Just try reading the NT without HWA’s interpretation and read it for what it says. If you are honest, you’ll start to realize what cognitive dissonance is. pic.twitter.com/L8Gsif2LZ2
— Philadelphia Church of God - (parody account) (@PCGparody) November 8, 2023
Another great source holding the crooks at the Philadelphia Church of God accountable.
You can also follow Gerald Flurry's flight on his jet and his grandchildren traveling to Irish Dance competitions.
October 18, 2022
— pastorplanes (@pastorplanes) October 19, 2022
G. Eagle Mountain Intl Church (Kenneth Copeland)
H. Philadelphia Church of God pic.twitter.com/Y3XRY5QXRE
21 comments:
It's not just Herbertism that makes people bullheaded about what they read. It is any literalist interpretation. Why bash Herbertism? He got his literalist interpretation from others. Get to the root of the problem.
I'm not sure the quote in the article correctly distinguishes between confirmation bias and cognative dissonance.
The root causes d the PCG’s problem most certainly is HWA
Both would be relevant with Armstrongism
Hey Boofus Goofus, get this through your thick skull. Herb's influences did not screw us over! Herb himself did! Besides, he did not plagiarize one source to get his package. He amalgamated the worst, most toxic heresies taught from various sources into the religious equivalent of a drug resistant super bug! It's Covid, syphilis, beriberi, tuberculosis, flesh eating bacteria, sickle cell anemia, herpes, malaria, Tourette's syndrome, Tay Sachs, Mad Cow, Avian Flu, AIDS, Alzheimers, halitosis, B.O., and gas!!!
They're probably freshly out of the cult and maybe don't know the difference between confirmation bias and cognitive dissonance. In the ACOGS, that all gets rolled into "Satan's Psychobable!"
By the way, I've been waiting for some time to say this, but we really need to correct our letter casing here if we're going to tell it like it is. From now on, it's COGnitive dissonance!
"Satans psychobabble."
All contemporary Christianity mocks psychology and self help books since they inform members that they are members of a cult. Psychology also exposes cult ploys and often gives a clearer picture of the world than the self serving distortions taught from the pulpit.
Ministers of religion would rather that their members suffer a life time from horrible mental problems than seek treatment from the "tools of Satan." It's like Esau exchanging his birthright for a bowl of stew, except that they are doing with other people's lives.
This post reminds me of a Saturday night Live skit from the 90's, just after Viagra hit the market. A bunch of construction workers are sitting around the lunch room discussing the benefits of the new drug. Then the question of who needed it came up. One by one they all humorously replied, "Hell no, I don't need it. It may apply to you but not this guy"!!
"Cognitive Dissonance" as defined in the black box applies to everybody, not just the church of God. We all have strong core beliefs we protect and do not want to give up. That's why "repentance" (the changing of the MIND) is such a miracle. And yes, we all need that!
Information Bits - The Breakfast Cereal of the Unwary
Dissonance reduction is a process of rationalization. Something that has synergy with rationalization is sound-bite theology. If Armstrongism can be reduced to unexamined sound-bites, then Armstrongism wins the war of dissonance reduction. Sound-bites such as "the USA is Israel" and "Christmas is pagan" are repeated over and over again without any detailed examination of the validity of these information bits.
This is why Armstrongists come to this blog and make statements of great ire but have no further depth. They spew a few sound-bites that the pulpit has fed them and leave. They are not really fluent in the substrate of Armstrongism. If you ask for a rational response, they usually go adhominem. That is why 1 Peter 3:15 ("...be ready always to give an answer to every man who asketh you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear.") does not find traction among them. This is a pattern of behavior.
The way out, of course, is for an Armstrongist to permit the possibility that what they believe just might be a collection of sound-bites stemming from booklet theology. Then follow up with careful, unbiased research to settle the issue. If I understand James Tabor correctly, the triggering event for this must be Biblical rather than other concerns such as politics or economics or issues of church governance.
Just a few words from a guy who used to sit down to a seemingly scrumptious bowl of Armstrongist information bits daily...
Scout
You'll notice that Flurry's plane flies a lot less than the other ministries' planes. This suggests that the other ministries us their aircraft to move staff around for various campaigns and projects on a regular basis in a way that gives them a lot more flexibility than commercial airlines, and maybe even a cost savings for the amount of travel they do.
Flurry, on the other hand, treats the PCG jet like a royal coach, which he or Lil Stevie use for a while every few months. If you looked at the ongoing upkeep costs and figured out cost per mile of travel, there's no doubt it would come out a LOT higher than the other ministerial jets, and FAR higher than if the royal duo chose to fly business class on their occasional jaunts.
According to @PastorPlanes on X/Twitter, PCG went back and forth from Oklahoma City to Fredricksburg, TX, TWICE, on November 21st. Then, a flight back to Oklahoma City on November 22nd. Thanksgiving happened to be November 23rd. Looking at Fredricksburg, it is a town of a little over 10,000 residents. It is located in the middle of nowhere Texas, 1.5 hours west of Austin. What or earth would require the need to use tithes for fuel/labor and make, not one, but two round trips in two days to this podunk town?
@ 8:07 AM, From the start of PCG, Flurry has been bankrolled by a very wealthy family in the oil industry. Perhaps that family lives in Fredricksburg?
Gerald Flurry is a pathological liar who has changed more of HWA's prophecy than any other split off except the GCI who never believed in HWA even when he was alive.
They are less than 3000 members, the simply can’t afford it.
Maaaaaybe because HWA’s prophecies were BS
A member of an ACOG cult comes to see that their own church government is their biggest enemy, just as a member of a "democracy" comes to see that their own government is out to get them.
Where do people get their numbers from. 3000 members. Plucked from thin air?
Yeah, they should have checked the numbers with NO2HWA, since he's on every splinter's payroll simultaneously and funneling info to the local Masonic lodge so they can demand gifts of Steuben crystal in exchange for the local congregation getting to use the lodge on Saturdays.
When I was still attending it was significantly less than 3000. It’s been several years and I know of a lot of people who have left and died so I know they are even below that now.
Hey, how’s it going Brian Davis? Nice of you to pop in. It’s probably less than 3,000. This years Festival Planner showed capacity at 4,000 for all sites combined. I was told personally by an attendee that the site they attended had a couple hundred less in attendance than what was posted on the planner. Do the math, assuming other sites were lower also. It’s probably 3,000 or less at this point.
A lot of people have left in recent few years. Talk amongst the young is they want to leave but feel trapped for fear of family cutting them off. So they just live a double life . There are some brave who have done so. Definitely shrinking numbers . I know of about 12 families who have left. 5 families in one congregation and a few scattered families across other congregations with 2 or more kids. Everyone is much happier not putting up with narcissistic ‘ministers’, who want to be served and Lord it over you instead of being servant leaders. They mark people without knowing what the true definition of marking is. It is actually those who leave who should be marking them. They have caused the division. I don’t need judgmental, self righteousness, politics loving, man worshipping people in my life anymore. So many times in there I heard people ooo and ahh over ministers like they were gods, and the sad thing is some of them thrive on it. Some just don’t realise it and feel safe belonging to something and having someone tell them what to do and think because they can’t think for themselves. There is something wrong when you can’t question. There is something wrong with an organisation when it can change its teachings and the people have to go along with it because you have ‘already proved them to be the right church’. This is what happened in the WCG when people accepted changes and this is the same as the PCG.
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