The Philadelphia Church of God recently ran an article by a young woman from The Compound about how her life was "touched" by a poor beggar boy in South Africa while she and her privileged white family celebrated the Feast of Excessive Spending.
She writes:
That was at a Feast in South Africa in 2005. I was 11 years old and quite selfish, but that incident changed the way I looked at life. Living such rich lifestyles—as we do in America—can make a person begin to feel entitled to things, just like I felt entitled to a bigger, nicer vehicle, but we cannot think that way. It has all been given to us, and it can all be taken away just as easily, especially now in this end time. Mr. Gerald Flurry has even warned us be prepared to lower our standard of living because it is not always going to be rainbows and butterflies like it is now.
Gerald Flurry and other Church of God leaders have been touting Herbert Armstrong's "lower your standard of living" mantra for many decades now. While Flurry, Pack, Thiel, Kubik and others spout the same drivel, they demand that their members continue to send in as much money as possible to keep their rich white lives maintained in their current standard of living. Not once has Gerald Flurry, Dave Pack, Bob Thiel or any of the other so-called leaders ever lowered their standards of living. Herbert Armstrong never set the example for them, so they have no idea how.
UCG and LCG are prime examples of that. Both of these churches were started in order to maintain the current lifestyles of their leaders and ministers. Of them both, UCG was the most flagrant in their desire to maintain their ministerial perks. Knowing that they were to to soon lose their jobs due to the doctrinal changes and the dramatic drop in income to WCG, ministers met and conspired in Kubik's and other ministers homes on campus plotting and scheming on how to take as many members and as much tithe money with them as possible. Their new church they started was not so much over doctrinal changes, as most of them were the major enforcers of Tkach Sr. changes, but was really about the money.
When has Gerald Flurry ever taken a pay cut? When has any of his intermarried family members ever taken away cut? Instead, a million dollar facility is being built so that his grand-kids can practice Irish dance while PCG members struggle to make ends meet.
In the Church, we not only have many physical blessings from God, but we also have His truth and His protection. We have the hope of the World Tomorrow that is coming so soon.
Whenever I feel down and discouraged, I always try to count my blessings. It actually does work! If you are sad like I was, it might be a result of selfishness and ingratitude. You cannot be unhappy if you are truly thankful. If that little boy had the blessings and truth we have, he would never be unthankful.Truth? What truth?
Those "physical blessings" would all dry up the second members stopped sending in their
hard-earned money. God isn't blessing the PCG, members are propping up. If they all stopped sending in money for one month, the entire family enterprise would collapse.
Who in there right mind would want to live in a "world tomorrow" that is managed by PCG tyrants? Imagine what a hellish life it would be with Wayne Turgeon lording himself over you and your family! The lake of fire would start to look like a much better alternative.
As sad as that story is, God made it happen to teach me a lesson about gratitude. And maybe one day in the World Tomorrow, when we are teaching all the people, He will let me scoop that little boy up in my arms, squeeze him tight, and tell him that I love him—that everything is going to be okay, and that there are people out there who want the best for him. I’ll share the hope we have with him. And I will thank him for the valuable, life-changing lesson he taught me about being thankful.For the sake of the world, may the day of PCG's "kingdom" never come!
