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With all the new crazy self-appointed Chief Overseers, Apostles, Prophets, Pharisees, legalists, and outright liars leading various Churches of God today, it is important to hold these agents of deception accountable.
Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web of Corrupt Leaders
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Friday, October 13, 2017
Growing Up As A Young Girl In The Church of God
Image taken from Truth About Makeup written by Herbert W. Armstrong and published by the Worldwide Church of God. Text reads: Is this what YOU want to look like? Notice the make-up – the redrawn eyebrows – the painted lips and fingernails. WHY does this woman wear make-up? You guessed it! – she was taken into custody as a prostitute for breach of the vice laws in California! Is this the kind of woman you want to portray?
My girlhood was filled with sermon upon sermon admonishing women to submit to their husbands in all things. A wife’s sexual submission to her husband was particularly important. There were sermons about how long after giving birth a wife could reasonably deny her husband sexual pleasure. I heard about which sex acts between husbands and wives were allowable and which were immoral. I learned from the pulpit that a wife could save herself from cystitis by wiping front to back.
I heard sermons from ministers angrily admonishing women in the congregation for the length of their skirts and the way they crossed their legs. Even ministers could not control their sexual thoughts with these kinds of distractions. And how dare women behave this way as God’s Ministers were in the act of preaching The Word of God.
The way women and girls dressed, whether they wore make-up or not, was constantly policed. Make-up was forbidden. Then it was allowed. Then it was forbidden again before it was finally allowed. Ministers called women vain; they called them harlots and whores. Pants were forbidden. Then pants were allowed. Skirts were measured. Jewelry was questioned. Hairstyles were critiqued. If women appeared out of line or “had a bad attitude,” ministers would approach their husbands and tell them to “correct their wives.”
The message was that ministers, husbands, and fathers owned rightful claim over my female body and that any deviation from their wishes, any autonomous expression of my gender, any unsanctioned sexual activity would bring punishment.
as a single father, my father had one son and four daughters, three of whom he raised himself in the cog...
the three he raised were, by all accounts, chaste, having no problems with drugs, alchohol, pre marital sex, no running away nor sassing our father, etc...
the daughter he didnt raise was so promiscuous that the non cog aunt raising her had to have her get a contraceptive implant...
she was always running away, and fighting the lady what raised her...
Couldn't happen in this day and age, unless you want to be cussed up or hit, especially if you are married to a big fat slob. Heck, all she needs to do is sit on you and that will surely kill you.
If the little wannabes want to instill HWAs dictates today, they are in for a big surprise.
I remember the above very well. When my wife and I counseled for marriage, he told my wife to be that if I came home and decided to chop a hole in the living room floor, she should just arrange the furniture around the hole and be happy about it. That minister was about the biggest ass I have ever known. Loma Armstrong wanted all the girls at AC to look plain, no makeup. Hair had to be long and plainly done . While a student my future wife was criticized because she used hair spray and put a little body in her hair. I don't think a class in first year bible went by without Rod Meredith talking about girls boobs or spanking his wife.
I sometimes think that some of the off shoots still are promoting this way of thinking to this day. My husband joined up with one last year. Several months ago he wanted me to do something and actually said, "I command you to ...". I looked at him and said, "What did you just say?" I told him that there was absolutely no way that I would tolerate a double standard and if he wanted to have this kind of attitude with me then I would certainly return it back to him in full measure. It was the last time he tried it. Maybe that's why he came home from the Feast this year and told me he wants a separation. but tries to insist that nothing will change between us. We will continue as before. Figure that one out.
Rod Meredith caused division in the Charlotte HQ office when he told several of the young women that they should start wearing more makeup and more fashionable clothes, to help "pretty up" the office. By now, I think, all but one of those women has left HQ, so the atmosphere would be about right for Gerald Weston to start insisting on Amish-style attire so as to keep his rapey men's minds on the things of God.
Make up . . hair length . . . skirt length . . . always easier to deal with these minor externals the fruit of the Spirit. Other churches don't dictate so much over such issues, but do on rituals and ceremonies. Again, easier to deal with these issues rather than fruit of the Spirit. I remember HWA railing against long hair in men. "Why do men want to look like women", he would ask. Doesn't nature itself tell us that it is wrong for men to have long hair? I wish I had asked him, "Why do YOU, HWA, want to look like a woman by shaving your face smooth?" Doesn't nature itself tell us that men are supposed to have whiskers? External appearances, be it the campus in Pasadena or GTA's speaking ability on the radio, are more important than Christian character and behavior.
The blonds hot. That's my kind of woman. Anyone got her phone number?
ReplyDeleteas a single father, my father had one son and four daughters, three of whom he raised himself in the cog...
ReplyDeletethe three he raised were, by all accounts, chaste, having no problems with drugs, alchohol, pre marital sex, no running away nor sassing our father, etc...
the daughter he didnt raise was so promiscuous that the non cog aunt raising her had to have her get a contraceptive implant...
she was always running away, and fighting the lady what raised her...
Correct their wives? LOL
ReplyDeleteCouldn't happen in this day and age, unless you want to be cussed up or hit, especially if you are married to a big fat slob. Heck, all she needs to do is sit on you and that will surely kill you.
If the little wannabes want to instill HWAs dictates today, they are in for a big surprise.
I remember the above very well. When my wife and I counseled for marriage, he told my wife to be that if I came home and decided to chop a hole in the living room floor, she should just arrange the furniture around the hole and be happy about it. That minister was about the biggest ass I have ever known. Loma Armstrong wanted all the girls at AC to look plain, no makeup. Hair had to be long and plainly done .
ReplyDeleteWhile a student my future wife was criticized because she used hair spray and put a little body in her hair. I don't think a class in first year bible went by without Rod Meredith talking about girls boobs or spanking his wife.
They didn't like the guys using Command hairspray for men, either.
DeleteI got chopped in the Senior Class Will at their banquet for using it.
BB
I sometimes think that some of the off shoots still are promoting this way of thinking to this day. My husband joined up with one last year. Several months ago he wanted me to do something and actually said, "I command you to ...". I looked at him and said, "What did you just say?" I told him that there was absolutely no way that I would tolerate a double standard and if he wanted to have this kind of attitude with me then I would certainly return it back to him in full measure. It was the last time he tried it. Maybe that's why he came home from the Feast this year and told me he wants a separation. but tries to insist that nothing will change between us. We will continue as before. Figure that one out.
ReplyDeleteRod Meredith caused division in the Charlotte HQ office when he told several of the young women that they should start wearing more makeup and more fashionable clothes, to help "pretty up" the office. By now, I think, all but one of those women has left HQ, so the atmosphere would be about right for Gerald Weston to start insisting on Amish-style attire so as to keep his rapey men's minds on the things of God.
ReplyDeleteIt isn't just HWA or the COGs, however. You'll find this misogyny all over fundamentalist religion, regardless even of which one.
ReplyDeleteDuring the times in which holy books were written for major religions today, women were the property of men, and men wrote the holy books.
The bible is the source of misogyny for christians.
Make up . . hair length . . . skirt length . . . always easier to deal with these minor externals the fruit of the Spirit. Other churches don't dictate so much over such issues, but do on rituals and ceremonies. Again, easier to deal with these issues rather than fruit of the Spirit.
ReplyDeleteI remember HWA railing against long hair in men. "Why do men want to look like women", he would ask. Doesn't nature itself tell us that it is wrong for men to have long hair? I wish I had asked him, "Why do YOU, HWA, want to look like a woman by shaving your face smooth?" Doesn't nature itself tell us that men are supposed to have whiskers?
External appearances, be it the campus in Pasadena or GTA's speaking ability on the radio, are more important than Christian character and behavior.