Time Magazine has a new article up about influential people in art, and Amy Sherald, a former WCG member, is named as one of them. We featured her here in an article on July 19, 2019.
Successful artists are the product of their gifts, but as Sherald proves, they are also products of what they lacked. Sherald grew up in a home that followed the teachings of the Worldwide Church of God, which did not celebrate, among other things, birthdays, Halloween, movies, most dancing, and TV. Her home kept a Sabbath on Saturdays. Not that Sherald minded. “For me as a child who was self-conscious and introverted, I would choose to stay in and draw rather than go outside,” she says. “It was like a safe way to play that was not with other people.” Her father, a dentist, was diagnosed with Parkinson's when she was 7. She would often just sit with him. “When you have a parent that doesn't communicate well and they're also going through something they want to hide from you, it kind of opens up another way of learning about emotion and communication.”
Vogue Magazine article
Interesting. What it shows us, everyone of us , is that there is life after the Armstrong movement. And many have gone on to live successful lives. And have that life more abundantly that Jesus said we could have, that many didn’t find in wwcog. We were burdened with much but His yoke is light and easy. Good post and reminder of what can be had free of the burdens laid upon us. We were well meaning, many of us, but many of us are delighted to be free from this caustic movement. Cheers.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. What it shows us, everyone of us , is that there is life after the Armstrong movement. And many have gone on to live successful lives. And have that life more abundantly that Jesus said we could have, that many didn’t find in wwcog. We were burdened with much but His yoke is light and easy. Good post and reminder of what can be had free of the burdens laid upon us. We were well meaning, many of us, but many of us are delighted to be free from this caustic movement. Cheers.
ReplyDeleteAmy attended a private Catholic school and her father was a wealthy Dentist. WCG is not mentioned in various news articles about her life.
ReplyDeleteI knew "Doc" Amos Sherald (as the Columbus, GA WCG called him). He was given roles in services as his condition allowed, such as leading prayers from his chair. (His wife - not sure if she's still alive - is a graceful woman.)
ReplyDeleteBut it annoyed me years later when Pastor Bruce Gore made him the target of jokes during sermons - calling him "the late Doc Sherald" because he had trouble arriving on time.
You move forward like this woman. You take the positives that you can out of any organization, and live the best life that you can afterward.
ReplyDeleteBut many who claim to have left have not. They remain to sabotage.
ReplyDeleteIt's not easy to if you are of a certain age and they feel they have given their heart to a splinter organization. Being baptized, attending the weekly sabbaths and annual holy days, reading all that literature for so many years. It's not easy if you're stubborn or have a position. For some it may be good to stay for a social thing or a club. But the are and will be sabotaged. Some of them even like it. I didn't like the abuse.
DeleteThey stay because they desire to commit sexual immorality and pollute the Feast of Tabernacles with their sins. As did the Israelite men with the Moabite women in Numbers 25, with the well known story of Phineas, the grandson of Aaron.
Delete“…did not celebrate… most dancing and TV”?
ReplyDeleteDid the writer just pull out typical fundamentalist religiosity? There were standards, of course. Maybe her family was just strict and she didn’t appreciate the distinction
Are you their spokesperson ?
ReplyDeleteThey remain because they excel and delight in deceit. They remain because they love to hate and at heart are bullies. They remain in COG to commit henius sins and to stir up mischief. They remain because they are bitter and exceedingly self-righteous. They remain to target all ages. They remain for all reasons of negativity and manipulation.
For to leave would be the first honest thing they've done in decades, but honesty is not found in them. They would lose their ability to bully without accountability and why would they walk away from that.