If there was ever a need in the Church of God to end flatulence it is great to see LCG leading the pack! Gerald Weston sets the example! Not sure if its the right one though.
A well-known Peggy Lee song, for those of us old enough to remember, asks the question in the refrain, “Is that all there is, is that all there is?” It then gives the obvious conclusion where there is no overriding purpose in life: “If that’s all there is, my friends, then let’s keep dancing. Let’s break out the booze and have a ball. If that’s all there is.” Did not the Apostle Paul say the same? “If, in the manner of men, I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantage is it to me? If the dead do not rise, ‘Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!’” (1 Corinthians 15:32). Sadly, that is the mental state in which this generation finds itself, not only the young, but many older folks as well.
It is the mind of God, as expressed in the Bible, that gives us the roadmap for life and the living hope of a meaningful end to the journey. That is what most of mankind is missing. That is why people get caught up in trendy causes, whether LGBTQ, or vegan diets to save the planet by reducing bovine flatulence. Have they never read how many buffalo once roamed the North American plains and prairies? Apparently not. Schools are more interested in indoctrinating our youth in “woke culture” than teaching natural history.
As usual, The Gays made it into a Living Church of God article. Where would they be without this constant bogeyman?
NO2HWA seems to have forgotten that whenever LCG holds a Council of Elders meeting, "The Gays" (or at least The Gay, if someone is absent) is right there in the room. It's no different than WCG, which always had a strange love-hate relationship with same-sex attractions, going back as far as Herman Hoeh, Raymond McNair, Gerald Waterhouse, and others. Men in ancient Israel had beards, and so did many WCG ministers who were fruitful and multiplied to hide the truth that their deepest longings were for other men.
ReplyDeleteThing is, the issue with cattle isnt their farts... its their burping! LCG cant even get that factoid right.
ReplyDeleteI remember an episode of the 1993 Seaquest TV series where they stated that cows were banned because of their farting.
ReplyDeleteYeah, its a common myth since one hears "excessive methane emission from cattle" and automatically thinks "fart". But its actually the belches that contain more methane. The manure doesn't help.
DeleteI heard on NPR last week that some guy had invented face masks for cattle to dissipate the methane. No angry protests from PETA yet on how this will disrupt their agenda.
ReplyDeleteGerald just can’t resist blathering his media fed culture war drama. Either he is tapping into that drama and pretending it has something to do with religion and worshipping God, or he genuinely believes that it does. Either way, it’s a bad look for God’s “chosen” corporate church leader to be rolling that way.
ReplyDeleteYes, belches. At one time NZ was going to institute a "burp tax" on livestock.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that Gerald wrote this. Thoughtful LCG members will realize that their leader isn't necessarily more knowledgeable or more wise than any ordinary LCG member. In fact, if God is guiding Gerald, stupid mistakes like this are clear evidence that Gerald isn't listening, and that Gerald listens more to conservative media than to God's inspired guidance.
ReplyDeleteOld-time church members will recall that Herbie in the old days would make similar silly mistakes in his writings. But Herbie was bright enough that when the church could afford it he hired a news bureau to feed him accurate and verified news, and fact-checkers to make sure he didn't publish something that would embarrass him in front of the world leaders with whom he desired to hobnob.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the reasons why, in the pre-Internet era, the Plain Truth was one of the better newsmagazines available. Unfortunately, today's ACOG magazines get their information from unreliable right-wing sources, and apparently (as with Gerald's blunder) don't use fact-checkers.
Gerald is constantly getting things wrong. He blathers about illegal immigration because his conservative media sources get him all riled up about it. As a result, he is baffled when he has to account for God's words in Leviticus 19:34:
ReplyDelete"The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God."
I have heard several ACOG ministers preach that American COG members should love undocumented immigrants, but should not do anything to reward their coming to the United States. But that's not what God says. God doesn't teach that citizens should favor themselves over non-citizens. In fact, God says that Christians aren't citizens of any country of the world. They are ambassadors of God's Kingdom. But the typical ACOG explanation of this verse will start out affirming it, but end by insisting that it doesn't really mean what it says, and that the "chosen people" don't need to treat non-citizens as true equals. And that's even true from an Old Testament perspective. It's amazing how many ACOG members affirm "spiritual Israel" but still act as if their physical ancestry and political citizenship set them above others.
These are the same ACOG members who are grievously offended when they learn of some extremist Orthodox Jews who believe that non-Jewish humans are merely Jew-shaped animals who were given that shape so they could more effectively serve their Jewish superiors. Yet those ACOG members see themselves in a similar position regarding those whom THEY consider to be "Gentiles." And nothing Gerald teaches is enough to change their minds.
No fan of Gerald,
ReplyDeleteBut the alien that resides was to obey and respect the laws of israel. Further, they were well aware of any that entered their camp thus having a secured “border”.
Many conservatives recognize that our country can take on plenty of working immigrants. They also recognize when done legally that these immigrants from Mexico are more conservative than many Americans, work hard, and are not so woke. I think the progressives might not be too keen on our Mexican immigrants in the near future.
You say you’re no fan of Gerald but you certainly appear to be a fan of his politics.
DeleteBut the alien that resides was to obey and respect the laws of israel. Further, they were well aware of any that entered their camp thus having a secured “border”.
ReplyDeleteJust see how Jim has confused God's law and man's law. Jim would never say that it's OK for a member of God's Church to sit on a jury in a government-conducted prosecution. Yet he is prepared to act as judge and jury and deal with the alien by his government's standards, not by his God's standards. It just goes to show how Armstrongism in practice is mostly conservative politics, but without the civic responsibility demanded by conservative politics. When God's words compel Armstrongists to act like conservatives, they're all in, but when Gods' words fall in the direction of what Americans would call "liberal" conduct, they are quick to exempt themselves and make conservative excuses for doing so.