The Church of God community has yet another back mark on its soul due to another suicide because of how the church mistreats its members. This time it is once again the Philadelphia Church of God. This is the second suicide in the Milton, Ontario PCG church. When you read the story below you will see that not one single PCG member had the decency to attend her service. Real Christians did attend and still to this day support her husband and their children.
Of the many sick Churches of God out there today, the Philadelphia Church of God has to be the vilest organization to ever split off the Worldwide Church of God. The vile doctrines and teachings of its alcoholic leader and his abusive ministry seem to know no boundaries of human decency or Christian mercy.
From Exit and Support:
Another PCG Milton Ontario Suicide
October 3, 2018
It is with great sadness to announce another PCG suicide from the Milton, Ontario Cult ("church"). MaryAnn McCullough, 25 year member, took her life Sunday, Sept 23, 2018 approximately 10:55 while Randy and her son Caleb where at church, yes, on Sunday! praising and worshiping our creator God. Randy has been waiting 25 years for his wife to attend with him and now each Sunday she will be there with him in spirit.
After being kicked out of her congregation when she needed them, the most was too much for her to bare. This most precious of women left a husband, 3 kids, and 3 grandchildren, in tears and disbelief. Flurry's dictatorship style teaching falsehoods of God’s word pushed this beautiful wife and mother to her grave. Matthew 18:6 says if anyone causes one of these who believe in me to stumble it is better for a huge stone to be hung around their neck and be drowned in the sea.
After 4 months of suffering and no flowers, cards, or phone calls other than her husband’s church who has and still is reaching out with God's love and compassion, sending flowers, food and cards over the last several months. People and family members just can’t believe she could be brainwashed into believing such doctrinal lies. Her husband believes she has accepted Christ and in Him alone and will see her again someday, hopefully soon.
The Rcmp Opp and other law informant groups are well aware of what Flurry's teachings are doing to innocent people. This is the 2nd suicide from the Milton, Ontario cult. You have to ask yourself what the hell is going on. With well Over 200 family and community people gathered, yes, on Saturday September 30 to show their love and support to the family and not one word from the PCG. Wow! Trust me, no one from this area will be joining that cult for sure. I beg all of you who are still drinking Flurry's Kool Aid to get out! The pastor who married the McCulloughs, George Alfeldt, 27 years ago called and sent his condolences and stated he feels Satan has entered that cult. I have so much more to say but with half my heart missing I am at a loss for words right now. I pray this will cause one, if not many, to GET OUT!!!!! --MaryAnn’s Loving Husband Randy
To further illustrate how SICK the PCG is, they regularly run articles on suicide, never noting that their vile unchristian policies AND its abusive ministry are the leading cause of PCG suicides
Dennis Leap offers this tidbit of filth as suicide prevention: The Truth About Suicide
Suicide is not a disease or physical illness. It is a weakness of mind and character. Suicide will not stop until mankind experiences a spiritual renewal of mind and character.
There is way of life that produces true happiness, peace and lasting success. There is a way of life that teaches us how to face and overcome problems rather than resorting to suicide.
Imagine that, The Incredible Human Potential book is the solution and inspiration a person needs. No mercy and love of Jesus, but a damn book that was written by another COG leader who has also drove people to suicide!The Incredible Human Potential will provide you the solution and inspiration you need to make it through life’s tough times. In particular, this scintillating book will prove to you that Jesus Christ will return shortly and establish a new world order that will open the way for every human being to live a life filled with unparalleled happiness, health and lasting success.
Also, see:
28 comments:
My heart actually hurts after reading this and tears are coursing down my cheeks. I have no words that can adequately express my emotions right now.
Yes, peoples in these cults, get out! There is no excuse for this kind of behavior on the part of the cults and their leaders.
Randy and children, I am so, so very sorry this happened. And yes, you WILL be reunited with your wife and mother in a loving and happy embrace! In the meantime, know that God is a loving God Who has great compassion.
We can certainly see that MaryAnn had been spiritually, intellectually, and psychologically trapped to the extent that even in her extreme misery, she could not see relief. It is heartbreaking that when that happens, even a fine example of Christianity right in the home is not able to release the bonds. The people in the ACOG cults are conditioned to believe that genuine love and care expressed towards them by mainstream Christians are Satan's temptations and deceptions. They even believe that completely secular counselling is of Satan.
Also, different personalities react differently towards disfellowshipment. Some are fortunate. They unbrainwash (is that a word, Scrabble fans?) themselves, and begin a new life with better paradigms. But, there are also those who see themselves as having become lost souls, and I can't even imagine the depression and the negativity which would accompany that. We've read reports over the years regarding some of Flurry's "ministers" making disfellowshipments permanent, refusing to even hear or counsel with those who want to be reinstated. Some, obviously, would seek out a less toxic splinter, but there are some members in each splinter who chose that splinter because they believe it's the one and only.
Thoughts and prayers to the McCullough family.
That suicide is the result of "weakness of mind and character" is a gross over simplification. One example, suicide rates drop during times of national crisis such as wars.
While I don’t condone suicide I have had thoughts of suicide myself for a few decades now especially in the last 5 years since falling ill with unexplained and unimaginable physical pain, which occured every time I ate and drank (even water!) and I never knew could be felt. While the pain has subsided to a great deal (thanks be to the Most High!) I learned from this ordeal NEVER to judge another person who chooses to take his/her own life. Idk what was going on in their mind or life that they felt the only way to eliminate whatever pain they were experiencing was by taking their own life. I know no one wants to die. But, as a human with all-too-human emotions I empathize that sometimes we may feel the only way to stop the unending pain is through death (even though like I said no one wants to die they just want the pain to stop. Having said this I don’t understand how Leap can assert: “Suicide is . . . a weakness of mind and character.” Tell that to the defeated Samson (Jud 16:28-30), the ill and poverty-stricken Job (Job 6:8-11), the homeless and hunted prophet Elijah (2 Ki 19:2-4), the depressed prophet Jeremiah (Jer 20:14-18), and the wounded prophet Jonah (Jon 4:3-8)! Suicidal thoughts are common to the great and small alike! It’s a common emotion that’s been evidenced throughout history and felt especially nowadays as intense loneliness, depressive news and chronic pain grows despite the technological advancements connecting us (Rv 9:6). To anyone battling with such thoughts I can only pray a little prayer that they hold on for another day (like Lifehouse sings https://youtu.be/VEOOHVNItt8) coz in my own experience there is light beyond the thick darkness that tends to blind us today from seeing it tomorrow if you just hang on for another day! :-)
For reasons of privacy, piety, societal norms, taboos and (religious) differences we "outsiders" often only get to see a glimpse of what occured. I realize that often the main players do not even know what really went on in depressed persons or their personal histories.
We can of course have an opinion on how things and situations are handled in cases. Also on a level it is a good thing to call out the evil cults for reasons of possibly discouraging people from joining and point at the good christians "out there" in contrast. It is in all cases superficial however since the brutal facts are often a taboo.
It is exactly that taboo that needs to broken in society in order to be helpful for the depressed and their helpers.
We can gather that the family loathed the cult. This must have been very hard on this "spiritual widow" in cog speak. After 25 years they must have been aware that the people of that cult do not attend occassions other than services on sabbaths. Also the husband did not see fit to wait a couple of days for the funeral in order for the cult members to return from the Feast. So there was a complete divide of opinions for those serving a depressed mother and grandmother who after 25 years of membership could not attend the Feast for being cut off.
We can gather that the lady was cut off from the church and had suffered. I do not believe she had cancer. Most likely it was depression.
She took her life at the EXACT moment of the start of the Feast. If anything I would call that a call to attention to her specific type of intense suffering. Unfortunately family members saw fit to leave her alone in her despair to attend sunday services.
This lady had been an active member for 25 years. Started attending after 2 years in marriage in 1993. Was she "an original" or had she been raised in wcg for over 20 years?
Who is pastor Aldfeldt, in WCG records I only find a pastor Affeld serving in the midwest?
Were medicine administered to her? Did she refuse to take medicine? Did she take medicine and was that the reason she was cut off? Were the ministers slick in "leaving the matter of taking medicine to the family while at the same time implying that people taking medicine would not be recognized by God and join in the Kingdom?"
Did she try to get of medicine to be able to enjoy Feast, getting the full blow of her anxieties just before the feast for that reason. Did Flurry personally cut her to not join the Feast without attending properly to a member of 25 years, while as 10:58 said condemning secular counseling of Satan? Then Gerald Flurry himself is personally culpable.
This goes beyond the "oh how could people believe that stupid stuff that I believe is different in the bible" and I am a good christian. This matter is about how one deals with depression, speaks about it openly and persons and organizations care for those who suffer of its consequences . Sometimes induced by rough childhoods but also induced by cultic anxieties and god displeasing fallacies regarding the care for the weak.
nck
The Armstrong cults are very dangerous.
Reactions to suicide, violence, or other serious issues in a COG (and sometimes mainstream churches) are often inadequate, inappropriate, or show little concern.
Not to detract from the sadness of this story, but before reading it, I actually woke up with a bad dream -- in the dream I was a PCG member...
Suicide is an act of hopelessness and desperation, not a character flaw. You can seem to have everything going for you, but in your head it is all very wrong. You can't find peace, punch your way out of a paper bag. Anyone who criticizes someone or their family for suicide, or attempted suicide should NOT JUDGE. Not until you are in those exact moments can you understand. It's a sick and twisted organization, the COG's are. Where is God's mercy at a time like this? Disgusting.
George Affeldt is a retired Grace Communion (formerly Wcg) Pastor.
Story and background here:
https://update.gci.org/2017/04/pastors-retire/
The PCG is a satanic imposter cult led by a false prophet who does all of his own evil in God's name to try to make God look bad.
The power-hungry bums that Gerald Flurry set up as fake PCG “ministers” when no WCG ministers went with That Drunken Runt get their thrills by abusing and kicking out other people. By joining the PCG, people give these fake PCG “ministers” too much power over their current lives. These fake PCG “ministers” also like to terrorize people by pretending that they have power over everyone's eternal fate. These fake PCG “ministers” get a fiendish delight from thinking that they can arbitrarily destroy other people eternally just for the fun of it.
The PCG can be very confusing. It pretends to be God's one true cult, yet actually does the exact diametrical opposite of what the Bible teaches. PCG members get brainwashed into thinking that righteousness consists of doing evil to their own close family members who did not join the PCG, while going along with all the strange old sex maniacs, sex perverts, and predators who did go to the PCG predator's paradise for their own selfish and immoral reasons.
CULT HISTORY LESSON
Herbert W. Armstrong had taught in his Autobiography, and in his last book called Mystery of the Ages published just a few months before he died in January 1986, that the “very purpose,” the “true purpose,” of the true church was to carry out the “Great Commission” that Jesus had given to his apostles (not prophets) to preach the gospel (meaning “good news”) of the coming kingdom of God. Jesus's true gospel message of the kingdom of God had been suppressed early on and for hundreds of years replaced with a message about the messenger Jesus. According to HWA's church eras teaching, the Worldwide Church of God was the Philadelphia era of the true church and it had been given an “open door” to preach the true gospel of the coming kingdom of God to the whole world before the end of the age would come.
Gerald Flurry and about 700 other WCG ministers received in the mail from Jules Dervaes a copy of The Letter to Laodicea. Gerald Flurry and his accomplice John Amos plagiarized this writing and turned it into a book called Malachi's Message. Gerald Flurry revised it half a dozen times over the years and claimed that it was the “little scroll” that had been delivered by a mighty angel in the book of Revelation. Gerald Flurry denied that anyone else had known some or all of it before he wrote it.
Gerald Flurry's Malachi's Message book pretended to praise HWA by saying that HWA had already preached the gospel, as if it was now over and done with. Thus did Gerald Flurry immediately go back to the centuries-old practice of suppressing and doing away with the preaching of the true gospel of the kingdom of God. In Malachi's Message Gerald Flurry wrote that with a “new church era” comes a “new commission” to “warn the Laodiceans.” If Gerald Flurry had called it a “new gospel” or “another gospel” or a “different gospel” it might have raised some suspicions, but merely by talking about a “new commission” for a “new church era” he was able to fool his followers into forgetting about and abandoning the true gospel of the kingdom of God and replacing it with a cruel hoax called “warning the Laodiceans.”
According to Gerald Flurry, the Laodiceans are any former WCG members who did not join his PCG cult. “Warning the Laodiceans” does not mean talking to them, but rather utterly refusing to have any communication at all with them. PCG members are supposed to cut off all communication with any former WCG members who did not join the PCG, including mates and parents and children. Gerald Flurry said that God commands that we avoid certain ones. By this Gerald Flurry did not mean that PCG members should avoid the many perverts who joined the PCG, but rather that they should avoid their own sensible and decent family members who did not join the PCG. The idea is to cut off PCG members from any possible source of truth and common sense. That way Gerald Flurry can do such outrageous things as claiming that he himself, rather than Jesus, is the prophet referred to in Deuteronomy 18:18-19.
As the apostle Paul had warned, there are some who would pervert the gospel. They preach things that are really no gospel (meaning “good news”) at all!
HWA used to say that more ministers came from the cabinet shop than any other department of the church or college. George Affeldt is one example. He is also a veteran of the US Marine Corps. I did not know him personally, but know that as a working man, he was widely respected in the HQ area by the church members, in many cases, over and above the college boys.
The timeline in the Exit-Support Network article would put Ms. Mccullough’s baptism into the pre-GCI era of the WCG. I don’t believe there is anything beyond the normal sinister stuff about her baptism, or that we could read anything into the fact that George Affeldt performed it. The hyper-sinister aspects would have come into her life through PCG.
9:07
Yes it's just that the name of that particular minister is spelled differently. I don't think that minister is relevant. I raised the question to know if she had a very long wcg background aswell or if she had only come into contact with pcg in about 1993.
And this I only raised because the husband particularly seems to loathe pcg while leading a "normal" christian life. It would have been a particularly stressful environment for a depressed lady and burden that pcg places on members in increasing fashion regarding their relation to the "outside world".
nck
That wasnt a dream, that was a nightmare.
One of the dark sides of the WCG and its splinters is a dark interest in suicide. It's as if they want to destroy their own members lives. It's dangerous and darkness.
nck asked; Who is pastor Aldfeldt, in WCG records I only find a pastor Affeld serving in the midwest?
George Affeldt was pasturing the Johnstown and Huntington Pennsylvania congregations of the WCG 27 years ago. I don't know if the McCullough's lived there at the time or not. Prior to coming to Pennsylvania I think he pastured a church in the Dakota's somewhere. Sometime prior to that he worked as a cabinet maker in the WCG headquarters in Pasadena before he was recruited into the ministry.
Was she kicked out for consorting with the "enemy" - her adult children? Anyone know?
I wonder how Dennis Leap would react if he had a chemical imbalance and found his hope beaten to its knees. Seemingly unlike him, Jesus is touched with our infirmities.
9.29
Actually DL was released of ministerial duties after a severe stint of depression. Apparently he recovered without secondary support otherwise the "character" article would be hypocritical apart from dangerous and irresponsible.
Of course God can help, I will acknowledge that. Alas God is known for sending help in many ways apart from "x raying good thoughts."
Nck
Nck said...“Actually DL was released of ministerial duties after a severe stint of depression. Apparently he recovered without secondary support otherwise the 'character' article would be hypocritical apart from dangerous and irresponsible.”
The "ministers" that Gerald Flurry had set up in his Philadelphia Church were sternly warned in a taped sermon that Malachi's Message was between God and Gerald, and that it was not the job of the "ministers" to question it. Gerald complained loudly that one of them had made it "sound like it was written by a drunk!” Perhaps Gerald was still a bit sensitive about having been arrested for drunk driving. In another taped sermon, Gerald Flurry had said that his father "was a drunk!"
Gerald Flurry likes to force PCG members to state that they believe all sorts of things, when in fact they really are not sure about them. Dennis Leap, the "minister" who had upset Gerald by saying that there were problems with Malachi's Message, later said--in what sounded like a forced, reluctant tone of voice in a taped message distributed to PCG congregations--that he "firmly" believed that Malachi's Message was the little book mentioned in Revelation. Though he said that he "firmly" believed it, his unusually quiet and contrite tone of voice made it clear that Gerald had been the firm one.
THE DEVIL AND GERALD FLURRY
A lot of former Worldwide Church of God people greatly underestimated the power of the Devil. They carelessly assumed that the Devil had only sent his apostate Tkaches to destroy the WCG. They never suspected that the Devil had also set up his own false prophet in his own counterfeit PCG cult to use HWA's name and photograph to attract and trap former WCG members who were fleeing from the Tkaches' Great Apostasy of January 1995.
Many people saw the apostate Tkaches openly throw out virtually everything that HWA had taught. (Only tithing quickly made a comeback.) At the same time, they saw Gerald Flurry using HWA's name and photograph and claiming to be faithfully holding on to everything that HWA had taught. Against the backdrop of the apostate Tkaches' Great Apostasy of January 1995, they did not notice that the Devil's false prophet Gerald Flurry was making his own monstrous doctrinal changes. Even Gerald Flurry's babblings about how the PCG had been “flooded with new revelation” did not really sink in.
The Devil had his apostate Tkaches sell the copyrights to some of HWA's writings to the Devil's false prophet Gerald Flurry so that he could edit and change them while pretending that he was faithfully preserving them.
In one of those strange twists of history, the Devil's false prophet Gerald Flurry ended up making the Devil's apostate Tkaches appear to be downright reasonable and decent by comparison. The apostate Tkaches allowed their followers to do evil and break up their families. The false prophet Gerald Flurry required his followers to do evil and break up their families. Many people who thought that they were so smart and brave to reject the apostate Tkaches and their heresies are now trapped by That (False) Prophet Gerald Flurry and his truly satanic heresies.
I can imagine that a true story. DL is versed in the english language. My first reaction to MMessage in 1990 was that it was written by an amateur for literary qualities. So I can imagine what a lover of literature thinks it is. But I believe he was the chief enforcer of the cult for a long time so I think of him as the Herman Goering of pcg since Goering was extremely apreciative of the arts.
I dont think Gerald Flurry ever drank akcohol after that brief stimt with the police. Thats because his father was a drunk and murdered for it. But I cannot tell more, otherwise people might sympathize with these irresponsible religionists. But I do maintain that the psychological common denominator of most cog members was a disturbed relationship with a father figure.
To end positively I am also the one claiming the vast majority is and was sincere.
Nck
9:59 is 100 percent accurate (if one believes in prophets, devils and gods)
Yes their system epithomizes the definition of evil. Yet individual members, teens and even ministers might be good people by all standards.
My quarrel here is systemic and the odd few enforcers of evil.
Nck
I remember Mary Ann. I attended many feasts at the same places as her. I did not know her very well, but I remember she would attend alone as her husband and children did not. She grew up in Pennsylvania I believe. She was a very pretty lady. I remember I was dating this guy in the church and he knew her from Pennsylvania and I was jealous until I had realised she was married. She always seemed so happy and very participating in church activities. I cannot believe she killed herself. I wonder why the Milton church had suspended her? It must have been hard for her all those years not having her husband and kids with her at church. RIP Mary Ann.
Driving people to suicide is a character flaw.
I was a member for 24 years-ish (starting as a child until the last active date of 1998). I see stories like this all the time from ex-members. Sorry to hear of this case but did not know Mary Ann. Sorry for the loss.
I was always a bit of a rebel/skeptic, as from the beginning, I thought there was something mental about the whole thing. The power trip that the ministers were on was always dubious. People were driven to do the most insane things.
That being said, I always have had that lingering doubt about the teachings and their truth. But certainly these various splinter groups (as well as the original leaders HWA) and their ministers are very flawed people ... but then so am I.
I do cringe at the hate of many ex-members have toward the men that set this all up, though I understand. But it was just men. Is there a god? Is evolution really true? I came here from an Aronra video - he is flawed as well (spent a fair amount of time studying mutations and genetic theories). In all, I dunno, but I won't engage in these cult groups, the hate of ex-members nor draw upon hate of a god I don't even know exists. Some have rumored about an "awakening" and a reconstitution of the teachings. It would take quite the miracle - and more than just a mental exercise.
I remain in healthy skepticism, something if one would do could prevent situations like this.
Again, sorry to hear this story of Mary Ann ... stay strong and healthy.
"""That being said, I always have had that lingering doubt about the teachings and their truth. But certainly these various splinter groups (as well as the original leaders HWA) and their ministers are very flawed people ... but then so am I. """
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Please consider reading Ronald L. Dart's book The Thread, God's Appointments With History. I'm 99.9% sure that the name Armstrong is nowhere in it. You can find it here:
http://www.protorah.com/the-thread-by-ronald-l-dart/
Kevin
George Affeldt along with Lyle Welty we're planning to take the churches George and Lyle pastored into one of the splinter groups. Tkack offered George a church in South Dakota and George took it. His reasons for this are his own.
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