Exit and Support Network featured yet another damning letter about the Restored Church of God and its self-important "ministers."
Anyone who's survived the nightmare of Armstrongism knows all too well the group's antiquated traditional view: mental illness? Pfft, that's just demons squatting in your brain. Real spiritual warfare, don't you know. Only a handful of ministers ever dared whisper otherwise without fear of being labeled Laodicean heretics themselves.
And let's not forget Armstrongism's stellar track record—decades of smugly diagnosing anyone who dared stray from their narrow definition of "normal" (read: conformist, white, middle-class, hyper-obedient) behavior as "demon-influenced." Depression? Demons. Anxiety? Demons. Questioning Herbert W. Armstrong's endless failed prophecies or his lavish lifestyle? Definitely demons. Non-conformity in gender roles, sexuality, or even emotional expression? You guessed it—straight to demonic possession territory.
This wasn't some fringe quirk; it stemmed directly from HWA's teachings, which banned medical intervention (including psychiatry) in favor of "divine healing" through anointing and prayer alone. Doctors were suspect, psychologists were gateways for Satan, and mental health issues were spiritual failures or outright infernal attacks. The result? Countless members suffered in silence, denied proper treatment, shamed into hiding their struggles, or worse—exorcised like something out of a bad horror flick. Suicides, breakdowns, and shattered families piled up, all while the ministry patted itself on the back for "discerning spirits."
In offshoots like the Restored Church of God, this toxic legacy lingers, blending control, fear, and pseudospiritual arrogance. Because nothing says "God's true church" like ignoring modern medicine and blaming invisible boogeymen for brain chemistry. How godly.
I came across your website and just had to get this experience published. I have a daughter who is in her early thirties who has suffered with mental health issues for most of her life. About 9 years ago, I started exploring Restored Church of God’s website & watching David C. Pack videos.
I tried contacting David Pack to get prayer and/or a healing cloth for my daughter. I was not able to speak to Pack but they put me in touch with one of his ministers in the Chicago region. I don’t remember his name. I spoke to this minister on the phone 2 or 3 times but also emailed with him several times, mostly about my daughter’s need for healing. After a month or so, he said he would have to speak with David Pack about getting an anointed cloth sent out to me for my daughter.
About 2 weeks later, I received an email from this local minister. I was informed that he had spoken with David Pack & his colleagues (or whatever they are) from headquarters in Wadsworth, Ohio regarding my daughter’s mental health issues and need for healing. The email said that David Pack instructed him to email me and inform me that God does not get involved with helping “mentally ill” people and therefore they would NOT be sending me an anointed cloth. After that email, I never heard from him again. That response sounded crazy to me. Where on earth did that come from? Rhetorical question, of course! –Impacted by RCG
14 comments:
Boy! Is this a self-indictment of David C. Pack, or what! God neither validates Dave, nor does he kill him off. He seems to just ignore Dave, as if he were mentally deficient.
The emailed answer to the concerned father seemingly comes from the same book of wisdom that led to the advice that an ACOG member should simply leave their disabled child at the mall.
Most of the extreme punishments that I and my siblings endured while being raised in the Armstrong church were for doing things that somehow disrupted my parents' slavish practice of the church rituals. No time was allocated for meeting our emotional or developmental needs.
Because it takes one to know one. The pot calling the kettle black, and a million other euphemisms. He’s the king of mental illness, wonder what he would do if someone started rebuking Satan over him? I’ve seen enough sci-fi movies to wish I could see him transform and wiggle all over the floor. What a jerk.
Wouldn't it be so much more impactful to have a copy of the email as verification?
None of this surprises me as I have come across examples of this attitude in the then WCG where a person was disfellowshipped because of a mental health issue. The person wasn’t disruptive but it was clear than she wasn’t well. She was asked not to attend but I have no knowledge of any support offered to her. She was simply forgotten about.The WCG prided itself on being a church of brotherly love but there was absolutely no evidence of it. A bit like former East Germany calling itself the German Democratic Republic but it was anything but democratic. I think the ministry should have a basic training in mental health issues to compliment their training in spiritual matters not to the degree of a therapist but to better understand what the challenges are of lay people facing mental illness and how to better support them.
Why keep attention on Pack ? Easy picking ?
Anonymous on Thursday, January 1, 2026 at 11:46:50 PM PST said, “Why keep attention on Pack ? Easy picking ?”
Yes!!!
Old klepto-Dave Pack-of-lies makes for extremely easy picking. With a babbling false prophet like Dave Pack, who has diarrhea of the mouth, you do not have to wait the usual 15 to 20 years, or even 3 to 5 years, to find out that he is simply full of it. You can learn everything that you need to know about him in just a few weeks if you are the logical, honest, humble, teachable type.
Those who LIE and STEAL like they are possessed by Satan himself/herself/itself (hope I got the pronoun right so I don't get in trouble) make for the easiest picking.
Some attention should always be kept on these fraudsters so that other people can be warned and not have to learn about them on their own the expensive way.
Intervening in any way in this young woman's life would be a major sin according to David C. Pack. Sickness, tragedy and catastrophe is a result of sin according to Pack's simple judgment of human affairs apart from God. A .78 cent stamp, .15 cent envelope, .05 cent piece of cloth and .10 cent rub of oil would be an colossal affront to God's wrath upon this young lady because of her sins.
That dear Mom/Dad, was the answer Dave Pack gave that minister concerning your daughter.
Healing happens more often than you think, you don't need the RCG to facilitate it.
Is running a blog good for your mental health though ?
You live to falsely accuse others of lying and stealing but most probably are a liar and thief yourself.
If being mentally ill or incompetent would disqualify one from being healed, then David Pack would be leader of the PACK of non eligible clients.
Following Dave Pack reminds me of the fable of the moles we learned on the grade school playground. Papa mole and mama mole are burrowing along a field near an industrial park. Papa mole says, "I smell freshly baked bread! We must be tunneling near a bakery!" Mama mole says, "Yes, Dear! A short time ago, I smelled cake!" Baby mole says, "I smell mole asses!"
Well I'm sure modern medicine would label his particular type of psychopathy (narcissist, borderline personality, paranoid, delusional) a mental illness too. Heal thy self, fool.
It seems like many if not most of the leaders of the churches of the Worldwide churches tradition were obvious narcissistic personality individuals. HWA, GTA, Flurry, RCM ( 3rd in the universe rank), Pack etc. Is that a job prerequisite?
Anonymous on Friday, January 2, 2026 at 11:10:45 PM PST said, “You live to falsely accuse others of lying and stealing but most probably are a liar and thief yourself.”
Feel free to go to Dave Pack's Restored Cash Grab (RCG) cult and hand over virtually everything you have to him to try to satisfy his COMMON theft doctrine that he made up and to listen to his weekly, WRONG, prophetic date guesses that go on and on year after year.
Or did you just come here to help Dave Pack to LIE to other people and to STEAL from other people?
11:04 could be Ryan Denne; he is Dave's personal bitch.
Post a Comment