The United Church of God has published a paper lecturing everyone on why its members shouldn’t serve on juries. Their big complaint? The “world” is far too obsessed with the mere “letter of the law.”
Let that sink in for a second.
This is coming from a Church of God splinter group that has spent decades treating the letter of the law like their personal golden calf — worshiping it, polishing it, and beating members over the head with it — while forgiveness, grace, and mercy have been MIA for as long as anyone can remember. Those three pesky virtues apparently didn’t make the cut in the official COG doctrinal priority list.
In their own words:
“In our modern society judgments are primarily concerned with the letter of the law. In contrast, God looks on the heart and is concerned with the spirit and intent of the law…”
Wow. The hypocrisy is so thick you could spread it on toast.
These are the same people who’ve turned Sabbath-keeping, Holy Day observance, and dietary laws into the ultimate test of righteousness, while genuine mercy often gets dismissed as weak, liberal, or “worldly.” They love quoting Matthew 6 about forgiving others and 1 Corinthians 6 about suffering wrong rather than going to court — right up until it might require them to actually show a little grace in real life.
But sure, go ahead and lecture the rest of us about being too focused on the letter of the law while your entire identity is built on rigid, joyless legalism that makes the Pharisees look positively warm and fuzzy.
Nothing says “We’re all about the spirit of the law” quite like a church that has systematically elevated the law above Christ’s forgiveness and then acts shocked when the world behaves exactly like they do — only without the fake piety.
Truly masterful. Peak Church of God hypocrisy.
As bad as they are, I do not see anybody who is any better. They are all messed up in one way or another. Truly hopeless.
ReplyDeleteInteresting rationale. Doesn't sound like they understand the public too well though.
ReplyDeleteThese church leaderships are hypocrites. They will go to law before each other like PCG. Some of them have even taken a minister to court, (as some of them should). 😃 It's sort of funny, because then some of the ministers will mention certain infamous court cases in US history in their sermons.
ReplyDeleteThey hurt though. I mean 70% of their ministry is based on the OT letter of the law system. The third tithe, TWO holy convocations on the 1st and 8th day......