Operation Cookie - The Great Cookie Crisis of the PCG

or listen to song here on Rumble: The Great Cookie Crisis

PCG Ministry and the Cookie Comment

A personal account by Dan Moffett

 

Sometimes a small incident reveals why an organization feels controlling. For me, one of those incidents involved a few dozen cookies.

A couple of years after my wife died, I decided to take my two boys on a little vacation. The Southeastern region of the Philadelphia Church of God was holding a Fourth of July family campout, and I thought it would be a good opportunity for us to get away together.

After I signed up, the event coordinator emailed me a list of things to bring. One request was for a few dozen cookies.

I had recently lost a considerable amount of weight and had been dealing with health problems. With those concerns in mind, I suggested that cookies might not be the healthiest contribution and asked whether I could bring something else.

It seemed like a simple question about food for a family outing.

A few days later, however, I received a telephone call from my local minister, Aaron Eagle. As I remember the conversation, he told me not to bring up the cookie issue again.

I was shocked. How had a question about bringing a healthier alternative become something requiring a minister’s warning?

If the event coordinator objected to my suggestion, he could have answered me directly. He could have explained the menu or simply said that cookies were what they needed. Instead, my understanding is that the matter traveled through the following chain:

• The event coordinator contacted his local minister.
• That minister contacted Craig Winters, the Southeastern regional director.
• Craig Winters contacted Cal Culpepper, the Northeastern regional director.
• Cal Culpepper contacted Aaron Eagle, my local minister.
• Aaron Eagle then called me and told me not to raise the matter again.

I was not present for those other conversations; this is my understanding of how the matter reached my minister. What I experienced directly was the email exchange and the subsequent warning from Aaron Eagle.

By that account, two ministers and two regional directors became involved over a comment about cookies.

What troubled me was the disproportionate response. I had asked whether I could contribute something healthier. Yet the response left me feeling that even an ordinary question could become a matter of ministerial scrutiny.

I had wanted a little vacation with my boys after losing their mother. Instead, this incident became another reason I felt controlled within the PCG.

To me, it illustrated an atmosphere in which a member could be made to feel that asking a reasonable question was stepping out of line.

Today, I am grateful to be free from that atmosphere. I can make ordinary decisions about my health, my family, and what I bring to a picnic without fearing a telephone call from a minister.

A question about cookies should have been answered with a conversation—not escalated into a warning.