While the privileged UCG elite in Cincinnati get a new playset
the refugees and poor in Africa have to make do.
The latest quarterly report of the UCG Council of Elders is out. It is the usual rainbow, lollipops and cotton candy report that the Council sets froth to the gullible brethren. No Church of God has ever had the amazing growth, best TV responses, Internet ministry or above normal income as the UCG consistently claims.
It includes the following glowing report:
Peter Eddington thanked God for His blessings and went through some statistics:
- United News circulation is the highest it’s been since Aug. 2010.
- Coworker count is now the highest it’s ever been (43 percent higher than a year ago).
- Our donor list now includes 8,306 people. That’s a 90 percent increase over the same time last year.
- Combined with our coworkers, we now have more of our readers and viewers contributing to the work of the Church than the total number of members in the U.S. and abroad.
- Pieces of mail containing donations for June 2015 were 7,033—the highest since December (8,233)—and the second highest in UCG’s history.
- U.S. Good News subscribers are the highest they’ve been since November of 2013. The additional advertising is bringing very good results.
- The Church’s Beyond Today YouTube channel has had 4.2 million views, has 10,120 subscribers, and hosts 1,425 videos (the most watched program being “The Next Superpower” with 195,000 views). www.youtube.com/user/BeyondTodayTV.
But it also included this, which has irritated a LOT of UCG members in the Cincinnati area and around the country.
Home Office Grounds: A new playset for children was put up on our grounds. It was largely financed by LifeNets.
UCG members are asking WHY it is that UCG had to take money from Vic Kubik's "charity", that is supposed to be helping the poor and destitute in Africa and elsewhere, to install a play set that UCG SHOULD have done on their own. With income coming in at more than they expected this year, members are wondering why a thousand or so dollars could not have been spent on this playset. A playset that only the children of the privileged UCG employees and some few members will get to use. God forbid of the unwashed children of the Cincinnati area played on it!
This also has led to more grumbling from UCG members as to why Vic Kubik is running his "charity" LifeNets while being President of the UCG. Many see this as a deep conflict of interest especially when UCG tries to guilt trip members into donating to Vic's pet cause. A cause that gives the impression to the world that it is a charity for ALL in need, but in reality it is geared towards UCG members in poor countries and some non-aligned sabbatarian groups in Eastern Europe. A few good works do go towards those outside the small sabbatarian world, but its main focus is inward. Many UCG members feel that he needs to resign from either LifeNets or the presidency position.
Apparently a play set for the privileged elite at HQ was more important than clean drinking water or life saving mosquito nets for the disenfranchised in Africa. Jesus must be pleased. Privilege does have it rewards!
Thanks for posting this! Many of us have been thinking this very thing.
ReplyDeleteThe open door policy in the UCG will eventually result in doctrinal changes that will make the UCG a mainstream Christian church.
ReplyDeleteIt is only a matter of time before new reform minded members will far out number older members who are not open to doctrinal changes.
When I read these stories I cannot help but laugh at how pissed people must be at their HQ's. They have spent so many years getting away with all kinds of things and now they are being held accountable.
ReplyDeleteHow disgusting! UCG needs to immediately make a substantial donation to Lifenets for the amount of money used to build this for the office staff. This is truly mind boggling to me that they would do such a thing. Members go without while we watch the chosen in Cincinnati get all kinds of perks.
ReplyDeleteLifenet's 2012 IRS Form 990.
ReplyDeletehttp://990s.foundationcenter.org/990_pdf_archive/352/352083120/352083120_201212_990.pdf?_ga=1.135612721.1042371852.1439691366
I believe that is "Six Sticks Over Africa" in the background of your picture. These kids have it good to live so close to such a wonderful theme park. :)
ReplyDeleteHere is the initial announcement from Cincinnati's church bulletin. I'm no UCG apologist, but it's hard to tell whether it was a donation from LifeNets or LifeNets was just the conduit for donations. Either way, $3-5K sure could do a lot for children over in Africa.
ReplyDeleteRaising Funds for Playground Set for Our Children: For some time, we have had requests from some of our young families to have a playground set where the children can play after church. We began discussing it over a year ago. Now LifeNets(SM) has been given a donation to jump start a fund.
We have found a set that we would like to purchase, but we will need an additional $3,000- $5,000 to buy it. This set will include a border and shredded rubber mulch to comply with commercial safety standards, and it will be professionally installed. The suggested name for this play area is Jelly Land!
If families, grandparents, and members of our congregation who are able would like to help make this happen it will be much appreciated. If possible we would like to raise the funds in the next week so that the play area can be installed early in June.
Tax deductible donations can be made to LifeNets or Good Works. Be sure to specify that it is for the church play ground.
It may be possible that someone gave the money to Lifenets with a specific purpose for the donation, like the playground equipment. Under the law, donations earmarked for defined use MUST be used only for the that defined use.
ReplyDeleteSame can be done with donations made to churches. One can designate restricted use provisos on their donations. They do not have to go just into the non-restricited general fund.
So UCG admits income is up this year and cannot spend $3-5,000.00 of that money on a play set? While the ministry and top leaders get all kinds of financial perks, the members are asked to help pay for this and do the work! Hire a contractor, pay them and pay for the entire thing! Its the same bullshit that WCG did when these men ruled there. They should be ashamed!
ReplyDeleteI believe children going to church services should have areas tailored to their age group to fellowship, rather than being made into little automatons, or bored satellites of the adults. It corrects one of the deficiencies of the smelly rented beer hall sabbath services of the past. I also have contributed to charities that do outstanding work to relieve the suffering of African children. How can anyone just sit back and watch a continent die? Both activities, if done for the right reasons, are potentially good.
ReplyDeleteLet's face it. The problems most of us have with some of the good-seeming activities of the ACOGS aren't the deeds themselves. We are just all too familiar with the typical hows and whys, and know that even when they seem to be doing right and good things, ACOG leaders are generally doing them for wrong-headed or toxic reasons. And, generally, the wrong people are required to make all of the sacrifices to make these things happen. Also, the ACOGs are secessionists with no sense of a greater community who have a history of teaching members to abstain from giving back to the community through United Way, UNICEF, the Red Cross, or even the Humane Society of America. Hearing of them putting up a playground, or participating in an archaeological dig is too much like watching communists perform targeted activities for propaganda value, or to make themselves look like the good guys, even while exploitation and repression are the motivators and catalysts behind the scenes.
In other words, we know what is written into the DNA of a Pharisee. Whitened Sepulchre Syndrome.
BB
A more important question that any Armstrongite or ex-Armstrongite should be asking, "Why spend money foolishly on playground equipment for children when Christ is about to return to this earth "TO RULE THIS WORLD WITH A ROD OF GOD IRON" any moment now! Jesus Christ is coming soon!
ReplyDeleteCan anyone imagine God's Apostle Herbert W. Armstrong who preached the true gospel around the world as a witness wasting dumb tithe slave sheep money on playground equipment for children?
What lukewarm Laodicean wimps these UCG leaders are! May they repent before they are tried with FIRE in the GREAT TRIBULATION!
Thank you!
Richard
P.S. All dumb sheep tithe slaves may send their tithes, offerings, holy day offerings, contributions, tithe of tithe, 3rd tithe, special offerings, building fund contributions and playground equipment fund donations to The Lake of Fire Church of God. We are in the final gun lap of God's work, and as the Pastor General, I have a few needs such as a larger house, bigger new car, world travel, etc.
Richard
Lake of Fire Church of God
ReplyDeleteAnonymous said...
“The open door policy in the UCG will eventually result in doctrinal changes that will make the UCG a mainstream Christian church.”
“It is only a matter of time before new reform minded members will far out number older members who are not open to doctrinal changes.”
The open door policy of the UCG has already resulted in the UCG becoming a home for some real weirdos and their demons.
It is only a matter of time before perverse non-members will far outnumber sounder members who are not open to doctrinal change and degenerate behavior. The relatively few sounder members in the UCG will have to go.
this is the primary reason why the cogs have been largely a failure; the issue of the love of money and the lack of charity has been so persistent that even in the apostle Sauls day it was a problem; i believe one cannot separate the past persecutions of the Church, the current occasional calamities and personal tragedies, and the fact that God allowed such troubles in the first place, from the fact that such underlying issues persist...
ReplyDeleteand the reason these issues plague these people to this day is because of a lack of righteous leadership, and the continued tolerance for insensitive behavior that in no way distinguishes itself from the world...
That is astonishing. And the UCG leadership wonder why so many are dissatisfied with them. Well it is because they do things like this. Using charity money to make a playground while finances are apparently so good for them at the moment.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally PCG has released an article on their website promoting their draconian no contact policy. The author even says it is not PCG policy, it is (PCG's) God's policy. Nonsense. It is PCG that imposes that terrible rule.
https://www.pcog.org/articles/1848/must-we-avoid-them
How nice that UCG kids get to play after church! I love how liberal they are compared to some splinter groups. In my former splinter group (COGTE) there was a trend where parents were making a "no running on the Sabbath" rule to make the kids play more slowly on the Sabbath. I'm not sure if some would be allowed on a playground or not. I think a playground for the Sabbath would be thought of as inappropriate in many strict splinter groups. I am happy for the people of UCG that their kids are allowed to be kids and play.
ReplyDeleteThere is an event on Wall Street called, "a dead cat bounce". This term is used to describe a stock that has a slight rise in price after a prolonged steep fall-off in price. The origin of this term is what happens when you throw a dead cat out a window and it bounces when it hits the sidewalk.
ReplyDeleteThe one month stats for the UCG seem to indicate that they are experiencing, "a dead cat bounce".
Note to UCG builders: That "rubber mulch" you intend to use to protect the next generation of mindless followers, is now suspect to cause testicular cancer in boys. Maybe that'll knock a few bucks off as a discount.
ReplyDeleteThe reality is that the only problem here is that the Council of Elders minutes report did not explain the action a bit better.
ReplyDeleteJust saying “Home Office Grounds: A new playset for children was put up on our grounds. It was largely financed by LifeNets.” doesn’t give the complete picture.
However the local Cincinnati church bulletin (as quoted by anonymous August 18 at 5:29pm.) does gives the full picture.
It shows:-
1. Lifenets was GIVEN a donation to start the fund (i.e. money GIVEN to Lifenets, not it’s existing funds). Either from UCG itself, or an individual.
2. Anyone else in that church area could donate to this SPECIFIC fund if they wanted to – it was suggesting that families, or grandparents might want to (i.e. those with children/grandchildren, who would directly benefit).
3. It was noted to be sure to specify that it is for the church play ground. This then makes the donation a ‘restricted fund’, which makes it illegal to use it for any other purpose.
It is clearly not a case of UCG taking money from a charity that is supposed to be helping the poor and destitute in Africa and elsewhere. Rather it is the local church raising money locally to provide local facilities for their own children.
When I saw how the ministry of the church of God lived I was flabbergasted. Their homes were mini mansions really.
ReplyDeleteI was asked to help move our minister, free slave labor. His home had 6 bedrooms one of which he dedicated to his hobby.
I could barely buy groceries and had no car. I felt slapped in the face that my money went to buy all that.
I felt kicked in the face that Herbert Armstrong bought gold and silver and outrageous art on our backs.
It was awful that while we were encouraged to home school our kids no curriculum was provided even though the church had its own school for the elite's children. So my kids went to public school (got a good education anyway.)
I was told to be a stay at home mother and now have a 150 a month social security check to try to make do on.
And they are thieves stil today living very well on tithes meant only for the Levitical system that Jesus destroyed.
Every holy day is filled with begging for money for the 'work' which is pathetic at best.
No surprise at this guy at all. We have lived with these hirelings for years.
Paul, who worked for a living, would be aghast.
They get no more money from me. They cleaned me out years ago and now there is nothing more to give.
They should all be audited.
John Oliver did a nice piece on the prosperity preachers recently. You can view it on You Tube.
ReplyDeleteIf it was largely financed by LifeNets, doesn't that mean that LifeNets and not the donors mainly contributed? Otherwise why not say, "largely financed by donors", to give credit where credit is due? The day is coming when they will regret many of their superfluous purchases and learn what true Christianity is all about, that it's possible to be poor, yet rich (Rev 2:9), and rich, yet poor (Rev 3:17). They have a few thousand NOW for a playset but they couldn't give me an extra $100 for the Feast a few years ago. What does that tell you? They go by budgets, not by the heart, unless you are a friend or a relative.
ReplyDelete