Exit and Support Network had this letter up about a woman in the Philadelphia Church of God cult who in spite of numerous warnings decided to drive in the blizzard and got stuck. Heathens were the first to arrive and give her food. Her gas tank miraculously stayed full all night to keep her warm. COG myth-making is a fascinating thing to witness.
PCG Focusing on “Miracle Stories” Lately:
March 11, 2023
[Note: a few minor changes were made/added on 3-12]
PCG’s church site has an article, “Member Caught in Near-Record Snowstorm.” (Fox 12 said there were 10.8 inches that fell in Portland on February 22.) For some reason, PCG is focusing on “miracle stories” lately.
Transportation officials had recommended staying home that day. They even knew at 2 PM that the rain was turning to snow and and were asking people to avoid driving if necessary, stating: “If you must head out, expect ice, snow, and downed trees in many areas.” Also: “ODOT warned drivers to stay home, but to plan on delays and hazardous road conditions throughout Wednesday night and possibly into Thursday morning if they must travel.” [emp. mine]
So what I’d like to know is what in the “H” was she doing out driving when she had to have heard about those warnings? The article doesn’t say when she started out but it does show she was out at 8 PM just before she lost traction.
She tells how she ran her car engine to keep warm. Safety experts advise to only run your car 10 min each hour and don’t run it longer than 15 min to save gas. She says in the story, “I didn’t know how long the gas would last with the car idling continually.” This is crazy. This story sounded liked she had it running the entire time. Even with a full tank you’ll run out of gas in a few hours. And the experts say if you have the car running you are to check your tailpipe to make sure snow is not blocking it and if it is still snowing to check it every time you turn on the heater. Otherwise, you can quickly die of carbon monoxide poisoning.
Yet she says, “All night long, I was warm and dry.” The next morning she says she still had “fuel to keep the car running.”
I almost have to laugh at this entire story as there are so many preposterous things in it.
She was in contact with her minister and several other members (who else?) the entire time.
Then she says, “During this ordeal, I had a lot of time to meditate and pray. I realized just how important the Church-wide fast, only a few days prior, had been.” [emp. mine]
She tells how the next morning another semi-truck driver gave her a loaf of bread and an avocado. Did she have a knife to peel the hard skin? Or was it sliced up and ready to go?
What caught my eye was when a member arrived the next day around noon (he came running over to her car) to rescue her and drive her to his home in his 4-wheel drive truck and how she said: “He and his family welcomed me with a warmth that only God’s people have.” [emp mine]
The phrase “God’s people” is not even in the Bible. It’s a buzzword. And it wasn’t a PCG member who first came to check on her and give her food, it was one of us heathens (a truck driver) that also care for people. Members piss me off sometimes with how they think they are the only worthy ones. It ticked me off her saying that. And let me interject that all truck drivers that I’ve ever known are known to help other people in trouble.
At the end where she talks about God and “how His members in His loving family care for one another,” [emp. mine] since we know that PCG members are isolated from the rest of the society, they are going to talk like that as they have no idea of what other genuine Christians have experienced regarding miracles, and how they too care for one another.
It never fails for PCG members to blow things all out of proportion to make other members think no one else but them could be a Christian with miracles occurring in their lives. –Impacted by loved one in PCG
12 comments:
I had to laugh reading the tale of a PCG member being "miraculously saved" in the snow storm. Several years ago, I ran out of gas in the middle of a major intersection. Two men (denomination, if any, unknown) stopped to help me and push my car to the nearest parking lot. While they were busy doing that, a third person who stopped to help, went to the nearest gas station to buy a container and fill it with 2 gallons of gas. Now, she saw my cross pendant when she came back with the gas and I saw her born again bumper sticker. Don't tell Dave Pack this, but her name was Esther!!
Bottom line, there are some amazing people out in the world. Most, if not all Christians I know would have done what these folks did to help me. But so would many unbelievers. Just because they don't believe in God now, doesn't necessarily mean they never will. When the 2 men who helped me heard us Christians talking, they said, maybe you two ladies just helped us more than we helped you. So, be a pebble in an unbeliever's shoe. Plant a seed in their minds. You never know what path people may take on their way to Jesus. Even if they never come to faith, you have an opportunity to witness to the love of God.
One thing I learned after leaving Armstrongism is that people in the world and my Christian neighbors treat people far better than anyone in the COG ever did. I had enough of the gossiping, back-biting, manipulative members who ran to the ministry about other people at every chance they could. Add to that the weak-kneed frauds pretending to be ministers of God who were abusive assholes unfit to be in the positions they were in.
And Elijah said, O widow of the highway, thine gasoline shall not run out...
Can you imagine what it must be like for normal people living in Edmond, OK in their daily sightings of Flurryites?
Scene in Supermarket: A mother and her teenage children are shopping on a Friday afternoon. Suddenly, the mother calls out to her son who is a few yards further down the aisle, reading a food label, "Oh Leviticus, would you please go back to the deli section and grab a pack of Hebrew National Frankfurters?"
"Yes Ma'am!" replies Leviticus.
"Mother, May I get some chapstick? My lips are really dry!" asks the daughter.
"Are you sure, Loma? You aren't using Chapstick to gloss up your lips and appear "normal" to your worldly friends, are you?"
"Oh, no Ma'am! My lips are really dry because I lick them a lot during Irish dancing class! I wouldn't have even tried to use Chapstick as lipstick back before you and Dad started homeschooling me! "
"Mother, don't you think Loma looks like Aunt Agnes?" asks Leviticus.
"Why son! You know we can't discuss any of our Laodicean relatives. Do you want to go through the Tribulation with them??? No more slips, or I'll have to speak with your father about it! Understand?" says the mother in a suddenly stern voice.
"I'm sorry Ma'am! replies Leviticus.
Suddenly, an old man passing by hears a favorite tune playing over the store sound system. He smiles at the woman and her kids and says "Ah! Led Zeppelin! Did you ever in your fondest dreams think that one day they'd actually be playing "Black Dog" in the supermarket?"
Leviticus smiles at the man, but says nothing. After he has passed, but is still within earshot, the mother says, "Leviticus! What are you smiling at? You know very well that that is Satan's music! If you cannot maintain a Godly attitude in the supermarket, I'm not going to bring you with me any more!"
As they are checking out, the mother appears nervous. She inserts her credit card into the card reader, and it is declined.
"Try it again, Sweetie, sometimes the reader gets dirty!" says the associate.
It is also declined the second time. "One more time? says the associate.
"It's no use! says the mother. "My husband must have maxed it out giving a special jet fuel offering to our church!" sighs the mother. "I do have a little cash, though. Could you take some of the items off my bill?"
"Can I help you guys out with your groceries?" asks the elderly Led Zep fan, who has somehow ended up being next next in line.
"No thank you, Sir! God will take care of us!" says the mother as she pays for the remnant of the groceries and they leave the store.
3:50 an alternative ending:
"Yes, thank you though I'll remove some things."
Next sabbath she is praised for providing a fine example and thus receiving a blessing.
Very little praise given to the Led Zep fan.
@Anon 3:50
ROTFLOL
You must have been in the PCG, because that was amazingly accurate. I grew up in the PCG, there was even a preacher's kid named Leviticus.
Thanks, 7:44.
But, as I was grocery shopping a few moments ago, I realized I had missed one opportunity for some more humor.
Like f'rinstance:
"Try it again, Sweetie! Sometimes the reader gets dirty!"
"Sweetie??? Sweetie???? I'll have you know that I am NOT a lesbian!!!! In our church we believe that makeup is deception! Bearing false witness about how we look! Besides, in the Bible, only women of ill repute wore it!"
Amen!
I got so sick of hearing the "God's people" comment while in the church. Some of the nastiest people I have ever been around have been church members. The people in my community treat people better than those in the church ever do.
In my community there's a family who were in the WCOG. they are the most perverse people in the town, most have ended up in prison for very vile things. I couldn't understand until I read these comments.
Its only anecdotal, Anon 7:48, but I have often found that a person's vileness often corresponds with a high level of professed morality (and I include people in general, not COGlodytes only). You may be Mr and Mrs Morals, but you're probably also a pair of absolute shits. Maybe "moderation in everything" really did have a point.
When people have to advertise what they believe, I often wonder who is it that they are trying to convince? Others or themselves? In the long run, what does it matter what religion one believes in, it's a matter of how you interact with others in general, what kind of person one is, are they kind, empathetic to the needs of others or just A-holes in general. It's another way of dividing people from each other and control.
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