A Reader Responds: "Folks, settle down, (take) some deep breaths, have a 'cuppa' (and) let me disseminate some facts to you."

From a reader on the UCG Budget Cuts thread:

We are being told HOW it is.

What do you think?

Gideon said... 

Reading contributions herein reminds me of the ''good' old WCG days: gossip, backstabbing, slander, church politics, following men + hearing Armstrong over preached + Christ UNDERPREACHED! Wow! You blokes/girls really go at it! It's still as I remember it, paraphrased: "Are you for this minister or THAT minister, GTA or HA?" Law was taught, nothing wrong with that; WEIGHTIER MATTERS OF GOD'S law less preached. Folks, settle down, some deep breaths, have a 'cuppa'let me disseminate some facts to you.

Disclaimer: I'm NOT member of any church, was WCG + attended UCG about one year till 2002. History teaches us: ignoring history's lessons results in repeating errors. History of the sabbath keeping church[es] of God from Dugger down shows the same track record as WCG + others as described by you folk.  Politics, slander, divisions, schisms, enmities are mentioned in the Bible: IN GOD'S Church at that time. Nothing new under the sun. It seems to me that what outwardly appears simple, following two great commandments:[1] Love God with all our spirit, mind, brain + body. ]2]Love neighbour as ourself. Proves in reality very hard for humans to live. My observation/experience in WCG was that brotherly love generally, was lacking; there were some folk living true brotherly love there. Post WCG I learnt that this was an area I was sadly lacking in. UCG, my experience, was a far more 'balanced' church.....

H.Armstrong + Dugger= friction=breakaway..H.A + GTA =friction = splinter..Tkach WCG + Meridith along with several others=LCG PCG/UCG/etc, etc adinfinitum. It's the history of the churches of God. Still it continues! Surely, we may ask this isn't a history of TRUE CHRISTIANITY! Ergo,is this a history of non true Christianity? Or is this a history of GOD'S TRUE CHURCH being divided, weakened, confused + often defeated by Satan + false ministers?

Politics, slander, gossip, adulating men + putting mammon before God Mt. 6:19 -21 + 24. Aren't God's way. Most folk of mature age, who've 'lived' in the 'real' world. Know from experience, as do I. That in NON churches of God as mentioned herein: friction exists, along with all the other baggage + foibles of human nature. Sporting clubs, lodges + charity groups experience the same garbage! True Christians however war against Satan + therefore against our own human nature within ourselves. How Christian, righteous + spiritually sound [or not] any church is depends on its members...Over to you folks!

Craig Winters - Philadelphia Church of God, on What Kind of Shoes Are Proper for Men to Wear

The Philadelphia Church of God has always been know for the leglasitc burdens that it places upon members.  The PCG ministry and leaders regularly invade the personal lives of members to the point they tell them what to wear and what kind of sex is appropriate.

Craig Winters, a Six Pack Flurry lap-poodle has this to say about proper shoes for men.  If I had been sitting in the room that day when he said this I would have went out and bought a pair of these forbidden shoes.  That is what Ambassador students did in Pasadena when Spanky Meredith went apeshit over men wearing pink Izod shirts.  Of course he had to claim pink alligator shirts were a homosexual conspiracy.  Most of the guys in that class went out and bought pink shirts and wore them to class the next tie.

In a Spokesman Club meeting one time, Craig Winters instructed us, "You should not wear slip-on shoes, loafers or penny loafers, and don't wear shoes with tassels. Tie shoes are the shoes that you, as leading men in the church, should wear." We were discouraged from wearing "burgundy shoes" but "black and sometime brown shoes would be okay." Months after this lecture, the local minister and his three sons were all still wearing slip-on" shoes.

ht: SD