Exposing the underbelly of Armstrongism in all of its wacky glory! Nothing you read here is made up. What you read here is the up to date face of Herbert W Armstrong's legacy. It's the gritty and dirty behind the scenes look at Armstrongism as you have never seen it before!
With all the new crazy self-appointed Chief Overseers, Apostles, Prophets, Pharisees, legalists, and outright liars leading various Churches of God today, it is important to hold these agents of deception accountable.
Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web of Corrupt Leaders
She says, as a youth, she saw the Atlanta PCG shrink from 60 to 40 in size! This is a different story to HQ propaganda of "amazing year over year growth"!
1.50 PM I suspect that it's the template for all new splinters. Initially they carefully wear their Pharisaic mask to attract new members. Then eventually the mask drops off and numbers plunge. Dave Pack is probably the best example.
This interviewer is an idiot. She can’t formulate an interesting question, let alone sentence, and this is a topic that should be quite easy to dig into. It’s not often you find someone willing to go on the record talking about their experience in the PCG. There are so many interesting questions she could have asked and paths she could have taken and she failed.
Q: “So, if your sister had a child, then… they would be a second generation member of this cult?”
A: “Correct.”
I don’t know if she didn’t do her homework, or just sucks as an interviewer, but it was painful to listen to. Credit to the interviewee for being articulate and adding color and details where the interviewer fell short.
As a former member of the PCG, I can relate to much of this girl’s testimony. I believe a couple of her assertions may not be true (because I had a sibling that attended the college):
She stated that only men on the campus of the college could own property and they didn’t have to pay tuition (only women did). I don’t believe that was true. Nothing personal, but just want to set the record straight.
This girl did drop a huge nugget of truth though:
“Single men had a hard time staying in the church because they wanted to get married and they couldn’t find partners.”
I’m aware of many, many men who felt this way and stayed in, and others who left or were asked to leave. The church’s additional requirements to get married (outside of the logical stuff that any human should aspire to — have a job, be independent and not live in your mother’s basement, etc.) paired with the physical isolation of the numerous small congregations spread throughout the country, meant that most of the marriages that did occur in the church occurred between students who attended and met at the church’s college. Many many other qualified candidates in the ‘field’ congregations might not be able to date a suitable mate their age unless they traveled hundreds of miles.
Agreed! I think the young girl, while having had a traumatic childhood, missed a lot of juicy details. And not everything she said was accurate. It’s also been a long time since she was there. It’s much worse now, really has strong cultish traits - personally I couldn’t take it anymore. My heart wanted so badly to believe it but my logic was fighting me and won out in the end. They really don’t encourage any form of critical thinking, just basically ‘shut up and believe what we say or God will punish you’. I grew up as a teen in the church and it was hard enough, I can only imagine what those poor kids are going through now. They are not idiots though, they are starting to recognise the hypocrisy, it’s only a matter of time before they have enough and walk out. Then let’s see the numbers really drop. In the last 5 years I’ve been there, I think we were lucky to have 1 new member in our congregation. Their doctrine only appeals to crack pots an conspiracy theorist. If you you are in the PCG now and reading this, remove yourself from the strong hold/control and listen to your gut. Once you are on the outside, you have a completely different view, I’m so glad I took that step, now my relationship with God is stronger than ever before, He seems so much more real to me and is so different to the cruel harsh God that the church teaches. I’m not affiliated with any group but I can see Him working in my life daily - You don’t need to be part of a church to have a relationship with God.
I don’t think that’s true. Last year, the feast allowed up to 3,000 attendees across the globe according to their feast website. They have less than 3,000 people including children, elderly and informed. It’s the estates that’s keeping them together. It won’t be long and they’ll have to start selling off assets. Enjoy the plane while you can Gerald.
You are probably correct. The young lady in the interview thought, as many inside the PCG do, that there are thousands more than what there actually are. I’ve listened to them for years fudge those numbers as well as their finances. Thankfully those are in a continuous state of decline as well. All one has to do is pay attention, sadly those inside just swallow whatever is fed them and don’t think logically, or dare to ever question the mere men they call ministers.
Like a year before I left, G Flurry had given a sermon about Gideon's army and how it was small only like 300 man strong and that perhaps the church was being cleansed and the 10000 they use to talk about at the place of safety may be less as people would lose faith except for the 300 man faithful. I also know that after I left they changed the place of safety from Petra to the caves where David hid in Absalom or somewhere like that. But very interesting podcast with the young lady. It sounds like it is still hard for her as she still has so many family members still there. I have no family left in the PCG so it is easier to step away from all of it.
She says, as a youth, she saw the Atlanta PCG shrink from 60 to 40 in size!
ReplyDeleteThis is a different story to HQ propaganda of "amazing year over year growth"!
They are NOT growing! They are lying. They are losing members and are NOT gaining new members to cover the people leaving and the deaths.
ReplyDeleteJust ask for that information, they will never release it.
Just hear of some more people leaving this week.
Deletewho, from where? That’s encouraging news
Delete1.50 PM
ReplyDeleteI suspect that it's the template for all new splinters. Initially they carefully wear their Pharisaic mask to attract new members. Then eventually the mask drops off and numbers plunge. Dave Pack is probably the best example.
This interviewer is an idiot. She can’t formulate an interesting question, let alone sentence, and this is a topic that should be quite easy to dig into. It’s not often you find someone willing to go on the record talking about their experience in the PCG. There are so many interesting questions she could have asked and paths she could have taken and she failed.
ReplyDeleteQ: “So, if your sister had a child, then… they would be a second generation member of this cult?”
A: “Correct.”
I don’t know if she didn’t do her homework, or just sucks as an interviewer, but it was painful to listen to. Credit to the interviewee for being articulate and adding color and details where the interviewer fell short.
As a former member of the PCG, I can relate to much of this girl’s testimony. I believe a couple of her assertions may not be true (because I had a sibling that attended the college):
She stated that only men on the campus of the college could own property and they didn’t have to pay tuition (only women did). I don’t believe that was true. Nothing personal, but just want to set the record straight.
This girl did drop a huge nugget of truth though:
“Single men had a hard time staying in the church because they wanted to get married and they couldn’t find partners.”
I’m aware of many, many men who felt this way and stayed in, and others who left or were asked to leave. The church’s additional requirements to get married (outside of the logical stuff that any human should aspire to — have a job, be independent and not live in your mother’s basement, etc.) paired with the physical isolation of the numerous small congregations spread throughout the country, meant that most of the marriages that did occur in the church occurred between students who attended and met at the church’s college. Many many other qualified candidates in the ‘field’ congregations might not be able to date a suitable mate their age unless they traveled hundreds of miles.
Agreed! I think the young girl, while having had a traumatic childhood, missed a lot of juicy details. And not everything she said was accurate. It’s also been a long time since she was there. It’s much worse now, really has strong cultish traits - personally I couldn’t take it anymore. My heart wanted so badly to believe it but my logic was fighting me and won out in the end. They really don’t encourage any form of critical thinking, just basically ‘shut up and believe what we say or God will punish you’. I grew up as a teen in the church and it was hard enough, I can only imagine what those poor kids are going through now. They are not idiots though, they are starting to recognise the hypocrisy, it’s only a matter of time before they have enough and walk out. Then let’s see the numbers really drop. In the last 5 years I’ve been there, I think we were lucky to have 1 new member in our congregation. Their doctrine only appeals to crack pots an conspiracy theorist. If you you are in the PCG now and reading this, remove yourself from the strong hold/control and listen to your gut. Once you are on the outside, you have a completely different view, I’m so glad I took that step, now my relationship with God is stronger than ever before, He seems so much more real to me and is so different to the cruel harsh God that the church teaches. I’m not affiliated with any group but I can see Him working in my life daily - You don’t need to be part of a church to have a relationship with God.
DeleteThank you for sharing. Horrific experiences.
ReplyDeleteI’m just glad to be out. Best decision I ever made!
ReplyDeleteMe too!
Delete4000 - 5000 includes children
ReplyDeleteAnd shrinking day by day
I don’t think that’s true. Last year, the feast allowed up to 3,000 attendees across the globe according to their feast website. They have less than 3,000 people including children, elderly and informed. It’s the estates that’s keeping them together. It won’t be long and they’ll have to start selling off assets. Enjoy the plane while you can Gerald.
DeleteYou are probably correct. The young lady in the interview thought, as many inside the PCG do, that there are thousands more than what there actually are. I’ve listened to them for years fudge those numbers as well as their finances. Thankfully those are in a continuous state of decline as well. All one has to do is pay attention, sadly those inside just swallow whatever is fed them and don’t think logically, or dare to ever question the mere men they call ministers.
DeleteLike a year before I left, G Flurry had given a sermon about Gideon's army and how it was small only like 300 man strong and that perhaps the church was being cleansed and the 10000 they use to talk about at the place of safety may be less as people would lose faith except for the 300 man faithful. I also know that after I left they changed the place of safety from Petra to the caves where David hid in Absalom or somewhere like that. But very interesting podcast with the young lady. It sounds like it is still hard for her as she still has so many family members still there. I have no family left in the PCG so it is easier to step away from all of it.
ReplyDeleteThe place of safety would need to be within a short distance of an airport so they can take the prayer rock with them.
ReplyDelete