The Kitchen family sees themselves as God's end-time preservers of the legacy of Herbert Armstrong, including stealing the Worldwide Church of God name for their own use for their tiny group of tens of people.
They have spent many years stealing all of the works published by the Worldwide Church of God, Herbert Armstrong, and other church-related entities and making their own website. The world did not need another library of HWA writings but they thought it did, even though there are numerous other ones out there doing a better job and reaching more people. Of course, they pull a Bob Thiel and claim all other websites and church groups are not the REAL church led by legitimate leaders. They and they alone are the true end-time group to follow.
One person in particular really cracks their matzos and that is Wallace Smith. Smith has been pretty good over the years in calling out self-appointed church crackpots elevating themselves as God's emissaries, i.e., Bob Thiel, Flurry, Pack, and the Kitchens.
He was particularly merciless in calling out the lies of Bob Thiel.
The Kitchens were so perturbed by Wallace Smith that they made a video mocking him, though it has backfired, and aimed the arrow directly back at themselves.
They write:
The often stated "don't believe me, believe your own bible" is very manipulative. Often it's their interpretation that being presented as bible truth. Scriptures that caste doubt on their interpretation are ignored. And once a person joins their church, they are expected to put the ministers words before what the bible instructs.
ReplyDeleteAnd in order to "lock-in" the church's blend of truth and error (called reverently The Truth), members are instructed to not trust their own minds. They can trust their minister's mind, but not their own. A ploy used by many denominations.
It seems ridiculous, as we read the exchanges amongst these various leaders in an effort to hold one another accountable. We do that here, as well of course, but ACOG members have a higher degree of trust in the ones in whose authority they have accepted over their lives. Members listen more to what their leaders are telling them. We often wonder how people continue to trust Dave Pack, Gerald Flurry, Ron Weinland, Bob Thiel, Jon Brisby, in spite of cruel behavior, failed prophecies, greed for more and more of members limited financial resources, and even personal sinfullness.
ReplyDeleteHerbert W. Armstrong set the tone for this when he set up his method of church governance. You see, long before the politicians caught on, Herbert Armstrong realized that if he made himself accountable to no other authority, if he gave himself total immunity from any penalties, punishments, censure, or restrictions, he would have dictatorial powers from that point on, at least in the circle in which he operated. This, along with the special immunities inherent in the protections for the practice of religion in the Constitution and Bill of Rights, made him pretty much bullet proof. We watched them vigorously wrap the financial misdeeds which resulted in court supervised receivership in the flag and those documents in ways that even Jim Bakker could not duplicate. At the height of this, we employees of the Church and College were required to sign loyalty oaths as condition of continued employment. There were numerous purges, and finally, the corporate structure of the WCG was modified to coalesce and codify HWA's power. Once he proved that the government couldn't touch him, the members became even more docile and sheeplike.
Immunity is usually awarded, under our US system of government, for limited purposes in order for there to be discovery of, and punishment for, the leaders in a criminal enterprise, and if used properly, with specificity, it is a very useful tool in bringing the worst criminals to justice. Absolute immunity, on the other hand, quietly, and automatically brings unilateral, dictatorial power. It opens the door to more extreme abuse. You don't so much worry about immunity for the current crimes as you do the future ones an individual of questionable character will commit with impunity once it is established that they have unconditional immunity. Immunity begets impunity. That impunity has always been an extremely obvious characteristic of the Armstrong movement. If there is ever a place of safety, it will be anything but!!!
Golly, Gee, Wally! At 11:42 PM said...“At the height of this, we employees of the Church and College were required to sign loyalty oaths as condition of continued employment.”
ReplyDeleteSomehow I simply cannot imagine HWA himself ever signing a loyalty oath to anyone or anything.
They had to sign a loyalty oath to Herbert Armstrong Corporation Sole
ReplyDeleteAt least in our department they were compassionate about the oath. One of my friends/coworkers felt as if he could not sign the oath in clear conscience, and I ended up driving him home. The following day, after a bit more thought, he did sign, and was able to continue employment.
ReplyDeleteSome made a deliberate point
not to sign, and othere confided that they had lied by signing. The oaths were not the end of it just part of the process. The super deacons were parked in a surveilance van snapping pictures of people walking into meetings conducted by Ernest Martin, Al Carozzo, and Richard Plache. The AC dorms were also bugged by campus security.
11:05, that memory of the surveillance van full o' super deacons on a 007 spy mission, & AC rooms bugged, @ 1st seemed too much like it came straight outta 1972 Watergate "Plumbers" break-in, espionage...dirt-digging mission against one's "rivals"!
DeleteBut like a guy said in a Jason Bourne movie : "you can't make this stuff up" (ok in the movie it was made-up, but the script had a point)...your account has a ring of ease to believe fully happened "in real life"!
How could we in old WCG have been led to trust HWA having any firm gentlemanly good wise elder statesman watchman grip on his underlings, when many of them were acting out basically a re-enactment of their favourite mafia-don movies popular at that time?
How could Armstrong "not" know of van-fulls of cads & brutes like that? To quote another timeless Watergate catch phrase..."what did (Mr. Armstrong) know, & when did he know it?"
sure sounds like modern-day Wadsworth too by the way
ok & Charlotte, Edmond, San Luis Obispo County...
This ongoing shitshow of competing COG groups is hilarious. They have no credibility anymore.
ReplyDeleteAnd now there is another second new Worldwide Church Of God, not the Kitchens group with that name, but with someone named Ron Stevens. Their website is
ReplyDeletehttps://www.worldwidechurchofgodwcg.com/
One can hold to the truths of the Sabbath and the Holy Days and what they mean in a true new covenant and yet not have to take these people too seriously. Any group like this that has this Michael Elertson as an elder/minister of their's surely cannot be taken seriously. We know this Mike Elertson. So he is a late grad from AC. Gerald Weston finds him at the end of an unemployment line and hires him in LCG as a minister, which was a really bad idea. So Elertson then jumps to Mr. Bryce's Enduring COG. He is bribed back into LCG right away with a fat salary increase and a big bonus just like Sheldon Monson was bribed back into LCG. Elertson then causes all kinds of trouble and harm in Ontario Canada and pretends he is now a big LCG Meredith Weston supporter again, more than ever. But then he quits the LCG ministry yet again. He then ends up withh Sheldon Monson's cog_as group. He then ditches his wife and their handicapped kids and picks up another woman. Knowing Elertson it's probably his sister or he snatched a poor she soul off the street cave-man style. And then he ends up as an elder/minister in this new so-called Worldwide church of god with Ron Stevens. If I were looking for a church home I would not go with them. and if I wanted ministerial counsel or their "services" I certainly would not have anything to do with this loser Michael Elertson for any of that and his new WCG group. I do not know this Ron Stevens, but we do know Elertson. Michael Elertson is a hireling, a big mouth, a coward and a bully. And he is still at it.
Thanks for posting, 4:22...those accounts of LCG-administered back-&-forth, in-again/out-again you're FIRED!/no, you're hired! bribery/bonus wacky hijinks COULD NOT have occurred in any "Godly" "bible-based" "church"! but, as was said earlier, "you can't make this stuff up"!
DeleteHow could anyone have ever NOT felt the "gist" of general atmosphere there in "pristine" LCG? (I mean just from walking in the door, let alone the eventual rich gossipy banter round the potluck chat). And the guy who broke out of there, in disagreement with his Premier Meredith over pamphlet errors, then to form another "mantle splinter", why was this guy Bob EVER in LCG himself in the 1st place?
Ok a place to keep holy days, sabbaths, learn millenium...that's their "why" of settling on LCG for so long. A "refuge", a place to "land safely" & settle post-Tkach 1995. But the atmosphere...of hijinks...what do people know, and WHEN did they know it? How can one remain encamped for so long in a real-life soap opera?
Why does the pic of Wallace Smith look like a "stuffed shirt"? 👔
At least it has been refreshing to read of a sincere dedicated scholar like Mr. Veljic was. His story was a true relief to read here lately, amongst all this skillduggery of the Ellertson/Wally Smith/Monson/Bryce/Weston/Kitchens/Stevens mish-mash gobbledygook.
A good friend of mine kept telling me about his favorite splinter, and kept asking me, "you ever heard of Sheldon Monson?" (& he seemed to have once revered or held Monson in a level of respect). But I thought, no, & why in hades would I know anything of some lug named Sheldon Monson?
If you get sick of it, they'll pull you aside & admonish you : "look, don't sweat over these 'non-salvation' issues"...& they'll tell you not to judge LCG or focus on gossip THAT'S LOUDLY HERALDED IN FRONT O' your face REGULARLY there.
None of this sounds too hard to believe, 4:22. You have written it seemingly pretty STRAIGHT.
Going to them for counsel? And looking for a new "church home"?
Ditching wife...& handicapped kids...then picking up another quick wife...then becoming Elder.
🎹🎹 it's a Doors song : Soul "Kitchen" (maybe Seoul-kitchen undercooked sushi 🦞)...
This organization cooks up something fancy when offering itself as a non-denominational church - see their ''who are We''. The parent church also said the same thing and that it was “non proselytizing”.
ReplyDeleteThose making such claim are trying to say they are separate from “the world’s churches’ and its an important part of their claim of being the one true church. Both claims are just plain misleading and uninformative.