From a reader:
What the readers here at Banned likely don't firmly grasp is that LCG is a corporation. Corporations have owners.
Someone's name is on the bank account and it isn't Gerald Weston.
RCM appointed Gerald Weston as the acting head evangelist. Kind of like the CEO if you will.
What the members of LCG should be asking is where does the money trail end?
LCG brings in 8-10 million dollars a year. If they folded shop tomorrow and paid all their debts, who would be the benefactor?
There is no way on earth that Rod Meredith (who had about 3 lawyers) just gave Gerald Weston the keys to the coffers. I can almost guarantee that Lil' Jimmy and his brothers will be set for life.
I'm not judging. Hell, I'd do the same thing if I had a multi-million dollar company! But the LCG minions are in total denial about the money and the power in their little splinter group.
Wake up people! LCG is a business. Send your money if you must but at least understand where it is going.
PS - It would be awesome if Gerald Weston forged his name to a bunch of LCG checks in the middle of the night to steal money to start another splinter group just like Spanky did!
19 comments:
I recall the PCG proudly pointing out in its early 1990s days, that half of it's income went directly into the work. With the other splinters at that time, it was about 20-30%.
So 80% of tithe went into church administration. I don't have information about the present, but I suspect it's even lower. I would love to see a breakdown of these administration costs.
Generally speaking, charities are notoriously inefficient. It's common for only 10% of public donations to reach it's intended recipients. The reason given is that charities are exempt from market forces of profit/loss. A business inefficiently run will eventual go out of business. But not a charity. Plus deceased estates are not monitored since the donors are err, dead. Which is why many charities have lavish grounds and accommodations, with their board of directors being yearly paid hundreds of thousands of dollars each.
Charities swallow up peoples donations like a black hole. One minute it's there, then, poof, it's not there.
As Stanley Rader would say, "it's not what you own, but what you control." I imagine RCM learned that lesson since he probably felt victimized by Rader. When a non-profit, tax exempt organization goes under, don't their assets have to go to another non-profit, tax exempt organization? So, I don't think they can simply close up shop and someone walk away with the remaining assets. Of course, they could bleed the coffers dry by giving themselves huge bonuses as the church dies. I think one reason why the Crystal Cathedral shut down was that there were too many relatives of Robert Schuller on the payroll, drawing huge salaries for very little work in some cases.
So Anonymous "Reader" - where is the proof for your ridiculous allegations? I thought so.
When Meredith was "making the move" to become LCG, several of the ministry, including Weston, took out second mortgages to send the money to RCM.
For a while, there was a lot of trepidation that the loans would not be paid back, so the automatic response was to try to get the people to help bail out people like GW, if he didn't get the money back. Thankfully, not many were dumb enough to bail them out and eventually the income was there to repay these people.
Not sure if this solidified Weston in Meredith's eyes as a "true blue, trust him with the checkbook" after his death, but I'm sure it didn't hurt. Loyalty is such a big element in this quagmire, but Weston also at one time had to take both younger Meredith boys to KC and what little hair he had left, was constantly being pulled out in frustration over their antics.
I heard GW remark more than once he didn't know what to do with these 2, so it does make one wonder if blood over loyalty trumps and if it does, with the kin keep the purse strings and vacate GW over their time in KC?
Actually, unless you are an LCG member and fit a certain profile, does it really even matter who is in charge?
BB
Living Church of God articles of incorporation.
https://www.sosnc.gov/Search/profcorp/7751777
https://www.sosnc.gov/Search/filings/7751777
https://www.sosnc.gov/search/regagent/2773173
When Meredith was "making the move" to become LCG, several of the ministry, including Weston, took out second mortgages to send the money to RCM.
For a while, there was a lot of trepidation that the loans would not be paid back, so the automatic response was to try to get the people to help bail out people like GW, if he didn't get the money back. Thankfully, not many were dumb enough to bail them out and eventually the income was there to repay these people.
As I recall things, many men loaned money to Global around 1997 to try and keep it afloat. This is why Meredith (and Don Davis) tried to withdraw 500K just before they left GCG. They didn't get the money, GCG soon went bankrupt anyway, and the money was gone. Meredith then sought to repay these men from LCG's coffers. But this move was highly questionable both legally and ethically, which is probably why Mr. Meredith never made any announcement concerning it to the church. Imagine me coming into LCG in 2000, expecting my tithes to be going toward the stated missions of the church when instead they are going to pay a debt incurred by an entirely different organization, a debt that LCG has no obligation to pay, a debt incurred due to mismanagement in that other organization some 3-5 years earlier, and is only repaid out of a personal obligation felt by Meredith to his friends. Does Meredith have the authority to distribute my tithe money (or, more accurately, God’s tithe money) to anyone, even his friends, as he sees fit? Apparently so.
Tithes in the ACOGs are a mockery, 10:11. Look at all the tithes that Rod's slander caused to go to Leona McNair. No accountability. It's whatever they say it is. This started in the Herbie era when third tithe was used to purchase expensive art works while church widows and their children were sent to the welfare office.
They call themselves "God's ministers" In an attempt to promote the idea that human tithe payers are not permitted to hold them accountable. When members see and understand what is really going on, it is their moral and ethical responsibility to vote with their feet. If more members did that, it would stop the tyrannical charlatans dead in their tracks! I believe that in many cases there is truth to the Latin saying "vox populi vox dei". Why would a sincere spiritual guide reject accountability? There can be only one answer to that question.
BB
A church denomination IS a corporation! With all the Armstrong's godless churches it is all about money.
Praise The Almighty Dollar!
To the LCG defender above:
Do you deny that RCM had the authority to do whatever he saw fit with tithe money? Surely not.
So now, do you believe RCM gave the bank accounts solely over to GW?
How do you think this works?
I'm sincerely asking though I doubt you'll reply.
Whenever LCG members drop a comment like that, they never seem to come back to explain what they believe to be true. They just deny and run.
LCG Expositor is now poorer, but wiser.
That's what we get when we read only little colorful booklets written by morons - being too lazy to read academic scholarship - available free from the library.
No sense in speculating about how LCG spends it's money. On its LCG.org website in the "About Us" link is the 2015 Financial Statement. http://www.lcg.org/about-us.shtml
Anonymous 5:37AM wrote:
No sense in speculating about how LCG spends it's money. On its LCG.org website in the "About Us" link is the 2015 Financial Statement. http://www.lcg.org/about-us.shtml
Anon 5:37 fails to ask the obvious question: "Where is the 2016 Financial Statement?" For many years, LCG published its financial statement in its member newsletter. GEW stopped that last year, and instead the audited financials were put online where they thought fewer people would notice.
According to web.archive.org, LCG put the 2015 statement up sometime between June 4 and June 11 of 2016. So, it is about time for LCG to put the 2016 statement online. Will they do it, or are they becoming more like PCG and Pack and Hulme and other secretive cultish ACOGs? Time will tell.
@5:37
LCG practices creative accounting. Everyone in that building in Charlotte knows it. I speak as an ex-employee. Banned posted the name of one of Jerry Ruddlesden's LU course text books about manipulating statistics and mathematics. That's exactly what they do. Especially where the university is concerned. They tuck expenses here and there under different categories. It's a common practice in all businesses.
What they aren't saying is that RCM uses tithe money for investments (gold, mutual funds,etc). The increase from these investments is over and above the money the members mail in. By law, LCG has to put the money back into itself (501c). Law also gives the "Director" on the Board of Directors of the corporation the say in what happens to that money. It's 100% legal to give purpose it for the "head evangelist" as a bonus or whatever.
I wonder who the new corporate director is? I hope it's Jimmy. That would be glorious!
The generic financial report LCG puts out lumps payroll together. People would be shocked to know how little some make while others bring in over six figures. And can someone please explain exactly WHAT RCM's kids get paid for?
LCG is as crooked as a dog's hind leg. It's all about smoke, mirrors and baffling the dumb tithe sheep who blindly accept everything their puppet masters tell them to believe.
Gary should start a Go Fund Me account to raise money to pay for a Dun & Bradstreet report on LCG. That would reveal a lot of their dirty little secrets.
Anon 10:40AM wrote:
People would be shocked to know how little some make while others bring in over six figures.
You should be careful not to exaggerate. With the death of RCM, I am aware of only six LCG HQ employees and one Living University employee who earn more than $100,000/year. Of course, if you count their access to expense accounts, two or three others can live like six-figure earners.
Not sure what 7:02 finds to be a ridiculous assertion - that LCG isnt a corporation, or that the presiding evangelist may not be sole owner?
@10:40
can someone please explain exactly WHAT RCM's kids get paid for?
David Meredith gets paid more than $40,000 per year as director of LCG's social media efforts. He and Jim Meredith are the only two Meredith children on the LCG payroll. The daughters are not paid directly but are wives of LCG ministers. Jim could justify his high salary as Executive Aide to the Presiding Evangelist, but it remains to be seen whether Gerald Weston will want to keep him in that role.
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