From a reliable and confidential source:
My Cincinnati source has revealed that there is a great deal of fear in the local congregations. You come into church on the Sabbath and your name is immediately put on a pre-printed Church Attendance Form by some brown nosing Church lackey. This form is sent into Cal Culpepper and if you miss to many services - regardless of Health or Wealth - you are suspended.The rule is that you cannot miss more than 1 service a month or not too many in a year. This suspension lasts for 9-12 months if your lucky. If not so lucky say goodbye to your PCG family and friends and say hello to the Great Tribulation and the Lake of Fire.
The men are "encouraged" to attended Spokesman Club. If you cannot attend due to finances or work then you are labeled unofficially as not committed fully to "God's Government" and lukewarm. Many Spokesman Club members from Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio have to drive at least 2-3 hours one way to meet in some VFW hall or rented Motel room. Imagine sitting there for 2 hours and hoping Culpepper does not see you make a wrong move or perhaps slightly nod your head in weariness as you have been up for 12 hours because you got off of work and had a 4 hour round trip commute just to attend Club. Can you imagine getting up and giving a speech in from of Il Duce Cal?
There are ever increasing fund raising drives to make more money for Flurry. One is where they bring in large "Change Jars" right into church and "encourage" you to empty your pockets of any "loose change" in order to support the work. Most of my PCG friends are too broke and actually need every dime they can get with paying 3 Tithes to the Church. But you are told from the pulpit that you "cannot out give God" and the faithful member who sends cash into That Prophet will be blessed in health and finances. Empty your pockets this Sabbath so Wayne Turgeon's kids can Riverdance across the stage and perform for a half filled auditorium.
Every Christmas time in the months leading up to the Holiday Season there is a "Fruit Sale". A very large amount of Fruit is bought wholesale by the Church and the individual members of each congregation are to "sell" as much fruit to their neighbors and family members. In all actuality most people are too afraid of not showing enough loyalty to the Church in this cash raising endeavor and when they fail to sell enough fruit to other people they spend their own money and buy the stuff themselves. Another way the PCG milks their members. Just a backdoor Tithe on people.
Worst of all are the congregational snitches and gossips. You have to be careful what you say, who you say it to, and who is around to hear it. People in the Cincinnati Church are morbidly afraid of ANYTHING getting back to Cal Culpepper. Cal gets the wrong word in his ear about you and you are toast. There is one little snitch in particular named L____. L____ goes to Culpepper with every little tidbit of information he can get on a church member. Steve Witt is the local Deacon/Contact Person and he has said that he can't stand L_____. Steve said that most people dread being around him and try and stay away because they know X____ is Culpepeprs little spy. X____ was very new to the Church and pushed hard to be "somebody" with a congregational job or duty. He was heard saying on the way to Spokesman Club that any man who does not attend club should be cast out of the Church. Ahh the LOVE. He also has boated how he was only in the church for a few months when he was put on the Sound Table duties. Wow what a guy.
My PCG friend said that one Passover he had to drive 2 hours to have to attend Passover services. If you miss Passover Services it is like committing the unpardonable sin. Well my friend was driving in a thunderstorm to get there and he hydroplaned and almost wrecked his car. Needless to say he was very shaken up when he walked into the Service. Guess who he sat down next to? Yeah, L_____. My friend was still reeling from his almost Fatal car crash and he tried to play it cool but you know you are only human. L___ went straight to Culpepper and reported my friend for being "too nervous" during the Services. Culpepper took my friend aside and said that Passover Night is NOT about "being nervous". L____you nasty little fink. My friend though about telling Culpepper about almost slamming into a Guard Rail at 65mph but thought better of it. That could be interpreted by Cal as a "sign" that God is displeased with you and tried to kill you on the way to Passover. Sick but true story.
There is also a Opening Prayer list of men who are authorized to say the opening Prayer before Services. If you go to Spokesman's Club and your Church Attendance is good and if you are a good enough little Borg you get picked to pray. If you are not looked upon as totally loyal to "God's Government" then you will be passed over to pray as if you are some sort of spiritual Leper. It is all about some sort of sick depraved pecking order. Everyone strives and strains to get some sort of job or title like Door Greeter or Sound Person to make themselves feel good and righteous and that maybe God will not turn them into ashes during Armageddon.
I asked my friend about some of the people I have known from back 20 years ago when I attended. Most of the PCG members in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana are 60+ years old. Quite a few that I knew have died. Some have been put out forever. I asked about new members and he said that there is always announcements from the pulpit that "The Ministry is counseling potential new members". However this "counseling" never seems to produce much fruit as the new members coming in has all but dried up. The retired and elderly are the thin red line holding up the entire Flurry edifice.
For the young people and singles it is almost intolerable. Too many Teens have been put out by Culpepper for seeing "worldly" members of the opposite sex. Going to the High School Dance or a Movie with a Tribulation bound boy or girl is tantamount to spiritual suicide in Culpeppers book. And as a young teen when you get put out in the PCG you just don't sit home while every one else goes to Church on a Saturday - you loose your happy home. Many a teen is sent off to live with a Grandparent or other family members because Flurry's new Disfellowhipment policy has no mercy on anyone regardless of age. Yes some have been put onto the street.
I was outraged to find out that only Black man in the Cincinnati Church was put out by Culpepper. His name is David McClain. He was a super nice guy and he and I talked every Sabbath. He had very bad kidney problems and had daily Dialysis just to keep alive. Due to his Health David was staying with Family members and could not live on his own. However those family members were old WCG people from years back. Culpeper and Aaron Eagle found out about it and he had a choice to either leave his home or be disfellowshipped. David had no place to go and was a very sick man and he was put out anyway with no mercy. I know this sounds like I am making this particularly sad story up just to demonize Cal Culpepper but it is all true. You can't make this depravity up.
In conclusion I think we can say that the PCG of 2017 is a shadow of its former self. I remember 80+ people attending just 10 years ago in the Cinci/Dayton congregation alone. There were quite a few young couples with children and more than average Teen attendance. I also remember of around 13,000 to 14,000 people attending the Feast at Chattanooga, Tenn, Charleston, West Virginia and Greenville, SC. Now at the Feast in Lexington Kentucky they barely had 800 or so in greatly reduced facilities.
I hope I did not write too much info. This is only the tip of what I have heard but if you want more let me know.
50 comments:
I knew Culpepper when he worked in the Auditorium on the usher crew. He was an arrogant, condescending and stuck up piece of shit at that time. Now that he has power and "prestige" it is obvious he is even worse! He was disliked by many on the usher crews as well as by the House Staff supervisors and stage crew.
The kind of people who attend and tolerate the man and PCG/Flurry lunacy must themselves be somewhat defective and by now probably deserve each other. It's hard any more to feel sorry for PCG and Restored members who must be near brain dead by now of their own choosing
I heard about Levi Pettit. He has caused a lot of people grief by being the the little wussy lap dog of Culpepper. I think they have a hard on for each other. He is a bearded little man boy with the overall appearance of a gay male nurses aid.
As a long-time former member of the PCG I'd like to correct the number that attended the Feast in PCG (Chattanooga). It was more like 1200-1400. This was back in the late 90's and early 2000's. The PCG has never had more than about 7000 total members.
We bailed from this corrupt organization, (not long after the Feast of 2001). It's hard to believe that anyone (in or out of the PCG) could actually believe that what they teach is Christianity. The PCG has become so horrible that it almost makes the old WCG look good.
They are undoubtedly the worst organization that formed after the demise of the WCG. The RCG is bad, but hasn't affected as many as PCG (because they have always been smaller).
Why would anyone in their right minds tolerate this abuse?
Jesus came down on the Pharisees, Scribes and hypocrites for that kind of behavior.
Apart from the holy days, there is no "commanded attendance" at Temple, synagogue, or what became "church". And the things involved long-distance travel to attend Sabbath services is, by actual Torah commands, breaking the Sabbath in different ways.
Enforcing man-made rules was certainly a big issue in the Gospels, Acts, Galatians, and elsewhere...
It's sad and horrible that members of most 'high-control' organizations practice shunning of former friends, and even family.
IMO, Mr 'Cult'pepper needs a big blast of pepper spray in his eyes and asshole, and when he arrives at the emergency room for treatment, the doctors should shun him.
“I hope I did not write too much info. This is only the tip of what I have heard but if you want more let me know.”
Too much info? You did not write enough!
Thanks for the little that you did write. Keep it coming.
Went to AC with him and he was an arrogant prick back then. He did think he was a real lady killer too. Power destroys so many, but he was already destroying lives even 40 plus years ago.
It is very disturbing that this evil and demeaning set of conditions can be imposed on people who have been convinced that it's what God's government is all about and that by submitting to it they are "qualifying" for the Kingdom.
It's zero tolerance when no alternatives are offered. As an example, were any arrangements attempted or made for care for the man with the kidney problems amongst the brethren once it was determined by the church that the relatives were Satan's people?
This splinter can't come to its end too soon! These conditions are ruining members' minds by causing depression, paranoia, and a sense of impossibility of pleasing God. It is incredible that someone hasn't gone postal on Cal! PCG members are like prisoners of war.
BB
Gerald Flurry said, "No one has any rights".
This is an important statement to note in light of the Second Amendment.
Flurry has cancelled all rights of people in the PCG, except those of the 1% who have a hobby in Irish Dancing part of the family.
Actually, Gerald Flurry himself does have rights: He has the right to remain silent, he has a right to an attorney; if he finally gets to the point he cannot afford an attorney -- which seems to be coming upon him very shortly -- one will be provided for him....
Aaaaah!
Where's the justice in THAT!!!!??!!!
He and Culpeeper need to be featured on the next Dr. Phil (along with Yisrayl Hawkins).
Bring back colonial America -- we need to set up the pillory again. Be sure to save your rotten eggs and decayed vegetables for a good old public shaming, followed by tar and feathers and running them out of town for good.
Make sure they know the full meaning of not having any rights. Just after the bankruptcy.
It's shameful that people give heaps of money to any organization, and in return are robbed of their adulthood and treated unjustly.
By contrast, go to a good restaurant and you are treated like royalty.
There would be a outcry and revolution if any secular government was as intrusive and heavy handed as these churches. Christ taught in Matthew, Mark and Luke that the church was not to lord it over members like the gentiles. But these churches have even surpassed the gentiles in this regard.
Comment @7:11
"Lady killer?" We all thought he was gay! He was one creepy student.
"It is very disturbing that this evil and demeaning set of conditions can be imposed on people"
Stockholm Syndrome.
Not unlike the followers of Charles Manson -- Cullpeeper is of the same 'spirit'.
You know what we need?
We need the same two angels to come down to Edmonds, Oklahoma -- and make sure Culpepper is there -- to investigate just how bad it is.
PCG members (if there are any 'righteous' left) need to be apprised to flee and not look back, lest they be turned into pillars of salt, as fire comes down from heaven to burn the wickedness and evil from the face of the earth.
Or...
A good meteor strike or tornado could also do the job.
We're not fussy.
CAL CULPEPPER ...
The winner of this years annual "Stephen Allwine Minister of the Year" award.
Do not be too quick to feel sorry for all PCG members. Many PCG members were ignorant, selfish, wicked, and malicious from the very beginning. Many PCG leaders and members were just there to prey on other people.
The better people who initially had been fooled by Flurry's lies either wised up and left the PCG or else got expelled from it for some phony reason long ago.
At this late date, you can be pretty sure that there is something seriously wrong with everyone who is still in the PCG.
Hey "From a reliable and confidential source:"
When you write more articles, sign it as "From a reliable and confidential source:John Doe" or another anonymous name each time so I can know that I am following the same writer. It won't be as confusing as having different articles and thinking they may be the same writer.
Thanks for the article, I try to see what is going on in these "Brain Dead" ex members of WCG.
20 years ago, when I was a member of WCG and Brian Keith came to our local congregation and told us we were going back to the vomit we had left in the Christian world (Sun, Xmas,Easter), I said I did not agree. Brian said I would or I could leave! Well as a very obedient Deacon, I obeyed Brian. "I walked out that day and never looked back" nor have I ever attended a service of any of the splinter groups. And enjoying my freedom.
Thanks again, Anonymous Little Jon
I've been to car dealers, where they treat you as a rightless five year old as a manipulative tool of controlling you. Same garbage in these churches. The ploy is murderous. Christ at no time used such ploys, and will not excuse these perpetrators.
You know what this really reminds me of? When punk rock was first breaking on the scene, and Johnny Rotten and the Sex Pistols were the hottest thing around, Rolling Stone had some articles on what was unfolding. The relationship between performer and audience was a perversion of such relationships in the past. At concerts, Johnny Rotten would cuss at his audience and spit on people in the front rows, some of whom wore trash bags as clothing items, and safety pins for jewelry. These fans loved not only this, but the assault and discord of the lyrics and the "music" which was played on out of tune instruments. Basically, early punk rock was a metaphor for Flurry's church, although punk rock predated the PCG sphincter.
Totally perverted, sado-masochistic relationship, whitewashed with poisonous words, and falsely presented as being Godly. What Jesus would have called a "whitened sepulchre". And the hostages can't see it!
BB
It's funny that all COGs tell their people to study their Bible to know the truth.
Then how can members in these extremely toxic groups not easily see that their "ministers" are violating Christ commands in Math. 20 to not rule over others like the Gentiles, but instead be their servant? I Tim. 3 lays down the qualities of a minster.
These poor lemmings are still following the poor example of a man HWA and not Christ. They need to take responsibility for allowing themselves to be abused.
This is presented as if it is a new low water mark in Armstrongite for the Armstrongite ministry but it actually sounds like a cliche to me. Culpepper has just taken his operation back to the Sixties. The point that emerges in my mind is that the writer of this report was not around in the Sixties.
Back in the Sixties, when I first began attending the WCG, we met in a ballroom. Minions were stationed on the Sabbath in the ticket booth with the curtain drawn. They would peek out and make notes on attendance. That was during the Ken Westby administration but I imagine it happened everywhere.
It is natural for Pelagians who are focused on "works" to also want to apply metrics and then set up a system of judgement. That is one reason why the Pelagian heresy was so firmly opposed in the early Church.
The real power that Culpepper is leveraging to the financial advantage of his organization is the fact that people in his congregation actually believe the malarkey that Armstrongites preach. As long as this sad state holds, abuse may abound. Kind of like Donald Trump saying that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and his base would not abandon him. So The Donald has carte blanche to say an do whatever he wants - just like The Cal and The Gerald. But there is a profound price to pay for allegiance to these kind of people.
I put the moniker "from a reliable and confidential source" at the top of the article. Many news items come from sources that want to be kept confidential.
8.40 AM
I came to the same conclusion about some members only coming to services to prey on others. This was in the 1980s. If there weren't victims they could exploit, they would not come to services. Some stopped coming when their victims wised up, or stopped attending services.
I noticed that the ministers, despite complaints, left these exploiters alone.
Presumably they regarded them as soul mates, or believed that they conditioned other members to be mistreated, a bonus for the ministers. Some church.
I like the picture on this post. I remember Cultpecker setting in my living room and looking at me with just the whites of his eyes showing. This was quite unsettling. I had never seen anything like it outside of a hollywood movie. He did it several times.
Never met the guy, but Cal Culpepper looks somewhat demonic in that photo.
9.37 AM
The problem is that the ministers hijack the interpretation of the bible. Some scriptures are ignored as if they don't count, while others scriptures are twisted, and repeatedly used as a club against members. This often makes it hard to see the plain intended meaning of many scriptures.
This is a sick and traitorous game by supposed bible teachers.
He's apparently got that eye-flutter tic. I knew someone who did the same thing. He'd do it whenever he was concentrating on something. There's probably a term for it, but I don't know what it is.
Looked it up. Nervous system disorder, observed in either cases of mild epilepsy or Tourettes. The latter is not always accompanied by the "cursing" tic most of us are familiar with... though on a side note, I work with somebody who has the classic Tourettes tics, and I envy that man sometimes. :)
Coprolalia (the involuntary utterances associated with Tourettes) is fun at work. The man once shouted "FUCKER!!" right in the CEOs face. You better believe we all enjoyed that one :)
Hoss Cartwright said, "Jesus came down on the Pharisees, Scribes and hypocrites for that kind of behavior.
Apart from the holy days, there is no "commanded attendance" at Temple, synagogue, or what became "church". And the things involved long-distance travel to attend Sabbath services is, by actual Torah commands, breaking the Sabbath in different ways.
Enforcing man-made rules was certainly a big issue in the Gospels, Acts, Galatians, and elsewhere..."
MY COMMENT - Hoss' comments needs to be re-posted from time to time, and time again. There is NO eternal death sentence in the Lake of Fire for not traveling 4 hours on almost no sleep to attend Sabbath Services. Why would we think a loving Father would get joy out of toasting one of his creations in the Lake of Fire eternal damnation only because some clown caste his judgment on whether one had zeal for "the Work of God".
Richard
Lake of Fire Church of God
Near_Earth_Object said, "Culpepper has just taken his operation back to the Sixties. The point that emerges in my mind is that the writer of this report was not around in the Sixties.
Back in the Sixties, when I first began attending the WCG, we met in a ballroom. Minions were stationed on the Sabbath in the ticket booth with the curtain drawn. They would peek out and make notes on attendance. That was during the Ken Westby administration but I imagine it happened everywhere".
MY COMMENT - Reading the blog post "From a reliable and confidential source" made me do flashbacks to the old Worldwide Church of God of the 1960s/1970s also. The comment about being a teenager in the Philadelphia Church of God I could relate with. Interestingly to me, the late Ken Westby was our first minister. He was Pator of the Washington, D.C. Baltimore, Maryland church circuit. Later, churches were added in Hagerstown and Annapolis, Maryland. At its peak, the 4 Churches under his direct management had about 1,500 - 1,600 people.
We attended both Baltimore and Washington churches, and later the Annapolis Church when it was established. In Washington, we held services seemingly in just about every public school auditoium in the D.C. area. But in Baltimore, for some reason I seem to remember Sabbath Services in a ballroom in the 1960s before the Church moved to the plush Westview Cinemas in the early 1970s. I am curious Near_Earth_Object if you attended in Baltimore? Or perhaps you had Ken Westby in Kansas before he moved to Maryland.
I left WCG in 1976 never to return. I reconnected with Ken and Joan Westby about 8 years ago on Linkedin and on Facebook. I also listened in a couple times to Ken's virtual church service. It was like hearing an old familiar melody, but the words were changed. The Ken Westby I heard on his Virtual Church had mellowed, and was much different from the 1960s Ken Westby.
Mr. Westby was a very good man who was ahead of his time in the WCG helping to lead 3,000+ members out of Armstrongism in the Church's first major splinter forming the Associated Churches of God. The Associated Churches formed Association for Christian Development where former WCG people such as Brian Knowles and the late Dr. Charles Dorothy could be found on its Godward.org website.
Ken Westby past away a couple months ago. I feel I lost a piece of me with his passing.
Richard
What a frightening testimony of life under Culpepper. Shame on PCG's leaders for allowing this terrible situation to develop by leaving him in charge over these people.
If something happens to Ron Miscavige, Cal Culpepper has the experience to be abusive enough to lead Scientology.
This is worse than the original WCG I was a part of way back there ever dreamed of being. Evil men do wax worse and worse. I'm so glad I got out in the mid-seventies. It was already getting bad then what with all the judgements of being "unconverted" and all.
Allen c. Dexter
8:40 ~ ".......left these exploiters alone. Presumably they regarded them as soul mates......."
You shouldn't say things like that! I darned near choked on my Budweiser when I read it. It really burns when it blows out one's nose!
Several years ago, my wild and crazy ex-wife, and her boss at the post office, took some stink bombs along with them on a turn-around bus tour to Laughlin, NV. At one point, due to the extreme offensive odor, the driver pulled over and evacuated the bus while the air cleared. One senior citizen type dude, as he wheeled his oxygen bottle off the bus was heard to proclaim "This is worse than when they gassed the Jews!" (he had no idea that my wife's boss was Jewish!).
I won't compare PCG to the holocaust, but at this point, it's difficult not to see some similarities in mentality.
BB
The basic problem is that there's no accountability.
It's been this way since Herbert Armstrong founded the cult and it will continue until some overwhelming power from somewhere actually makes it impossible for these people who have no conscience, who have come to believe that they can do anything anytime they very will please to avoid consequences.
Good luck with that.
Of course, at some point, these same people may one day go too far and someone may very well react... badly....
This reminds me of hearing that in the 1960s and 1970s, church numbers flat lined. After the church leaders eased up on their tyranny, a flood of members suddenly appeared. That is, God held back membership because of the tyranny.
Church leaders have chosen to ignore this lesson, and instead put their faith in bully morality. Makes you wonder what the membership numbers would be like if they were genuinely rights respecting. There must be many that God can't call because the church environments are too toxic.
Gerald Flurry said, "No one has any rights".
What about privledge? Ohh...wait..that is only reserved for the brown-nosers.
DBP
Interesting post...as well as comments :)
I got caught up in HWA's hype at the hype tender age of 17. It took me a whopping 15 years to break free just before Passover of 1989, but that's a tale of its own... Point is, I'm free ever since, but has been watching ever since how WWC ediface came tumbling down. I do find the whole process extremely fascinating, to say the least. Morbid? Maybe, but FASCINATING nevertheless.
I really thank the Not-Biblical-God for being endowed with the faculty of critical thinking... I feel so sorry for those who have abdicated their reasoning powers.
Thanks for this site!
I typed in "Cal Culpepper" on Google and you should see the damning info on him on the Internet. Back in the 70s 80s corrupt ministers could destroy lives as they pleased in complete confidentiality - as long as they towed the line with HWA. NOW everything is exposed on the NET. Culpepper is becoming a regular Pariah to everyone except the Brian washed.
During the commie era, you had the iron curtain in Europe. People who tried to escape from East to West Germany by scaling the Berlin wall, were shot by guards. PGC has installed it's own iron curtain and Berlin wall with the draconian 'treat your family members like lepers if suspended' rules.
This policy can't be from God.
People like Culpepper are bullies. Bullies need to be put down. A few fists in the right place would straighten out the SOB.
As someone mentioned above, "ministers"
get away with this type of behavior only because people have bought into the HWA doctrines, and a specific CG as being the exclusive "real" teacher of those doctrines. These ACOGs have done such a job in branding that their members are no longer able to see the alternatives that clearly exist.
It is one thing to restudy the package of doctrines, this time not blindly acceding to all of the guided conclusions. If you leave having done that, you may find yourself mourning the loss of friends, but that is mitigated by the knowledge that you are on to your next phase of development, what is often called the beginning of the rest of your life. Now, being put out while still believing that the ACOG that just disfellowshipped you is God's one and only true church must carry an entirely different package of psychological conditions and anguish. That is what these despots are unleashing in people. It is not a carefully reasoned conclusion, based on new information. It is a fearsome feeling that one is lost, or must become purified through a tribulation.
Some who suffer that will be forced to restudy, but how many either will not, or are incapable of it? There are probably numerous ones out there plodding through a miserable life, thinking of themselves as being lost souls. That's why false teachers really suck.
BB
BB
It's a sick joke calling these church leaders 'ministers.' It's something out of Big Brothers Ministry of Truth. Dictators or despots would be accurate.
But in these churches, these despots must be called ministers, err, make that Mr. Minister, and it's true cause the Mr. ministers say so.
Culpepper will go down in history.
Caligula springs to mind.
Meanwhile, as we trip on back to the beautiful Ambassador College underground, and listen in to Quicksilver Messenger Service's apocalyptic anthem "Pride of Man", a tune foreshadowing 1975 that virtually every WCG member missed, we hear John Cippolina (on his Gibson SG) playing .......
BB
I only ever met Culpepper like twice when I was in PCG. I got a bad vibe about him. There was just something about him he seemed aloof, arrogant, kinda off putting. And his wife with her big puffy hair and submissive obedience to him. It is funny how most of the PCG wives have that puffy hair especially the minister's wives. I think he was talking about a sibling he did not bother with because they were in the world and he had told them one time to wake up.
This is Levi Pettit and I was never cultpeckers lap dog, I quit that cult and I don’t even want my name associated with them mother fuckers especially Cal Culpepper. I would like my name name removed from anything that is associated with them. I was never one of their snitch”s!
I was never one of cult Peckers (Culpepper) snitches everybody can kiss my ass, I quit that cult, I do not want to have any association with those motherfuckers please remove my name from any posting. I never ratted on anyone especially Steve Witt, that was one of my best friends in that cult.
Please remove my name from this post, I am no longer a part of that church and I don’t want my name associated with any part of them.
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