Why is Critical Thinking Not Practiced in the COG's?

I have always been taken back by the seemingly total lack of  Biblical  questioning by my former ministerial friends in WCG or in the membership over all.  It is amazing to me how little study into other ways of perceiving the Bible, it's history, it's construction and origins, its many contradictions real or imagined is done.

In the COG groups, the one man show type can get up and declare the Bible "clearly" shows the goofball to be an Apostle, Priest, King or Witness, AND FEW IF ANY QUESTION THE ROAMING AROUND IN THE BIBLE THAT IT TOOK TO DRAW THAT CONCLUSION.

"Duh, boss.  Whatever you say, huya huya...whatever you say." 

When Dave Pack goes on and on qualifying for membership in On and On Anonymous, why can't someone tell the man he talks too much and sees way too much of himself in the scripture.  Why can't someone say the sermons aren't always as amazing and never before understood as they are being led to believe. When he can't explain anything in less than two to four hours each week, where is the common sense of the audience?  When the man says either, "And yes, I am an Apostle," or "Send it in,"  blah blah blah...who are the people who just do this?  Are they defective of mind and common sense?

When Flurridians are told the Guru is "that prophet" or "God wants you to kiss your unconverted family goodbye and please no more talking to them,"  who are the nutcases that say, "ok, ok, whatever you say?"   Have they all been lobotomized?

Evolutionary author Donald Prothero notes...

"Looking over the shoulders of the hundreds of hard working , dedicated, self sacrificing biologists who spend years enduring the harsh conditions in the field to observe evolution in action inspires admiration in us real scientists.  This is in sharp contrast with the creationists who sit in their comfortable homes and write drivel about subjects they have never studied and do not understand."   (Evolution-what the fossils say and why it matters.  Page 113, Prothero)

This is also how ministers "do their hard work."  They skip along as good Bible and booklet readers.  Or as I have often noted, "piously convicted and marginally informed."
  

For as intelligent as GTA was, when he wrote about evolution as the authority on it for the Church, and why the Bible was right and science was wrong, he didn't know what he was talking about.  When Herbert Armstrong droned on and on about the two trees or the word "Elohim" and what it meant, he didn't know what he was talking about theologically.  When he said once in Bible study that dinosaurs were of Satan's world because they, like Satan, can't reproduce, he had no clue as to what he was talking about.  The current issue of National Geographic had dino eggs on the cover.

When Gerald Flurry declares this or that is God's way, he doesn't now what he is talking about.  When Dave Pack spins his sermons and mocks Plato, Socrates and the like, he doesn't know what he is talking about.  When he dismisses Albert Einstein because he had "wild hair,"  he has really run out of ideas and does not know what he is talking about. 

When Ron Weinland declares himself and his wife the Two Witnesses, well you know...it's just bullshit.  When you see yourself spoken of in the scriptures by the prophets, it is not time to start a church.  It is time to get some help.  I ask why Ron never studies what else  the Book of Revelation might be, who really wrote it and to whom for whom about whom?  Of course, if he did or if any of the COG ministers read the other issues raised by that book, it might require taking a lot of fancy literature off the shelves and throwing them into the shredder.

But back to the original question.  Why do COG types and really most Evangelical Christian ministers or members lack the critical thinking skills that would provoke them to ask questions about how we really got the Bible, who really wrote it and why?  Those few who do have good critical thinking skills usually end up teaching them but not at church, disfellowshipped, excommunicated, marked and otherwise marginalized.  God may love a cheerful giver but He is not much for a clear thinker evidently.

When debating Art Mokarow over the issue of creationism vs evolution, his "Oxford trained" side kick on stage blurted out when I was recommending Evolution--What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters,   "I have that book!" I was so tempted to reply, "Well I suggest you actually read it."  However, I restrained myself.  Many have a Bible but few ask much about how it got to be.  The non-Sunday School answer can be pretty darn challenging to one's faith.  Perhaps that is the total reason right there.

He told me I was too dogmatic about the problems in the Bible and too specific, whatever that meant.  I asked him if he was the author of "God's Puzzle Solved?"  He said  yes of course and i noted the words  "Puzzle" and "Solved" are pretty specific and dogmatic.  He said that's not what he meant.  Uh huh.

So, let's try this.  A couple of years ago I wrote a series of articles entitled, "Questions Your Pastor Will Hate."   They can be found here:

Questions Your Pastor Will Hate - The Book - Part One

Questions Your Pastor Will Hate - Part Two

Questions Your Pastor Will Hate - Part Three

Questions Your Pastor Will Hate - Part Four

Questions Your Pastor Will Hate-Part Five


And just for fun and as a bonus....

Why Does the Gospel of Mark Have No Positive Ending and John Has Two?

Now I admit the form was a bit cheeky at times in challenging us to look outside the box or at least how to even notice the Bible has contradictions, but I was processing my own "why was I not taught this?" experience. 

Art Mokarow assured me he had asked himself every one of those questions and that he was able to easily answer them to his satisfaction.  Good, I'm glad.  He had to say that.  It's like the Pope forgiving the guy who shot him.  He has to forgive him!!!!  He's the Pope.  He's a professional forgiver!  In the same way, if one is going to say the Bible is without mistakes or contradictions, one has to get a bit defensive at times, circle the wagons and ultimately feel sorry for the poor slob who even thinks to ask the questions.

So.  Do you even know how to ask questions about the Bible, its purpose, its real authorship, its politics, its errors (real or imagined) its intent?  If you know how to ask the question or what the question even is, why don't you?  Are you going to let others get away with telling you there are no questions or that questions are suspect around here? 

Enjoy the questions. You may or may not like them, but they are oft asked questions, they are not original to me and at least may help one ask enough questions when needed to maybe save them from believing just one too many made up answers that, in fact, are not so.

I think it matters to ask questions when in religion, there can be so much at stake for the questioner.


DenniscDiehl@aol.com  

A Lesson for the Churches of God

A Lesson for the Churches of God

(and all humans)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10084L3Pqsc

Was there ever a time in your past when you wondered what would be going on in the year 2011?  If you speculating as someone then immersed in the 50's or 60's or 70's it would have seemed like a million years away.  If you were a member of the Worldwide Church of God, and could know, the following truths now revealed by then would be as follows.

Surely by then...Jesus will have returned

The Kingdom will be here

I'd be ruling over others  (this one never appealed to me. I wanted to go fishing and be left alone for a few thousand years)

The deaf would hear, the blind would see and the lame man leap as a hart

The Lion and the Lamb would be best buddies

Everyone would going to the Feast and I mean everybody....or else.

Sermons would be given by the real Apostles when God and Jesus were away on business

We would be proven to have been right about everything

Well, maybe not Mr. Waterhouse.....

However and Actually...................................

Jesus did not return

The world grinds on

Herbert Armstrong would be dead for 25 years

Garner Ted Armstrong would be dead

Hermann Hoeh would be dead

Dean Blackwell would be dead

Dibar Apartian would be dead

Stan Radar would be dead

Gerald Waterhouse would be dead

All the youthful Evangelists and ministers would be very old

Your local church will be gone

Ambassador would be gone

Ambassador would be sold to Evangelical Sunday keeping, Christmas Keeping, Easter Celebrating Pagans

The Worldwide Church of God would be keeping Sunday, Christmas, Easter and wallowing in the mysteries of the Trinity

The Worldwide Church of God would have broken up into 700 splinter and sliver churches each being the true one. 

Mr. and Mrs. Ron Weinland would be the Two Witnesses

Twenty one other men would also be the Two Witnesses

Dave Pack would be the only true Apostle heading the only true remnant of the only true church.

Gerald Flurry will have recreated a hologram of Ambassador College and continue to be the reincarnation of HWA, but Dave Pack would be upset about that wanting his own hologram of HWA, WCG and Ambassador College

You would still be sending it in to someone if still unconscious. 

The United Church of God would divide again and again.

The Brotherly Love Church of God will forbid you to talk to your brothers unless they belong to said church.  This is commonly known as Influrryating.

The Living Church of God is dying.

60 years later we'll still be waiting "3-5, no more than 10-15, 20 tops years to go brethren, and I mean it."  

The Big Sandy Egrets will have flown to Oklahoma along with HWA's prayer rock

Few will have ever heard of the Plain Truth

Few will have heard of The Philadelphia  Trumpet

Few will have heard about the Grace Whatever Church of God, formerly known as Prince

Whew, and there is a whole lot more where that all comes from.  

Life, in all it's constructs, hopes, dreams, speculations, mess ups and insanity is one big Mandala.  Crafted over time only to be brushed away to return to it's source as if it never existed.   Or rather, it takes on a different form, rejoins the universe and goes on to be part of the much bigger picture.

And now we know....

DenniscDiehl@aol.com  

What Gives Our Lives Meaning?

What Gives Our Lives Meaning?

One of the downsides, or so I am told, about losing faith in faith is that when you allow that to happen, you lose all meaning in your life.  It doesn't occur to some that it is not meaningful to base a life on something others say is just around the corner, over the next hill or to shortly come to pass and it isn't.  Sincere people who always look to the future for fulfillment and do not live in the present, which is the only real time there is, run the risk of almost having a life, but falling short.

How often in the last 50 years have you and I heard, "Time is short?"   Time can't be short of course, but what that meant was that our time is short or that this time in history is short or mostly that the gap between now and second coming has now grown short and soon it will all be ok.  Of course, "time is short," and "the things which must shortly come to pass," has been 2000 years in the making.  Humans don't see 2000 years as short.  Three to Five seems to be what short means to the piously convicted and  that "almost here" will occur in their short time span of life.  

The Apostle Paul just knew time was short.  He told the single to stay single, the married to think as if they weren't, the young women to think about Jesus and the young men to leave the young women alone.  The problem turns out to be that Paul was very wrong.  Time was not short and once he woke up to that fact, he left the scene bragging how he had kept the faith (the one he made up from his own view of the Cosmic Christ,) and that he had made it big time.   I wonder how many lives and relationships his "time is short" phase ruined?

This was after all, a man who thought marriage was so one could avoid fornication.  I still say Paul was a repressed gay man, but I spare you.

The entire New Testament, mostly written by Paul was very wrong about it's view of meaning.  Meaning in life for the characters in the NT was to make it into the Kingdom.  To hang in there.  Those who asked, "where is the promise of his coming?" were vilified and.  They were the "scoffers" whose end would be very very bad.  I guess it never occurred to anyone they were right.  The price for noticing that time was not short, Jesus had not returned as advertised by Paul and others and people were getting old enough to die in the faith was being told  their god was their belly and their end would be destruction.  Only when or if the Apostle declared that time was not short after all could the lucky brethren say it too. But you didn't think it before the guru gave you permission or he did not get the credit for coming up with it. 

However, the scoffers were correct in their observations. I can't find any apology from the Apostle Paul to the brethren at the end of his life for misleading them or for telling to be and act in ways that were going to cost them big time later as life ground on and Jesus still had not been given permission by God, who only really knew when, to return.  

If only God knows the day and hour, how come so many guys think they do too?  Oh I forgot, of the day an hour knows no man, but that does not mean we can't know the month or year.  Silly me.  

I still am enjoying watching the very Two Witnesses of Revelation, Mr. and Mrs. Ron Weinland (Ron I knew you when you were a kid, what happened to your mind?) come unglued.  Ron can't even get his sound systems to work consistently or his appendix to behave.  How is he going to come to strike the entire earth with fire, plague and fleas? 

 How does the COG manage to give birth to so many odd minister types? 

 I used to swim against Dave Pack. Could never beat the boy so I concentrated on beating my own times in events. What happened to that kid?  Was I really sitting in a hot tub in Chicago in the 70's with the future true and only Apostle of God on Earth and didn't know it?  Naw.....  What happens to people?  And who are the people that follow them and insist on hurting themselves with their continued support of said prophets, priests, apostles and kings?  

So back to the question.  Once you lose faith in the Plain Truth, which really would better to have been called the Present Truth, what meaning can your life possibly have?

The bottom line is that we actually assign our own meanings to life.  We even do that when we think we have found the one true way to be and think Biblically.  We find that for us and assign that as our meaning.  For others, it is meaningless to them.  

This is a very big topic, so I won't pretend to address all it's many aspects.  But I'd like to give one example of how life can have real meaning to any individual who has lost "the big picture,"  "the faith" or finds himself "off track" as we always used to hear when the work of the church was put back on another wrong track.  

Church of God members have been around on so many final gun laps that most have simply run out of  final lap bullets. That's not their fault, nor has it been mine. 

I just want to leave you with a story that spoke to me for some reason.  Maybe it touched the raw nerve of abandonment or resentment gone crazy.  Perhaps it raises the fact for me that I have failed myself in some important areas and let others down in my life.  The story made me feel like anything can be fixed if those who want to wish to.  It touched my "what is the meaning of all these crazy experiences?" button.  It's a Sunday morning. It's very quiet and it's just me and my new dog Chewy sitting here.  Well she is sitting her and it is actually me, not her doing the writing :)  I have eyes full of tears and a heart that just wants to understand what the hell happened over all those years?

So this story gives me meaning.  It must or I would not have reacted to it as I have. Perhaps it will give you some meaning, in the present,  as well...

James 2:15-17: "If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit?  So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead." ...and please, don't someone say, "it only says if they are a brother or sister in the Church...please don't say that...The last phone call I ever got from WCG when asking about retirement etc, the minister on the other end said, "no, but we will be praying for you and wish you the best..."

            "I was day tripping to Vancouver from Seattle 

and stopped in for lunch at a little cafe. 

From my window I saw a young teenage girl out in the cold, 

squatted down in a closed up business's doorway, 

holding a small bundle in her arms. 

She was panhandling, people were mostly walking by ignoring her. 

She looked just broken.
I finished up my meal and went outside,   
went through my wallet and thought I'd give her $5 for some food. 
I got up to her and she was sobbing, 
she looked like she was 14-15. 
And that bundle in her arms was a baby wrapped up. 
 I felt like I just got punched in the chest. 
She looked up putting on a game face and asked for any change, 
I asked her if she'd like some lunch.  
Right next door was a small quick-Trip type grocery store, 
I got a can of formula for the baby (very young, maybe 2-3 months old.), 
and took her back to the cafe though I'd just eaten. 
She was very thankful, got a burger and just inhaled it. 
Got her some pie and ice cream. 
She opened up and we talked. 
She was 15, got pregnant, parents were angry and she was fighting with them. 
She ran away. 
She's been gone almost 1 full year. 
I asked her if she'd like to go home and she got silent. 
I coaxed her, she said her parents wouldn't want her back. 
I coaxed further, she admitted she stole $5,000 in cash from her Dad. 
Turns out $5,000 doesn't last long at all, 
and the streets are tough on a 15 year old. 
Very tough. 
She did want to go back, 
but she was afraid no one wanted her back 
after what she did. 
We talked more, 
I wanted her to use my phone to call home but she wouldn't. 
I told her I'd call and see if her folks wanted to talk to her, 
she hesitated and gave bad excuses but eventually agreed. 
She dialed the number and I took the phone. 
Her Mom picked up and I said hello, 
awkwardly introduced myself and said her daughter would like to speak to her. 
Silence, and I heard crying. 
Gave the phone to the girl and she was just quiet listening to her Mom cry, 
and then said hello. And she cried. 
They talked,  she gave the phone back to me,
I talked to her Mom some more. 
I drove her down to the bus station and bought her a bus ticket home. 
Gave her $100 cash for incidentals, 
and some formula, diapers, wipes, snacks for the road. 
Got to the bus, and she just cried saying thank you over and over. 
I gave her a kiss on the forehead and a hug, kissed her baby, 
and she got on the bus. 
I get a Christmas card every year from her. 
She's 21 now and in college. 
Her name is Makayla and her baby was Joe.

Now let me ask you a question - would you feel like your life has meaning if you could do something like that for another human being?  This person spent a few hours, and a few dollars, and he changed not one but two lives, and probably the lives of her parents as well. 

 
You might be thinking, "How can I possibly duplicate that?" 

 
It would not be that hard to find someone to help. It would give you a good dose of meaning in life...

DenniscDiehl@aol.com 

WeinerDude Weinland - 1/2 of the Witless Witnesses

Poor Ronnie.  He just cannot get any respect!

Weinland and the Jehovah's Witnesses




Another great video of the Witless Witness is this one where he makes death threats against all mockers. I say come and get me big boy! I have already had Neville Stevens COG splinter cult members pronounce a death sentence on me over 10 years ago. I would never live to see a Passover again. I would  struck down on the Night to be Much Observed.

A Warning to Mockers




Why has Armstrongism produced such mind numbingly STUPID idiots like this?

Underground Video of One of Ron Weinland's Women Preachers

Ron Wienland is now ordaining women into the ministry.  Here is a video secretly taped at a recent Weinerdude church service.  Is this The Second Witness preaching?

The End Is Nigh! It's All Theoretical, Of Course....

Those of us lucky enough to be part of the weirdness that was Armstrongism know the hundreds of failed prophecy predictions that HWA, Meredith, Hoeh, Waterhouse, Blackwell, Flurry, Pack, WeinerDude Weinland, and others have uttered over the decades. (For a list of 209 of those failed prophecies check out the side bar under "Links Worth Visiting".)

The LCG splinter cult (Meredith) is looking towards 2012. Chiropractor Bob continues to point out that it cannot happen until 2014 though.  Shame on you Chiropractor Bob for being so rebellious against Lord Meredith's utterances!  For shame!

2012 Find out the TRUTH! Sort out the fact from the hype. Ten world events, aligning with the predictions found in the book 2012 and the Rise of the Secret Sect have come to pass since its publication in September 2009. Find out which prophecies will affect you. Order 2012 and the Rise of the Secret Sect now. This accurate book was written by COGwriter.

WeinerDude Weinland predicted the tribulation was started on December 14, 2008.  I have his book of comedic errors.  For being two years into the tribulation I sure can get into how fun it is!



Geoff Neilson says the tribulation started on March 25 2010. With Jesus returning on September 5, 2013 - all theoretically, of course.  That's Armstrongism's catch phrase on every thing they utter.

Endtime Chronology

1260 Day count: Tribulation theoretically starts

HWA Day 30514,

Endtime Day 33747

25 Mar 2010

10 Nisan 5770

1335 Days end (theoretically)

HWA Day 31774

Day 35007

Feast of Trumpets

5 Sep 2013

1 Tishri 5774

Possible time of the blowing of the 7^th Trumpet,

heralding the arrival of the Messiah.

Now we are blessed with this non-Armstrongite idiot that says the tribulation will start on October 13, 2010.... 

Hat tip to Scotteriology Blog Dumbpocalypse-now