Living Church of God, serving Wimpy Burgers daily.
One thing that Herbert Armstrong taught his loyal evangelists was that God's word was all-powerful and necessary to get out to the world as a witness of the soon coming kingdom of God. At least for a few years, he did. HWA started out powerful and bombastic with his message and then wimped out as he travelled the world talking about a "strong hand from someplace". Embarrassed to proclaim the God he claimed to follow, he travelled under the auspices of the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation instead of the Worldwide Church of God.
Fast forward to 2019, and the same wimpiness is still prevalent in the Church of God as many of the "ministries" who claim they are God's ONLY true church still are all too embarrassed by their message to do any great witness. They skirt issues they claim they want to speak boldly about and find ways around getting their videos and articles from being censored.
Gerald Weston is now making excuses as to why he won't stand up for the "word of God" he claims is essential for all humanity.
Greetings from Charlotte,
We held a Council of Elders teleconference this past Wednesday and heard reports from around the world, as well as from departments here in Charlotte. Mr. Peter Nathan brought out how all-consuming Brexit is at this time for the U.K. and Europe. We are seeing a significant increase in GOTOs from French-speaking Africa. Mr. Rob Tyler reported that a Muslim backlash is the result of the recent attacks on Muslims in New Zealand. Weather has been the talk of members in California, Nevada, and the Midwest, where there has been significant snowfall followed by rain and flooding. Interstate 29 between Kansas City and Omaha is closed and 70 percent of the counties in Nebraska are declared natural disaster areas. Mr. Brian Pomicter sent this update from Nebraska: “Many brethren may be concerned about the flooding that has recently occurred in Iowa and in Nebraska. All of our brethren are safe and have been spared injury. The same cannot be said of some of the brethren’s property.” Mr. Smith’s upcoming telecast, “What Happened to Right and Wrong?” is being rejected by television stations in Australia and New Zealand. Some members ask why we don’t get stronger on the telecasts and this is the reason. We push it as far as we can and occasionally cross the bounds of what stations will accept, especially outside of North America. Dr. Douglas Winnail reported, following his recent around-the-world trip, that he felt a real family atmosphere among the members.—Gerald Weston Weekly Update
25 comments:
Too much! Perhaps this is why our Nazi-boy troll is always complaining about the mainstream media. Seems like there’s a shared commonality there in that neither’s message can go mainstream. I ask myself “Is that altogether a bad thing???” Somehow, instead, I feel safe and protected.
BB
Increase in GOTOs? Horrible... I hope they're not programming in C!
Well, I could see why they are holding back on discussing the infamous Anglo-Israel-Theory
(a mandatory belief for any card-carrying member of the Armstrong-Doomsday-Cult)
Yeah, Science/genetics has not been kind to the Racist-Anglo-Israel-Theory
Why is it always Mr. Smith's programs being rejected? Is he the only strong preacher on Tomorrow's World, or does he lack the tact of the other presenters?
Byker Bob said...
"Too much! Perhaps this is why our Nazi-boy troll is always complaining about the mainstream media."
What is that all about? Since I like alot of your posts, do you care to elaborate?
DBP
Sure, DBP, one of our anonymi is a holocaust denier and admirer of Hitler. Gary dumps most of his comments because they’re not fit for consumption. However, since this guy relies on fringe sources for all of his rad ideas, he often takes the time to mock those of us who discerningly choose our resources from amongst the broad spectrum of mainstream media. I just thought his complaints were akin to those of Jerry Weston, whose ideas are similarly marginalized.
BB
You are sooooo wrong with this post!!!
Rod Meredith said we should not be alarmed if we see him and other ministers in jail.
Since Australia won't show their programs, LCG will send the presenters over there to fearlessly preach direct to the public, even if they get thrown in jail.
They have their gospel message to preach!!!
But what exactly is their gospel? Why, of course, it is another gospel. Paul preached Christ, and Him crucified. LCG preaches the Ezekiel message - even though Jesus' followers were not asked to do so - the great commission is:
Matthew 28:19-20 King James Version (KJV)
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen
The Ezekiel commission was ...... Ezekiel's commission. Apparently LCG feels Ezekiel fell down on the job, and they need to do it for him.
So we have LCG doing the prophets' jobs.
PCG and RCG duplicating HWA's lavish spending.
CCCG and M being self-ordained - power to the people - does this mean they are hippies?
UCG doing nothing.
COGWA proving it is possible to disagree with nothing.
Numerous other splits.
Something for everybody!
Really good comment, TLA.
Sums up where the cogs and so many others have gone wrong. People just don't know or don't want others to know what the gospel is!
Gerald Flurry has declared a church wide fast for April 13,2019 for church finances (low cash flow) being the reason. First time a fast has been declared on the sabbath, hence breaking the holy day and it’s also just 5 days before Passover. Where is their focus, not on Christ but on money. What hypocrites.
LCG preaches the Ezekiel message
Yes, this seems to be the source of Bob Thiel's lament. Along with other COGs, Bob feels it's his commission to show Israel its sins, some of which are now protected by discrimination laws...
Byker Bob, thanks for clarifying.
DBP
ps: Hitler DID something wrong
Yes, DBP, I certainly would not compare Jerry Weston’s activities with Hitler’s. I noticed that Krispy Kreme Donuts is in the news this morning. The family that owns it recently discovered the Nazi past of its founders, and is voluntarily giving 11 million dollars to charity. The ACOGs will never return our tithes.
At the center of my premise was the mainstream media, and how and why non credible people and philosophies are marginalized and only treated seriously by fringe media. The mainstream media can display bias in terms of the spin embedded in the reporting, whether it be leftist or rightest, but the facts are generally vetted and journalists generally police one another, exposing the worst abusers for their inaccuracies. Reporters have occasionally been fired, stripped of awards, and relegated to the garbage heap if they stray. And the exposers become famous and garner awards.
BB
"...the facts are generally vetted and journalists generally police one another..."
I gotta disagree there. IMHO, they actually just police themselves for staying on script. When those who deviate from the script, they are ostracized. First example that comes to my mind is Matt Lauer and his unscripted question he asked of Hillary Clinton. It's complicated and scary. If the MSM are the only people with the authority to police themselves,...yikes! This is why the MSM is slowly but surely continuing to lose the trust of the American people.
DBP
Does that mean the Philadelphian door is closed for the LCG? Then would that be one of the first proofs that they are not the true church of God?
It is obvious that they can't tell the world why they are going to die, it is also a fact that Mr. Weston told his membership they were going to all die.
So now I am a little bit confused, where is the gospel message in any of this?
I think that Jesus also pushed his ideas further than the establishment would allow, but pushed on he did.
The MSM has become a left wing abusive cult. It's so call 'hate speech' is the same garbage HWAs members experienced (and still exoerience) when they disagreed with church teachings. My minister on a couple of occasions approached me and demanded that I not 'offend' other members. My sin?? Disagreeing with some pet belief that they expressed. So they can push whatever beliefs they want, but I can't even disagree in a civil manner. It is a God given right to disagree with others. Once a person expresses a opinion, they have entered into a informal contract which gives the other party the right to reply. Shame on that minister and his boot lickers.
It's disappointing that BB has left the Herb abusive cult, and has joined the MSM abusive cult. It seems cults appeal to some personalities.
Drawing from my own personal experience, I would say it is the avoidance of cognitive dissonance. The last time I experienced it, it lasted for the weekend before the election of 2016. That was when it all came together and I realized that the MSM wasn't just possibly biased, but possibly criminally corrupt. I was aware of "gamergate" in the winter of 2014. And since that time, I've always worried that our news media could evolve to that level of corruption. Little did I know it has been evolving in that direction for quite awhile. Could "Operation Mockingbird" be real? To some extent I believe so. That's why I've learned to let my opinions stay opinions because there is always something new just around the corner.
DBP
So that we can avoid a strawman argument, could somebody please define the MSM? Spell out what it includes or does not include? Because I believe there are both left-leaning and right leaning components. In fact, ultra-left and ultra-right. It’s not just newspapers, TV news, news magazines, talk radio, MSN, Fox, National Public Radio, Rolling Stone, etc.
What sources do those who mistrust the MSM use? Breitbart? Mother Jones? Huffington Post? National Republic? Forbes?
I’ve purposely omitted some major names who are quite mainstream, just to determine if people are perhaps mislabeling their favorite resources.
Anyhoo. Let’s examine this once and for all. What’s mainstream, and what’s not? And, why? Is it simply a Democrat-Republican thing? Liberal-Conservative? Or just a name used to trash anyone with whom one disagrees?
BB
In 1983, the newsmedia was controled by over 50 different companies. Whereas in 2011, it boiled down to less than 6. That was several years ago. It has gotten much worse. It has been shown that Google, Twitter, and Facebook censor conservative narratives. "What’s mainstream, and what’s not?" Not, probably those that are not under the umbrella of Silicon Valley or big tech. Why? Corporatism and a monopoly of a narrative would be a big part of that answer. Things have been changing slowly though, since the election of Trump. Well, maybe not. It could just be T.D.S. that is making their gaming of the system more obvious. And this problem is much MUCH bigger than Democrat vs. Republican.
Personally, I don't watch the news much anymore. But when I do, I can tell the difference between the impartial reporting of a news event and the parroted explanations of the said event. For an example, the MSM will show a five second clip of Trump, and will then go on to explain, for several minutes, what Trump's intentions were. If I want to hear what Trump was saying, I just go to the source and watch the whole segment myself. The search engines I use are DuckDuckgo, Startpage, or Bing. I used to listen to Scott Adams on youtube, still do just once a week now. He can go into detail about how the MSM manipulates narratives.
I hope that helps,
DBP
Back in the late ‘60s, hippies used to sell the L.A. Free Press on the street. You’d be walking down the street, and one of them would approach you and call out “Free Press, man?” Polite refusal would elicit more comments, like “Hey, you’re taking that first step towards becoming a robot!” Back then, there were any number of highly intelligent young adults who trusted the Free Press and Rolling Stone for “the truth”, rather than what “the man” wanted you to think about the relevant issues, which was basically what was found in the mainstream media. So, in a sense, I’ve seen this all before, only now, 50 years later, it seems that the sides have changed positions. And, of course I read the Free Press occasionally, back in the day. Wanted to know what all sides thought. Most of the political articles were pretty amateur. Rolling Stone had better writers, and there was lots of stuff about rock n roll.
The conglomeration of the companies controlling the media has also affected music. Rock radio is kind of a miner’s canary. Most of the stuff you hear on rock radio is pop, not rock. Even on classic rock radio, you only hear the major hits from a given artist, not minor ones or deep album cuts like were on the radio during the ‘70s. Just as one corporation might own rock, country, and hip hop radio stations, one corporation often owns both liberal and conservative news outlets, and just as with the music genres, somehow they maintain separation.
Personally, what I was hoping, was that somebody would try to convince me that usage of the term “mainstream media” doesn’t simply mean that the person talking to me is some kind of paranoid, right wing conspiratorialist. Hannity and Limbaugh are actually mainstream themselves, in that they present the political views and needs of the corporate moguls in an attempt to make them palatable to the average working person who aspires to the American dream. Both men frequently lampoon the mainstream media, when the reality is they themselves are just part of a different tier of the mainstream media. They’re every bit as slanted and biased as the people they lampoon!
My own resources, as I’ve said before, are eclectic. As someone who once studied college level Journalism (not at AC!), I have fairly high criteria for what constitutes professionalism, accuracy, and credibility. It’s easy to tell whether a piece is a thinly veiled commercial for the left, the right, or the paranoid. I judge each individual piece on its merits, paying special attention to any post-mortem fact checks of peoples’ speeches and reports which might be available.
I understand the mentality of the conspiracy theorists. There was a time in the mid-‘80s when I was convinced that the Trilateral Commission was the shadow government secretly ruling the world. What a bunch of nonsense that was!
BB
The Free Press was around when I came to Pasadena in 1975. I also remember the newsstands in old town filled with Gary North books and other Illuminati nonsense. The Free Press gradually evolved into the LA Weekly which is still considered an "alternative" newspaper.
Free Press became “New Times” here. It is considered to be alternative, and definitely has a left bias. They do have some incisive reporting on political and social issues. They also do a better job in promoting local entertainment for those looking to do a little clubbing, hearing live music. Very little censorship to the ads, currently heavy with medical maryjane.
BB
I remember XMradio when it first came out. There was this channel called Music Lab. That channel played just about anything good, coming from Beatallica to Ozric Tentacles and Spock's Beard, bands I never even heard of before, till I subscribed to XMradio. Also, it would often take several weeks in order to hear the same song twice. Today, alot of that kind of variety has gone away with the merger of XM and Sirius. Now going back 30 years ago when I was a teenager, I foundly remember listening to the "Midnight Album" on WLUP Chicago(The Loop). It was a radio show that would play a whole album all the way through without any commercial breaks. That's unheard of today, because companies like Clearchannel have killed the spirit of radio. They play it safe with their investments and everything ends up sounding the same. In other words, they play to the lowest common denominator. In a similar way the newsmedia parrot narratives that will benefit themselves and their investments, especially politics, and any info that is contrary to their narrative will be marginalized without remorse.
Yes, the MSM has achieved a perceived postion of authority. If it ain't on CNN, MSNBC, FOX, etc., it didn't happen or it is a conspiracy theory. I find it funny that the MSM can only cover and debate only 1 to 2 major news stories at a time. In fact, the MSM does too much debating and editorilizing instead of more reporting. The world is much more complex than just 1 to 2 newsworthy events each day. Where is the variety of information? It's just the same story almost everyday, like the recent Russian Hoax for example. That's why I brought up Gamergate. That is the shortest documentary I could find. I see it as a parallel to what has happened to the MSM and how they operate today. Collusion. Russians didn't interfere with the 2016 elections, but this hoax did affect the 2018 elections. Why isn't that newsworthy for example.
"I understand the mentality of the conspiracy theorists. There was a time in the mid-‘80s when I was convinced that the Trilateral Commission was the shadow government secretly ruling the world. What a bunch of nonsense that was!"
You were wrong about that, the Trilateral Commission does not run the world, but that does not automatically eliminate all of the other alternative news sources and the wide variety of alternative theories. At least I don't think that way. Here, and at risk of being seen as abnormal, I'll share another one of my alternative news sources. James Corbett soundly says what I was thinking in the fall of 2016.
DBP
I listened to the Corbett piece, and feel very strongly that he is missing half of his own point. Both sides, liberals and conservatives, have indulged in the same sorts of activities and tactics, have become more and more extreme, have cited conspiracy theories, and have whitewashed their own. They are playing off one another, the electorate continues to become more vociferous, more polarized, and totally unwilling to compromise for the greater good.
Talk radio, since at least the early ‘90s when I began listening to it, and particularly to Rush Limbaugh, coined the term “mainstream media” to differentiate themselves from it, and to portray themselves as being the honest ones, the only source that was trustworthy. After several years of listening to him, I began to realize that Rush is a comedian, an entertainer. In his daily program, he introduced all manner of conspiracy theories regarding the Clintons, the AIDs epidemic, and Magic Johnson as several examples. He virtually branded the Clintons (Billary as he called them) as being part of organized crime that would take over the American government and never leave. They were going to get rid of our Second Amendment rights, they would soon involve us in UN treaties that circumvented all of the protections of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, UN troops would eventually be invited to come to the US to subjugate and incarcerate those who were “politically incorrect”, and the globalists, amongst whom were several much loved former US presidents, would transition beyond simply managing or resolving global environmental problems, and would destroy the American dream.
At some point, after having absorbed so much of the extrapolations and fear rhetoric, a lightbulb went off. I said to myself, “Holy crap! This guy is just like HWA! A blowhard and a demagogue!”
The corporate “owners” of the mainstream media also own the radio and tv stations that host conservative talk radio! The reason it was feasible to me that the Tilateral Commission (or alternatively the Bilderberg Group) could be calling the shots was that certain problematic hot buttons of both the left and the right remained in perrennial stalemate. It was as if each new president received a call several days after inauguration informing him that “we’re your new bosses, and these certain issues are off limits”.
The fact is, talk radio is every bit as powerful as what they call the MSM, and they’re owned by the same conglomerates. How’s that for cognitive dissonance? Reality is, the MSM has a split personality. The public is polarized and doesn’t realize that leftist and rightist views are coming from the same conglomerate.
BB
It’s not the Bible, but wikipedia has an excellent article on Alternative Media. The old L.A. Free Press was indeed alternative media during its early years, and its articles were written from the biases of the hippie and antiwar movements.
Most non mainstream media does in fact have its own biases.
Here is a quote from Christian Fuchs noted in the Wiki article: “Alternative media must have four distinct properties. The first being that the audience of these media must be involved in the creation of what is put out in the alternative media. The second is that it has to be different from the mainstream. The third is that it should create a perspective different from that of the state and major corporations. The fourth property is that alternative media must “establish differebt types of relationships with the market and/or the state.””
I wonder if most of the people who use the cliche “mainstream media” are aware what encompasses alternative media. Reality is there is bias in all media. The sources sometimes cited by Nazi Boy are most definitely alternative. The problem is they are all biased towards White Nationalism, and he chides me for refusing to even consider the validity of white nationalism or its proponents or adherents.
BB
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