Dumb and dumber, even worse than bouncing Bob!
One thing you have to credit to Herbert Armstrong is that he had charisma and a bombastic personality that kept many people enthralled by his messages. Yet today in COGland, we have some of the most pathetic men leading COG's imaginable. From bouncing Bob Thiel, the always constipated-looking Gerald Flurry, to Wade Cox that other Great White Bwana to Africa, these incredibly boring COG leaders try so desperately to leave their mark on the world.
None of these guys would ever pass Herbert's Spokesman Club standards.
I tried to watch, but rather than listening all the way through I jumped around a bit. Crickey (intended), the ads! And then, the music at the end, was this a Bourne movie? Can any of us picture Jesus Christ putting something like this together?
ReplyDeleteDon't forget the tooting horn at the beginning of the video.
DeleteI like the bird shit next to Cox, quite appropriate! Great visuals, guys!
ReplyDeleteThey are exactly what they were groomed to be. If you spend so many years with the mindset that you cannot be more flamboyant than God's Apostle, when he dies, you are not going to suddenly step out of the shadows and become dynamic and captivating. That has atrophied. The lifelessness became part of their character! And of course, that is assuming that these guys started with some dynamism. You also have your Bob Thiels, who are just plain in the wrong line of work, because all they can do is complain when nobody notices them or pays any attention. There was nothing to repress in the first place!
ReplyDeleteTo put it into rock n roll terms, this is why Davey Johnstone, who is an outrageous guitarist in Elton John's band, always stood in one place with a neutral expression on his face as he played those outrageous licks. Elton got the spotlight and the main attention. It was his band, and although we might want to see Davey become physically animated, his respect for the boss prevented him from doing so, and kept the big paychecks coming.
It's why Jimi Hendrix got fired from Little Richard's band. He didn't stay in the background and let Richard get all the attention. Richard never appreciated Jimi until he was gone, and only then released materials allegedly containing Jimi's work.
Today, some talented person would need to come from outside Armstrongism in order to raise the bar to the HWA/GTA level. And, even then, they would be carefully controlled by whatever lifeless person happened to be running the ACOG. The weak leaders will not allow others to challenge or upstage them!
This truly is one of the poorest discussions of the wars of Amalek I have ever heard. They spend the entire time reading off the stupid printout. If they truly knew their subject, they could speak with only a few bullet points in front of them. But this is Wade Cox, not the smartest or brightest bulb in the box.
ReplyDeleteOne of the reasons sermons today are so boring is the fact that too many are read verbatim. Ad Lib heart felt preaching is basically gone. Why is that? The simple answer is censorship. Years ago many broadcasting on tv and radio were dropped from their stations. Why, because they often offended the station owners who were of different belief systems.
DeleteSo, in order to remain on the air speakers started reading scripted sermons verbatim. This caused the interest factor to begin dropping and the boredom factor to start rising. Sadly, this reading of scripts began showing up in the regular sermons also. Thus, the boredom factor was caused by the attempt To not be kicked off the air. Instead of helping, the cure became the disease. Not everything is the fault of the cog groups. Thus, because of worldly censorship a whole era of preaching was exchanged for boring university lectures. Sad.
BJP
Amen to most of "9:59."
DeleteYet a good speaker can make a scripted message eye-opening, and even entertaining. Think Ronald Reagan, the best TV news anchors - or, believe it or not, Jim Rome on radio. (Yes, he's had writers.)
I've been surprised to watch TBN recently and see even top "mainstream" preachers reading a great deal from their scripts. Michael Youssef and David Jeremiah both do it. Yet they do it well, showing enthusiasm - a big difference from many speakers in COG's.
If you don't keep the new moons, the feasts, the sabbath - ' your dead''
ReplyDeleteWade Cox - on the right - their site states concerning him:
ReplyDelete''He has written literally hundreds of works and is now recognised as one of the most widely read religious academics in the world. His work is required reading in some universities around the world and serves as reference material for many students.''
Cox is just like Thiel. He writes endless papers on absolutely useless theological bullshit and tries to pass it off as truth. Bob also claims he is the most widely read theologian in the church today. Both are liars. Cox also has some secret history that he tries to cover up, but if you search long and hard enough, you will find out about his military history. If I remember right, it is posted on Gavins blogs
DeleteFat paychecks breed complacency.
ReplyDeleteSomebody did, 11:23, they found and published the official Australian records of that military secret past. The result was that Wade Cox is the only purveyor of Armstrongism who actually succeeded in getting Armstrong recovery sites shut down. Within a matter of days, Gavin's site, Douglas Becker's site, and the Painful Truth were all shut down.
ReplyDeleteOf course, steps were taken to appeal the arbitrary decisions, or to put up replacement sites, but that required much time and work. The Wayback Machine was of great help, and there were other competing sites dedicated to assisting people in recovering from the Armstrong scam. However, like radio persoanlities, we all had our favorite venues for our comments and were mighty glad when they reappeared.
The positive takeaway was that Cox proved that you could not stamp us out. Free speech prevailed. Gave us a valuable skill set for the dark political situation just ahead.
All that - without a Bible present?
ReplyDeleteAnd then I'm told I must "work hard" and "have to study." Study their papers, I guess?!
And then I'm told I must "work hard" and "have to study."
DeleteRemember Jesus' words: "Come to me, you who are heavy laden, and I will give you HOMEWORK!"
When one reads the NT, the ministry of Jesus, Paul, Peter, John, James and so , you read what they had to go through, and it aint boring. It's boring when life is too comfortable.
ReplyDeleteCould these be the two witless-nesses?
ReplyDeleteMinisters like these are the result of people subcontracting out personal responsibilities such as bible study and doing one's own research.
ReplyDelete1 Corinthians 13:11 instructs to leave childhood behind, but many refuse. And the self serving church culture encourages this.