Excerpts from the blog of Alexis Orger, the blog poetic a poet's daily on Group Think

Maybe my disdain for GroupThink is a result of growing up in The Worldwide Church of God  (lovingly referred to as the world wide web by my college friends), when it was still fashionable and lucrative to be cultish. Our edict was to stay away from “the world.” We thought of ourselves as God’s One True Chosen People and the rest of the world as “the world.” We were encouraged to have no friends in the world. Dating in the world was frowned upon. Dating in general was frowned upon. I had lots of sleepovers with church girls.

There were times as a congregant of the WWCG that I’d walk into our ramshackle church building–sometimes a rented mint green bingo hall, sometimes a Woodmen of the World Insurance building–and the GroupThink energy would almost literally blind me. I’d spend half of a church service sitting out in the car, fending off an impending migraine.

======

Or maybe it’s being a writer that made me hate GroupThink. Or maybe my hatred of GroupThink made me a writer. Writing is the same as swimming. You do it. You have friends who do it. You admire many of your friends’ skill and passion. You get together a few times a year to get drunk with congratulations (literally drunk and congratulating each other). You go back to your life, which generally consists of many hours of solitary sitting and thinking. Phone calls here and there. You go to coffee shops to write where there are plenty of strangers, many of whom you like to talk to. You love city streets and parks where packs of dogs play. You love the chance encounter. But then you really love that when it’s time to part ways, nobody’s asking you to mobilize anything, or to congregate, or to create a supportive network of such-and-such.

And yet, GroupThinkers have been known to accomplish great things. Aside from killing Jews, raising Inquisitions, championing unchecked capitalism, and plotting the deaths of every citizen of the West, GroupThink also saves baby seals, bans shark fin soup, organizes revolts and protests, gives people purpose, makes people feel less alone…

It's Still "Us vs. Them" At COG Feast Sites

It is that time of year again when families in the COG travel all over the world for family reunions at different Festival sites.  New friends are made and old acquaintances rekindled.  That is of course unless you are part of these two COG splinter groups who carry on with their same old exclusivity on determining who is in and who is out.

The first is from Dennis in a comment on another thread concerning Living Church of God's treatment of people:

Just sharing a current FOT family experience: Sister, whose husband now deceased, was full time WCG minister, and nephew were going to spend half a feast this year with LCG in Cobbleskill NY. My nephew, formerly of UCG was sent a message that he could not attend until he talked to the Minister in charge of the site Mr.______ _______. Sooooo he and my widowed COG sister decided to screw it and go see family. Nice going LCG!!! Go ye therefore.....

Ans this one is from a report by person who visited Glendora on their way up to another COG site here in CA.  WCG?GCI has allowed for a regular Feast site to be held in Monrovia this year. 

We stopped by to visit with some old friends before heading up to Monterrey for the COGWA Feast.  We also wanted to see what WCG was up to these days.  The WCG site had around 40-50 in attendance.  I was shocked at how small the attendance was.  As far as I know the WCG no longer even does the cruises because I could not find anything online about their sites this year.  The Monrovia site is headed up by Carlton Smith.  Most of the people in attendance believe the Feast still should be kept on the regular days.

Smith was railing against adulterers, gays, abortionists, fornicators and other types of people that obviously irritate him. The godless people are destroying this world.  Smith also said that the Holy Spirit was present only for those people in the room.  I guess all other COG members not there are without hope. 

We had a sermon by the former Auditorium manager talking about pure religion and how a local industry made up of ex-gang members exemplifies that.   Kind of weird considering how Smith thinks no one outside the COG has God working through them.

What I found disturbing was the same old exclusive attitude that has always permeated Armstrongism was still present in the "new and improved" WCG.   It was "us vs them." Those that were in the know and those who were not.  Those called of God and those who are not. Those in and those out.  I would have thought WCG had progressed a little farther than this tired worn out mentality!  That exclusivity that Herbert Armstrong taught still has not been eradicated.  Both LCG and WCG have practiced this past week. 

Why doesn't Smith to the right thing and take all 50 members out for a work day and serve in a homeless shelter during the Feast.  That might actually be something considered Christian for once!

  I am sure there are other horror stories from the groups.  Lets see how many are reported.

If Your _____Church of God Sounds Like an Interstate Trucking Company Beware

I don't know why but this picture just cannot be taken seriously!  There is something really wrong with it!

But I digress -

There is a great Facebook page that takes on Armstrongism.  It is by Mark Lax, a person I have not heard from in a while.  He has some great article son Armstrongism in the past.

His favorite target in the article is David Pack.  Lax does not leave many stones unturned concerning Pack.

Check out his page here:  David Pack Internet Cult Guru

I consider cults to be a confidence game. This is not my general stance on religion, organized or otherwise. The single aspect that distinguishes a cult from a religion is that cults exist purely to make money. It is a no inventory money making scheme.

Most cults represent themselves as Christian congregations, often hiding behind names with the words ‘ecumenical’, ‘whole bible’, ‘community’, ‘congregational’ or ‘Baptist’ in their titles. These words can signify that the church is a one man show with no oversight as to doctrine or finances.

======

It’s a death cult. It’s an end of the world sect. Outside of the United Church of God (*1), all of these groups are sole proprietorships, accountable to no one but their operators. There are over 400 of these churches, all with some internet presence. With probably fifty paying members, David Pack’s Restored Church of God is a middleweight in this rather crowded field.

Most of these churches, including Pack’s and the United Church of God are split offs from Herbert W. Armstrong’s Worldwide Church of God (previously known as the Radio Church of God.) Pack’s choice of the word ‘Restored’ has little to do with his activities and more to do with making the initials of his church RCoG, which is what the original Radio Church of God was known by. Initials are weirdly important in the Church of God movement.

=======

My rule of thumb is that the more whatever is before or after the words ‘Church of God’ sounds like the name of an interstate trucking firm, the more certain you can be that it is Armstrongist. Although using many Christian terms and co-opting a generic Baptist name, Armstrongism is neither Christian nor Baptist. The teachings of Jesus are entirely irrelevant to the faith and the character of Jesus has been replaced by Lovecraft’s Cthulhu—although not literally. It seems both Lovecraft and Armstrong had the same ideas about powerful entities.

======

Herbert W. Armstrong preached that the end of the world was immediately at hand for over fifty years. That was his drawing card, but only the tip of the iceberg when it came to his teachings. Most Churches of God recycle Armstrong’s teachings while avoiding reiteration of his specific prophesies.

With good reason. Armstrong's predictions were comically wrong.

Armstrong has been dead for a very long time at this point. There is no longer any real governing body to the Churches of God anymore. The current crop of Churches of God make eclectic use of Armstrong’s works.

Armstrong himself was very much a cult leader and the other Churches of God are set up to follow his floor-plan. It’s had a fairly nice long run, as is. Pack’s innovations on the basic design are more a matter of his own circumstances than any real desire to change the religion. Since few of you are likely to be familiar with either the basic design or Pack’s variations, I will lightly touch on both.

1. The leader of the church (called Pastor General or Apostle or Witness) has earned his position through the possession of amazing magic powers. Powers typically claimed include:

A. The ability to predict the future.

B. The ability to detect signs within current events as they relate to a timeline in bible prophesy. The timeline is done in terms of church eras, leading to the current Philadelphia era. Most sects will have to come up with their own timeline. Armstrong’s first timeline ended with WWII being the start of the Great Tribulation. His other timeline ended in the early 1970s, after which he abandoned the entire timeline idea altogether. It is a big draw, however and every cult leader needs his own.


C. The ability to project an aura of protection from disease and misfortune. All continued good health of the flock is dependent upon this aura radiating from the leader. All increased fortune is attributed to this aura and should be paid for through first fruit offerings.

D. The ability to cast out demons. Demons consider the proto-elect (flock members) very special bon bons and are always trying to fill their minds with bad attitudes. Demons are also the cause of disease and misfortune. If disease or misfortune or a bad attitude persist after having been cast out by the leader, it is a sign that the follower is defective (not actually a proto-elect after all, but perhaps a fringer.)(*2)

E. Uncommon wisdom comprehensively covering all social and consumer transactions. Primarily this means having an opinion on everything. A firm answer is often more inspired than a sound one. (Avoid math and tax law questions.) Be glib, if you can. Be smug, if you can’t. Any question can be answered by rebuking the follower for their carnal. worldly minds. If you do not have the answer, the question must be wrong.

F. Additive powers may include claiming a special relationship with Herbert W. Armstrong, claiming that you are the reincarnation of a biblical figure or claiming to have inside information from Jesus himself. Go easy on the Jesus thing. In Armstrongism, Jesus and the Holy Ghost are the same thing--and only a dotted line management level between Armstrong and the Great God.

David Pack does all of the above, although he is a little light on A and B. Like many leaders in it for the long haul, he reiterates those teachings that Armstrong didn’t contradict by both example and edict (Armstrong contradicted all of his own teachings by either example or edict.) Pack is one of the youngest cult leaders to have actually been ordained by Herbert W. Armstrong directly. His first wife worked as Herbert W. Armstrong’s secretary for a time, so Pack can claim some knowledge of his master’s inner workings. To hear Pack tell it, he had many phone conversations with Armstrong over the years. Pack main magic powers are C and E. (He actually is very glib.) As a unique but unspecified additive, Pack claims to be a ‘God-called’ preacher. He is the spiritual advisor of the two witnesses of Revelation, who are (unnamed) members of his flock. And he’s an Apostle.

There is a whole lot more here to read:   David Pack Internet Cult Guru