After all, leaving or disfellowshipping is supposed to remove the offending person from the church and cut them off from sowing any more mischief or discord within that body. The leadership of the church expects to be able to both characterize the person who has left and project the agenda and message of the church without hindrance going forward.
Imagine their consternation when someone whom they believe they have eliminated decides to challenge them. It must be infuriating for them to be confronted by someone whom they have labeled as being wrong. “NO, I’m not wrong – YOU are wrong!” That’s simply not supposed to happen. They are supposed to be able to control the narrative.
The thing that infuriates these folks more than any other is that one or more of these rejects would have the audacity to stand up against God’s anointed ones! It infuriates them, and they see Satan as being behind any and all such efforts. It is simply incomprehensible to them that one of their minions would regain their independence and stand on their own two feet again – to begin thinking for themselves once again.
Worse yet, they no longer have the means to control the access which these disgruntled folks have to the folks who have stayed behind – the internet has made that virtually impossible. It has to be frustrating to realize that there is absolutely no way to regulate what folks do in the privacy of their own homes. And with blogs, tweets, Facebook and e-mail everyone has a means now – a forum to reach the public. Yeah, the genie is out of the bottle, and there’s no stuffing him back down inside there!
Of course, from the perspective of those who have escaped these cults, the freedom to help others and make them aware of the hurts and harms that these cults have inflicted on so many is very appealing. We no longer have to suffer in silence and slink away into oblivion. We have a voice, and the cult’s leadership no longer has the ability to stifle, dismiss or suppress it!
Lonnie Hendrix
21 comments:
The call of freedom of: "We have a voice, and the cult’s leadership no longer has the ability to stifle, dismiss or suppress it" doesn't carry much weight against those that control the narrative to a mostly captive audience.
Dave Pack for one declared that the moderator of this blog was a member of the Synagogue of Satan and that why would a member want to go looking around in a blog that is the habitation of Demons.
The audience of "one" concept is highly stipulated in many of these COGs. In the case of Dave Pack who said he as the 21st century apostle doesn't own a computer or cell phone - hint... hint.... hint, the idea, thought, and picture of holiness is look at me, believe me and follow me and why look anywhere else.
Like what is happening in many homes during this quarantine with kids having gone feral living in a mostly unstructured environment, the COGs big problem right now is active members embracing the feral lifestyle under the less oversight that the stay at home condition has brought.
Members deciding what and where they are getting "information" and acting on their own is the big threat to leaders.
Those that have left are always portrayed as having just been among us but never were of us. As Dave Pack has said many times concerning those that left; "they didn't believe, maybe some of it or maybe all of it, and as I have found through the years, they usually leave because of a major sin that they want to continue in and not deal with".
So the ex-member gets branded with the scarlet NBS - non believing sinner and his voice is essentially neutered of veracity.
We have a voice Lonnie. And a lot of us will use that voice! I know I do, in every possible way I can.
But .... There are also those who would love to speak their minds and tell their stories about abuse and despair in the COG’s, but will not do so for one simple reason: loved ones that stayed behind in one of the COG-cults.
Sometimes these people - that left but are silent - are looked at (and commented on) as ‘cowards’. I don’t think these people are cowards. They were brave enough to stand up and walk away. Brave enough to make a new start on their own.
A lot of them are here, reading in silence.
Anonymous 8/14 @ 10:48,
As someone whose father is still a minister in one of the groups and has other family members who attend, I completely understand. It does take courage to leave, and please keep reading (even in silence) - no judgement here!
Lonnie
Lies, all lies. Lonnie never left. All waffle writing and no integrity.
Don't drink Lonnie's cool-aid.
The opposite of what Lonnie writes is the truth.
And may we ask anon 11:31 why you’re so sure about that? Do you know Lonnie? Are you a member of the same congregation/church? If not, at least back up your statement with some details/evidence!
Hearsay isn’t good enough. We’ve had that for wat too long in the COG’s
We Anon 12:40? And may WE ask.
Lonnie Hendrix has never stepped foot inside a Church of God International congregation.
The are no Pastors in CGI with a son or daughter as Lonnie Hendrix. Everyone knows each other over the years and this FAKE person does not exist.
AGAIN it is the FAKE trouble making rebels within UCG ministry trying to stir trouble and tell bare faced LIES about CGI on this blog.
Why the blog owner repeatedly allows this to happen in the first place is a farce.
Anonymous 8/14 @ 11:31,
Wow! I detect a hint of animosity - where did that come from? I must have unintentionally hit a nerve somewhere!
I don't know where you're getting your information, but I haven't attended an ACOG in over five years now. Moreover, it has been 35 years since I was disfellowshipped from the Worldwide Church.
And, sorry, I don't have any Kool-Aid to offer. You may disagree with any opinions I've expressed on these forums, but I haven't lied about anything. Likewise, I have never intentionally misrepresented my own circumstances or behavior.
Do you have me confused with someone else?
My father is Wayne Hendrix. Darlene and I attended the Bath congregation (Pastor Bill Watson) for about a year thirty-four years ago.
After many years of worshipping with Seventh Day Baptists and various Church of God 7th Day congregations, Darlene and I attended the Fayetteville, Arkansas congregation (Pastor Wayne Turnbull) for about seven years. During that time, I also wrote a number of articles for "The International News" and delivered several sermons to both the Fort Smith and Fayetteville congregations and attended the FOT in Harrison.
Moreover, everything I have just revealed is readily verifiable if you care to do a modicum of research. A few clicks on CGI's website should do the trick.
11:31, 1:37, 1:51 - COG tithe beneficiary. shut up.
I am so thankful this is true. Not only did I write a short biography and make it available online, but I've been very vocal here and elsewhere thanks to modern communication opportunities. I refuse to shut up.
Anon 2:39
I have no idea of what you mean by that.
I have never taken money from others in my life.
So you Anon 2:39 "shut up"
The Church of God International you rally against Lonnie Hendrix from 30 plus years ago does not even exist. The main players are all dead or too old.
What is the point?
Have you ever noticed how these hit and run anonymous commentators never respond when you confront/expose their false witness? There is no admission that they were wrong or any apology forthcoming. In fact, if they bother to return and post another comment, it is to attempt to dismiss or undermine the point being made from some new and different angle.
I think his point is that nothing has changed.. The COG’s are all still abusive cults with only one interest: money.
They’re not about religion. They’re not about love. And they’re absolutely not about ‘truth’. Not then, not now.
@Miller Jones: it must be really frustrating for them that nobody here is willing to listen to their (in my opinion) abusive and aggressive comments.
Erm ... ‘abusive and aggressive’. Kinda sounds familiar.. Could it be that these anonymous commentators are COG-members trying to stir things up a bit?
Anonymous 8/15 @ 6:39,
In a way, these kinds of comments are reassuring. They tell us that folks in the ACOG's DO visit this site! Hence, our narrative is penetrating theirs.
No Miller Jones they are seeing what liars occupy the ministry, then come here with fake personas.
Who's run Miller Jones?
I'm right here knowing who you are in real life and what a double life you live.
What lies you spin and weave.
And how many more doing the same ?
Nothing you do in private Jones is new, has all been done before, thousands of years ago by corrupt priests in the Temple.
God knows what is going on.
So do your worst with the cronies you've accumulated. Time is very much not on your side.
Anonymous 8/16 @ 12:57,
What double life are you referring to? Darlene and I live by ourselves in a town of about 450 souls in the middle of a sea of corn and soybean fields. Outside of hosting our daughters and grandchildren regularly, the only other social contact we have consists of doctors and nurses!
As far as the ministry goes, I didn't attend Ambassador College (my choice). I have never been a minister, deacon or elder in ANY Armstrong Church of God. Yes, like many of the men in the Worldwide Church, I attended my local congregation's Spokesman's Club for a year or two. And, while I have written articles and delivered sermons to a few CGI congregations and some COG7th Day and 7th Day Baptist congregations, the only ministerial credentials that I have ever carried (which were conferred on me by a local congregation of the Seventh Day Baptists) were not cultivated or requested by me!
Finally, I'm not doing anything in private. Miller Jones was originally adopted as a pen name many years ago, and I have made plain over and over again that I am Lonnie Hendrix. If I have any "agenda," it is this: To refute and discredit the teachings of Armstrongism and help those who have been ensnared in the cult. And, I would say that time is not on the side of Armstrongism - None of the splinters are growing. Indeed, most of them are aging and dying right before our eyes!
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