UCG Doctor Writes Book On "When Does Human Life Begin?"

A UCG Doctor has written a book on when does human life begin. 

When Does Human Life Begin?

A Fresh Look at Scientific, Scriptural, and Historical Evidence
There is a tension that exists between those who believe in scientific  progress through any means and those believe in a foundational morality  as the basis for all of our actions, and scientific advances. Nowhere is this debate more fiercely seen than that in the stem cell and abortion  debates seen today. What is the basis for this conflict and for the  positions each side takes? The nexus of this conflict is one of the most fundamental questions mankind has faced one that reaches the very  level of our own unique human identity When Does Human Life Begin?

In order to understand the question of when life begins we must first  attempt to understand what forms the foundations of our current history. This book is the beginning of an effort to align history with the  perspective of scripture and biology to investigate life’s origins. This book provides a unique perspective into a debate totally entrenched in  dogma and emotion. While is it deservedly so a hot-button topic - few  may stop to consider the reasons for their belief, or of their  opponents. It is hoped that by further understanding the foundation for  our current thinking - that we can come to an understanding that brings  greater clarity to the debate _ and the solution.

Excerpt from book : Chapter 1

 

J. Lawrence Merritt II, MD•• John Lawrence Merritt III •• John L Merritt, MD

A UCG Funeral Story

The following  was too important to leave isolated in the comments section. 

From the comments section of the Did WCG Ministers Refuse Funerals for Stillborn Children?

 

My Mother's Funeral

As sad as this story is, I have an equally mind-boggling account of COG cruelty and absurdity.

After 20 years out of WCG, my wife and I joined a small UCG congregation in a foreign country in 2009 where we had been doing church-raising.

From my former WCG responsibilities and the fact that I had been a Wesleyan pastor and missionary in the interim, I rose quickly to song-leading and sermonettes within the first year. The regional pastor's favor shown to me didn't please the local elder.

When my 82-year-old alzheimers mother, who we had taken care of for six years, died in 2010, I informed the local elder that one of the local deacons who had visited my mother and I would perform the funeral ceremonies as per my mother's long-time wishes. This was perfectly in keeping with the UCG Ministerial manual.

With this the local elder saw his chance to remove the 'thorn' from his flesh. In the midst of our handling the grief, he concocted a desperate story about my disrespecting his authority to the regional pastor.

Even though half of the church saw and heard us discussing my plans at the side of my mother's casket at the funeral home, he told the pastor that I had ignored him and I don't know what else.

Two days later, I heard there was a problem and I called the pastor to find out what. He had talked to the elder and was ticked saying that I had usurped the UCG government and that he the pastor should be handling the funeral.

When I had calmly explained the situation to him, he said that neither the deacon, nor the other leaders, nor the brethren would be able to participate in the funeral of my mother.

The pastor told me, directly in front of where my mother was laying, that now that I had no choice I should let him do the service. I controlled myself and told him that what he was doing was extremely disrespectful and that he had better leave the room as soon as possible.

When I stood he saw my face and left quickly and somewhat shaken. But as he was exiting the door, he told me he would not be able to attend the funeral service since he had 'business' back in his province the next day.

The brethren said that he came to services and told the leaders not to participate in the funeral, but decided to allow the people to attend if they wished.

-------
There is much more and much worse which transpired over the next few days, weeks and months, as my family performed the services and buried my mother, unsupported by the shell-shocked brethren, and 'under a cloud' of doubled grief, and then as I appealed my way up the wicked chain of UCG command.

I would love to tell you the names, locales, and details of this unprecedented debacle, but my principles will not permit retribution on such sad and depraved COG hirelings.

Fortunately, I was already emotionally prepared, because of the long-time nature of dealing with an alzheimers parent, and because of the intensely spiritual parting with my dear mother after such a close shared experience.

But when I look back at what they did, it is like a surreal dream without parallel. I actually feel worse for them than I did for myself.

The pastor by the way lost his regional position and all those wonderful tithes when he jumped the UCG ship for COGWA and wound up with just part of his home congregation, most of whom he already has to support financially. I think he may have lost his UCG retirement program also.

As my mother of happy memory often reminded me, ‘What goes around, comes around.’ 

Clean and Unclean Meats

Peter Ditzel has a new article about Armstrongism's fascination with unclean meats. When  you  look on-line you can find huge lists of forbidden meats that UCG and others put out to regulate people's lives.  Yet, this is just one of many list of rules and regulations that Armstrongism pick's and chooses from.  It's ok to live in homes with mold, wear mixed fabric's, stone your rebellious children,  not kick your wife out of the home during menstruation, etc., etc.,.

The Real Poison of Biblical Dietary Laws and "Health Secrets"

Peter Ditzel

Is the Bible a health manual? Are the dietary laws found in the Bible God’s ways of telling us what is healthy and unhealthy to eat? Or did God have an entirely different reason for putting these laws in the Bible? What’s more, do these laws given to ancient Israel have anything at all to do with Christians today?

Herbert W. Armstrong, the late founder and "apostle" of the Worldwide Church of God, taught that Christians must obey the laws of clean and unclean meats found in Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14. On page 18 of Principles of Healthful Living, he wrote: "This is a basic law—a revelation from God to man about which kinds of flesh will properly digest and assimilate in the human system, and which will not" (Principles of Healthful Living [Pasadena, CA: Worldwide Church of God, Chapter Three 1958, 1978; Chapter Four 1979], version 1.0, May 1990 printing).

As might be expected, most of the splinter groups of the Worldwide Church of God that continue to follow Armstrong’s teachings have their requisite publications on clean and unclean meats. More surprising, perhaps, is the number of others—including physicians, dieticians, and cooks—who have written popular books that claim to reveal the health secrets God has stashed into the pages of the Bible. And, being the narcissistic, health-crazed society we are, these books sell well. In fact, it has become common for many Christians who do not strictly follow the Old Testament dietary laws to nevertheless think of them as health guidelines. They believe the meats listed as unclean in the Old Testament are not as healthful as other meats, and they also think that the Bible contains many other health secrets.

Clean and Unclean Meats

Congregant Bill of Rights

Congregant Bill of Rights

The following are basic human, religious and spiritual rights any person has as a member of any and all
religious organizations or church congregations.

You have the right to expect the church to keep your personal contributions private and should be able to expect that any who deal with such things for accounting purposes will do the same.

You have the right to expect that your membership in any church or congregation is not contingent on how much you give or do not give. You should also expect that jobs, positions, opportunities or offices are not given based on the amount anyone gives to the church.

You have the right to say I can only give this even if it is not a tithe of your income gross or net.

You have the right to not to be spiritually judged or have your loyalty or sincerity questioned based on what you are able or unable to give financially to the church.

You have the right to ask a Pastor if he checks tithes and offereings for any of the above reasons before giving to a church.

You have the right to say "I'm tired and won't be there, " to any and all activities, plays, fundraisers, studies, seminars, prayer groups, rehearsals, practices and sermons.

You have the right to say "I don't care about that."

You have the right to question the advice, counsel or sermon of any minister, elder, deacon or any other person in authority.

You have the right to question authority and to still expect to be allowed to attend your church.

You have the right to question a minister who declares himself one or both of the Two Witnesses of Revelation, a Prophet, the Supreme Watcher of Mankind for God, The Only True Apostle in this Age and any other title or position he can come up with to impress you as to why you need to support him.

You have the right to suggest a pastor get spiritual or psychological help should the need arise.

You have the right to tell him that the congregation is noticing a trend here.

You have the right to ask why the church believes what it does when the Bible might say otherwise, or why the Bible says something that the church practices that seems scary, weird, inappropriate for this time, out of date or controlling.

You have the right to notice that ministers often quote scriptures out of context or fail to enforce or address the rest of the story that does not agree with the point they are trying to make.

You have the right to ask all the "how can that be," "how could that happen," "why does it say this here and that there," questions you can come up and expect an intelligent answer. If you are told that you are using human reasoning, ask the pastor what kind of reasoning he uses. If he says "God's," find another church.

You have the right to not want elders, deacons or your friends accompanying the minister on visits to your home to talk to you.

You have the right to discuss or not discuss your life with the minister as you see fit.

You have the right to expect absolute confidentiality and for your story not to show up in the sermon next week, even though "I won't say the name."

You have a right to be called ahead of time when the pastor wants to ask about stopping over.

You have the right , when he calls to say, "I'm tired," "I'm busy," "No, but I appreciate the call," without repercussions.

You have the right to keep a dirty home, grass not mowed perfectly, an older car, red in color and kids that don't say "yes sir, nice to see you sir," in just the right way.

You have the right to watch and read what you wish even if the pastor just got done bashing that particular program, movie or book from the pulpit in his sermon on "Demons in Your Home--Six Ways to Assure Your Eternal Death."

You have the right to ask the pastor not to call on you at work, even if you own the business.

You have the right to say, "I can't afford to take you to lunch." "I can't afford to give you free wood or brick." "I can't afford to fix your house up free," "I can't fix all your teeth," to your pastor should he expect professional courtesies, even if he offers to do your funeral free.

You have a right to expect free use of your church for weddings and funerals.

You have the right to expect these usages are not dependent on you, your parents or children living a sinless life six months prior to the date of the event.

You have the right   to not to answer questions your pastor may ask you or your children about your sexual practices. If he insists, then insist that you all share together.

You have the right to not let the pastor inform you as to who you can and cannot date or marry.

You have the right to enjoy your sexuality free of church or pastoral approval. Something that is wrong for the pastor is not necessarily wrong for you in how you express yourself to your partner. There is no Bible prohibition against....well you know. And if there were, you'd have the right to disagree with that too.

You have the right to not share which or if you are taking medications of any sort with the pastor.

You have the right to take such medication and not be judged as having a lack of faith or trust in God to heal you.

You have the right to seek professional help without informing your Pastor of the nature of the help and you have the right to not be helped solely by the pastor under threat of repercussions.

You have the right to insist the pastor get professional help should the need arise and the man is causing more harm than good. You have the right to remind him that God does not directly speak to him nor express His will only through the mind of the pastor and that makes you uncomfortable if he thinks that is so.

You have the right to be wrong about a many things.

You have the right to believe you are correct about many things without repercussions.

You have the right not to care about everything that others think you must care about to be a good Christian.

You have the right to tell the pastor he is wrong, mistaken or exaggerating.

You have the right to dress as you wish, wear the jewelry you wish and make up you wish or not wish without being labeled a whore or a goody goody.

You have the right to feel that dressing as if it was still 1957 and only watching Disney Movies or How the West Was Won as proof of your pureness is baloney.

You have the right to not be told that the best times for entertainment, movies and TV was when the Pastor was a boy.

You have the right to like the food he does not like and to not like the foods he does.

You have the right to like the schools he doesn't and not like the ones he does.

You have the right  to not to bear your soul to the ministers wife.

You have the right to like or not like, agree or not agree with the ministers wife.

You have the right to not view the world through the pastor's eyes morally or politically.

You have the right to hate the war while he believes the war in Iraq is God's will and thinks it's all in the Bible.

You have the right to expect him to speak clearly where he thinks the Bible speaks for us today and to walk slowly and drink cool water where it doesn't.

You have the right to tell the pastor that that is his opinion and not necessarily the only true opinion on earth.

You have the right for you, your children, your partner and your friends to be themselves.

These are but a few of the rights any member of any Church, congregation or religious organization has.
 

In short, you have the right to not be required to check your brains, your insights, your perspectives and your free will at the door to be welcome and a member of any church.

DenniscDiehl@aol.com

UCG Down 5,000 Members

There is no way UCG can fluff off 5,000 members leaving their organization.  5,000 members bring in a huge hunk of change.  If there is a dramatic decrease in money UCG will loose the time slot for their TV program (that very few watch already) and publications will also drop.  ABC lost instructors. Summer camp leaders defected. Feast coordinators left.  The list goes on and on.