When The Sabbath Was Fun
I was born in the Truth in the mid-1950’s. Both my parents were baptized prior to my birth. Dad was a truck driver who was gone most of the week but, would always be home for the sabbath. We had no local church in our area so, no sabbath services each week. The only time we went to church was during the 3 feasts each year. We drove out to Big Sandy then camped throughout UB, Pentecost and the FOT. They had double services each day and three services on the festival sabbaths. I really didn’t like those feast because we just went to church all the time.
Prior to the opening of a local church, I have lots of great sabbath memories. The sabbath was a fun day. I remember going to the old swimming hole during the summer months. Mom would bring a picnic lunch. We’d spent hours there. One time we went on a long hike. Dad and mom sometimes would play kickball with us kids in the backyard. Friday nights, dad would play “Blind man’s bluff” or, “Simon says” with us. Other times, he'd pick the guitar and we’d sing corny country songs.
The church was very distant from our life in those years. When us kids got really sick, mom would call Pasadena and they would send an anointed cloth in the mail. Sometimes, we were able to pick up the weekly radio broadcast. One year at the FOT there were only 3 families from the State of Georgia. Ours, my grandmother and another family which lived about 50 miles away from us.
In 1962, my world got turned upside down. They opened a church in our area and life would never be the same. Mr. Waterhouse was our first pastor. All fun ended on the sabbath. 3-hour long morning bible study’s and 4-hour long afternoon services became the norm. No more riding bikes, games or playing on the sabbath. Mom had to have all the food prepared for our sabbath meals by Friday night sunset. Friday afternoon, we had chores assigned for us to do. Because Friday was the preparation day for the sabbath.
In a matter of a few months, new words were introduced into my vocabulary; “Usurp”, “authority”, “vanity” and “rebellion” just to name a few. When dad got upset with mom, he called her, “woman” or “Eve”. Everything she did seem to irritate him. He constantly was accusing her of; "USURP HIS AUTHORITY!!!” One time, he yelled at her too; “GET OUT FROM IN FRONT OF THE MIRROR AND GET THAT VANITY UNDER CONTROL, EVE!!!”
Strange things started showing up on our kitchen table that we were commanded to eat. Stuff was sprinkled over our food which made it taste like crap. Tablets showed up by our plates. Some had to be chewed and they tasted like crap too. Raw milk became the new norm. Things were now being sweetened with blackstrap molasses or sorghum. Mom started baked her own bread, made our butter and cottage cheese too.
After dad started attending Spokesman Club, dinner was a new universe for me too. New rules for the dinner table; shoes & socks had to be worn, no shorts, full-length jeans or slacks, and a buttoned shirt. Children were to be seen and not heard was the new mantra. We were to be silent unless we were asked a question. Dad laid a paddle on the edge of the table every meal. Rebellion in a child or woman had to be totally crushed. A spanking had to be hard enough to break a child’s spirit. He spanked my 15-year-old brother so hard one time, he pissed his pants. Us kids seemed to be great irritants to him. I never saw my dad act this way until we started attending church regularly.
All cartoons came to an end and my coloring book was thrown in the trash. At church one sabbath, I was caught kicking an empty can in the parking lot. An ADIC caught me, took me to a minister, who walked me to my father and told him my transgression. Dad took me to the van, told me I had six other days in a week to play and kick cans but, I had broken the sabbath. He continued on, I was just like the man who picked up sticks on the sabbath. He was stoned to death. How they stoned rebellious kids to death. That is what you deserve, death. I got a 40, save one lash spanking instead.
Friday nights was now a reading marathon at home. We sat quietly while dad read church articles to us. From time to time, he would stop and would ask us to repeat back the last sentence. If unable to do so, we would get a 20 or 30 lash spanking. The sabbath had transitioned into a day of anger, violence and brute force.
After we started going to church, the only thing I liked about the sabbath was when it ended.
submitted by Mogen David
33 comments:
After growing up in the church I realized how selfish we were. I am working towards making the Sabbath a day to help people. Jesus was accused of working on the Sabbath I aspire to fulfill the same indignation from those that have used thw Sabbath as a club to beat me up with.
No, I don't think its a day for selfish entertainment. We should be doing our fathers work. Education encouragement healing gaining knowledge... You name it. Why not pass out food to homeless on the sabnath? Visit those that are in prison or sick?
Just recently got the inane and boring sermon in 10 years that I can recall.... The time could have been spent better.
Maybe I am totally wrong. But I'd like my conscience to be clear beforw my God. So I will try this. But it may be hard to figure out how to start or what to do.
Anyone have any suggestions on real actual good works for the Sabbath?
How excrement! Seems like there were more than just I and my siblings who endured such a shitty childhood experience courtesy of a false teacher whose aberrant mental pathologies and attitudes towards fatherhood and children informed and skewed his concept of the normally nurturing role of parents.
I was once deeply impressed by the attitudes of an unwilling guru, one Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. You see, Jerry made it a practice to say as little as possible in between songs at all of his concerts. He consciously and deliberately did this because he knew there were people in the communal audience who hung on his every word, and would apply anything he said to their lives. He realized that there was the potential for himself as a flawed human to do great damage, so studiously avoided any such possibility. HWA on the other hand, revelled in the power of his guruship, and went ahead and inflicted the damage, and was even proud of himself for having done so.
BB
Why do you feel the need to do good works on the Sabbath but not during the other six days ? Sabbath is when God rested, he created and did good on the previous six days.
Apostle Paul wrote about doing good to all. He never wrote 'do good only on the Sabbath'.
Sabbath was made for man remember.
I think the modern day Jews have a better way of keeping the Sabbath. Their Sabbath observance is more about families.
Mogen David that's absolutely horrible what you and your siblings went through! No doubt in my mind that's child abuse! Honestly how any parent can justify hitting a child 39x for something so innocuous as kicking a can or 30x for failing to repeat correctly what you just read is beyond me! I feel so sorry for all you and your parents lost in 1962--the innocent, sweet, happy childhood moments you shared as a family that, speaking from my own experience, as an adult have melded into cherished memories I would give anything to go back to. I'm sorry your parents seemed to have lost their way giving heed to those who had no right to impose themselves and their misguided views between you and your parents. I can only hope you can find it in yourself to forgive your parents in time. Remember them as they--and you all--were pre-1962 and hold on to those bright memories. It's sage advice someone who has suffered depression and abuse once taught me.
Is this the norm for Radio Church of God and WCG back in the 50s, 60s and 70s? How about now under COGs? Sabbath keeping and feast Days should be joyful but looks like they are burdensome. Does anybody find the weekly Sabbath really refreshing and a day to look forward to? There are some who do but the majority? Sometimes, I wonder how WCG has the truth but the fruits of the holy spirit is not there. Am I missing something?
The only true remnant group holding on to RCG/WCG's original teachings (Monday Pentecost, D&R, Human nature teaching, strict dressing, no birthdays/worldly holidays) is Church of God, the Eternal. Has anybody anything to say about this little remnant?
Anon 9:16 I think you're on the right track. As Christ said, "The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath." Use it to His honor as He would doing good wherever and however you can.
12:05am, Could you help me out a little here please? Just where did 9:16pm say anything about only doing good works on the sabbath? It's ignorant people like you, who read every little negative thing into a post, who just don't get it. You think yourself so clever when in reality you're a fool.
To 9:16pm, keep doing what you're doing, thinking for yourself, and don't let idiots like 12:05am get you down!
What an insane experience. I hope you got out of that cult as soon as possible.
Personally I was in WCG for over 20 years and abhorred cults such as you have experienced. Luckily I never saw what you described or I would have made some of the perpetrators pay right at the spot.
What insane parenting also besides your "church" experience.
Nck
@12:05
Why good works on the Sabbath? I want to so it for my family. I grew up with the Sabbath being a selfish time only spent with family and then sitting in church with a lame or biblically contradictory sermon. The small talk was mostly worldly or self centered or meaningless.
And I was not taught to help others but instead God's work was to tithe and have others do God's work with my money.
Now I see that my kids, having been raised in a similar manner have no idea how to do charitable work.
Why not do good works the other 6 days you ask? Because I have to feed my family. If you are rich enough to be able to have Saturday to lounge perfectly doing nothing and get all your good work done in the other 6 days you are truly blessed. But even Jesus did not do this.
Jesus worked on the Sabbath doing good works. You argue against Jesus if you say the Sabbath is not about doing good.
Anon 12:58,
I recently saw a discussion among some coge members and was thoroughly saddened/disgusted that they are so adamant about keeping the law of hwa. They have turned hwa into an idol to a degree I hadn’t yet seen.
I think you are correct about the cogs and their lack of the fruits of the spirit. You have answered your question.
I think the focus many are placing on how to observe the Sabbath obscures the real issue here - and that is the abuses the RCG/WCG was responsible for. If you are now part of the CGI/COGs, then you are connected to that history.
Mogen David and his siblings were abused, largely due to the influence of the RCG/WCG and its ministers. PERIOD.
Like segregation, the WCG adjusted some of its practices based on the laws being passed, so don't be too quick to give the WCG credit for any changes they made.
FindLaw:
'Child abuse captured the country's attention again in 1962, when an article appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association described symptoms of child abuse and deemed child abuse to be medically diagnosable. Within 10 years, every state had statutes known as "mandatory reporting" laws. Mandatory reporting laws require certain professionals, such as doctors and teachers, to report suspected child abuse to the state child protective services agency or other proper authorities. A 1974 federal law, the Child Abuse Prevention & Treatment Act (CAPTA), further bolstered efforts to eliminate child abuse by funding programs to help individuals identify and report child abuse and to provide shelter and other protective services to victims. However, child abuse continues despite these and subsequent child abuse prevention laws.'
I am sorry the church was not more a helper of one's joy than a controller of one's life. Living in the South, at least, I can assure you that millions of kids are growing up under the Southern Baptist thumb keeping Sunday with the very same future consequences and experiences to be relived when they become adults. You'd think they'd have learned by now as well but they haven't.
PS I don't see ahead when two postings might come up at the same time. I just posted one but do not mean to over run yours. This is important and yours can help others. Gary can change the order of the postings I think, but I can't. This needs to stay up for a few days for the benefit of others too.
In my current view, and one I wish the church had, of "the Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath..for the son of man is lord even of the Sabbath" does not mean Jesus decides what is ok for the Sabbath. "Son of Man" in this context of oxen in ditches, David eating when hungry, healing the sick on Saturdays and such, means "Humans are more important than the Sabbath? In this context, Son of Man is not synonymous with "Jesus". The examples given do not support this view.
And too, common sense should played more a role in "calling the Sabbath a delight". The Churches of God are sort of it. I certainly don't personally regret taking my young children to the zoo on Sabbath if I did not have to speak in both churches, Friday night swim nights in winter at the YMCA with family and a stop at Dunkin Donuts on the way home in their footies. This reflects my own religious background before coming to WCG and the kind of Sunday keeping , while focused and definitely the sabbath of the Presbyterians, that was not oppressive or something one recalls with horror and boredom. While we did attend church, morning, sunday school, evenings and youth group after that every sunday, it was nice over all and between Sunday School, family dinner at the table ala Norman Rockwell and evening church again, we drove the 30 miles to retrieve my brother from the State Hospital for picnics in the park and icecream at Margo's in Newark NY every week
I am grateful this program ran in my head more than WCG sabbath taboos etc even as a pastor with them. People knew how I thought and no one gave me a hard time about it even if they did differently. Maybe I just didn't run into the right Pharisees along the way.
unfortunately, many take the instruction to "turn your feet from doing your own pleasure" to mean there can be no fun on the Sabbath.
sounds like your family had it right in the beginning, but then the ministers got involved and ruined it.....I have had similar experiences, but I just ignore them and continue to enjoy the Sabbath and time with my Creator.
Mogen David wrote, "In 1962, my world got turned upside down. They opened a church in our area and life would never be the same. Mr. Waterhouse was our first pastor."
MY COMMENT - In a nutshell, that says it all. What could possibly go wrong with Gerald Waterhouse as your pastor? Looking back on Waterhouse's rambling 3-4 hour sermons, he reminds me of an alcoholic. Hours of completely meaningless dripple exercising mind control over the brethren. Meaningless dripple like, "Did you know "Waterhouse" means "Go Water the House of God?" Yep, hours and hours of important stuff like that.
Richard
Anonymous said...
Anon 12:57 I can only hope you can find it in yourself to forgive your parents in time.
I forgave my parents years ago. I realized they were victims of the cult too, just as I was. That's what cults produce, victims. In the early years of Armstrongism, there was much peer pressure placed on men. Much competition on who could turn their wife into a doormat the fastest. Same thing with turning their children into zombies. After all, if you couldn't rule over your family well then you wouldn't be ruling over a city in the Kingdom. Part of the anger involved in my sabbath spanking was making my father look bad in front of his peers.
Men who mastered their families were the movers & shakers in the cult. They got key assignments at the feasts and often selected to lead singing, opening or closing prayers and sermonettes.
From a parents view, they had the job of saving their child life's. Parents didn't want to see their children getting left behind in the great Tribs. Missing out on the place of safety because, they hadn't done their jobs of training a child in the way they should go. They didn't want to see their child die of rabies. One of the plagues that would soon befall our nation. So extreme discipline was needed to make the child understand the gravity of the situation. "Desperate times call for desperate measures." Cults mess up everyone's thinking including the true believer the adult parent.
What many people don’t realize, 12:57, is that pain compliance must constantly be upped in intensity in order to continue to be effective. Standard number of strokes in our “home” was 40 for just about any offense. Paddles were used, as well as belts, kitchen spatulas and wooden spoons, switches from trees. Pants down, of course.
Also, this type of punishment gradually warps the administrator of the punishment and becomes progressively more depraved with time, into such things as forced fastings, being kicked out of the house, and tobasco sauce poured down one’s throat. Once I had to grab a bit-bat paddle from my mom’s hand to keep her from hitting my brother’s face with it. She didn’t learn from that experience, attempted to impose the same punishment on my little sister and when my brother grabbed the paddle, my mom fainted. So, my dad threw him through a plate glass window.
I know that nck is probably going to snicker to himself when he sees this, and think “Aw, why is BB complaining about such trivia? This was going on in every American household throughout the 1950s and ‘60s!” But it wasn’t! This was something seriously demented and depraved even by the standards of those days. Had we not had sufficient intellect to recognize the serious warping and to overcome it during our early adulthood, I’m sure some of us would have ended up in prison. There are lingering after-effects even today! But, I don’t want to make this discussion any heavier by delving more deeply into details. There are more than enough crap areas of Armstrongism for us to all recognize that it was in no way “God’s True Church”. This is just one of them.
BB
My own personal rule about almost all human activities... "if we aint having fun, then something is very wrong".
I have seen many different human endeavors and businesses thru the years. Some believe that unless everyone is "miserable" that they are not putting forth a "full effort". I have also seen many organizations where people are having fun, and enjoying themselves and their work.
Although the fun orgs and businesses can and do fail, I do not see the "uptight" orgs or businesses doing any better because they pressure and push.
HWA definitely had the attitude of a choleric , push/pull taskmaster, and it permeated his entire organization, with the management style still persisting in all of the orgs.
Lighten up, laugh, find and give joy. Sure , be diligent and work hard, but realize that peace, love and joy, never come from force, pressure or threat.
I remember watching a YOU basketball game while eating a Snickers candy bar. This was in the mid 70’s. Several members told me they were shocked to see their minister eating a candy bar. The minister before me never ever ate anything “unhealthy”. Once on a visit, a member asked me if I would like to have a piece of her fried chicken. I said sure she smiled and said, she didn’t know if she should offer me “fried” chicken cause the minister before me wouldn’t eat “fried” anything. I can relate to what Dennis writes.
Jim-AZ
Mogen David - thank you so much for posting your story. It is a story many who grew up in the RCG/WCG can identify with, including myself. I really appreciate it.
to Anonymous July 9, 2019 at 9:16 PM
Anyone have any suggestions on real actual good works for the Sabbath?
I'm assuming you asked this in all earnestness, so will try to offer a few suggestions, although I can't be too specific without knowing what your personal circumstances are. Although I am basically homebound myself now, there is nothing to keep me from calling others on phone who are going through their own trials and problems, and I know from experience that a real conversation that supports, encourages and uplifts can be a real, actual good work that you can do any day of week, but most especially on the Sabbath. Another one is to write notes / letters to those going through hard times; share some good stories, funny stories, etc in your notes if they need a bit of diversion; it's always fun to find some 'real' mail in the box along with all the ads and bills, and I really appreciate it when someone cares enough to send me a handwritten note / card. Dollar store has greeting cards / blank cards for fifty cents that are just as nice as the expensive ones at other stores, so you don't have to blow your budget to do this. Share some positive photos on email, too... there are a lot of these circulating around that you could pass along.
Take the time to get to know your neighbors and workmates a little better; if you're a good listener and keep your eyes open, you'll soon pick up on any needs that you might be able to help with; sometimes just passing on information about a resource that could help them can be very useful and much appreciated. There is no shortage of people to encourage as well as to help materially, although some needs like mowing lawns etc that involve heavier labor would be more appropriate to tackle on one of the other 6 days instead of the Sabbath, unless of course the need is an ox in the ditch. I'm sure you can find some outlets for matching your talents and available time with needs of those in your community if you take a good look around you and give it some more thought! When interacting with others, if you are always pleasant, open doors, are a good listener, etc. etc you'll 'make someone's day' when you do these 'mini' good works, and that can mean so much to them, especially when the timing is right. The sheep in Matthew 25 seemed to be quite good at this sort of thing, and that parable might be a good place to start for ideas.
I may be wrong, but i have long had the impression that such abuses as described here were not promoted by Herbert Armstrong. He was more liberal about such things. I think local ministers/kooks set their own style.
nck said...
What an insane experience. I hope you got out of that cult as soon as possible.
Personally I was in WCG for over 20 years and abhorred cults such as you have experienced. Luckily I never saw what you described or I would have made some of the perpetrators pay right at the spot.
What insane parenting also besides your "church" experience.
Nck
I left the toxic septic tank of Armstrongism in 1999. I wasted about 44 years of my life in it. Minus 7 years that I served in the Navy. I had a rebellious streak in me. When they tried to force me into AC, I joined the Navy. A decision I never regretted.
@1:55pm - no doubt there were variations on how local ministers/kooks directed their congregations. However, there are too many similarities across a wide cross-section of the country that reflected the same type of behavior for it to be a coincidence.
I couldn't locate the 1963 'child rearing' booklet. The 1970 'child rearing' booklet, written by GTA is just crazy - I could only read a small part of it before I had to put it down. But then, look how GTA turned out.
Given HWA's position on healing, D&R, and his general bullying, I don't see how he didn't promote it - he certainly was capable of very harsh and hurtful positions.
I remember when Loma Armstrong was sick. I think a tape by HWA was played at services. I remember we had to get down on our knees and pray. HWA was blaming the church for his wife not being healed. He expressed a lot of anger. It was ridiculous. I guess he never thought of blaming himself.
Gordon Fail said...
"I may be wrong, but i have long had the impression that such abuses as described here were not promoted by Herbert Armstrong. He was more liberal about such things. I think local ministers/kooks set their own style. "
Yep, you’re wrong. That’s #8, the "If Only He Knew" Myth.
Techniques of Cult Figures
1) Connection With a Mass Audience: This was Herbert Armstrong's uncanny personal talent, something no one else in Armstrongism has been able to replicate.
2) Hope: The hook within all cultic messages is a promise of hope.
3) Mysticism: HWA sowed his own personal brand of mysticism, in which he claimed to be a latter-day Paul/John-the-baptist, the recipient of personal revelation direct from Jesus Christ and "a voice crying out in the wilderness," the chosen vessel to prepare the way for the coming of the messiah.
4) Confidence: That he was able to muster the appearance of utter certainty was a crucial part of HWA 's seductive power. We had confidence in his confidence. It is the same effect that all confidence men have on their victims.
5) The Myth of Infallibility: Through his mystical connection with Jesus Christ, HWA crowned himself with a halo of infallibility.
6) The "Father Knows Best" Myth: We were always told not to lean to our own understanding, but to trust in the Hebrew God. But that was the same as saying to trust in Herbert Armstrong and his ministers over and above any trust you should have in your own faculties.
7) The “Special People" Myth: We who had responded were sleepers who had been predestined by god to trigger on HWA’s message, receive supernatural esoteric knowledge, and then go on to reach our mystical "human potential" as kings and priests in a soon-coming utopian society.
8) The "If Only He Knew" Myth: HWA was a distant, godlike figure, above the squabbles of everyday life, so it became possible for us to dislike particular ministers we dealt with, and yet still respect Herbert Armstrong. I don't know how many times I heard, "Yes, if Mr. Armstrong could do everything himself, some things would be different, but he can't keep a watch on everything." This myth allowed us to gloss over the abusive aspects of the WCG and acted as a safety valve in the system, protecting HWA's image.
9) No Rational Justification: HWA’s message made us feel like we were special, so we pinned our hopes upon it. But when disconfirming evidence arose providing rational reasons to disbelieve, like in 1972, instead we insulated ourselves from reality with irrational justifications like, "He's still right, but his timing is 'a little off.'"
10) Sense of Entitlement: HWA’s co-worker letters from the 30's always implied that his "work" should be more important that you, than your marriage, your children, your solvency, or anything else. He felt entitled to tell people what clothes to wear, whether they can wear makeup or not, when to divorce their spouses, etc.
Herbert Armstrong set himself up as a cult figure in order to abuse people for his own financial and narcisstic purposes, and took advantage of the same myths that benefitted other cults. "If only Mr. Armstrong knew, things would be different," shielded him from the responsibility for the abuses he was actively perpetrating.
The fact is, if Mr. Armstrong did not know about a particular abusive episode perpetrated by his church upon you or your family, then thank your lucky stars, because if he had known, and could have changed things, he wouldn't have righted any wrongs, he would have done an even better job, and it would have been even worse!
Anon at 12:37
Your 10 points are spot on!
However, I think you missed a couple of vital ones that are necessary for Cult Figures...
*** The need to have a "villain" or "bad guy". The World, Satan, Dissidents, Liberals, Rebels, etc.
*** The urgency that the movement is "Saving the World from destruction", that is imminent without their/our intervention.
@12:37am
Wow! That is an awesome summation. It really deserves its own post by itself to capture more attention, even if it has been done before. It really cannot be repeated enough.
Mogen David.
I think I like you.
You sound as a person with principles.
Buddha, Jesus and the marines know that some of the best material is produced in fire. (suffering) Although suffering is not a requirement......still...
Nck
Thanks Tonto, you're right. It's not a list I came up with myself, but rather one that I adapted from "The Dark Charisma of Adolf Hitler," and couldn't help but notice that I was personally familiar with them already, just not from history class, but from WCG. Same things apply to the personality cult that is the republican party now as well.
Thanks... Trying to change is hard enough. Getting discouragement from people when just asking a question sucks.
8:36pm Don't get discouraged. Many here are jerks. Your question about good works on the Sabbath was an excellent question.
I don't know if Gary will allow this to go through it not, if not Gary please at least let the first sentence go through. But the question reveals that you're still trying to obey God so you might want to consider this site for the Feast of Tabernacles. This is a site for Independent/anti-denominational people.
Feast 2019
Anon @ 4:47 AM
Many here are jerks. Your question about good works on the Sabbath was an excellent question.
I don't know if Gary will allow this to go through it not, if not Gary please at least let the first sentence go through. But the question reveals that you're still trying to obey God so you might want to consider this site for the Feast of Tabernacles. This is a site for Independent/anti-denominational people.
Those Independent feast are the only way to go. I was in an Independent group. Due to my long tenure in the church I was selected to sit on the festival planning committee. It was nice to voice my opinions and to plan the feast by democratic votes of the committee. Although, just about everything we approved was overturned by the big kahuna of the sponsoring Independent mother group. It was still nice to voice our opinions though.
He did approve some of our decisions:
He allowed us to play some KC & The Sunshine Band music at the teen dance.
He reluctantly agreed, to given the brethren a free afternoon.
He loved and approved wholeheartedly the moving of his reserved parking space closer to the building.
He approved and loved the upgraded menu for the ministerial banquet.
He strongly endorsed our banning of females wearing pigtails or ponytails at the feast.
Yes sir, after doing these good works at the feast, I'd have to say, IT WAS MY BEST FEAST EVER!
Wjust do people call one of 5 feasts "the" feast?
3 times a year we are to go to Jerusalem... But instead one time a year we make up a place to go?
This doesnt seem right.
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