Wes White on the Relationship of Banned to the Churches of God

Proverbs 22:3 says: A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions.  The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.

Because of this Scripture, I gotta tell you that I’m not afraid to read things that are written by people who believe really differently than we do in the Sabbath-keeping churches of God.   Reading things that don’t match up with our religious dogma doesn’t scare me. 

Even when I was a student at Ambassador College in the 1970s, I used to read this magazine called Ambassador Watch.   It was published by dissident students who had left AC because they were…  Well, they were dissidents.  So they left.

It’s now 40 years later and I don’t regret reading those issues.  Sure, they wrote a lot of doctrinal stuff that I didn’t agree with back then… and I still don’t agree with it today.  But they had their facts right regarding things that were going on at the college.  When you look back at all those old issues, you see that they were telling the truth about what was going on at AC. 

Today, there’s a blog site out there called Banned.  It’s run by former members of the Sabbath-keeping churches of God.  Now, do I agree with their new doctrinal positions? No.  I disagree with a lot of their stuff. 

But they do report on things going on in the Sabbath-keeping COGs – things that it doesn’t hurt for us to know about.   Let me elaborate. 

Weeks ago, I saw that Nancy was going to have to cancel the Women’s Conference.  At first, Nancy resisted me on this.  She didn’t want to cancel.  But finally, I put my foot down and said, “Sweetheart, you’re going to have to postpone this thing to later – after this coronavirus passes.”  She did.

And we were ahead of the curve on this.  No, I’m not a prophet.  I was only following Proverbs 22:3.

Then, after Nancy canceled, most of the Sabbath-keeping churches of God started doing either mandatory canceling or voluntary canceling of their Sabbath services.  

But not all of them did this. 

Months ago – long before this coronavirus pandemic -- the Living Church of God scheduled their ministerial conference where 300 of their ministers and their wives were going to have a big meeting covering several days in Charlotte NC.

Now, what do you think the average age is of the ministers in Living?  It’s high.  Like 60 or 70.   Guys who are really going to be in danger if they get exposed to the coronavirus. 

Well, the blog site called Banned kept asking questions about this conference in their postings.  They said, “When is Living going to cancel this thing?  If they don’t, some of their old ministers are going to catch this thing and die.”

And I mean, Banned kept up the drumbeat day after day.  They were like a dog on a bone because they were alarmed by the lack of foresight on the part of Living’s leaders.

Then, the members of Living started taking note of what was being posted on Banned.  And these members of Living would write Comments on Banned.  The members were saying that they were having to find out what was going on in Living… by reading the Banned blog site.  Because they weren’t getting any information from their own church. 

Then, these members started putting pressure on Living to cancel this conference.   Like the writers on Banned, the members didn’t want any of these old guys in the ministry to die.  

The good news is that Living finally – after a lot of pressure – canceled their ministerial conference. 

Because of all this, I believe the following.  And I know a lot of people are going to disagree with me.  But I really believe -- that we owe a debt of gratitude to Banned for exposing LCGs refusal to cancel their ministerial conference.  

I believe that Banned has probably saved the lives of a lot of Living’s ministers -- by causing this groundswell to cancel the conference.

I believe that – while Banned does not agree with the way the leaders of Living are operating that church organization – the people at Banned certainly don’t want to see a bunch of old guys die because of incompetent management at the top of their church organization. 

You may not like hearing me say nice things about Banned.  I’m sure the ministers in your church do everything that can to keep you from reading Banned.      After all, Banned operates in the spirit of the old Ambassador Report.  Banned also operates in the spirit of the now-defunct Journal, but to a much higher degree of effectiveness than the Journal.

I say this because – if you want to know what’s going on in the COGs today – the number one place to go is Banned.  Again, I don’t let my doctrinal disagreements with Banned bother me because Banned is a really good source for information regarding the state of the COGs. 

Banned is exposing the mismanagement, the sins, and the hypocrisies of the Sabbath-keeping COG leadership. 

And I’m telling you:  As Christians -- if we are going to really conduct our lives under the pinciple mentioned in Proverbs 22:3 -- we must look to other sources for information.  I’m sorry to tell you that you cannot rely only on your church organization to tell you what’s going on within your group.  Your church is NOT going to tell you everything that’s happening.  And I’m telling you that this rule applies to every COG group out there. 

This principle of looking to other sources also applies to politics.  Most of the people I know only watch or listen to political programs that agree with their political position.  And this is stupid.  This action is willful ignorance.   If you really want to think of yourself as being an educated person, you must listen to sources with whom you disagree!  Otherwise, you’re just wasting your time yelling into an echo chamber. 

Contact Wes White here

Note from Banned blog author

The entire purpose of this blog has always been to expose the blatant hypocrisy of the Church of God leaders who think they are above reproach and cannot be held accountable for their actions. Those days are long gone with the rise of the internet. Blogs, newsgroups, chain letters, and other devices of communication are what helped break up the old Worldwide Church of God when they were speaking out of both sides of their mouth while making major doctrinal changes and simultaneously denying they were.

After the church imploded and various former ministers of the church set themselves up as new potentates of their new money-making empires, they all had the chance to reinvent the church into something meaningful that truly pointed toward the God they all claim to follow. As we have sadly seen over the last 30 some years, that has never been the case. These men reverted back to the old ways of leadership and never made any attempt to undo the abuses of the past while moving forward with conviction and faith in a unified goal. Money and keeping their lifestyle intact was the primary goal of every one of these groups. Now have well over 400 different splinter groups all claiming they are the "one true way" and that "God speaks exclusively through them and their group." Sadly, every single reader here knows this is not true. Even those in LCG, UCG and other groups that regularly read here know that this is not true of their own groups. That is why so many come here to find out what is going on in their group.

The Church of God is filled with many sincere and dedicated Christians who truly are trying to make a difference in their lives and the world around them. I have never had any problem with that. It is the church leaders, the self-appointed lying hypocrites that continue to abuse and destroy members' lives, these are the ones I find offense at.

Now that the world and the Churches of God are dealing with a major crisis it has been appaling to watch the reaction of some of these church leaders. Instead of following wise decisions of Health Department offices, City and National leaders, these know-it-alls do not have the wherewithal to make a real decision and cancel services, cancel Passover, Bible Studies, and other church events coming up over the coming months. Every single one of these men looks at the closing of services as a means of cutting off income. That is their top priority and nothing more. It is certainly has NOTHING to do with the safety and welfare of their members. All of their pontificating and the "we love you brethren" comments are empty and heartless.

I never had an idea this blog would go on as long as it has or touch so many people. We are close to 7.5 million hits and they keep coming to see what is happening in the church. The sad thing is that there should be NO NEED for this blog if the church leaders were actually men of faith and actually followed Jesus. Imagine what a grand thing that would be! Who will step up to the plate and do that? Bob Thiel? Dave Pack? Gerald Weston? James Malm? Mark Armstrong? Gerald Flurry? Jim Franks? Ron Weinland? Who?  How long do we have to wait?