Exposing the underbelly of Armstrongism in all of its wacky glory! Nothing you read here is made up. What you read here is the up to date face of Herbert W Armstrong's legacy. It's the gritty and dirty behind the scenes look at Armstrongism as you have never seen it before!
With all the new crazy self-appointed Chief Overseers, Apostles, Prophets, Pharisees, legalists, and outright liars leading various Churches of God today, it is important to hold these agents of deception accountable.
Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web of Corrupt Leaders
Long time 'evangelist' in WCG and later in a splinter group is seriously ill. The outlook is bleak according to other reports. Apartian was put over the French department decades ago. This caused huge issues in various European countries that were French speaking. Apartian was from French Arab stock and was not a true Frenchman for them. Sadly, his son Philip committed suicide on their front lawn in 1983.
AR 24 1983 We are sorry to report the suicide-death of Phillip Apartian, son of Evangelist Dibar Apartian, the head of the WCG's French-language operations. Phillip killed himself on the front lawn of a Pasadena home March 31 after apparently calling the police. As the police arrived on the scene, he shot himself in the chest with a 12-gauge shotgun. Friends say the nineteen-year-old had been suffering from depression.
News this week about Apartian's failing health.
Hello dear family,
I spoke to Shirley Apartian this evening and want to pass on the news about Dibar's health decline while he was in Martinique for the Feast. Shirley was unable to go with him, so his secretary and her mother went to help him, as he has many health issues.
At the last of the Feast he went on a fishing trip with the feastgoers and got very cold. He was never able to get warn after that. Two days later they left, but had a layover in San Juan. There he began to vomit, was shaking with cold, and passed out at the airport, They took him to a hospital and he was put onto a cot hooked up to monitors and basically left uncovered and freezing.
Shirley was called and went down there but was swamped by all sorts of red tape (She says they did not want to let him go, as they smelled money!) Anyway, She finally got him released and hired a stretcher airplane to bring him home.
He is now in hospital in Charlotte, I guess, with pneumonia, heart fibrillation, congestive heart failure , prostatitus, and who knows what else. She says he is so HAPPY to be back home here, and appreciates that he can see friends and family. They plan to put in a heart defibrillator--can't remember the name-- you know what it is. but he is in dire trouble and your prayers for them all would be appreciated.
They are giving antibiotics, of course, but at his age, he might not pull out of this. Doctors call pneumonia "The old person's friend."
Well, he has had a long life of service to God's people, and he says he is ready to go, Life is very hard for him right now due to weakness and prostate trouble. Our prayer is that God will not let him linger in misery but will give him whichever rest is God's will.
One Sabbatharian group that has been in the news a couple of years ago is located in Clarkson, Kentucky. These‘Sabbatharians’ were led by Richard and Laura Dugan. They called their community, ‘Levita Township.’ Religion News Blog
They are/were staunch believers in the doctrines of the old Worldwide Church of God. The very same doctrines Meredith and Flurry screech on and on about keeping faithfully. We have already seen killings in Living Church of God (Meredith) because of the church teachings. How long until someone in Philadelphia Church of God snaps and more 'believers' are killed?
They told me that they were at one time affiliated with the WCG, but broke away in the 1980’s to practice their own doctrines when HWA was beginning to be discredited from within and without. They opted for a stricter approach to spiritual matters than the WCG was espousing at that time–mainly Old Testament rituals and rules, which were scrupulously followed.
[...]
The book The United States and Britain In Prophecy was a constant source for their justification in the plans and operations of the “Township.” HWA was regarded as “A prophet like unto Jeremiah” by the congregation. He was quoted daily, and any occurrence that came close to fulfilling a prophecy of his, his name would be trumpeted around, saying that wasn’t it wonderful that God had chosen such a great and wise man to be His prophet? (paraphrased)
I had been a borderline Christian before moving to their “Township,” called by them “La Vita,” in 2005. As I was a “city boy,” I had to learn the ways of working on a farm with a spread of 400 acres. I was informed of the rules governing the community, about how work had to cease at sundown on Friday and could not commence until Sunday, how the community as a whole had to celebrate the various feasts from the Old Testament, and so on.
Then it was explained that all of the so-called “holidays” that I had celebrated in the past were pagan, and I could no longer participate in them. They told me that if I visited my relatives on a Sunday, that I was engaging in a pagan ritual, because they believed Saturday was the Sabbath. The same with Christmas or Easter, Thanksgiving or New Year’s Eve–all were considered “pagan, sinful, and evil.”
I was told that the leader, a man named Richard Dugan, was a “prophet of God,” and that it was the congregation’s duty to serve him in whatever way he saw fit. As proof of his exalted status, he had two wives, both living with him. There were a few in the congregation that called Richard “Sire” in reference of the claim that he was to be the king whom Christ Himself would appoint, “Who would administer justice in the name of the Lord.”
There was another thing that concerned me, and that was the opposition they expressed toward any state or federal agency. They even said that because Kentucky is a commonwealth, that the state police are not legally police.
- Source: I Got Out While There Was Time Kevin, Exit & Support Network
These cult leaders had numerous run in's with the police. Both were arrested. Richard Dugan later committed suicide.
WBKO, USA
May 2, 2007
Reporter: Lauren Hanson www.wbko.com
Not much is known about the small community of Levita Township, the compound that houses the members of the Sabbatarian church.
The church began in Louisville, Ky. Michael Boutte and his family joined the church when he was around eight-years-old.
He said his leader, Richard Dugan decided to commit suicide on May 1, 2007, after a grand jury indicted him for custodial interference and three counts of terroristic threatening related to a child welfare situation back in December 2006.
Boutte was arrested on May 1, after Dugan’s death. He said he was trying to protect his leader and the church’s way of life.
“The members of the Sabbatarian church have lived in the same spot in Grayson County for the last 13 years,” Boutte explained.
Residents of the community, Levita Township, live by their own code of conduct and they were led by Richard Dugan, the founder of the church until his recent suicide.
“The lord spoke to him in obtuse – well I wouldn’t say obtuse, but odd ways,” Boutte said.
They live without running water or electricity as generators provide heat. Members of this town say it’s not by choice because the town is so far from civilization that a substation would have to be built.
Some members work while others are disabled, so their way of life depends on one thing: sharing everything. They even put all of their earnings together.
“I go without electric, everybody goes without electric,” Boutte explained.
Members don’t celebrate Easter, Christmas, or birthdays.
“We stick by what’s in the Bible – the original holy days that the Israelites kept in Egypt,” Boutte explained.
Twenty-six-year-old Boutte said it’s their unconventional lifestyle that had social services on their property back in December.
Back in December WBKO reported the social worker was trying to take four children into custody after a referral of neglect was issued.
Boutte said Dugan was in foster homes when he was a child and he believes the appearance of a social worker set him off.
“I think it was eleven foster homes and three institutions …” Boutte said Dugan had resided in.
Yesterday, Dugan was indicted by a grand jury on charges of custodial interference and three counts of terroristic threatening and Boutte said that’s what drove Dugan to suicide.
“He wasn’t going to do any harm to anybody else, but it was the fact if they pushed him too much I knew that he was going to shoot himself. He promised they would not pull him out of the car alive,” Boutte explained.
Boutte said he and the other followers were arrested because they were simply trying to protect their leader.
“It looked as if they laid a rifle down in there – we figured sniper. So my mother and I sat on the hood, right in his direct line of sight, so he could not shoot Richard,” Boutte explained.
WBKO, USA
May 2, 2007
Reporter: Sarah Goebel www.wbko.com
The quiet town of Leitchfield, Ky., went back to its normal state on May 2, 2007, after a three-hour standoff left one dead the day before.
Richard Dugan of Clarkson, Ky., is believed to be the leader of a religious group called the Levita Township.
Dugan was at the Grayson County Judicial Building yesterday facing charges on custodial interference and terroristic threatening. He was seated in his car in the health department parking lot across from the judicial building getting ready for court when an officer approached him.
Several of Dugan’s supporters were shielding him from the officers. Officers spent the next two hours trying to convince Dugan to turn himself in. The standoff ended when Dugan shot himself in the head.
Today, we spoke with several people in Leitchfield and they say they’ve never seen anything like this happen in their community.
“We didn’t know what to expect today. So far everything seems okay,” a Shell station worker said.
This is what a typical day in downtown Leitchfield looks like.
“… People in and out getting food and getting them out as quick as we can,” the station worker explained, but this was not the scene the day before.
This Shell station worker wouldn’t show her face on camera fearing retaliation from the Levita Township.
“They’ve been saying they’re going to come to Leitchfield and shoot random people. It’s got a lot of people scared,” the station worker said.
She said she doesn’t know much about this religious group, who many people in Leitchfield refer to as the bus people because they use to live in buses.
“They don’t live out here in Leitchfield. They live in the country somewhere I guess,” the station worker said.
She only knows that several of its members came to Leitchfield and disrupted their normally quiet work day.
“It was chaos,” the station worker said.
She said all of the parking lots downtown including Shell’s were full of people watching in shock.
“Anybody that saw the cops wanted to know what was going on so they just stopped,” the station worker said.
She even stood near a store window and watched as Richard Dugan killed himself.
“We seen the smoldering and we knew he shot himself. We knew the cops either shot him or he shot himself,” the station worker explained.
Five of Dugan’s supporters are in jail today, facing charges of disorderly conduct, hindering apprehension and resisting arrest. They’re scheduled to appear in court on May 3, 2007
Armstrongites always love to boast that they take the Bible literally. The fact is they don't. They lie when they say they do. They pick and choose what they want to do when they want to do it. One year it may mean one thing and the next it is ignored or fluffed off as not relevant.
GTA taught that beating kids was a good thing. Flurry and Meredith also want their members to spank their kids. Meredith in particular, gets off on the spanking bit. When he brags at a feast site several years a go about spanking his current wife, you know something is not quit right in that mind of his.
Today Six Pack Flurry has a post on his Philadelphia Trumpet web site about child discipline. After doing the typical Armstrongite proof-texting of using old testament angry go scenarios he makes the following comment:
"Follow God’s example. Be clear about the rules. Speak only once, and expect your children to obey. Pay attention—and when they deviate off course, don’t make excuses for them. Be consistent about applying the necessary discipline." (Armstrongism translation: "Beat your child when it disobeys") Speak Only Once
Six Pack has also had this to say:
". . . We have always understood in the Church of God, in respect of correcting child behavior, that this means a light instrument which stings when applied but does no physical damage. Mrs. Armstrong used the table-tennis paddle as an example of an implement which will do no harm to a child when applied with care and in love. But even that should never be used till the infant is around two or three years of age. Light, stinging taps first with fingers on the backside of an infant, then, as the child grows, carefully, with the hand, should suffice till then."
"Lesson number one is, teach the child GOVERNMENT! That's where it starts. Who's boss around here? Up to the second or third month, the infant gets what he wants usually when he's good and ready to get it, by simply demanding it! But, comes the time he demands, doesn't get, and reacts angrily! Generally, parents should be able to determine an angry baby's cry. It's time for baby to learn that angry demands are not acceptable."
Royal Vision May/June 2000
ESN had this comment about Sx Packs child rearing techniques:
One former PCG member (12-20-03) described to the police authorities how some congregations in PCG have engaged in so called "screaming sessions" at children. This involves taking a child (who has misbehaved or presumably done something wrong), along with gathering a number of members together, and then sitting the child on a chair in the middle of the room and screaming and yelling at the child for a long period of time. Sometimes these sessions go on for so long that some of the adults have to take a break and then go back to continue it. This is a technique that abusive, totalistic groups have used and is very damaging to any child!
If old Six Pack had his way, his churchs' teachings for methods of child discipline would fall under the arms of the Reconstructionists/Dominionists.
Reconstructionists/Dominionist sincerely preach that stoning of children, gays, adulterers, fornicators, etc is the way to go.
BIBLE REQUIRES DEATH BY STONING FOR 'REBELLIOUS' TEENAGERS, SAYS PA. PREACHER
The Bible mandates death by stoning for rebellious teenagers, according to a Pennsylvania preacher and Religious Right activist.
The Rev. William O. Einwechter's article, "Stoning Disobedient Children," appeared in the January issue of Chalcedon Report, a monthly journal published by the Chalcedon Foundation in Vallecito, Calif.
In the article, Einwechter cites Deuteronomy 21:18-21, which advises parents to take "a stubborn and rebellious son" before city elders to be stoned to death if he will not change his ways.
Einwechter's viewpoint drew criticism from church-state separationists.
"Rev. Einwechter reminds us all of why we need a clear separation between religion and government," said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington, D.C.-based watchdog group. "I doubt if most Americans think we should turn America into a fundamentalist Christian version of Iran."
Einwechter says the death penalty should be applied to "a grown son (and by extension to a daughter as well) who, for whatever reason, has rebelled against the authority of his parents and will not profit from any of their discipline nor obey their voice in any thing."
Writes Einwechter, "[T]he execution of the rebel in view is just, merciful, and preventive. Just, in that the transgressor deserves to die; merciful, in that his quick death prevents the destruction of the family, society, and others; preventive, in that it strikes fear in the heart of other would-be rebels and restrains them from taking a similar ruinous course."
The Chalcedon Report is the leading publication of the "Christian Reconstructionist" movement, the most extreme contingent of the Religious Right. Reconstructionists reject democracy and believe Christians should take "dominion" over American society. Under their version of "biblical law," the death penalty would be required for over a dozen offenses, including adultery, homosexuality, witchcraft and spreading "false" religions.
Although the movement's numbers are relatively small, its ideas have often filtered into other Religious Right groups.
Einwechter, a Mercersburg, Pa., resident, is vice-moderator of the Association of Free Reformed Churches. He also serves as vice president of the National Reform Association, a Pittsburgh-based group that advocates Christianity in government.
For decades we had some numbnuts in Pasadena who actually believed this type of 'child rearing'. They looked forward to the day when the 'kingdom' would get here and they could do this. It was going to be their job and the job of the church (OCG) to root out evil in the people. The best way to root out evil was to kill the person. God did it so why shouldn't they!
Meredithism and Six-Pack Flurryism get rather giddy when it comes to spanking. They both seem to get off on corporal punishment. Of course they get off on it because their little god they find in the Old Testament gets off on killing rebellious people. That's they god they identify with.
Here is The Brick Testament's version of the story:
Kevin, Exit & Support Network
