Silenced has up news today about the PCG ministry in South Africa and how there is documented cases of the PCG stealing money from its members. This is nothing really new in Armstrongism, it has been going on for the last 70 some years. Most of the time it was covertly done and most never knew about it.
A former PCG member is spilling the beans about it all. It occurred at last years Feast of Tabernacles. Church members were told to use the Church "discount" price that the hotel had given them for their hotel rooms. This has been common practice by the COG over the decades in regards to Feast site accommodations. Supposedly the church negotiates with the hotels for lower rates for guaranteed room occupancy. This was all fine and dandy till a SA member found out that the PCG was actually charging the SA members a higher price than the hotel was offering.
In one of his letters the man writes:
Should I keep quiet when I know with all my being that foul play is afoot? We have not been taught to keep quiet. What I have put my faith and energy in for the last 17 years seems to be vanity. The vision of this world being filled with the colleges of God seems to falter with the knowledge and reality of ministers deceiving and robbing God’s people.
What these COG leaders fail to remember is that many members no longer
sit back and let the Church get away with things they normally have over
the decades. With the Internet, people have ways of checking up on the
church.
HWA always claimed the printing press was created for the
express purpose of the COG publishing its materials. In that same vein, the Internet must have been created in order to expose the lies
of Armstrongism.
Silenced writes:
We’ve been hosting a couple letters by former PCG member Alex Foster on behalf of ESN for several weeks, but haven’t gotten around to wading into them. Essentially, PCG ministers stole money
from members in South Africa over last year’s Feast of Tabernacles, a
practice that is apparently rampant across its international operations.
We have insisted since this blog launched that COG cults do this regularly. We
have long claimed these churches add markups to their “discounted”
event deals, which would never be discovered since members most often
book through ministers and other ordained members (or their wives). COG
members have jumped up and down angrily telling us that we’re wrong
about that. This is documented proof that it’s true and likely common –
if it’s happening in Australia, Fiji and South Africa, it’s likely
happening elsewhere — at least within PCG. And to us, there’s no way
other COG groups aren’t doing this. Why wouldn’t they? As Foster points
out, it’s the “perfect money laundering plan.”
Make sure to click on the "letter" links. It will open a pdf of the letter and documentation.
The first letter
describes Foster’s attempts to book a cabana for the FOT at a hotel
called the Seabreeze. PCG tried to get members to book through the
church at “discounted rates” but Foster discovered — through clerical
screwups on PCG’s part — that the cult was charging members more than
its agreement with the Seabreeze. Members directly booking with the
Seabreeze were paying less under its agreement with PCG than members booking directly through officials. PCG was adding a secret markup to the price.
In the
second letter, Foster writes:
He explained to me that because the costs of the
hall etc., in George for the Feast, is normally more than the funds
received from the tithe of the tithe monies, he instructed Mrs. Wakelin
to add R50 per day to the cost of each cabana for the South African
brethren. He told me that they do the same in Australia and in Fiji. He
said that the international brethren which attend the feast in George
are charged an extra R100 per day for their cabana because the exchange
rate for dollars is pretty good, he also said that if a room in the
booked cabana is not occupied an additional R100 would be charged per
room per day, the reason being that brethren must not think that they
can book a cabana only for themselves. This additional money was imposed
on each and every one of those attending the Feast without their
knowledge or consent.
Wow!!!!!!!!! Why not just rent a hall which is affordable?
This is a just a “wonderful” money making scheme which cannot fail. The
perfect money laundering plan. Doesn’t have to be declared etc, etc.
Next year he will probably load the rates by R200.00 per day – gullible,
gullible sheeple, or so he thinks. Well I wouldn’t have known about the blatant theft of God’s peoples 2nd tithe monies if MR
Meaker hadn’t, by mistake, put the original cabana cost document on the
information desk instead of the fraudulently altered one.
