get corrupted.
Either way, they are still short on ministers. A number of them has died, others have left and they are not training new ones because they lack the criteria (not sucking up to Big G Weston by figuratively sucking his manhood). Their finances are down last year, they are short on youth as every other COG groups are. More and more people are seeing through these clowns and once Meredith dies, some will leave even if the majority follows his appointed successor.
Death to the Lucifer Camp of Gehenna (LCG)! May their organization bite the dust and never rise again.
While everyone is pointing out all the racist comments made by LCG ministry and all the racist beliefs they hold true despite mountains of evidence to the contrary, can we also talk about the fact that Meredith preaches that God made men smarter than women?!?
I heard him preach this in the same breath he spoke that blacks are better athletes and Hispanics are overly emotional.
He sounded like Ron Burgundy, "Everyone knows that men are smarter than women. It's a scientific fact!" What a jackass.
I sat in church and googled it. Actually, you misogynistic old coot, women test higher on standardized tests than men do. I think we're all pretty equal. Some women are stupid (Nancy Polosi) and some men are stupid (Rod McNair). Preaching your ignorance and prejudice just makes you look ridiculous.
Not to mention the fact that if God made men smarter than women, men would have an unfair advantage in making it to the kingdom.
It is really hard to take him seriously!
From reading the stories on Banned from LCG members, it seems that HQ in general (not just Germano) are hypocrits! They preach about Christ and the Kingdom of God but they apparently have major issues in DOING the things He taught like love, forgiveness, keeping no record is wrong, etc.
Isn't making it to the Kingdom somewhat dependent on development of christian character?
Germano fits in perfectly with the hypocrits in Charlotte. Nothing shocking.
Anonymous 4:33 says "Not to mention the fact that if God made men smarter than women, men would have an unfair advantage in making it to the kingdom."
I think it's the other way round. Judging by the anti-intellectualism espoused by Armstrongist churches, their god is screening out the smart ones to select 144,000 dumb schmucks who can easily be conned.
The source quoted in the article from bibarch.com does anyone have the full article? The link goes nowhere any longer.
http://web.archive.org/web/20020328103819/http://www.bibarch.com/Articles/Article-The+Siniatic+Covenant.htm
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