Decades back, local congregations
of the Worldwide Church of God had what they called "Directories" of
members. In some areas, they not only had the name, address, telephone
number, family information, they also had pictures. Apparently UCG is wanting to include baptismal dates in these directories too. Some of the members
back then knew and tried to warn people that this was a bad idea because
unintended people may have access to the information and it could end
badly for those so exposed in the directory.
United Church of God
is at it again. Some of the congregations are again putting together a
local church directory with all the information in it. Decades ago some
had questions; today many more are
raised.
Today, an innocent church member can be
at risk from stalkers. Worse, there are identity thieves both in and out
of the Armstrongist Churches of God. This is a very dangerous practice.
It is bad enough to have names and addresses at headquarters or home
office, but this ends up in the hands of the general public.
It
should be added that it is curious that local UCG congregations are
again putting together directories at a time when the Council of Elders
is making it clear they want and need more money for the church. It may
be benign, but there are those who remember the Draconian efforts of
Worldwide attempting to strong arm relatives of members who had died and
the reputation of the leaders and administrators of the Armstrongist
Churches today is less than stellar.
