A Plea To RCG Young People
by Adelle Ambrose
Dear Young People of RCG,
In all honesty, I don't even know where to begin. Having been out of The Restored Church of God for almost five years and listening to "The Greatest Untold Story! (Part 443)" just inspired me to write again. I have so many thoughts and emotions about what is happening inside that high-demand religion that I spent my formative years believing in wholeheartedly.
Firstly, I want to empathize with you all who are still trapped in that toxic environment ruled by Dave Pack. Those of you who may see the many flaws can see past the plastic show of charisma and charm that your leader puts on in front of the whole church. I feel for those of you who are still living under your parent’s roofs, too young to venture off on your own and flee from RCG.
I know many of you. You all are smart, capable individuals. However, how you sit in that room as DCP berates your own generation and, frankly, shouts at you about how the younger you are, “the more rotten you are inside." I would not tolerate it, and the fact you do makes me so sad.
All of the young people sitting in that cold room deserve so much better. Not just from the ministry (if I can even call them that anymore) but especially from your own parents, assuming that is how you came to be in RCG.
This is clearly fear and manipulation tactics. Take it from someone who suffered fifteen years of Dave Pack pounding on the lectern, perpetually raising his voice. I don't miss being startled so much as an eight-year-old that I would literally jump in my seat.
Since I left, nothing in RCG has changed, except for Dave Pack getting worse.
Dave Pack’s rant about Taylor Swift was so laughable.
“She’s this filthy, lewd entertainer who travels the world with barely anything on.”
The fact he cares enough to bash a hugely famous, hugely wealthy singer and songwriter is hilarious. What I took away most from his ridiculousness was that his putting her down (as he has with many others in the past) showed me what an insecure person he is. To me, that's all it is. He's showing off his insecurities for the whole church to see. It doesn't look very good for him, I might add. It was kind of like a little child having a hissy fit. But I did get a good chuckle out of it.
I have a genuine question. Do any of you actually understand what he is teaching anymore? I know I didn't five years ago, and it hasn't gotten any better. I remember sitting in Sabbath Services, trying to take notes and not being able to because I had no idea what was being taught. DCP has set so many wrong dates for his events to transpire, and none happen. How do you sit through the teachings of a man who has been wrong too many times for me to count and still decide that he is God's apostle? If you all honestly believe God is speaking through him, then that is basically you saying these frequent mistakes belong to God. I seem to recall God doesn't do that.
What broke my heart and infuriated me most, however, was the way in which DCP spoke to all of the young people in his “True Church.”
“So let’s talk about the youth of The Restored Church of God. They will get no slack because they haven’t left. Unless they fear God and start right now. So let’s talk about what God says He has in store for young people today who will be ripped up and eaten alive if they don’t pay attention.”
“And the younger you are in this generation, the likely the more rotten you are inside. Unless you change. There are exceptions, of course.”
I can’t begin to explain to you all how horrified this makes me feel that he would say such awful, traumatizing (yes, these are traumatizing, hateful words) statements to a group of young people, especially the very young ones, the elementary and middle-school aged kids sitting in that room.
Young adults, how are you willing to let a grown adult yell at you about your own generation and how messed up you apparently all are? How are you okay with hearing that you will get "ripped up and eaten alive" if you leave? His language makes me sick to my stomach, even five years removed from his nonsense.
I know how some of you may feel. Yet again, this language is manipulation and a fear tactic. He's admitted to losing young people, as he should be. Who would want to stay in an environment where you are told you are rotten if you don't listen to DCP? That you will die because you don't think DCP is second to God? Some of you practically worship the man at this point. I will admit that when I was a kid, in my head, he was second to God. I was that scared of him, too.
I grew up living in fear for the first fifteen years of my life. I know how much it can negatively affect an individual. I know some of you are going to need a lot of therapy after you decide to escape, which breaks my heart. While I haven't received any yet, I know I will if I ever decide to have a family of my own. I'm scared of bringing parts of my childhood into my adult life. I want to continue to end some of the family dysfunction that grew into a generational cycle.
Now, I want to directly address the parents of the young folks in RCG.
What hurts me most is the adults I looked up to (especially those who attend RCG's World Headquarters) that are still defending a man who is, in my opinion, both verbally and mentally abusive. You are hurting your children. You are causing them a fear they will have to live with and work through for years. I know I still do.
You are backing up a man who tells parents still attending that if their kids have left, they will die in a gruesome, horrific way very soon. Worse, even if young people still attend, they could also be "torn apart" anyway. They don't sit in their chairs the right way. They don't have the right look on their face.
How can you sit and listen to that? How can you just sit in your chair and not do something about this? As a parent, how is your conscience okay with that?
I trusted and looked up to so many of you as a kid, seeing some of you as practically second parents. How is all of this okay with you, Mr. Winkfield? Why do you allow stuff like this to continue, Mr. Schleifer? How can a parent choose to keep their kids in such an emotionally and mentally unsafe environment?
All of this truly breaks my heart.
Young people of The Restored Church of God, I implore you to escape so that you can live a healthier life away from a controlling, narcissistic leader. The god that Dave Pack preaches is not the God of the Bible. God does not lie and trick His servants into lying.
If you can, escape so that you can build healthier relationships and families. If you can’t, at least tell your parents how you feel. Let them know what you think about DCP’s words. They may have no clue it even bothers you.
Some of you may be able to help your parents to escape. Escape so that you can break dysfunctional generational cycles. Escape so that you find freedom. Escape so that you can discover all the possibilities that lie outside a high-pressure, toxic religion. Escape so you make your own decisions about people, religion, and the world as a whole. Escape to find peace. Escape to find your true self.
Spreading your wings will be terrifying at first. Still, I can promise you what's waiting for you on the outside is infinitely better than being trapped within.
You can read Adelle Ambrose’s Exit Story here.
Marc Cebrian
20 comments:
Hey, the appeal to leave applies to EVERYONE, ALL AGES!
One of the problems with following and supporting false prophets like Gerald Flurry and David Pack is that you are helping them to do evil to other people, including to your own children.
I’d sincerely like to know how many young people are left in the RCG? There can’t be that many, didn’t Dave tell people not to have kids awhile back?
...the plastic show of charisma and charm...
Pack has charisma and charm? Who knew? I thought he just had "authority."
It's the older generation, not the younger one that ran up a national debt of over 32 Trillion dollars. Is it ethical to spend money you don't have, demand no increase in taxes, then leave the bill for the next generation to pay? We're the generation got our nation into several unnecessary wars, leaving behind a bigger mess in the middle east and north Africa.
So glad your family left. I pray your family heals and grows an ever-abiding comforting Faith. Hope parents see the damage that such talk from Pack creates.
David Pack was supposedly going to restore everything that Herbert W. Armstrong had taught at the end of his life in January 1986. But now Dave has gone on to garble everything that HWA had taught and to make up his own endless lies and nonsense to waste everyone's time and money. A false prophet like Dave would not get very far without the thousands of accomplices who financially support his evil behavior.
They are both wrong. Armstrong was never a prophet. Everything he said would happen, happened exactly the opposite.
9:45, that could easily be interpreted as a long-game con! When you claim to be restoring another's work, subliminally you have taken charge of that work. Further down the line, when people are accustomed to you being the curator, it appears to be totally logical for you to make changes to it, unless people feel that you have been presumptuous and have gone too far. This is the conservative approach, and is responsible for most fundamentalists being conservative. It's why they suspiciously regard progressive thinkers as being "of Satan".
Also, there is a school of thought that once you have found truth, it should remain static and never change. This defies nature! Remember, no growth = dead. Yet, growth is by definition change! The times change. The world around us changes. Humans collect more knowledge and experience. So the "static and never change people", at best, can only hope for a benevolent and humble curator of their truth who takes an ultraconservative approach to change, yet realizes that some changes absolutely will be needed, just to keep everything alive and viable. When you archive a language, disconnecting it from humans and immunizing it from further growth, you have relegated it to "dead language" status. The same thing can happen to a set of beliefs, be they religious or secular.
In a theocracy, led by a member of the deity, such as the times of the Sinai Covenant and first tent or Temple where God lived, or later the New Testament Church while Jesus lived as a human and provided constant guidance, it was possible for perfect balance to exist. Today, in secular society with no proof that anyone taking up a leadership mantle really does have a direct line to God, the door is open to much sleight of hand and trickery. In Armstrongism, the alleged leaders exploit this, and then cover it by invoking "authority". What do you do when the authority is more reminiscent of Eric Cartman riding his tricycle around with his Mom's red flashlight than of God Himself?
There are a whole lot of ACOG "leaders" claiming authority that their members should be asking that last question about!
How dare he tell parents not to have children..C U L T - F E A R - "Spirit of fear" Manipulation, wicked evil man.
These poor screwed up cult members and escapees desperately need to find a deliverance ministry in their area. They are viciously abused and manipulated.. They were taught a false image of God, Jesus, Holy Spirit.
Jesus will deliver you.
Which groups stop God's children from being born into this world?
1) Women who get abortions
2) LBGTQ
3) Cult leaders telling people not to
have children
The most evil people are the cult leaders who use God's name to install fear and manipulation the very opposite of God's nature.
Taylor Swift seems reserved compared to many other nasty girls and women who "entertain" us!
It seems as if I remember HWA coming out with an edict in the 1980's that members were to stop having children. It seems as if Pack is probably coming to the realization that his destiny of greatness & delusions of grandeur are not going to take place & like Hitler who at the end blamed the Germans for his fall, so I look for Pack to lash out at his own followers for his failures.
Anonymous at 4:20 AM said...“It seems as if I remember HWA coming out with an edict in the 1980's that members were to stop having children.”
Can you be a little bit more specific with the details of exactly what was said, when it was said, and where it was said or written, so it does not just seem as if your memory is no good and is playing tricks on you.
The ACOGs justify their lording ways by claiming that they are a theocracy, which to them is God's system. They point to Israel under Moses to justify this. But technically this not true since God was there in person issuing directives through Moses. A theocracy by contrast is rule by priests in the name of God, such as the Mullahs ruling in Iran. These are two different governmental systems. Ideally there needs to be a separate word for when God is ruling in person, as will be the case with Christ's millennium rule.
Responding to 7:02 am. I cannot give you an exact time. All i remember is it was in the early 80's ( most likely 82 or 83 or so) I was attending one of the local Birmingham area Worldwide services with my parent and it was read out during the announcement portion of the service. I remember that it was received with some puzzled looks on some of the congregation. Sorry I cannot remember any more specifics. Shortly after that around 1984 I stopped attending Worldwide.
Thanks, Anonymous at 1:24 PM. I was asking because I was wondering whether it was something that could be looked up in the preserved WCG letters/literature and/or sermons, or if it was one of those more secretive things. Also, whether the idea came down from the top or from some lower level person in the organization. The general public was not aware of everything that was taught to the members and did not know what they were going through.
The RCG is bad, but it can be even worse out in the world these days. Kids self-identify as other things, get mutilated, and choose their pronouns.
“At age 5, I identified as a pirate. My parents took me to the children's hospital. My eye was removed for the patch. One leg was amputated below the knee for my peg leg. A hand was removed for the hook. My pronouns are P and irate. Arrgh...”
There is some legitimacy to gender dysphoria. The real thing is a pretty serious condition with grave implications.
However, being in the news all the time, it has reached the level where it could be described as a fad as well. As with all illnesses, the minds of some run wild, and it can also become a psychosomatic illness.
The last time the mental health industry overreacted and did so much damage was in the case of the so-called repressed or buried memories of pediatric sex abuse. Suddenly, normal, healthy parents were branded and punished for something which in most cases was actually embedded by the child's psychiatrist, and completely imaginary. Kids were taken away from their parents, and then the charges were found to be completely bogus.
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