Ken Giese: UCG HQ "...demonizing anyone who would question their authority...

AN OPEN LETTER TO MEMBERS AND MINISTERS OF THE UNITED CHURCH OF GOD

November 26, 2010

Dear Friends,

It is with great sadness and grave concern that I write to you all regarding the current crisis gripping the United Church of God. Clearly, we are a house divided against itself and in danger of disintegrating. We have been told that there is a rebellion in our midst, led by wolves who are causing division and seeking to draw brethren to themselves in an effort to “start their own church”. Our current leadership continues to accuse dedicated pastors with decades of faithful service and experience of leading an organized conspiracy, while at the same time, dismissing some 2,000 Latin American brethren and their pastors without due process, demonizing anyone who would question their authority and demanding the support of members and ministers alike despite their egregious misconduct. The income of the United Church of God is dropping precipitously, morale is sinking and we are about to lose what we have all worked together to build under Christ’s direction for fifteen years. Enough is enough.

As many of you know, on November 4, 2010, I resigned from my responsibilities as an employed pastor of two UCG congregations (Reno, NV and Sacramento, CA) due to the fact that I could no longer in good conscience support the actions and decisions of the current Council of Elders majority or their appointed administrators. As I wrote to Dennis Luker and Victor Kubik, despite the fact that I resigned from employment, I wanted to retain my membership in the United Church of God as well as my status as a credentialed elder in UCG in hopes that the current Council of Elders and our administrators would accept responsibility for this debacle and seek reconciliation and peace rather than confrontation and war. Sadly, they have chosen the latter.

As one who has been identified as a wolf who is sowing discord, I would like to set the record straight. The last thing I or any of my fellow elders want to do is leave the United Church of God and start another organization. NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH. We (some current COE members, former administrators, regional pastors, concerned elders and members) have been working diligently behind the scenes to bring the current Council of Elders majority and our administrators to the table for frank discussions on our current state of affairs as well as exploring methods and means whereby we could all work together to bring reconciliation and peace, but our efforts have been consistently rebuffed and ridiculed. We desperately want to remain a part of the United Church of God, but we are being falsely accused and forced out by those who have clearly disqualified themselves as our spiritual leaders.

Therefore, I am calling upon the General Conference of Elders to step up and demand that the current Council of Elders and their appointed administrators be held accountable for bringing the United Church of God to the point of imminent disintegration. I encourage GCE members to fulfill their responsibility as the only “members” of the corporation – The United Church of God, an International Association. I encourage the GCE to call for a special meeting for the purpose of restructuring the organization with new leadership. Our current leaders have proven themselves incapable of correcting the problems that are clearly facing us all.

Please do not let the cries of “foul” deter you from taking these appropriate and necessary steps. If these actions do not take place, the United Church of God has little chance of surviving intact.

In light of my personal circumstances and the fact that roughly one-half of the Sacramento UCG congregation has stopped attending, I feel compelled to offer a place of refuge for myself as well as those members who feel they have been forced out of the United Church of God. At the same time, I would love to remain a member of UCG as well as a credentialed elder in UCG and work with the entire GCE in taking the necessary steps noted above, but I cannot in good conscience do so. Therefore, I hereby resign as a member of the United Church of God and as a member of the General Conference of Elders, effective immediately. This coming Sabbath, November 27th, I plan to meet with other brethren who no longer feel they can affiliate with the United Church of God. My purpose not to start a church . . . I am attempting to provide a place of refuge in hopes that we can eventually return to fellowship in a healthy, vibrant and Godly United Church of God.

May God bless and guide us all in these difficult and challenging times.

Sincerely,

Kenneth Giese

Another UCG Minister Resigns: "...no process of reconcilliation possible..."

Open letter to the Council of Elders and Administration of the United Church of God, An International Association

Bogotá, November 18, 2010

It is with great sadness that I write this letter.

Since June I have been hoping and working for a process of reconciliation for me and the other ministers in Latin America. Mr. Luker’s letter of November 11th to all the Latin American ministers, in which he gives them an ultimatum, finally makes his intentions clear and reveals what the Council really thought of this entire process. That letter has nothing to do with what you, the President of the Church and the Council, had told me and had given me to believe would happen regarding Latin America. In fact, it goes completely against everything we supposedly agreed to during my visit to the home office on September 13-15 of this year.

During the last few months I have tried to honor and respect the letter of appeal that 168 ministers sent to the Council, requesting an opportunity for reconciliation with the ministers and members from Latin America. Their courageous and firm stand was important and significant and it has been constantly on my mind. And before God, with the support of the congregations I have the privilege of serving, we have been seeking a fair opportunity for everyone, but in the end it never came.

While it is true that Mr. Luker did not send that same letter to me, as part of the reconciliation process he and the Council demanded that I submit to Mr. Mario Seiglie and speak with him to resolve the situation. I suddenly find myself in the same situation as on June 23rd of this year when the Council, against all sensible judgment, wisdom, and every ethical principle, sent him as their representative in order to set things straight. The fruit of that decision is plain to see: the Work that God has carried out in Latin America through the United Church of God these past 15 years has been divided and splintered; there is chaos and confusion.

I have great satisfaction before God of having fought with the armor of light. Today I finally know that no process of reconciliation is possible because there is no desire on the part of the Council and the administration for that to occur.

It causes me great pain to have to resign as a minister of the United Church of God. Fifteen years ago it looked like a refuge, a place of peace, a remnant of the Church of God, the “pillar and ground of the truth,” in the midst of the tremendous chaos that existed at that time.
I know for certain that God will have mercy on his people, on the small and the humble, and that he will provide a place where we will be able to “worship him in spirit and in truth.” I hope that he will soon hear our cry and intervene on behalf of his people.

Sincerely,

Eduardo Hernández

The Thanksgiving Dilemma of Armstrongism

 

American Thanksgiving is fast approaching.  A day filled with cool crisp temperatures (usually), football, turkey, stuffing, and other gastronomic wonders.  A day filled with thanks for things seen and unseen and for blessings immeasurable.

It is also a time for certain COG splinter groups to start their anti-Thanksgiving messages which quickly lead to tirades against Christmas and New Years.

Several COGlet splinter cults write all kinds of stupidity about the day.

The Obedient Church of God states:

All the other COGS (Churches of God) have wandered out of the ways of God into the spiritual wilderness of: Darkness, confusion, and the adoption of Pagan ways, including the settler's Corn God Festival, cloaked under the name of thanksgiving. It is the "same" trap of Pagan ways that the original Israelites fell back into, via adding practices to God's Bible, which is exactly what all the COGS including TPM have done.

Some who have left the COG and still hold to Armstrongite mind-speak and have aligned with Messianic Judaism believe this guy:

Why do we need another fall harvest Festival?! God has given us Sucote (Lev. 23:33-44). It seems apparent that to keep Sucote, and then to keep, only 30 or so days later, another harvest day of thanks to God, is not only repetitious but very strange. Thanksgiving Day is an outright copy of Sucote. The Counterfeiter has struck again! Did you ever wonder why the majority of God's People don't keep the days He has designated as holy? The majority are deceived by Satan. The majority also keep Thanksgiving Day. For those of us whom He has called out of Babylon, this ought to be cause for concern. Seed of Abraham

Why is Armstrongism filled with such grumpy sad little people? They are not happy about anything.