Which Philosopher Do You Identify With?

Which Philosopher Do You Identify With?
(Herbert Armstrong does not count)

Most COG members have no idea who the great philosophers of the world are/were or what they thought.  Their way of interpreting things in the world around them have an impact on how we think today, in spite of the baloney the COG has denigrate them with over the years.

Take this test and see which philosopher you most identify with:

Which famous philosopher do you most agree with? SelectSmart.com Selector Quiz

These are my results:

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.

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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.