Wayne Turgeon, of the Philadelphia Church of God, recently got his comeuppance, though, like Bob Thiel, he looks at this as persecution. Turgeon is well known to PCG members and exCOG members as being one of the more abusive ministers in the PCG.
It was hilarious to read the following report on Exit and Support Network about Turgeon's latest exploiters which this time let him know the world does not revolve around him or his opinions. Just like Bob Thiel, Turgeon went and threw a self-righteous fit that he was being persecuted. Then he had the audacity to tell PCG members that hearing his story should inspire them to pray for the ministers in PCG around the world as they face persecution.
There is not one single minister in any of the Churches of God who has suffered any persecution for what they believe. Not one!
It is so funny to watch COG ministers pitch fits when someone stands up to their boastful arrogant personalities. They whine like little babies.
Wayne Turgeon has preached in the past about how members need to behave in certain ways–obedient, patient, long suffering, don’t answer back, do as you’re told, especially with those in authority. Exhibit the fruits of the Spirit.
Well, he recently got a taste of his own medicine. In a recent Bible study he took much time at the beginning to tell a convoluted story about his and his wife’s woes of being denied into this one country (that he wouldn’t name but at the end he mentioned the Alps), and how it took hours and days. All because the rules had been changed due to a technicality and how they were stringent. Being grouchy and short-tempered is nothing new for Turgeon, although he had the members laughing at his plight.
He related more and more problems as he went on saying the latter ones were due to his not contacting this country’s Embassy. Turgeon was short-tempered with several of those he had to deal with and who grilled him with many questions.
He explained that the reason he was going through all these details was to inspire them (the brethren listening) to PRAY for God’s ministers–all around the world. “We don’t know how long this (pandemic) is going to last. But I need to meet some members that haven’t been visited in awhile; I need to meet new contacts that want to come into the church.”
He later asked the authorities for a form (it was 4-6 pages long) so he could complain about his treatment. It was in English but he would have to pay to get it translated into whatever language they have. So he eventually tore it up because it would be too much hassle and may make his future visits tougher if he tries to go back and they (the authorities) had it on file.
Then he said he started wondering “if they might be checking out the Philadelphia Church of God” and the names of those members and the prospective members in those countries he hoped to visit. [Oh yes, Wayne, they might find out what is behind PCG and how much money GF is pulling in and you wouldn’t want that.]
At 1 AM some men come out dressed in military uniform with pistols and he said it was a “little bit intimidating.” (These men were carrying a big wad of papers for them to sign, but Turgeon refused because only one page was in English.) He admitted that he “made several frustrating comments” at that time such as: “If I was back in the U. S. I would be calling my lawyer!” (He told the brethren he didn’t have a lawyer) “I have no rights here! This is being run like a Nazi dictatorship!” He said they (he and his wife) could had been sitting there for hours and if they hadn’t gone on back to check on them they could have been sitting there all night! He said it flustered the officers and the main guy’s hands “started shaking.” Turgeon said, “So we must have had them intimidated.”
Then these officers call security and finally, Turgeon and his wife are escorted to the TSA after 1:30 AM and back out to the lobby. His tote bag was swabbed for drugs. There were bright lights, people talking out loud, etc. At 2:30 AM he falls asleep on an end table and is awaken by three armed immigration officers in the lobby of this airport demanding to see his passport. So Turgeon blurts out, “They took my passport!”
At 8 AM, after it being “tortuous” to try and get any kind of rest, they go to Gate 4 where they were told to go. The first men there at this immigration office were friendly and in T-shirts, jeans and sneakers. But two military security guards had to drive them in an armed vehicle right up to the plane and escort them inside the plane.
Turgeon said he believes it will “only get worse not better as time goes on.” He was glad he gave a study on Acts recently (thinking about what the Apostle Paul went through). He emphasized that members are to “Please PRAY for the ministry. We are not going to quit. They are going to have to kill me first.” (This was the fear part.)
28 comments:
Turgeon was a self-righteous ass when he was a student in Pasadena. Arrogant does not even come close to what he was. As I have watched him over the years in PCG he has become even worse. He loves being in a seat of power and the focus of people's energies.
Does PCG have any leaders who are actual Christians?
ACOG ministers are in fact the persecutors of genuine Christians. They themselves are not persecuted since the world recognizes them as one of their own. Labelling security procedures as persecution proves that legit persecution is foreign to these man-boy ministers.
It must be hard if one relies on one's brother in law's, son of the king of the universe sitting on the magical stone itself, analysis of medicine, politics and public health and have officials of one of the most sophisticated nations on earth telling you to fck off!
nck
He says dying for God like it's a bad thing. I have seriously messed up views towards God & Jesus Christ cuz of my Armstrongism based influenced upbringing but even I know what he faced was red tape not persecution'...
Now any non-islamist can tell you what persecution is cuz if they are in an islamic nation they live & die by it daily
OK I'm stepping off the soapbox now sorry about that.
got a little pissed and responded with it.
Remember how the PCG plane was supposed to be used as a means for GRF to preach The Gospel around the world? If he is a true prophet, couldn't he see that the world has changed so much since HWA attempted to do this? It doesn't even take a prophet to see that door is closed!
Buying the plane was just another attempt to try and make the PCG appear as though they are doing a BIG WORK! Yet, their primary work is their schools and Celtic dancing
Actual Christians 12:11 are very few on the ground esp amongst any Church leadership.
Too true anon 12:53.
Like other COG Apostles, Prophets and Priests, they are the source and cause of their own persecution so called. Sounds like Turgeon never read about the concept of a softer answer turning away wrath (and suspicion). I'm smelling some narcissism here.
umm, he's supposed to take it quietly, not pitch a fit when he's wronged.
I suspect that a major reason for the plane is GRFs health problems. But even travelling first class would be a lot cheaper than all the costs associated with owning a plane.
Welcome to the real world Turgeon, which actually has accountability and procedures, unilke how you are treated in the PCG, where you are a "royal prince".
Yes, even I, " Tonto , the King of Freedonia" , must take on the role as a common man when going thru airport security.
Anonymous at 12:11 AM said...“Does PCG have any leaders who are actual Christians?”
Nope! Every last person in the PCG “ministry” is a satanic fraud.
I do not know this person nor have I ever spoken with anyone who belongs to this Splinter group. But as I read this account a note of familiarity from out of the past rang out. I believe Ambassador College failed to teach leadership. I base this not a knowledge of what was taught in classrooms, I can only speculate there, but on what I saw in action.
Jesus was a leader. He went first. Those behaviors he wanted us to do, he did himself. He modeled service and self-sacrifice. And he bade us follow in his footsteps. My personal impression of many people educated at AC/BS, say graduates and upperclassmen assigned to the ministry, is that they were not inclined to "go first." They had been taught not so much to exemplify the right behavior themselves but to direct the behavior of others.
To organize the service of others is not to lead. It does provide some value added but it is not, alas, leadership. And people who get in a groove where they continually direct others tend to become autocratic. There was a faculty member at AC/BS in the Seventies who talked a lot about "leadership." But it seemed to me that he advocated nothing more than a more aggressive, less compromising form of "make others do it." Jesus did it himself.
Out in the field, ministers in the WCG were surrounded by minions - associates, local elders, deacons, hangers-on and, hence, lived insular lives within this infrastructure. For instance, most ministers in the old WCG had no idea what it was like to have problems over the Sabbath. Yet this was a common and often painful experience for lay members. Many church members lost their jobs or were demoted, were genuinely persecuted, and families were terribly stressed. Yet, It was a structural part of their vocation that these ministers did not have to deal with Sabbath issues. So they did not have to exmplify anything in this case but, at least, they could acknowledge the issue as a minimal bit of leadership - not walking the walk but at least taking a step. But I seldom, if ever, in thirty years of WCG attendance ever heard the issue of adverse Sabbath impacts mentioned. I know it was never the topic of a sermon or a sermonette. It is easier to direct someone to wear a white dress shirt. When you are cold, don't go to someone who is warm for sympathy.
So it should not surprise us that for someone who lives a life of directing others, the ordinary conformance to civil laws that we all must deal with, sometimes under stress, would seem extraodinary and draconian.
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Former Worldwide Church of God people who are still interested in religion need to beware of the vicious false prophets like Gerald Flurry and David Pack that Satan sent against them. These false prophets are extremely deceitful and their wickedness is absolutely brutal.
I have lived in Switzerland as a foreign born wife with my 2 kids and Swiss husband. I didn't find them to be particularly troublesome as described here, they are concerned about security and as long as one cooperates and is straight forward things go smoothly. You give them what they want as far as information and fill out the proper forms, then you get what you want. We had a very difficult time with American authorities when it came time to return to the US. It took months to get my husband's visa and a lot of money spent on phone calls to various federal agencies to get it completed.
Wayne wants his members to pray for him so that his ivory tower existence is never ruffled. He must always be treated with kids gloves, called Mister, and be as pampered as Marie Antoinette.
I believe guys like grace communion international rebelled against God because they didn't want to keep God’s laws they wanted to go their own ways PCG and RCG are pleasing God grace communion international isn't.
These self appointed apostles like Turdgeon seem to expect preferential treatment with a profound sense of entitlement. They are about the furthest thing from a servant you will ever encounter. Maybe he & old Gerald will get tossed off the Matterhorn while they are in Switzerland.
Regarding the plane, and the comments somebody above made about it...
They got me to thinking that indeed today is far different than the time HWA lived in. It would seem to me that If one took the amount of money it took to acquire the airplane and the annualized operating costs for say 5 years, one could run quite a sophisticated and targeted "warning" campaign to the Leodacians, or whatever the main focus of their work is, and have quite an impact given the incredibly powerful marketing tools that social media provide today.
And yet they seem more concerned about the image portrayed by having and owning an airplane than what they could actually accomplish with the members' tith money.
2:43 wrote: "I believe guys like grace communion international rebelled against God because they didn't want to keep God’s laws they wanted to go their own ways PCG and RCG are pleasing God grace communion international isn't."
Are you for real? Troll much?
There is not one single thing in PCG or RCG that pleases God. Not one single thing!
Just because these deviates "keep" something they claim to be "holy days" or "keep" the sabbath does not make them godly. God despises their sabbaths and holy days.
Half the people in the old WWCG did no or next to no prayer and bible study. So a split along those lines is unsurprising. I don't believe that they "rebelled against God" since they never embraced God's way to begin with. The WWCG was a moral wild wild west even back in Herbs days.
Should have had that white shirt on! Just sayin'!
I love how all of these cocky self-important twits who are ministers and leaders in the COG get their ego's so easily bruised and lash out in anger when people do not recognize their standing as "god's" ministers. What a bunch of nancy-boys.
Anonymous at 2:43 PM said...“I believe guys like grace communion international rebelled against God because they didn't want to keep God’s laws they wanted to go their own ways PCG and RCG are pleasing God grace communion international isn't.”
You are half right and half wrong.
GCI under Satan's apostate Joseph Tkach, Jr. did not want to obey God's laws. You are right about that.
However, when you praise BOTH the PCG cult AND the RCG cult it becomes obvious that you must not really know anything about either one of them. The PCG and RCG are led by Satan's false prophets Gerald Flurry and David Pack. They are pleasing Satan, not God. Both of them pretend to be obeying God, but they are not. These are two of the very worst satanic traps around. They specialize in preying on former WCG people and also try to trick new people into thinking that they represent the old WCG teachings under HWA.
You must not have gone yet to either the PCG or the RCG or else you would have found out how totally deranged these fraudsters really are.
As Jesus said, beware of false prophets.
More likely Queen.
Both Flurry's PCG & Pack's RCG exemplify the manner of leadership Christ warned his TRUE apostles not to emulate. They both are like the despots of this world who lord it over their subjects like tyrants. That and by their own long history of failed prophecies & declarations they have shown themselves as false ministeries.
Wayne Turgeon's recounting can best be summarised as "playing the victim". As though that will garnish sympathy and elevate his status. I expect nothing less from him.
In the real world, he has no authority and the 'work' of the PCG is laughable (if not sad).
- Former PCG member.
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