Why After 70 Years the COG's Still Have Zero Impact in the World

The following was posted as a comment on the "What's On Your Mind Today" entry.  The response by Douglas sums up perfectly;y what is wrong with Armstrongism and the myriad of Churches of God.  Even with WCG's 60 some year presence in Pasadena and all the 'good work's that it did, it was till looked upon by the community as weird. Living in Pasadena, you soon got in the habit when you picked up the Star News and saw an article about the Church you cringed, knowing that there would be some idiotic comment or story about something stupid that the church or a chruchmember had done or said.

Douglas Becker said...

Armstrongists don't seem to understand what fools they look like to the outside world: No one is going to consider them credible with their infighting, silly ideas, failed predictions, blatant heresy, abuse and generally bad behavior.

If the Armstrongists want credibility, they need to set boundaries, abandon their crazy ideas, rethink their positions, stop the narcissism, quit the greed, take responsibility, stop setting a terrible example, quit the abuse and generally get their act together. They seem to think that their behavior is isolated and no one that matters can see their evil doing.

Wrong.

The couple being stalked in the UCG got a restraining order from Superior Court. That Boy in the Box thing hit the newspapers. The Orthodox Jews aren't happy about British Israelism. The Church of God Seventh Day isn't going to consider keeping the Feasts because of the entirely accurate reports of drunkeness and alcoholic behavior at the Feast of Tabernacles. The Seventh Day Church of God calls Armstrongism idolatry. Failed prophecies make the venue look really ridiculous to the general populace. The "church wars" are nothing but entertainment for stable Christian Churches -- and as evidence of the lack of viability the entire Armstrongist community has. The values and behaviors are laughable and panned at every turn. Psychiatrists who have learned of their behavior evaluate the Armstrongists of having multiple mental disorders.

Congratulations on bringing darkness (and dorkness) to the (spiritual) Gentiles. Do you claim to be of God? It sure doesn't look like it to an objective eye.

Congratulations for setting a terrible example to the whole world.

The ACoGs are much like an obstreperous drunken couple arguing at a restaurant, seeming to believe that no one around them sees or hears them because they are so focused on each other in their anger. They should be aware that if they continue and the Manager returns, they may be ejected after paying for the damages they caused.

March 6, 2011 8:11 AM

Of Gods and Men

Armstrongism has taken a great deal of effort over the last 70 some years to denigrate Catholicism in it's various forms. Most of the accusations are made in complete ignorance because the only book most Armstrongites have ever read about Catholicism is Hislop's Two Babylons.  It has such a toehold in conservative Christian groups in the US that Armstrong and Ralph Woodward both bought into it.  Woodward wrote his own book based upon Hislop's book and HWA's interpretations.  Woodward finally decided a few years ago to really start researching the claims of the book and found that it was filled with all kinds of errors.  Woodward wrote a new book refuting his previous book, called The Babylon Connection?  You can read an article Woodrow wrote here  called The Two Babylons: A Case Study In Poor Research Methodology

All of that antiCathoilic vitriol that Meredith, Thiel, Malm, Flurry and others continue to spit out does nothing except make themselves look like complete e idiots.


Below is a movie clip of a new movie about Catholic Trappist monks in Algeria in 1996.  Can you imagine any Armstrongite EVER taking such a stand?

Xavier Beauvoir’s Of Gods and Men is a beautiful, extraordinary achievement. Understated at all times, highly sophisticated and understanding of its subject, beautifully scripted, it explores the life and death of the Tibhirine Trappist community in Algeria in 1996, during the civil war. The monks live a simple, self-sustaining life of prayer, kindness and service. As the political situation deteriorates, they find themselves caught in a shooting war, driven by Islamist fundamentalists. The army offers protection of a sort, but this raises other questions for the monks - questions of calling and integrity as well as a basic issue about whether life in an armed camp is actually compatible with what they believe their community should be. Do they stay or do they go? As Dying, Yet Behold, We Live!

A quote from one of the brothers in the monastery:

If a day should come, and it could be today, to fall victim to the terrorism that seems to be engulfing foreigners in this country today, I would love my community, my Church, my family, to remember that my life was given to God and this country and also that the sole Giver of all life was no stranger to such a brutal ending. They should also associate my taking off with so many other equally violent but anonymous deaths. My life is no more valuable than any other, nor less. Anyway, it lacks the innocence of childhood. I have lived long enough to know that I myself am part of the evil which, sadly, seems to prevail in the world, even the evil that could suddenly befall me.  

I could not seek such a death, and I could not die happy to see these people, whom I love, indiscriminately blamed for my death. That would be too high a price to pay for what could be called the grace of martyrdom by an Algerian, whoever he may be, above all if he is motivated by what he may believe Islam to be. I know the contempt in which natives of this country are already held around the world. I also know caricatures of the kind of Islam that encourages Islamism.  

For me this country, and Islam, are something very different. They are body and soul. This is what I have always said publicly, as I believe it and have known and seen this theme in the gospel I learnt in my first Church, at my mother's knee. This I have practised in Algeria, and always from the start in respecting Muslim believers. My death could, plainly, give substance to the arguments of those who think I am just naive, or a starry-eyed idealist. But they need to know that this will finally liberate my most ardent curiosity, in that I may be able, God willing,to submerge my vision in that of the Father, in order to see his Muslim children just as he sees them. In this thank you letter, which says everything about my life from now on, I want to include you all, friends of yesterday and today, and even you too, friend of my last moments, who will not understand what you are doing.  

Yes, even for you, I genuinely want to thank you and bid this Adieu, commendation to God, May we one day meet again, in Paradise, as happy thieves, if it pleases God, Father of us both. Amen.