Extreme Armstrongism: "Urban Homesteaders' Threaten To Sue

The Pasadena headquarters of the Worldwide Church of God has always attracted and produced really weird people.  Over the years we have had loads of picketers protesting in front of the Hall of Ad, men and women on arriving proclaiming they were apostles or that they were Elijah with a message to the church, and members who go off the deep end, like a lady who came up to me at church one Saturday proclaiming she had snakes in her head that were eating her brain away.

Our most enduring and longest active protester/picketer was Jules Dervaes.  He used to be an employee of the Landscaping Department in Pasadena.  Something ticked him off and he started protesting the church by parking his van outside the property boundaries. The van would be moved to different locations, in front of the Hall of Ad, on St. John behind the auditorium and down by the tennis courts on Del Mar.

 

He would haul his family out to picket with signs.  You could tell his wife and kids hated it.  His wife later left him because of all the nuttiness. Like a true Armstrognite he refused medical treatment for his kids, kept strict legalistic rule sin his life and his kids and other silliness.

Jules also later proclaimed that Gerald Flurry, cult leader of the Philadelphia Church of God, had stolen his writings and incorporated them in to Malachi's Message.

Jules web site is chocked full of visions and messages to those who are part of the various splinter cults of the COG.  Crazy stuff! The HiddenYears    Some of the web sites out there compare him to David Koresch in regards to his radical religious views.

Jules is also noted for his garden in the back of his house over off of Orange Grove close to Fair Oaks.  He has made his land behind the house into an 'urgan garden'. They do everything organically and supply local restaurants with fresh produce and have sent things to Oprah for television shots.

Here is an article from The Telegraph in the UK  The Dervaeses of Pasadena: Poster Family for Greener Living

For some reason Jules has decided that he owns the legal right to use the term 'urban homstead' and is now out threatening legal action against all ho use it.
Various articles about the use of the name are here:

Getting Pecked

LA Times: Who Is the True Urban Homesteader?

Dervaes Institute Seeks to Shed Light on Trademark Rumors


Because of his silly threats about using the name he is now starting to get a backlash:

Urban Homestead, Urban Homestead, Urban Homestead
Urban Homesteader. Urban Homesteader, Urban Homesteader

Thiel Is Claiming LCG Is Being Electronically Persecuted

Bob Thiel, COG apologist extraordinaire writes claiming that poor little LCG is being persecuted electronically because their TV broadcast got kicked off God-TV after just one week of air time and off of South Africa Love-World after three weeks.

So what did the media idiots at LCG expect????  When you deliberately fail to tell a church orientated TV network that you are a cult that is listed as outside Christian norms what can you expect when they find the truth out?

They knew going into the process that they could not totally be forthright with God-TV exec's during negotiations, yet they deceitfully went ahead and signed a contract.

Well, God-TV found out that LCG was doctrinally aberrant and kicked them off their network.

Now Bob is claiming electronic persecution!  But have not fear, Bob goes on to say how HWA was electronically persecuted too.  If it was good enough for Herb it was good enough for us too! Martyr's ever.....

But Bob fails to mention that WCG was just as sneaky when they tried to get on religious networks or advertise their magazines in certainly publications.  They went into the process claiming to be Christian.  They knew that if they told the truth they would not be allowed to broadcast or advertise their magazines.  So in typical Armstrongite fashion, when their aberrant teachings are exposed and they are kicked off TV or out of publications, they get to claim persecution and martyrdom.

How can you be persecuted when you lied to begin with?  How can you be persecuted when you don't mention God or Jesus but blabber on about "A Strong Hand From Someplace?".  Real persecuted Christians are dying daily for just being associated with the word 'Christian'.  Yet, Thiel and crew sip their Starbucks as they blog on their expensive computers claiming religious persecution.

Chiropractor Bob writes:

I had learned earlier this week that “God TV” would no longer run the telecast as the doctrines of the Living Church of God differed to much from their positions.  This form of electronic persecution has been a problem for the church dating back to when the late Herbert W. Armstrong began to use radio and television.
Yet, we keep trying to go through those doors that are opened. 

Richard Ames earlier wrote about this horrible persecution:

You may recall that in his December 2010 letter to brethren and co-workers, Dr. Meredith announced that the Tomorrow’s World telecast would start airing on “God TV” in January 2011, potentially reaching 500 million viewers in 175 million TV households. On January 2, God TV aired Dr. Meredith’s powerful program, “How To Overcome Satan,” offering his booklet Satan’s Counterfeit Christianity. Viewers from around the globe contacted our call-center in Kansas City—from as far away as Bangalore, India; Bavaria, Germany; and Vraa, Denmark, for example.

Understandably, not all the response was positive. God TV executives, once they realized that our teachings are at odds with “mainstream Christianity,” pulled us off the air after just one week! So, that “open door” closed very quickly. But we should not be disappointed. We remember that, even though the telecast aired for just three weeks on the “Love World” station in South Africa, that brief airing brought more than 20 new attendees—and three people being baptized into God’s Church! Even though the telecast aired for just one week on God TV, we cannot yet know what impact that airing will have. Of course, Dr. Meredith will now be looking for other open doors to preach the true Gospel.