I have received the following from a young person who grew up in the Philadelphia Church of God and suffered horrendously under its authoritarian hand.
It is unedited
My whole life from birth destroyed.
I was born into the PCG, it's all I've known from the beginning of my life up to the age of 14 (I left).
I'm going to explain my story in pieces as there is so many events that has destroyed my childhood and teen life. I'm an adult now.
* my parents were married for 12 years and my mother had left my father and 4 of her children, she is now a drug addict and has had nightmares from the church. My father was abusive to her though I don't recall any events of that because I was only a baby when she left. He has confessed to mentally abusing her. She is completely ruined and believes we are better off without her.
*when I was about 7 years old me and other girls from my congregation went to a church get together we all wore shorts. I had a big of weight on then, and we all wore the same length shorts. The minister had said to my father that it was inappropriate and they were to short, but didn't complain about the other girls, I remember driving home in the car with him and my father said I shouldn't have let you leave the house dressed like that they were right. -my point is my sister and I were always picked on and treated differently.
* when I was young my father unintentionally sexually assaulted me I believe he woke up and realized what he had done, as he hauled away quickly. At that time I felt it wasn't right but because of my age I didn't understand that action. Later on in my life I confronted him and he went to counselling and told them I had been lying the ministers believe him and called me trouble and that he should cut me off, they told my other family the same, because no one believed me and I was taken by social services I told them all I was lying because I wanted to go home, that was just another mistake because I didn't get to go home and my father brought the documents to the ministers trying to say I told you she was lying, it was slapped in my face so many times that I wanted to get a police detector test but I know it wouldn't do any good they still won't believe it, my brother doesn't believe me because I'm not in the church and my dad still is to this day.
*another situation is when my dad married another woman he was working Crazy shifts and my step mom was always home, she was like a mother to me she treated us as her own. But this night changed it all, my brother who was a teen at the time tried to do something to my step mom he snuck in her room and my dad was on her side, but when he went to ministers it all changed its kind of ironic looking back now. He was suspended for marrying an outsider and was told it would never work, but anyways he went to counselling and they told him to support my brother because he is a teen with raging hormones, I was young and confused by the whole situation she treated us differently and had nightmares every night causing her to leave her home, dad listened to the ministers and I recall him calling her a drama queen and telling her to get over it.
*my dad has cut me off and gave me an ultimatum either I join the church again, or we will never have a father daughter relationship. He is blinded and I knew the degennaro family and I cried when I learned about her death, I mentioned it to my dad he visited that congregation and didn't mention anything about her, until I learned from this site he said they were disfellowshipped and the De gennaros were mad with flurry and made up lies, this broke my heart I cried knowing the family and they are good souls, they would never make that up. But because Mr.flurry said so its that way. I felt so hurt and angry learning about her death, it has shaken my faith as I believed this deceiving church all this time and I feel I don't know what to believe anymore, my dad said Satan played with my emotions. And by reading Maria & Dan's letter to you guys that I was talking to the devil. My father told me that people on the Milton congregation said Janet was happily married and she had a heart failure now she was in Chicago how does anyone who can't even voice their opinion or feelings be happy? How do they know how Janet felt, well I know what Janet felt and they are blinded I can't even tell my father how I know how she felt. After learning about her death I gave my father a nasty letter and told him I'll cut him off on my own because they would make him anyways. They are messed up people and I wish people would read everyone's pain caused by this church and get out before it hurts your family too.
*my father became a cold hearted person because of that church I was a teen pregnant in a abusive relationship and I had no family but him he turned his back and said you put yourself in there you get yourself out. And that he treated my mom like that, he's just young he will get over it
12 comments:
Is this one of Gerald Flurry's official portraits? If so, why does he look as if he is puckering up his butthole to forcefully expel flatulence? I know he is probably thinking about one of the many things we were taught to be angry about, but expressing the anger in this manner might cause hemorrhoids, and would definitely be considered as crude and offensive in polite company.
BB
It sounds like this poor girl suffered a lot of mental anguish in her few short years til now, thankfully she can speak about it and has seen the PCG for what it is, I sure hope she can get the support she so desperately needs, my heart goes out to her and hopefully others who read her story will reach out to God to be with her and help her, she sure needs it.
What an insightful description of Flurry's portrait. :-)
This cannot be proved and is a complete fabrication. When are you lot going to wake up and stop posting propaganda just to make yourselves look good.
Any one of your biased lot could have sent you this and it would take but second for you to post it. You all need to wake up, as if anyone is going to take you seriously when you post lies like this without any backup or proof of where it came from.
You have discredited yourselves once again.
Oh what a tangled web we weave, when trying to play God do we. The one thing consistently lacking in her letter was love. That pretty much describes the COGS.
3:54, why so defensive? From my 40 years in the old WCG under HWA & Co., I can absolutely tell you that this type of story was common. I rationalized it for those 40 years, just as you seem inclined to do, until I finally had had enough.
Far from discrediting himself, Gary continues to provide a forum for people to express themselves about the abuse they've endured in the COG world. That some of the thoughts are shared in incomplete or less-than-eloquent phrasing does not discount their validity.
This isn't rocket science. The basis for HWA's system, and all of the offshoot COGs, is British-Israelism. Everything stems from that. One either views it as a spurious, inaccurate and thoroughly discounted theory, as I do, or as the method by which God chose to communicate his plan to the world in modern times. That's it. But it's undeniable that, in an effort to enforce that mindset on others, ministers and administrators of the COG movement have over the years inflicted astonishing levels of abuse and harm on members and other attendees.
That's why the narrative shared in this particular article is totally believable. So what if their anonymity is preserved? So is yours, and so is mine. But the story is a familiar one, and deserves to be heard.
Another example of Herbert Armstrong's Wonderful World of Tomorrow - what will it be like? Here it is!
Richard
People often wonder where this oppressive layer of government came from, and how it could be justified.
Old Covenant Israel was a theocracy. With the tithe, God essentially imposed a flat tax of 10% on the Israelites to run that theocratic government. And it wasn't designed to make the Aaronic priests rich, it was to compensate for the fact that the Levites had no perpetual inheritance or portion of the covenant lands. By calling his church "God's government" on Earth, HWA accomplished two things. 1). He justified his own and his lackeys' intrusion into members' lives, and their overbearing authority over the members, and 2) at the same time, he qualified his own church to receive the Old Covenant tithes, even though secular government today already collects more than 10% to operate the government, defend our borders, and provide social services.
The crime here is that, as tithe payers, this young girl's family was paying people for the privilege of being treated unfairly and abused. Through their tithes, they are supporting an entire level of arbitrary police-like supervision, unbridled by any standards of humanity, logic, or decency, and enabling that entity to ruin members' lives. And, particularly in Flurry's church, fear of the Germans, fear of the end time plagues, and fear of being Laodecean do an especially effective job of justifying this draconian supervision, and mistreatment. Bad fruits, and cruelty do not qualify as being spiritually virtuous. They only ruin peoples' lives, and cause suffering. Armstrongite teachers have become like what they fear: the stereotypical SS officers of WWII
Given the defective nature of her parents, the starting point of the story, she probably would have been in for a less than optimal life even if the family had never been exposed to PCG. The tragedy is that the problem could have been made better with qualified help, and a valid solution. PCG and the other ACOGs take from already weakened and vulnerable people who really have very little to give to start with, deluding them for a while that they have actually made their lives better. And, stories like the above are what generally exemplify the consequences of membership in these toxic waste dumps.
BB
I come across the Key of David on Sunday morning. Does anyone have any idea how many people actually watch this program? Flurry's presentation skills are horrible. Is this the best the PCG can do? Say what you will about GTA, he could speak without notes and outshine any of the C of G presenters on the air today. Are there any viewing numbers on the C of G programs?
Flurry is awful and always has been. And his son comes across with a mixture of boredom and arrogance when he speaks. People who follow those guys must really have a need to be told how to think and how to live, because there's nothing moving about their presentation skills. In that category, they're nowhere near either of the Armstrongs.
What a tragic and frightening story. Thank goodness this person has courageously shared this story with the world so that the truth is known. I applaud this survivor's courage in sharing this testimony.
>>Flurry is awful and always has been. And his son comes across with a mixture of boredom and arrogance when he speaks.<<
The few times I have bothered to watch or listen to Stephen Flurry every now and then he will talk about how so many people don't pay attention to world affairs. And when I hear him talking like that I think: He is talking about you and everyone outside of PCG. To me it sounds disdainful and contemptuous towards anyone outside of PCG.
And as for boredom well I can understand how one would think so. From some of his earlier videos (before they started their radio station) he did talk in a monotone that rarely changed. I can well understand how that would be viewed as him being bored.
I called mr degennaro, they never found out about her death til 2 weeks later. they got booted out because they would not kick their unbaptised teenage son out of the house ( he quit attending). pcg (power control greed) is evil
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