A former member of the Philadelphia Church of God does not think well of the men making up the organization. This is an issue that has been brought up here many times in the past.
When I was in PCG, I noticed that the fellowshipping was almost completely segregated among male-female lines. There were a few men in our area who insisted their wives stand right beside them every moment. The wife was not allowed to talk to another woman without her husband’s approval; he had to be right there to hear every word said to her, and she could not give an opinion unless it was his opinion. It was a horrible abuse of power from puny little men with puny little brains and puny little masculinity, who were big losers in real life, but on Saturday they could put on a polyester leisure suit and pretend to be important by browbeating their wives. In general, women just did not talk to men in PCG because men knew their brains were created superior, and that women did not have the reasoning ability they did, which is why God put them in charge. I also remember a lot of women reading plenty of “stand-by-your-man-right-or-wrong” books, which is absolutely the wrong thing to read in an abusive situation. –Former PCG member Exit and Support Network
I'm a book reader but I've never heard of a "stand by your man right or wrong" book. Nor any such articles in womans magazines. The idea sounds like something from the 1950s or 1960s. The 'Father knows best' or 'Leave it to Beaver' era.
ReplyDeleteFascinating Womanhood by Helen Andelin was a favourite among PCG women. Surely you have heard of it?
DeleteCreated to be his helpmeet (can’t remember the author). Heavily pushed ..... with a very blatant stand by your man no matter what, teaching.
DeleteI noticed this back in Worldwide. Our minister in Birmingham reminded me of a wormy, Heinrich Himmler type of personality. I remember he talked about getting rubdowns from other guys when he would go out to northern California. It seemed he would always confront teenage boys who wanted to date about their "animal lust." The guy was a total jerk.
ReplyDeleteoh please, being in the mean girls girly gang has no freedom for having an opinion either.
ReplyDeleteNah, this wasn't a problem in the WCG in the 60's onward. Of course, it could've been so in some areas.
ReplyDeleteThe only reason that the men in all the COG’s behave like that, is that they have been emotionally and spiritually castrated by the COG leaders.
ReplyDeleteThey feel powerless, constantly being bullied by ministers, telling them to obey. In order to compensate the loss of their masculine power, they’ve started lording over their women. And of course there’s no minister telling them they shouldn’t do that. Because that would mean, that these ministers had to explain that lording over is not a biblical thing to do. And they had to start showing some respect towards the lay members..
Try “The Transformed Wife” blog for a starter course. Those communities are definitely out there.
ReplyDeleteI have all the usual questions. The first one is: "To what degree are the wives complicit in this?" The presentation leaves us no other conclusion except that the husbands are tyrants and the women are abject and blameless captives to their husband's tyranny. Usually matters between men and women are not that black and white. Instead, it tends to be a lot of he-said, she-said.
ReplyDeleteHow do we know this is not a carefully orchestrated presentation meant to be influential in some way in church services? I recall WCG couples that I thought were putting on a show. My feeling was that they were hunting an ordination - the hallmark success for Armstrongists, the key to a sinecure in the Kingdom. One must keep in mind that manipulation of information and the creation of appearance was a WCG forte.
Does this sabbath day theater extend into the household? Women are capable of a multitude of small household tyrannies that accumulate into a way of life. Might we not find a balance in perfidy in this matter if we were to examine the home life of these people? The wife tyrannizes the household and the men assume a sabbath day role of being an ancient Semitic patriarch. This is missing from this testimony entirely.
You may think me cynical but my 30 years as a chattel to Armstrongism has taught me that many seemingly reliable perceptions may just be shimmering illusions.
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Pic is incorrect on the original post. PCG women are NOT allowed to wear makeup or lipstick (a reversion to the old WCG/HWA teaching that was put back into place so that Herbert could divorce Ramona).
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of makeup and dress length etc....check out their new “award winning” advertisement. (Can be seen on the PCG’s Twitter page. What a slap in the face to the women in that organisation. What a bunch of hypocrites!
DeleteNot just PCG women Tonto. The RCG women are also not allowed to wear makeup. As they are not allowed to wear their hair short or dye it.
DeleteApart of course from some ministers wifes. They walk around at the FTO with makeup on, telling the RCG sisters not to use makeup or even have shorter hair. Typical.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y55iOQfI6Yg
ReplyDelete