- You have the unalienable right to read the Holy Bible without any man telling you how it should be read or understood. You have the right to read scriptures without any aid of any of the church literature. You also have the right to read study and examine scripture through any concordance, Bible helps, scholarly works, books by theologians and scholars far, far removed from XCG background. Yes, the late great Samuele Bacchiocchi had some great Adventist works—but try something different—let say N.T. Wright if you dare!
- You have the inalienable right to read ANY and EVERY book that has been critical of the Church of God movement. You have the right to know that these people had legitimate complaints. They were not under satanic control but had enough of the hypocrisy, deceit, the manipulation and other non-(and anti-)Christian behaviours that the XCG executives portrayed.
- You have the right to not attend every Sabbath service. You have the right to visit other family members whether members or non-members. You have a right to sleep in, for married couples to have a special time for lovemaking, to spend extra time with children, a weekend at the cottage or just taking the whole family out in the woods just to have a walk until sunset. Attending Sabbath services does not make any one a Christian just as one person who stands in a garage makes oneself a car.
- You are entitled to the concept of that every believer is part of a kingdom of priests, a concept that every man, woman and child if they want to have free open access to their Creator and to freely read scripture as they see it. This is a concept from The Reformation (Oh, by the way you might want to study about The Reformation and forget the ‘60’s articles on The Plain Truth About The Protestant Reformation) and the irony is that the ministers like the Catholic position sooo much because they ALONE believe that they have access to God. How selfish!
- You have the right to use any and social media without the approval any minister telling which to participate or not participate. You have the inalienable right to tell a minister who wants to spy on your regular routines on the internet that it is none of his business and he should spend his time on feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, housing the homeless and taking care of the poor. If he is doing absolutely none of these things, he is not a minister but a hireling.
The complete list by Felix can be found here: The Bill of Rights For The Average Member of the XCGs
You have the right to think for yourself and disbelieve what a minister says. You have the right to make your own decisions about what you believe or don't believe.
ReplyDeleteYou have the right to be skeptical that Herbert Armstrong, or those who continue to preach his message can help you to find God.
You have the right to study higher criticism of the bible, and to realize that the Old and New Testaments are products of their times, are drawn from many ancient and classical sources, are contradictory, at odds with archaeology, and not necessarily canonized when, or by whom the ministers have told you.
You have the right to weight evidence uncovered by science, and accept it, even when it contradicts what the ministers or the bible says.
You have the right not to be afraid of the future either before or after your eventual death.
You have the right to fail to condemn or feel superior to others to who do not necessarily believe or have the same opinions as you do.
You have the right to leave the church. You have the right to be a part of the enlightened society of men and women who contribute to the vibrant cultures that are growing and shaping the world we all must share.
You have the right to reject the greatest gift ever offered to human beings.
ReplyDeleteYou have the right to burn in the lake of fire and miss out on an eternity of living with a loving family.
Just because you have the "right" to do something doesn't make it a wise thing to do. We all have lots of rights. We need wisdom to use our rights to produce the outcome that we desire in our lives.
Yeah, 9:21, we do. And, it would be much preferable, if we were limited to the choices you outlined, to actually be privileged to burn up in the lake of fire rather than to live for all eternity under Armstrongism. So good that old, incestuous, Hog Jowls gave us such a nice exit strategy or opt out clause when he attempted to co-opt God and our lives!
ReplyDeleteFortunately, there are much better, and much more attractive and realistic opportunities than what we learned in the toxic cult.
But, whatever floats your boat!
BB
So Anon @ 9:21 am. What is that greatest gift to mankind that you clam we have rejected? Jesus was not talked about much in Armstrongism, so obviously that is not the person you are referring to. Apparently I am missing out on the loving family of Armstrongism that is now splintered into hundreds and hundreds of splinter groups that ridicule each group as apostates. Just because you think you are right by following the mindless rantings of Armstrong, Pack, Flurry, Meredith or Kubik dose not mean it is a wise thing to do. We all have rights and that right includes rejecting the lies of Armstrong wholeheartedly! We need the grace and freedom that comes from Jesus Christ, not some series of legalistic bullshit hoops one has to jump through in order to make it to Petra. I have been to that hell hole, no thanks! You are free to go there and be smug and self-righteous for 3 1/2 years.
ReplyDelete"You have the right to reject the greatest gift ever offered to human beings. You have the right to burn in the lake of fire and miss out on an eternity of living with a loving family."
ReplyDeleteOnly problem is, there's no evidence that there is any such "gift" being offered by any deity, let alone one some POS deity who would make a child molester his sole latter-day spokesman. Doesn't sound like a deity worthy of worship in any case.
When there's evidence for any such "gift" do let us know?
Until then, if it should turn out that your POS deity is going to deep-fry me, he's got only himself to blame for this failed outcome, since he couldn't be bothered to supply evidence for himself, his "gift," or in fact, even his goodness, that was any better than that supplied by every con artist ever.
"We all have lots of rights. We need wisdom to use our rights to produce the outcome that we desire in our lives."
Who are you? Some advocate for The Secret? Just because you desire something doesn't mean you're going to get it.
Reading thru the excerpt quoted, I dont see what in it 9:21 would find disagreeable.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous @2:22 pm, a little defensive, aren't we? I thought we were listing rights that we have as COG and former COG members. I didn't expect it to touch such a nerve with the enlightened readers of this blog. It's called free moral agency, "Armstrongism" has talked about that for as long as I can remember. I was just trying to point out that the list of rights here were rather one-sided, assuming that rejecting the truth and related activities are the only rights that we have. I wanted to share some rights from "the other side."
ReplyDeleteAnonymous @ 3:05 pm - Sorry I didn't see your note before posting my previous message. You seem a little touchy and overwrought as well. "The Secret?", no, but that is "rich" as they used to say.
ReplyDeleteSeems a little hard to have a reasonable discussion when one is dealing with so many difficult emotions. Personally, I would be a little leery of referring to the Creator as a "POS deity," but you may be an atheist, so you think that is okay since there isn't someone there to hear you refer to Him in that very disrespectful way.
There is evidence for God, and you have access to it. Sorry you have been using your "right" to reject that rather than honestly pursuing a relationship with your Creator. That was my original point, using some of our rights will land us where we don't want to be. I hope you choose which rights you exercise carefully.
Relax with Exlax, 4:35. 3:05 wasn't referring to the real deity, but to the fake, anthropomorphic deity HWA created in his own image. HWA's "god" acted more like Satan. If you speak ill of HWA's "god", God and Jesus are actually on your side. The Bible says that false prophets are going to burn up in TLoF. Remember a little thing called 1975? And how they lied and backpedaled to save their church when Jesus failed to honor their booking?
ReplyDeleteBB
People in LCG have none of these rights. If one were to exercise belief in any of them they would be interrogated and accused of lacking faith that "God's ministry". Then their FB feed would start being monitored by HQ, friends would be questioned, their tithes and offerings would be scrutinized and reported to Meredith and McNdir would start a file folder on them wherein he could keep an account if ever real or perceived issue for later use against the individual. That's how it works in Charlotte.
ReplyDeleteIn order to have a "Bill of Rights"...
ReplyDeleteYou must first have a "DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE"!
ReplyDeleteExcellent insight Connie! Sadly most of the XCG members are in mental slavery to ever have to courage to have a Declaration of Independence.