"If God Wants You To Be A Doormat, Then Accept It!"

There is a fascinating group on Facebook called Worldwide Church of God I Can't Wait For Sundown and Other WWCG Musings that is filled with people who have escaped Armstrongism.  It is funny, irreverent and filled with some appalling stories.  There was one the other day that struck me as truly appalling.  Appalling that any minister would ever tell a woman such a thing.  It's no wonder people have no respect for the ministry of the Churches of God anymore.  It is from a thread on what caused people to leave the church.

After divorcing my abusive husband I went to the minister (Abner Washington) to become "unbound" so that I could start dating again. He refused to do that and told me that "if God wanted me to be a doormat, then I should accept it." That was the beginning of the end for me.

Sadly, this is not an isolated case in Armstrongism.  It still is happening LCG, UCG, PCG and many of the other splinter groups. Women seem to be mere chattel, to be used and abused, while putting on a happy face all the time.

There have been many women who have had to leave abusive husbands because of the violence, yet COG ministers would tell them to stay because their reward in the Kingdom was far better than the pain. Some of these women ended up being beaten so bad that they were unrecognizable.  Others have been killed.

One of the "churches" in Pasadena was the Imperial Gym. It was run for many years by a man who would have made a great Gestapo agent.  He was a mean, nasty, vindictive man who ruled his congregation with a rod of iron.  No matter how much people complained, WCG kept him there. The ministurd/pasturd told a young woman, who was unmarried and had gotten pregnant, that "...her bastard baby would never be in the Kingdom of God because of her fornication."

The men who plotted and schemed behind the scenes to form new COG's had a golden opportunity to set things right and truly be shepherds that took care of their flocks.  Instead, they continue to support child molesters, rapists, abusers, and others in their ranks instead of caring for the hurt members.  There is a pox on the heads of UCG, COGWA, PCG, LCG and others that continue to allow this.

How The Churches of God Brainwash Members Minds

"Many have been deeply scarred through these diabolical practices 

and misapplications of men.  The brainwashers that occupy these pulpits

 are smart and clever, and they understand human nature.  

They know how to deceive and they know how to destroy.  

There are no words too strong to demonstrate this horrible deception 

used by this self-serving, hierarchical team of spiritual monsters"

There are some great articles on the Wicked Shepherds web site about abuse and control by ministers in churches.  Here is an excerpt from an article that talks about that control.

Brainwashing 101

Brainwashing:  1) any method of controlled systematic indoctrination, especially one based on repetition or confusion; 2) inducing a person to modify their beliefs, attitudes, or behavior by conditioning through various forms of pressure; 3) the ability to apply procedures or methods so as to effect a radical change in the ideas and beliefs of a person.

Because brainwashing is such an invasive form of influence, it requires the complete isolation and dependency of the subject, which is why you mostly hear of brainwashing occurring either in a religious system of some kind or at prison camps.

The agent (the brainwasher) must have complete control over the target. (the brainwashee)  Sound familiar?  Everything pertaining to the targets life depends on the will of the agent. (your spiritual overseer)  Every step the agent takes will result in advancing his own self-centered agenda. 

In the brainwashing process, the agent will systematically break down the target's identity to the point that it doesn't work anymore.

These brainwashers will hone in on a person’s weaknesses by first making their target comfortable, then get personal and confidential information to exploit the person later.  Many “church leaders” for example will project themselves with false humility; posing as spiritual men.  They take the place of the person’s physical father and successfully use this emotional leverage for the deep seated need for approval in order to motivate and control them.

The goal is to make the adult followers as much like their own children as possible.  When people accept this, then they accept human authority in their lives to the point where they are hopelessly dependant on the authority, as children are with their parents.  One technique the “church leader” will used to obtain this type of parental control is to keep them off balance to foster dependency, making it hard for them to make their own decisions.

When this kind of cunning craftiness is plotted to deceive the followers into functioning like children, they become much more manageable, being easily influenced by false doctrines and other tricks of deception.

From here on in, the targets (a.k.a: “church members”) willingly give up their minds and their souls at the institutional church doors; allowing themselves to be induced with the godless spiritual narcotic of "duly authorized rule" slowly and deliberately being administered by their "church overseers and pastors."   Having now been deprived and numbed to any sense of right or wrong, they mindlessly, and without any shame or twinge of conscience, follow and obey everything they are told to do within those institutional walls.

Even if it means destroying your own family "for the higher good," the higher good of course being in conformance to the wishes of your spiritual overseer and his local church.

This is what happens when we follow the ways and the teachings of men.  How many times in the Scriptures have we been warned over, and over, and over again concerning man's ways and traditions; taking heed to what we hear; testing and proving the spirits, etc.  But unfortunately, it is very rare today to see a "Berean". 

Remember that religious brainwashing can be extraordinarily powerful and dangerous to anyone, but especially to those who do not have the ability to withstand the religious pressure.  With this kind of pressure and these kinds of fear tactics, is it any wonder that some Christians don’t think for themselves?

The best thing to do regarding your professing Christian relatives and friends is to realize that, while they are well-meaning in their beliefs, they have been brainwashed.  Brainwashed people cannot see the Truth that is right before their eyes and they will deny facts that do not agree with their beliefs.  Brainwashing causes a disconnect in the mind of the Christian believer between demonstrable reality and religious fantasy.  Reality is filtered out in favor of the religious dogma/fantasy.

Read the rest of the article here:  Brainwashing