LCG is
getting ready to have another wonderful Christmas at the Renaissance Hotel in
Charlotte. There will be games and fun for all! Lil Jimmy is even planning a
Hawaiian luau (Lil Jimmy LOVES Hawaii after all and he just can't get enough
hawaiiana, even after a tithe payer vacation in Kauai from before
Atonement until a week after the Feast [nearly a full month]). See:
People
will travel far and wide to celebrate the season surrounded by Christmas trees,
nativities and plenty of faux fireplaces for Santa to come down to deliver
gifts to a the good LCG boys and girls (if he can find any). Although I'm
guessing Rod McNair and Spanky will be getting lumps of coal.
LCG
members and ministers have flooded Facebook with articles and videos about the
evils of Christmas but for some reason, instead of "coming out of the
world" as they admonish us to do, they have decided to immerse their
members and children in a super Christmas environment for a little
seasonal fun.
Armstongites
view themselves as superior, more enlightened, more Godly than the "people
in the world". They look down their noses at all the
"blinded" worldly "so called Christians" who "worship
Pagan God's" by putting up Christmas trees and by commemorating the birth
of the Savior on December 25th because it coincides with the winter
solstice. In true LCG form, all the Christmas regalia at the Renaissance is
okay because it suits their purpose. But they withhold the right to judge
others for doing the same thing should it suit their narrative in the future.
Your
average LCG member agrees with all the points made in the Dead Babies, Nimrod's
Testicles, Satan's Snake and Christmas article posted on this site earlier
this month (Dead Babies, Nimrod's Testicles, Satan's Snake and Christmas)
but no one seems to object to having their Charlotte Family Weekend
in this Christmas wonderland. It seems a bit hypocritical but hypocrisy is
LCG's strong suit.
Many of us
can't wait to hear LCG's inflated, outlandish attendance numbers. Is there any
way we can get the entire front desk staff, all managers and hotel wait staff
in the banquet room during services at some point so that we can count
them? Or maybe we could count the non-LCG people having coffee in the hotel
lobby? Whether it exists or not, we must show growth brethren!
24 comments:
This is non sequitur, or oxymoronic. Separatism I would understand. I mean, we even need an intercessor in Jesus Christ because Father God's character is such that He cannot be in the presence of evil. If you can't take Christmas at face value, and believe that it is pagan, and evil, why indulge in deliberate exposure? It's about like a family with predisposition to melanoma going sun bathing! The poor ACOG frogs!
BB
Why don't we send to the hotel that they will be partying at copies of the LCG booklet condemning the observance of Christmas? Why not let the hotel personnel know what hypocrites these members are. Insult the hotel staff with their booklet and see how the service towards the church members changes.
Because the Feast of Tabernacles has never been enough: Armstrongists want more... even at the Feasts -- none of this burying your nose in the Bible stuff! We want to be entertained!!!
I would like to wish everyone in LCG a very Merry Christmas! I hope your Christmas party is fabulous!
Let it never be said that we at Banned are waging any wars on Christmas here, or any other solstice rituals.
LCG takes "avoiding the appearance of evil" so seriously that they monitor their members Facebook pages for toga parties, etc. They force brethren to take down pics that might make the church look bad but then surround themselves with Christmas regalia which they view as evil and heathen. Odd.
All of the stories about pagan Christmas are made up and false.
HWA had to destroy the reputations of the church fathers in order to foist lies on the people.
They hate Christmas because they hate Christ and his birth, one of the most glorious times of year is something they hold cheaply.
They are afraid that the people will spend on each other rather than give to the money grabbing ministry that try to pass themselves off as Levites.
"They are afraid that the people will spend on each other rather than give to the money grabbing ministry that try to pass themselves off as Levites."
Something I have always thought during my years of WCG membership, but never said out loud.
I remember the Plain Truth About Christmas booklet, and the very last sentence was something to the effect of "why not put that money into God's work instead." I always sensed that Christmas was banned more because Armstrong's tithing & offering demands were such that he needed to free up money, then Christmas being such a abomination to God. So no birthdays or worldly holidays, doctor visits (go to the ministry for their piece of cloth dabbed in olive oil first), then carpooling, sharing lower-cost hotel rooms, and any other cost-savings measures when attending the Feast (so you have more money for the offering). Disgustingly greedy men, none of whom ever even remotely came across as holy men chosen by God.
Maybe for those who alienated their families to join the cult, this psuedo-family is all they have left.
LCG is so anti-Christ (we must preach the kingdom, not the person of Jesus) that it's no wonder they are against Christmas.
It is difficult to tell where some of these "drive by" anonymous posters are coming from in their comments other than whether they are former Armstrongites, or currently practicing ones. But, over the years, those who have left the ACOG cults have frequently been called bitter and in the bonds of Satan. I am sure that the allegedly disrespectful one simply felt that making similar comments would be appropriate as a preemptive strike. If he or she felt that this might assist someone in seeking truth and freedom, the mark was missed. Most people realize that displaying love to rank and file members, countering their internal spoon-fed stereotypes, is going to be far more effective than name-calling. The real incorrigibles who know what they are perpetuating, and choose to do it anyway and even act as oppressors and enforcers, are generally found within the ministry. We generally respond to them and treat them quite differently from the ways in which we treat their victims. Standards of ettiquette are always in good form, and create a lasting impression.
Just a little food for thought.
BB
It's kind of funny sometimes to note the lack of even spiritual logic in Armstrongism. Some of the mainstream Christians whom ACOG ministers mock and revile go on retreats when they feel the need to get away from the influences of the world, and sin.
BB
Anonymous L. B. said...
"All of the stories about pagan Christmas are made up and false."
Weird - which planet are you from?
No offense anonymous 8:57 but that is simply not so. The conflicting birth narratives are made up whole cloth from the OT and never literally happened as presented. They have a purpose in being inserted later into the text but it is not literally about Jesus birth . Dec 25th is clearly an artificial date as is Easter and connected to solar deities n the solstice
http://steadfastlutherans.org/2012/12/redeeming-holy-days-from-pagan-lies-christmas/
Redeeming Christmas from Pagan Lies.
Even former CoG members have fallen for the false narrative of so called pagan Christmas. It is just a way to deny Christ, something HWA always did,
I thought Paul freed folk from days and times and seasons and years? He feared such folk and felt his time had been wasted on them. Galatians 4:9-11
There is awesome freedom in celebrating "pagan Christmas" no matter how pagan it may be. I don't give a rat's ass if it's pagan like Easter and others. Why should a person care? After all, Christianity is pagan-derived.
That's why no one should disclude ANY members of their family from ANY pagan/Christian celebrations; otherwise, it makes them a self-righteous ass.
Armstrongism has been an efficient generator of self-righteous asses.
"There is awesome freedom in celebrating "pagan Christmas" no matter how pagan it may be. I don't give a rat's ass if it's pagan like Easter and others. Why should a person care? After all, Christianity is pagan-derived."
Exactly. Anyone who tosses "pagan"-bombs at others is really only showing off their ignorance of history and their own christian hate. Christianity is just as "pagan" as any other religion that ever was. The word "pagan" was just a Roman pejorative that was co-opted by early christians to signify otherness and to thereby invent a fictitious basis for hate, and it's interesting that christians still use it as a justification for their intolerance today. Other than that, it's a word without any substantive meaning.
For many years, I would invite members to my house on Dec 25. We never considered it an X-mas party, but it was a good time to fellowship (especially for our kids) and not feel totally alone. Most businesses are closed, kids out of school...why do you assume the worst? Are there any hotels without X-mas decorations for us Church members?
I attended the Kansas City LCG for their services yesterday (12/26/2015) and instead of the pastor giving a message they had a live stream of their Charlotte services. There were several surprises for me including applauding for the main speaker before and after his talk, which I thought they didn't do. Also Wallace Smith was sort of a emcee who spoke just to the streaming camera as if we needed to be guided by the hand and told that this is a live church service and how this and that works, like nobody has ever seen a live church service on TV before. The emcee even said how nervous he was about the whole affair. Then he took several minutes to point out that this wasn't a Christmas celebration since it was being held the day after Christmas.
But the biggest surprise was after the live stream ended the pastor in Kansas City, Rand Millich, came up on stage to make some announcements, most of which were simple things about local activities. However one thing he added was an instruction to the congregation that if new people start attending because of the live stream, to not tell the new people everything that the Church teaches. He didn't say what not to tell the exactly, bit ot sure creeped me the hell out. Wtf!?
That admonition from Rand would be typical of Old School WCG policy, Nopers. I know of some people who had found out about second, and third tithe after they had been baptized and had attended for several weeks. Some even found out that their marriages were not "binding" deeper into the program.
BB
Nopers, it's only after 7 services that they tell you that God wants you to have sex with your daughter like Herbert W Armstrong did. If you don't have a daughter, after 7 more services they'll give you info on how to find a girl in your congregation to molest while pretending to be righteous. If that doesn't work, there's always the Feast, where more opportunities await.
Thankfully, Jesus covered all the bases. First, second, third, and "HOME RUN DOROTHY!"
Like Nopers, I watched the live stream on Saturday, 12/26/2015 of their Charlotte services. They had this service planned for quite some time, so it was no surprise. They also had it advertised on their LCG.org website. I would summarize it as a very poor marketing scheme to try to bring more unsuspecting people into the LCG/Meredith brand of Armstrongism.
Like Nopers I was a bit surprised at the applauding for the main speaker (Roderick C. Meredith) before and after his sermon, because customarily LCG doesn't do this.
Other things I want to mention are that I agreed with what RCM said about the times that we are living in and how he used "the frog in the pan" analogy to describe that our country is declining spiritually and morally. I also appreciated when he said that we need to be close to the Creator God, that the Holy Bible really is inspired of God and that the Holy Bible is "the mind of God in print", etc.
Unfortunately though, RCM continues to use the deceptive jargon of Armstrongism to hide the fact he and LCG believe and teach that the Gospel of the Kingdom of God is about human deification ("You will be God as God is God" - i.e., apotheosism, polytheism, paganism).
RCM also goes on to mention how Herbert W. Armstrong said many times that Germany would come back again after WW2. RCM made many other statements about Armstrong in an effort to bring credibility to the Armstrongites belief that Armstrong predicted many things that came true. However RCM stayed clear from mentioning how he and Armstrong in the past have said multiple times that there were prophecies that they said came from the Holy Bible (from God) that would come to pass by particular time period, but those multiple predictions failed, and they never admitted that they were wrong. Remember "1975 in Prophecy".
I'm not surprised that Rand Millich made the announcement to not tell the new people everything that LCG teaches. Heck, they probabably don't even know themselves. Jesus Christ said it best in Matthew 15:14 "Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”
Ultimately, I found that RCM's message was mostly full of false teaching and hypocrisy. I unfortunately thought he might say something with more substance, but that was not the case. I really hope and pray that RCM and all of the LCG renounce Herbert W. Armstrong and Armstrongism (what they call "the truth") and turn to Jesus Christ(John 14:6).
LCG has been clapping for everything for about five years now. At least every Sabbath in Charlotte and during the feast of Tabernacle's. So whoever mentioned that it was not customary to clap in LCG, was wrong.
Sad little people aren't you...
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