The book is a memoir by Pamela Redd that details her journey of self-discovery, personal recovery and identity rebuilding after being disfellowshipped from the Worldwide Church of God, formerly known as the Radio Church of God.
Amazon:
FINDING AND RECLAIMING YOURSELF: A Memoir of Triumph After Being Disfellowshipped from the Worldwide Church of God
12 comments:
Just got this book from Amazon. Looking forward to reading it to see how related our experiences are. Other people on the Ambassador Blog -- Big Sandy , are reading it.
Whenever I'm made aware of something like this, I always hope that the right people will see it, and heed its message.
COG people just do not realize all of the work those of us who left them have done on ourselves, correcting all of the error and brainwashing and developing new skills, such as the simple ability to negotiate, and to challenge authority figures. Don't even get me started on parenting skills, or family relationships, healthcare issues, and prudent and productive investments!
I don't mean to trivialize the stuggles and historic suppression endured by those of specific ethnicities, but emerging from Armstrongism has certainly caused me to have a great sense of empathy for those who endured racism and enslavement, or holocausts/genocide.
BB
Yet when people are disfellowshipped they appeal and fight and fight to get their disfellowshipment overturned. Go figure?
One can get disfellowshipped from the Living Church Of God for just about anything, even when the minister's reasons are completely false. Based on other people's false accusations. Or when someone is trying to cover up their own evildoings. Same went for WCG. I know a guy in our church who was disfellowshipped because he actually dared to confront one of the guys who had put pornography on his hotel bill during the feast of tabernacles. So the guy viewing pornography got away with it, and the ministers would not even let the guy who they tossed out give his side of what happened. So what kind of a church is that? What kind of God's true supposed ministers would do that?
From July 14 @ 12:29pm (1st post): I finished reading Pamela's story and it was vastly different from my experience. I'm white, she is black and that made a difference at that time in WCG. She was inducted unwillingly at age 5, before she had developed people skills.
I "wanted" to join when I was 18 because I had been brain- washed by the correspondence course. I had already had a fairly normal life and one year of college. I told no one what I was "learning" because I had been "warned" that they would not understand. I did not know the sins of GTA and HWA until after I left. I married an AC guy and it turned out well. When we left, God graced us with a correct understanding of Galatians and we knew we were free from the Law. I'm glad Pamela went to therapy and got help. She is obviously very intelligent, having degrees and responsible and meaningful jobs. I wish her well. And hope other people will wake up and escape from the COG's. There is a better life on the outside.
1.13 AM, My observation was that some members were basically left alone by the ministers due to their low key personality's. The equivalent of fishermen throwing back fish that were under sized.
In 5.22 AM's post, by unjustly throwing out members, they rob them of friendships acquired, sometimes over decades. So why invest in such a group?
Because they are just men playing self appointed games and Armstrong never was part of a lineage of alleged one true churches
I was quite surprised at some of HWA's written comments regarding introverts, 7:05. He definitely favored individuals with outgoing, sales-like personalities. Because this was the encouraged model, and not surprisingly, there were some members who came to resemble the Tom Parsons character in Orwell's 1984.
Some of the quiet members were actually the most dedicated. HWA was one really eccentric cat in a lot of ways!
BB
There's a site dedicated to members of former religions. Universally they write that they feel free, can be their authentic selves (no more faking reality) and are finally responsible for their own lives.
Just before I left The church of Herb, there were many members waving verbal baseball bats, making sure that other members make the "right" decisions. When this Nazi hell hole imploded, (surprise, surprise) they blame shifted, insisting that Joe Tkach was responsible. So there's no repentance and the kingdom of Herb keeps shrinking.
1:13 An unbiblical and ungodly way of perceiving people. As a obvious bible basic is 'God looks on the heart of people'
1Peter 3:4....ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.
1:13 points out that people fight to have their disfellowship overturned. I believe this is more for equity and justice than for wanting to rejoin that particular church, LCG for instance. I have seen that justice is never done. These decisions ar never overturned. Going to these LCG ministers to obtain justice and straighten things out is like going to the Mexican police about the state of corruption in Mexico. The very ministers who are called upon to administer justice and truth and where one should appeal are themselves part of the very problem. Now where is God the Father and Jesus our Savior in all their nonbiblical approach? Even from the world which they condemn, people get a better hearing and more just treatment than anything from these ministers and their hangers on, supposedly the speartip of God's work.
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