Leave it to a Church of God to control every aspect of one's life. Forget about free time, you must read the apostles messages. books and articles. How dare you lay around and enjoy a few days of not doing a damn thing!
Dennis Leap, the creepy Philadelphia Church of God minister, has this to say to any PCG members who might dare lay around on the front porch swing and do nothing this summer, particularly if it is a child.
“Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer—those days of soda and pretzels and beer—roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer—dust off the sun and moon and sing a song of cheer ….” So goes the refrain from a song made popular by Nat King Cole in the early 1960s. This refrain and the words of the song reflects the spirit of how most people plan to spend their summer months—being lazy and acting crazy.
When God saw fit to bring my wife and me into His Church, we learned that God designed the summer months for fruitful, joyful, productive and positive work! Think about it. Being lazy and crazy isn’t part of God’s plan any time of the year.
What about you? Are you allowing a song like “Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer” guide your plans for the summer? More importantly, are you letting a song like that guide your plans for your children’s summer?Even the children of PCG cannot be lazy:
Herbert W. Armstrong taught God’s people how to approach the summer months when he established the Summer Education Program (sep). These summer camps, conducted in beautiful outdoor settings, emphasized education. Campers were not permitted to be lazy or crazy. Mr. Gerald Flurry raised the ruins of sep by sponsoring Philadelphia Youth Camp (pyc).
Summer is a time for education. Don’t let the productive months of summer get away from you and your children. Parents, get an education program started—today! It is really not that difficult to start and maintain an effective summer education program for your children—even your toddlers.Isolate those young children and toddlers inside in the mornings to do their required 1 hour of prayer and another hour of Bible Study. What the hell? What child needs to do this every day of the week?
Set a goal to read and discuss several proverbs every day. You should do some preparation to find the proverbs that most apply to your child’s specific needs or to events that have happened within the family recently.At least Creepy Leap says to take your children out into nature in the summer.
There is nothing more inspiring, relaxing or rejuvenating than camping along with fishing, hiking or swimming in lakes located in wild, unspoiled nature. The immense vistas of mountains, big skies and star-studded nights show the bigness and giving spirit of God. Teach your child that God wants to give him or her the best of everything. God’s stunning creation demonstrates this fact better than anything a man could come up with.Your children should read during the summer too. Not a bad idea until you see the appalling second paragraph below:
To promote the habit of reading, take your children on trips to your public library. Help them pick out several interesting books to read for the coming week. Be sure to encourage them to choose non-fiction books and only the finest fiction. Most public libraries maintain collections of both. Some of the best non-fiction books for children are biographies and autobiographies. The better biographies and autobiographies, such as Benjamin Franklin’s, will help your children learn from the examples of others.
Older children should be encouraged to include in their list of reading Church booklets, such as Pagan Holidays—or God’s Holy Days—Which?, The Ten Commandments and Which Day Is the Christian Sabbath?Most adults don't want to read this crap, let alone force your kids to do it! Every single one of those booklets is doctrinally unsound and poorly researched, oh wait...copied from Herbert Armstrong's poorly researched and doctrinally unsound booklets.
Another thing Creepy Leap says to do is put your child to work. Do like PCG does and use them as free slave labor at the cult compound in Edmond, Oklahoma.
One of the most important activities at pyc is called “campus improvement.” This activity provides each dorm an opportunity to work at improving God’s campus. It is thrilling for the campers to have that hands-on experience at headquarters. There is an important lesson for all parents here. Learning how to work effectively and hard is one of the most important parts of education. God the Father and Jesus Christ are workers (John 5:17). This summer, teach your child to work.If your child doesn't do the job well, make them do it over and over and over till they get it right. Always remind them that if they don't work, they don't eat!
When your child completes a task you require of them, be sure to check their effort. If his or her work is not up to par, make them do it until it is. Remember, your child will have an employer some day. I never had a boss that was as easy as my mother. When your child goes to work, he won’t either. You do not need to feel obligated to always pay your child for summer work. Remind them this is part of their summer education program. “[I]f any would not work, neither should he eat,” Paul taught the Thessalonians (2 Thessalonians 3:10). My father enforced this lesson regularly with my brothers and me when we were living under his roof.Children in Armstrongism were robbed of the ability to be a child. They were and still are required to emulate their ministers and act like mini-adults. Childhood innocence is sorely frowned upon and is even considered demonic. If your children dare cross any of the leader's paths you too can take them to the local mall and dump them so Child Services can take care of them. then, you can give all that money you have been wasting on your kids and give it to the FLurry's
Next thing you know, they'll come out wth edicts and regulations on how to take your morning 3 S's!
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I will give the "creepy" Dennis Leap and his wife credit for raising 4 beautiful girls, (now women). I knew the whole family very well when I was a member of PCG. All of their children grew up in PCG. They all stayed with it, and married within PCG.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, I no longer agree with most of the COG teachings. These 4 ladies are an anomaly.
They didn't go wild (like so many COG children have).
It would probably be wise before instituting (good word) this summer bliss on their children, to check, as one might with Dave Packs grown children, how this went for Leaps's kids.
ReplyDeleteThe downside of all of this, of course, is that future shit for brains moment a parent has years down the road when they wake up, albeit too late, for a do over.
Go for the soda, crackers and beer, or better yet, Perrier, non-GMO grahams and (I don't drink so your choice). And too...ALWAYS REMEMBER, all the childrearing advice in the Bible from the Bronze Age through the Iron Age and beyond was given by either Kings-men with multiple wives and babysitters, Prophet-men who just bashed children for being oppressive, single-men who had no real life experience, Apostle men who failed to mention they had families or children at all.
Rearing up your children "in the way they should go" never produced the "and when they get older they will not depart from it" result. In hindsight, one would not want it to anyway.
I don't recall at the moment any instances where Jesus told his childless and without family relationships disciples how to raise their children. I suppose they were too busy leaving them behind. Peter, evidently had a wife because it says he had a mother in law who was sick but he probably wasn't much of a dad either and any children he had came to nothing in the church evidently.
I can picture a fatherless adolescent Jesus asking his mom where and actually who his father was since there was none to be seen in his reality. Out of exasperation and hope he did not pursue his real origins ( you know, from a earthbound man) she said "Oh Jesus! Your Father is God!"...and he took it from there. Who knows?
The Gospels and the NT are not family friendly as the Single Apostle Men were too busy convincing them all time was short, the day far spent and of a Jesus that was coming quickly not even to marry because married people think only of themselves/children/sex I suspect they meant, but single people THINK ONLY OF THE THINGS OF THE LORD. LOL, what planet were these guys from? :)
These control freaks just can't let up. They want children to become robots working away without the opportunity to become creative. In the end, they become mindless, useless, obedient workers, as George Carson (not sure of his last name), put it.
ReplyDeleteChildren need to have a childhood, full of happy memories so that they can grow to become stable adults. They need to see the positive things in life, and not be burden with constant doom and gloom.
Obviously these ministers (sinisters) want children to become like they are: unhappy sociopaths that see nothing of value in the world. These are a sick lot: rotten apples that spoil all that they come into contact with.
The old saying 'Get a life' surely applies to them. And further, stop micromanaging, as even Yahweh does not do this to His creation.
Anyway....check with Leap's kids before you take the leap into the "should" and "must" of this ridiculous and controlling screed. You know what they say..."Don't "should" all over yourself or get caught "Must-aurabating" because others think they know better than you do how to be your family and yourself.
ReplyDeleteControl! Control! Control!
ReplyDeletePaul's 'if a man will not work, neither shall he eat' means kids SHOULD be paid for their services. That's the adult world. They put the opposite spin on this because they want free stuff from their members.
ReplyDeleteI recall ministers who didn't agree with a certain scripture, put the opposite meaning to that verse through their tone of voice. And members would then parrot this new 'understanding.' So members lived by every word of the minister rather than every word of God
Gosh, this posting has so much in it to provoke "perhaps Mr. Leap could mind his own business."
ReplyDeleteThat said:
Be sure that if your children, who aren't always worthy of their summer hire to work, don't or won't work, don't feed them. That should bring about the effect you are going for and will be glad you enforced as the years go by.
Being "lazy and crazy" during the summer months is not God's way, however, it may well have been in the day as obviously Mr. Leap has never walked back and forth, often evidently, between Jerusalem and Galilee in summer. It's a hundred miles of waste howling wilderness and lazy walking is all you can do. Crazy comes if you fail to bring or find enough water.
Of course, Mr Leap encourages "SIP"ing which is to have your children attend the "Summer Indoctrination Program"
Going over the Proverbs, especially those that apply to children is an excellent choice of activities Teach them that the occasional beating they get won't kill them.
Proverbs 23:13 13
Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish them with the rod, they will not die.
Proverbs 30:17
The eye that mocks a father and scorns to obey a mother will be picked out by the ravens of the valley and eaten by the vultures.
Proverbs 29:15
The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.
Proverbs 13:24
Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.
Proverbs 22:15
Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him
But beat in balance of course...
Colossians 3:21
Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.
If beating with the rod fails to inspire love, trust and respect then, of course, kill them.
Deuteronomy 21:18-21
“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.
Every time someone mentions a 'church camp', it triggers a PTSD episode for me.
ReplyDeleteI was one of those unfortunate kids who attended SEP in 1965, which was for SIX weeks. I had begged my parents to let me come home but they wouldn't let me. After 1965, I heard some kid called the police when attending SEP. I was so envious of that kid because that was something I would have liked to do.
Highlights of SEP 1965:
- Swats. Swats for everything. I considered myself lucky to only get 8 but I was still bruised. There was a girl in my dorm who had a bed-wetting issue, who received around 70. Every time she wet the bed, she got 9 swats. I've always wondered whatever happen to her. Imagine the humiliation and pain for being punished for something she had no control over. Before we were hit, we had to bend over and hold our knees, while having to stare forward. Than after we were hit, we had to say thank you. Once the showers were completed, you could see how bruised everyone was. It is called child abuse so please do not recite some damn scripture to justify why it was done.
- 'Campus improvement'. The facilities for SEP in 1965 didn't start until early 1965 and were not completed by the time the kids arrived. The dorms were completed but the common room floors had not been varnished. So for six weeks we were constantly cleaning the floors on our hands and knees, using a brick with steel wool. Prior to the showers being completed later, we took sponge baths in the lake with the leeches. Laundry was done using washboards in a tub. And of course, there was clearing of underbrush and the like.
- Sports - although I did not know how to swim, I was made to water ski at 12 years old. The nylon rope got caught around my finger and I thought I was going to drown as I was being dragged in the water.
- Imperial School - I was shocked at how superior the kids who went to Imperial Schools acted. Even at 12 years old, I knew this was wrong. There was definitely a sense of being privileged and superior, if you went to Imperial and you were treated differently.
- Manipulation - there was six weeks of emotional manipulation because, as we know, it wouldn't have been the 'church' unless they filled every second with it. At least if I was home, I could have gotten a break from it.
Dennis wrote:
ReplyDeleteI don't recall at the moment any instances where Jesus told his childless and without family relationships disciples how to raise their children.
Jesus told them to let their little children come to Him. This is understandable, as on the one hand He had no children of His own, yet on the other hand he spoke as though every human being is one of His children.
As for our modern day, it is interesting that Rod Meredith put a childless Gerald Weston over LCG youth camps for many years, and that during those years the camps turned hundreds of children on to sex and drugs in secret, and turned them off the teachings of LCG.
Job 12 v2 has a better answer for these wise guys.
ReplyDeleteNew Century Version "You really think you are the only wise people and that when you die, wisdom will die with you!
The summer camps of the COG's are nothing but indoctrination camps that benefit the leaders of the COG's with a future source of income. That is if there are still children left in these orgs.. The fact is the sheeple are aging and there are very few children left that are future tithe slaves.
ReplyDeleteAt one time, several years ago now, Dennis Leap gave a sermon that called into question the validity of Malachi's Message. Flurry was pissed! He ordered the tapes be pulled from the congregations, and that Dennis be removed from his ministerial duties. Flurry and ministry was telling everyone that Dennis had a mental breakdown of sorts and needed a break from his Ministerial duties; in reality, Flurry gave Dennis an ultimatum: repent, believe, and preach the divine source of Malachi's Message or leave the church and be parted from his family. In due time, Dennis shamefully chose 'repentance'. I gave up listening to anything he had to say from that point on.
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ReplyDeleteThe PCG's literature makes it sound like they have all the answers and know everything. However, if you actually go to a PCG congregation and see what the people actually behave like, it can be a shock. There are a lot of old sex maniacs, sex perverts, and predators in the PCG, all claiming to be “doing so much for you” and “trying so hard to help you.” They become frustrated and angry and lie and slander and get rid of you if you do not go along with their agendas. The local leaders are all in on it too, since Gerald Flurry set up godless bums for ministers, elders, and deacons when the old WCG ministers did not go with him. Most people in the PCG were just there for their own selfish and immoral reasons. The PCG provided old perverts with the opportunity to prey on other people in the name of religion.
Funny how the concept of "rest" is so lost on people who claim to believe in the "Sabbath Rest".
ReplyDeleteCreating constant work, activity and forced learning, is actually a hypnotic technique, and is certainly a tactic used by many a cult. One must NEVER have too much time to reflect on current reality and stillness, lest any thoughts of doubt and realization enter in!
Well spoken Tonto 838. Rest and reflect in church never really meant rest and reflect
ReplyDelete"...if you actually go to a PCG congregation and see what the people actually behave like, it can be a shock. There are a lot of old sex maniacs, sex perverts, and predators ...."
ReplyDeleteThat's funny because I didn't see any. How would you know? Were you one of them?
Glad to hear Creepy Leapy's daughters turned out ok. Not so much so for those girls and boys that had to witness him wearing his tight bike shorts around them at summer camp.
ReplyDeleteWe met Dennis Leap a few years ago and even though he isn’t a minister said that Mr Flurry still pays him as the same salary as if he was. I guess that’s why he stays quiet and goes along with everything.
ReplyDeleteIt’s amazing the lengths people would go to for a pay check.
ReplyDelete10:31 AM said...“That's funny because I didn't see any. How would you know? Were you one of them?”
Were YOU one of them? Or were YOU a local goon's kid? Or were YOU too ugly for them to be interested in you? Or are YOU unable to tell right from wrong? Or are YOU just an outright liar?
Inquiring minds would like to know.
ReplyDeleteI get the impression that Anonymous at 10:31 AM has some sort of special interest in trying to cover up the plain truth about the predator's paradise known as the PCG.
When I attended services in the 1980s, it became obvious that a noticeable percentage of the members were predators. They didn't even bother wearing the Sabbath mask. Church was a gold mine for these people. All these potential victims, and with a morally twisted ministry to protect them. They were like hungry dogs in a butcher shop. One would expect this to continue in all the remaining splinters.
ReplyDeleteThat lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer song was recorded by an African-American artist who was not only a fine singer but also a top-notch jazz pianist. That right there is probably pretty scary to a lot of COG types. Leave it to the black folks to take the nation down the road to perdition.
ReplyDeleteSecular schools agree with the advice to keep children reading during the summer. Many public libraries have summer book programs as well - as long as you keep children away from the "drag queen storytime" trend.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, does PCG still have a summer camp at Robber's Cave State Park in Oklahoma? That always struck me as a curious place to teach Christian values.
@ 7:39 PM, Robber's Cave State Park is famous as the location where Stevie Flurry read Malachi's Message for the first time and decided he would rather be a minister for his dad than work at Kinko's Copies for the rest of his life.
ReplyDeleteThe more I read the comments on this site the more hilarious it gets. Most of you "anonymous" folk write like you're "experts" on cults, but after leaving the WCG cult you joined one of the others for years and likely a decade or more. After leaving the WCG and joining the likes of RCG, PCG, CCG, COGWA, UCG, CGI, etc. ad nauseam, and then finally leaving it doesn't make you an expert on cults. It makes you an incompetent fool. Yet so many continue to post revealing their ignorance here daily. One specific case is the guy bemoaning the WCG because he didn't get married until in his forties. It's WCG's fault that he is obviously unattractive and lacking a personality. Or the fool blaming WCG for his lack of financial knowledge blaming the "church" for his negative net worth. You're all a hoot and you continue this foolish charade with your every post.
ReplyDeleteRoflol, the gullible are so hilarious.
The more I read the comments on this site the more hilarious it gets. Most of you "anonymous" folk write like you're "experts" on cults, but after leaving the WCG cult you joined one of the others for years and likely a decade or more. After leaving the WCG and joining the likes of RCG, PCG, CCG, COGWA, UCG, CGI, etc. ad nauseam, and then finally leaving it doesn't make you an expert on cults. It makes you an incompetent fool. Yet so many continue to post revealing their ignorance here daily. One specific case is the guy bemoaning the WCG because he didn't get married until in his forties. It's WCG's fault that he is obviously unattractive and lacking a personality. Or the fool blaming WCG for his lack of financial knowledge blaming the "church" for his negative net worth. You're all a hoot and you continue this foolish charade with your every post.
ReplyDeleteRoflol, the gullible are so hilarious.
@5:16am
ReplyDeleteI grew up in the WCG and left over 30 years ago so I never was in a splinter group.
Perhaps I left before you did.
As someone who grew up in the WCG, I realize that many of the people you are ridiculing have children.
There is no way I can find humor in it.
Anonymous 5:16 complaining about "anonymous" posters. LOL What a hoot!!!!!! Another drive by commenter pissed off that their idyllic world of Armstrongism is a complete and utter mess and they can't handle the facts being thrown in their face. Anyone who wakes up to the fact that Armstrongism WAS and STILL IS a cult knows the issues it caused in their lives and ARE experts on their experience. So keep it up Buckwheat, your foolish charade made you a complete ass. ROTFLMAO!
ReplyDelete@6:11 I attended SEP from 66-71. I too received swats for running on the swim deck, I remember CI, and being graded as a dorm for having a good or bad attitude while picking up rocks and branches to make the campus like the "world tomorrow." I remember the inspections by GTAs wife and her sister, Mrs. Thornhill every day except Saturday and if your clothes weren't rolled just right, or if a quarter didn't bounce off your sheet, you could also get swats. We washed our clothes by hand and were graded on that too. Oh sure, it was "good for us," you could say. Funny thing is it was a damn sight better than being home.
ReplyDelete7:36am, I never said there was humor in the former treatment by the cults, I said the humor is in the posts here by the ignorant fools who stayed in for a decade or two after the original cult exploded. Just read 8:09am's post for confirmation. They refuse to acknowledge their ignorance after being in RCG or PCG or COGWA or UCG for years and following a man or organization. That's the source of humor. No, I don't feel sorry for the ignorant fools because their ignorance continues unabated. Sad!!!
ReplyDelete@11:15am - I didn't know that Mrs. Thornhill was GTA's wife's sister! Half of the people who worked at SEP were relatives of one sort or the other. The family business.
ReplyDeleteInspection was ridiculous - half of my swats came from inspection infractions, despite how much effort I put into making those corners on the bed perfect and my sheets tight.
You make an absolutely valid point - that as bad as camp was for many, it was preferable to what they experienced at home. Often home was an absolute crazy hell-hole for kids growing up in WCG, especially the 60s and early 70s. Can't attest to the 50s but there is no reason to believe it was much better.
I have a good idea that your experiences at home were hellish.
Wish I could hug you right now.
@ 7:36am - thank you for the clarification.
ReplyDeleteI am certainly no expert on why someone would continue to stay in these COGs, or even the GCI for that matter.
Maybe people can't face the truth after turning their lives upside down after all of the sacrifices they made. I certainly wouldn't want to be in someone's shoes who allowed their child or love one to die without medical attention.
And maybe there is a sense of freedom from the responsibility of living in an uncertain world, where it is a relief to have some authority dictate your every action and thought. No more figuring things out - all you have to do is follow. No wondering about the future - that is figured out for you, too.
And maybe it is just too damn hard to find new friends. Take a look at the FB pages of some of these people who supposedly 'left'. Why they want to keep in touch with their old 'minister' doesn't make much sense either. Especially if they fully understand how, why, what actually happened in the WCG.
Whatever the reason, it is still a good thing these people post because it can help someone else. And maybe, just maybe, it will help the person themselves...and if they have a family, that would be a very good thing.
From 5:16am to 7:36am, I too grew up in the WCG from 3 years old when my parents joined in 1967 until I quit in early 1992. While it's horrible what you and a couple others describe, hating home life, I can't relate because I had a great home life. Obviously the problem wasn't as much the cult as it was something else. I won't go into what that "something else" was but I too had friends whose parents were way too strict on them and I'd say they would have been too strict even if there was no cult involved. Some people are just piss poor parents even without a cult.
ReplyDeleteJust as I stated earlier about the 40 year old virgin blaming the cult for his personal problems, or the financial fool blaming the cult for his financial failures, I think it possible that it wasn't necessarily the cult to blame for a horrible home life.
Life is better when one finally finds the true causes of hurt and pain while learning to let go of victimhood.
@5:46pm+ - I'm certainly not a subscriber to the all or nothing approach. I believe you when you say you had a great home life. I am glad you did. And kids can grow up in a hellish environment, never having been exposed to the WCG.
ReplyDeleteHowever, if you take a parent who is piss poor to begin with and put them into a cult, you've got a potent combination. The cult doesn't get a free pass - it is still responsible for its lies and its intent.
Despite your own personal experience, it just isn't true that the WCG did not influence parents to be more strict. SEP set an example for it. Spokesman Clubs would sell paddles with Proverbs 13:24 painted on them. So-called ministers would speak ad nauseam about it. Don't know where you were - maybe because you are younger than me, you remember the more permissive times in WCG.
Many years ago I had to take the responsibility for my own life and knew that the first thing I had to do was leave WCG so I 'could see'. That had the benefit of giving me my own personal authority so I could make the changes necessary.
However, taking responsibility doesn't mean I have to shut up about the past. Talking about it is just as valid today as the day it happened. It's part of my life.
So really, the first step has to be leaving these cults and that is why I read the posts and respond. I hope it moves someone closer to making that decision because unless that decision is made, they won't be able to let go of their victimhood.
8:39pm are you 7:36am?
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