It's another fun day in California, though thousands of miles away those fun folks in Charlotte are busy reading this blog. Every time I post a new entry, and particularly those regarding LCG or Meredith, the maps light up:
While it is common knowledge that LCG monitors this blog, it is still a good time to warn LCG members (and there are a LOT of you) that when you comment please make sure to remain "anonymous" or use fake names. Rod McNair's gestapo will work over time to find out who you are if you leave a real name.
Though we all may not agree on theological stances, this is a place for LCG members to keep up to date on the shenanigans in the church. Plus, I allow you to say what you want which is something that the COG never has allowed.
Hi Rod!
11 comments:
Ain't it a gas? As luck would have it, more people probably know about the LCR and Rod Meredith from this blog than the numbers of people who learn about them from their broadcasts, letters, and magazines.
For some of the little guys, like McNair, Weston, and Winnail, Banned is probably the totality of their media presence.
I just think it's awesome that our former brethren visit here and exchange ideas with us. The old stereotypes of crossing the street or leaving the supermarket when you see someone you used to know seem to have fallen just within the past couple years.
That people no longer stick to the shunning doctrine must really infuriate the ACOG leaders. Bottom line is that we the people all win!
BB
It would be interesting if one of the leaders of the LCG would post on this blog defending their actions that are criticized here. I throw-out this challenge. Leaders of the LCG defend yourselves. Let us hear you side of the story. Or as Paul Harvey would say, the rest of the story.
Hey, LCGers (and all still in COGs) --
My sister's wedding was coming up, enthusiastically planned by my mom, and set, as many are, for a Saturday.
She contacted her wayward, deceived son -- ME, the one who had given up so much to be in that crazy Armstrong church, and inquired, "The wedding's on Saturday. I suppose that means you can't come."
It never, never occurred to me that I wouldn't be part of my only sibling's wedding. And, given the location of this family event, and the more distant location of Sabbath services, I decided I would just have to miss church that Saturday.
Not long after, the WCG "minister" (I always put that in quotes now) happened to address, from the pulpit, the question of going to family weddings on a Saturday. This was one of the older, quite authoritarian men trained in the 1950s who not only told you what you should do in every circumstance, but considered it his duty to degrade and insult you, others being present while he did like as not, if there was something he heard, or knew, not quite congruent with how Mr. "Minister" believed you should be. On the Saturday wedding question, he said, "It's okay, IF you don't miss the Sabbath service."
I had already violated the rule, but that wasn't all. I let myself believe that what the man said was WRONG. Based on the Fifth Commandment (the Honoring Parents commandment) and, indeed, based on all the finger-wagging pulpit-borne horse dung about how we better be toeing that commandment-keeping line, it seemed to me that honoring my parents, my sister, my brother-in-law, my whole family meant I should not even try to do an hour's drive each way, plus two hours of church, on a day when so much was happening already. Service can be done on the Sabbath, too, and there were things I could do here and there to help the whole wedding day along.
I never told that man, or any "minister," what I had done, and none of the people who knew I did what I did ever said anything. I never, never felt guilty about it. If I had told a "minister" about it, I knew what would happen. By that time, after several years in WCG, I could guilt-trip myself well enough, thank you, without exposing myself to the contrived wrath of one of those pathetic men whose livelihood depended on staying true to the teachings of Herbert W.
What had I discovered? I could deviate from that narrow behavioral line without the dire consequences we were trained to fear if we did. I was in a situation where God told me it was okay, even if his "true" "ministers" might -- probably would have -- said otherwise. That's how I chose to look at it. No god of any kind ever punished me for this decision. I began to allow myself other liberties, and eventually the liberty of getting out.
The "ministry" needs to keep believing that Herbert W. was some sort of divinely called demigod, and that Rod and his ilk are the same thing, or close, because without that they might actually have to go out and LOOK FOR WORK. THEY need to keep believing and carry on. YOU DON'T.
The only thing better than your keeping up with The Truth About What's Going On, put forth here at "Banned," would be your deciding you don't need, anymore, to be a part of Meredith's fantasy, or Flurry's, or Pack's, or . . . .
Escape to freedom!
Could the "hits" map be used against people, especially those who live in smaller towns? Many small towns only have one COG member in them, and it wouldn't be that hard to figure who they were by the "Gestapo".
5.42 AM When I was a church going member, I was told I could attend weddings on the Sabbath, which I did several times. I never heard a rebuke from God. The holy spirit told me that it's OK to have your own wedding on the Sabbath if you marry someone outside the church. The common belief that it's a sin to marry outside the church is mistaken. Note how the 'don't be unequally yoked' thingy is never applied if a responsible person wants to marry a church crazy. This is simply rule rigging to benefit losers. The true sin is to marry someone God has not chosen for you. It's history that God has on occasion, chosen for a member, a mate outside the church. I can hear the church crazies and losers weeping and gnashing their teeth, since this means that desperate responsible church members won't be forced to marry them. Let them eat cake.
5.25 AM I would have so loved to see former ministers get a job in the 'real' world and see how they react. In the church, they were treated like junior gods, and could get away with just about anything. They were like young teenagers. Oh wait, I just denigrated teenagers, sorry guys.
The hits map doesn't matter, Connie. The ministry of Armstrongism isn't known for due process, or "getting" people the clean way. In their "end justifies the means" modus operandi, they "get" the people whom they have targeted any way in which they can. Evidence is irrelevant either to convict or to defend. It is all a matter of the whims of people who have convinced themselves and the members that they are acting for God. That so many life-destroying mistakes are made provides irrefutable evidence that God has nothing to do with it.
BB
Let 'em guess. They can never prove anything.
The undercurrent in Living is growing more and more each day. They will have to crack down hard to suppress the movement toward liberty and freedom.
We do not want a ministry that herds us around and generally fulfills the scriptures in Ezekiel I think it is about shepherds who trample the flock and serve the left overs to the people after they take the best for themselves. This describes the ministry in all of these groups perfectly and more and more are coming to see that.
servant leadership is a joke when you keep using terms like Top Men, Top Ministers, Leading Men, Leading this and that. What a hypocritical thing.
They certainly do devour widows houses by asking the elderly to leave their money and homes to the church.
The WORK is a sham. "This is the work of God , that you believe on Jesus Christ"
BB you are right about the lack of due process. On several occasions, ministers hinted that I did something wrong, then verbally bashed me. What happened to a trial, hearing the accusation, and my right to defend myself? They also do this to protect their snitch informers. To this day, I'm not sure why on some occasions, they attacked me. How sick is that. They deserve to be whipped on prime time television, then strung up on the nearest street light.
Life-destroying mistake is a good way to put it. Some in the COG's are happy, but most, and sadly the majority, put a good face on it. Biblical principals are a good way to live your life. But, they are twisted and distorted and interpreted by a mostly corrupt ministry. The Churches read so much into the Bible that you don't even realize that it is propaganda. Why can't you do certain things? If you actually read the Bible does it really say that? So many questions.
Many groups use the members for all they can, then toss you aside if you ever need anything from them. RCG will take everything (common), then ask you to fundraise all of the time. You can't even have a social without some kind of "fundraising" attached to it. One woman was living in her car so she could give all she could to the "work". And was counseled by the ministry that she had a great attitude, keep up the good work. Great counsel! Another elderly couple who had bills to pay, but was willing to sell their land. Was told to send it all in, and not to get out of debt. "You won't be here long enough to need to pay it back." (ie. we will flee in 3- 5 years)... Even if true, is that what a Christian does? Fleece the banks...
Much misery is endured by many in RCG. And then doctrine after doctrine changed, and many still continue. Unable to break free, of course Pack tells them they will lose salvation if they don't believe him. Great feeling to finally break free of the oppression! If you actually use your brain, you can see the abuse and corruption. Do as the Bereans did, however, Pack says that you are sinning if you do. (In other words, don't question anything, just do as I say.)
Anon 11:31 AM wrote: "... The undercurrent in Living is growing more and more each day....servant leadership is a joke when you keep using terms like Top Men, Top Ministers, Leading Men, Leading this and that. What a hypocritical thing. ...The WORK is a sham. "This is the work of God , that you believe on Jesus Christ"..."
******
The Living group is a man-made group headed up by fleeing hirelings with their tails between their legs, just "little helpers" to HWA, but fled the WCG and left their ministerial credentials behind in Pasadena when they left. Perhaps that is why you see the joke with their servant leadership. Those leaving WCG no longer had any ministerial credentials. That was the rule under HWA......and it was still the rule under Joe Tkach senior. They were no longer little helpers to either men or to the congregations they once served, but abandoned and left behind them...kind of like the 2 tailors leaving town with lots of mammon AFTER DECEIVING the king (with no clothes) into believing they had provided him a fantastic clothing to dazzle everyone...
So, the little helpers, now left to themselves, strived to make up "their own thing" and hoped to do it better than HWA and/or JWT senior. Well, where are they today? Virtually nowhere!
God's Word was elsewhere and as you cited: "This is the work of God , that you believe on Jesus Christ"
Why don't the little helpers believe that? Why don't they believe that God can do His own work without any of their help, assistance, opinions, councils of elders (who seek multitude of council from themselves, rather than from God)?
Most importantly, whether they realize this or not, it takes something to believe, to accomplish that "work of God," and highly probably something that they just may not have! What is it? Let's let Paul tell us:
"And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power," Ephesians 1:19
They all can't be doing "the work of God," certainly not amongst all of their confusion and we know who the author of confusion is.
One needs God's Spirit, that power of that Spirit, to actually believe.
Without that Spirit, what do we have? Things like we see in the Living group, the United Ass., the messes amongst all of the scattered organizations and splinters about us today......seemingly no soundness of mind.......just a lot of reasoning down the pig's tail, just traveling down their verbal corkscrews to nowhere!
And life goes on........
John
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