What’s Mine Is Mine, and What’s Yours Is Mine!
Lonnie Hendrix
Pastor Bill Watson of the newly minted Church of God Independent Ministries of Medina, Ohio, has apparently decided to void the commandment against stealing! In short, he has decided to use material on his website that was produced under the auspices of his former employer, the Church of God International of Tyler, Texas. Indeed, it appears that Bill believes that he is entitled to use whatever materials he was personally associated with from his former association (even though he was a paid employee of that organization). This will, of course, remind many of us of what Gerald Flurry did with many of the publications of the old Worldwide Church of God when he began using them in connection with his Philadelphia Church of God.
Poor Bill, apparently the talent pool in Medina is so limited and lackluster that he feels the need to “borrow” these materials and rebrand them to support his own “work.” As of last night and this morning, he has presented on his website two programs from the Tyler organization to support his own independent ministry! They are: Halloween: Is it Christian? and Chronicles of the Early New Testament Church. Although my father (Wayne Hendrix) and Bronson James were credentialed ministers of the Church of God International and died before Bill left that organization, Bill feels that these productions rightly belong to him. Not to mention the fact that Vance Stinson, the current leader of the Tyler group, also appears prominently in the historical feature on the early Church! Never mind, Bill worked on and appeared in both, so they’re HIS to use however he sees fit!
I contacted the leadership of the Church of God International to ask them why they were allowing Bill to use these materials. Did they make a present of them to Bill when he left their organization? One of the current leaders responded that they were not previously aware that Bill was using these programs, and that they were “drafting a takedown notice.” I’m wondering how Bill will react to that. I guess we’ll all have to wait and see what Bill does next. Will he continue to steal programming from his former employer? Or will he get those old creative juices flowing again and produce something “new” for his own organization? After all, Bill is still busily trying to cannibalize members from the folks in Tyler, and what better way to do it than with their own programming!!!!! Take that, you infidels!
After I had finished this post, Mr. Stinson said that he was unaware of Bill’s use of their material. A little later, this policy note was issued by that organization:
CGI Content Reuse Policy
The Church of God International (CGI) makes its videos, audio recordings, and literature freely available to support its mission. Free access does not grant unrestricted permission to reproduce, edit, rebrand, or republish these materials.
Sharing links to CGI’s original publications and official media channels is encouraged. Requests to upload copies, reproduce literature, adapt content, or incorporate substantial portions into another organization’s materials should receive CGI’s written approval in advance.
Approved reuse must identify CGI as the source, retain applicable author credits and copyright notices, and follow any conditions of permission. CGI material must not be presented as another organization’s original work or used to imply CGI’s endorsement or affiliation without authorization.
When unauthorized use is identified, CGI’s preferred outcome is prompt correction. Depending on the circumstances, this may involve removing the material, restoring attribution, or making revisions agreed upon with CGI. Attribution alone does not replace permission where permission is required.
This policy does not limit uses permitted by applicable law, including fair use for news reporting, criticism, commentary, scholarship, or teaching.
Permission requests should be directed to info@cgi.org, identifying the material, intended use, proposed changes, and distribution method.
20 comments:
Oh, crap! This church is right in my neighborhood- I've driven by it numerous times, and it's not far away from Wadsworth...
To info@cgi.org. Hello, this is Bill Watson. This is a permission request that you let me steal your material.
Hands up who is sick of these b*st*rds and their ‘work’. Watsons ‘work’ will come to NOTHING like the rest of the Armstrong ‘franchises’. What has happened makes a mockery of the gospel of Christ, indeed the whole Bible. They have no credibility, are charlatans, maybe harlots is a better word to describe their divisions. Unfortunately some folk will continue to be hurt and sucked into these small groups. One can only home potential ‘recruits’ do their homework and steer well clear of them all.
Hands up who is sick of these b*st*rds and their ‘work’. Watsons ‘work’ will come to NOTHING like the rest of the Armstrong ‘franchises’. What has happened makes a mockery of the gospel of Christ, indeed the whole Bible. They have no credibility, are charlatans, maybe harlots is a better word to describe their divisions. Unfortunately some folk will continue to be hurt and sucked into these small groups. One can only home potential ‘recruits’ do their homework and steer well clear of them all.
Know what the redefinition of plagiarism is in many church groups? Heh heh heh! More people spreading the gospel! The only time it us usually contested is when the plagiarists use it to collect your tithes instead of sending them to the grouo holding copyright.
Like when HWA left COG7 and "Borrowed" their 'Has Time been Lost' booklet.
What grand delusion!
"Allowing Bill to use these materials"??
Pardon me, but I was operating under the belief that the object of preaching the truth was to educate and call the unconverted to repentance, not to get personal credit for producing such truth. Consider Paul's attitude:
" Some preach Christ even of envy and strife, and some also of good will. The one preaches Christ of contention, not sincerely. What then? Notwithstanding, in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached", Phil. 1:15-18.
I get it. Tithes are precious, publications cost money, and egos need to be stroked. But this whole scenario is one of the big reasons Christianity is splintered into 45,000 denominations and just another entity of this world system. It's not that Christ has changed or is divided, but human nature is what it is, and that " ye are yet carnal, whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, and are ye not carnal and walk as men? For while one says, I am of CGI, and another, I follow Bill Watson, are you not carnal? One plants and one waters but God (who???) gives the increase! So then, neither is he that plants or waters ANYTHING (has anyone ever admitted this?) BUT God that gives the increase ", 1 Cor.3:3-8.
The WORK according to Scripture is God's work, not Lonnie's, Bill's, Vance's or the Pope's. Any deviation from that makes it just another product of this world.
"Church of God Independent Ministries" : another one of these stupid Armstrongite sects ! How many of them ???
BP8 says, "Pardon me, but I was operating under the belief that the object of preaching the truth was to educate and call the unconverted to repentance, not to get personal credit for producing such truth."
That's not the issue Lonnie's post is addressing, but your belief regarding the object of preaching the truth is correct, and I think Lonnie, the Pope, and all ministries everywhere would agree with it. So why would someone using the material owned by another organization NOT link to the copyright owner's website or publish their address? Doing so would connect his audience to a lot more material. Would that not accomplish the purpose of reaching others even more effectively?
So, pardon me, but if it's really about reaching people with life-changing truth, why violate laws to do it when it can be done just as well without violating any laws?
Spreading the gospel doesn't give anyone the right to trample on intellectual property rights. It's the end justifies the means thinking that Herb ministers use to horribly mistreat their members. George Locus sold his Star Wars franchise to Disney for 4 billion dollars, so you obviously don't understand the value and effort required to acquire intellectual property.
Anon 136
"Intellectual property and rights"? Is that what the " truth" boils down to?
You and Anon 1134 are looking at this merely through human legal channels. I'm trying to envision it through a spiritual lens.
Can one copyright the spirit of God?
Can one copyright spiritual knowledge?
Mr. Kitchens, can one incorporate the "true" church of God?
We've witnessed these battles before. When GTA was booted out, he was banned by copyright laws from using his own written materials. Maybe Bill wrote the Halloween booklet and thought he had the right to use it. I don't know the specifics. But most of the time these conflicts have "the love of money" and "who is the greatest" overtones, which are carnal and not spiritual concerns.
I'm reminded of the example found in Luke 9:49-50, where the disciples came across an individual performing great works in the name of Jesus Christ. Since they had a copyright on Christ, they commanded the man to stop what he was doing. After all, he wasn't a part of their group. Christ however, had a different opinion!
Since their exists no cooperation whatsoever in this Christian world among "Christians", then it might be a good idea to do all one legally can to protect yourself, your name, image, likeness and resources from your scoundrel Christian brothers. After all, with all that is at stake, accepting wrong and mistreatment (1 Corinthians 6:7) would be out of the question!
Hopefully with a life change for the better! Armstrongism, no matter who teaches it, messes folks's lives up!
The booklets that GTA wrote and Bill might have have written are legally the property of the church that employed them at the time. They were payed for this service. Yet there's no such casual attitude if members do something wrong.
Bill Watson was not a known CGI booklet writer during Garner Ted being in CGI. I could be wrong, but i think Halloween booklet carried Garner Ted's name, although he was known for using ghostwriters
so neither might have written it.
At one time, the articles in the JW's publications, Awake and whatever the other is called, did not have the author's name attached to the article. Perhaps they wanted to avoid the writer's from feeling filled with pride.
Many ministries have articles and books written by staff writers and the celebrity preachers attach their names to them. Oral Roberts, as I understand it, gave away his books to people, like HWA did. But the books had to be purchased by the ministry from the publisher, so Oral was making money on the "sale" of his books as he was giving them away. Like Stanley Rader said, "I don't take stupid pills."
Bottom line is that one man's eschatology is another's scatology.
That directly affects the final outcome of the Armstrong problem, so we'll leave it to the individual reader to sort it out. I'm sure we will see some scatological responses! 🦨 🤧
The videos in question were produced under the auspices of the Church of God International, and Bill was an employee of theirs. These FACTS are not in dispute. CGI Tyler has made very clear that everyone is individually welcome to peruse their material and use it for their personal studies. Notwithstanding, these videos have information which is incorrect and is (in some cases) intentionally misleading.
The posts on my own blog are public and available for anyone to use. I am also thankful that they have helped numerous folks arrive at their own conclusions about various topics. Even so, I would be furious if some group decided to use one of my posts to promote their own organization.
There are some warped ethics employed in furthering the spreading of all these Armstrong permutations, and Bilious Watson is one of the more egregious examples!
Without comment or fanfare, the videos were removed by Mr. Watson.
The grammarian in me has to mention to 9:26, the word is "paid", not "payed". Why, I don't know, because the past tense of "pray" is "prayed", but the past tense of "pay" is "paid". Go figure.
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