Book On Life In Armstrongism: FAITH, by Mary Ellen Humphrey

The Painful Truth is running a series of excerpts from Mary Ellen Humphrey's book based on her life in Armstrongism.

Amazon has this to say about her book:

Publication Date: October 2, 2008

In the 1970's three young girls become best friends when they are drawn into a fundamentalist church which promises them safety, love and salvation. They discover that membership comes with a price when they must forsake their families and give up all that is important to them. This is the story of their spiritual journey through several years in this group and the experiences that challenge their endurance and their faith.

Here are a couple of selections from the Painful Truth blog.  Check it our for more selections and further updates.

From her school bag she pulled out a small travel
case. Inside she kept her makeup. Her mother had
almost found it last week when she started rummaging in
the bag looking for Faith’s lunch container. Faith knew her
mother would have punished her severely if she found the
makeup. It was forbidden for women to wear any makeup
in God’s True Church. The worst punishment would be
her parent’s disappointment, and that was Faith’s greatest
fear. She didn’t want to let them down. But they didn’t have to go
to school, and if they did, she knew they’d understand why she broke the rules just a little.
She applied some pink lipstick, blue eye shadow and
mascara. She untied the tidy black velvet bow holding her
hair in a ponytail and let her straight strawberry blond hair
flow along her shoulders.
I’m not as strong as the other church girls are, Faith
thought. They think I’m strong. They assume I am because
Mom and Dad are so deeply converted. But I’m not.

------------------------

They walked while holding hands. Faith loved this
new feeling—this friendship feeling was like none she’d
ever experienced. Often she would date older men in the
church, but none of them ever made her feel this way or
this happy. “Do you know what you are doing after
graduation?” Billy asked.
“I’m not sure,” Faith answered carefully. “College
probably. My parents want me to go to the school they
both attended in California.” She didn’t tell Billy that it
was a religious college run by God’s True Church,
designed to prepare young people for roles in the ministry.
Males were to become ministers. Females were to
become help-mates and proper minister’s wives.
“Why so far away?” he asked somberly.
“Well, I’m not sure yet that I’m going,” Faith
answered. “It’s a pretty choosy college. Not everyone
gets in, and they don’t decide until July.”
“Do you want to go there?”
“It’s an honor if I’m chosen. And my folks will be very
pleased.” Faith answered.
“You didn’t answer my question. Do YOU want to
go?”

Dennis On: "It's Just A Story...Remember-Repeat-React-Resist

It's Just a Story...

Remember-Repeat-React-Resist is Not the Way

The experiences in all our lives is just a story.  With a little change here or there, a look, a wave a mistake or an event outside of our control, every story changes.  

When I was 14 I wanted to go see my sister in Idaho.  I was in NY.  Shortly after getting the airline ticket, the airlines went on strike.  Guess that idea was on hold and school started soon.  Then I saw a train and wondered if I could take a train.  So I did.  It was there at 14 I found them reading the Plain Truth.  Being weird and curious I devoured everything they had.  I went to church with them. I heard a good sermon for a change...and the rest is part of my story in life.  Had I not taken that train, the story would have been different for years to come.

I postponed a flight once just for a day and didn't die on Big Bear Mountain in Duarte, California

 

I waved at somone once across a parking lot and the story swerved and changed.

I got several times where that story would play a part in more stories years later

I made a phone call or two in life that changed the whole story again.

While that story unfolded, the stories of others unfolded around me and those stories began to affect my story.  Various people came and went in and out of my story and the story kept turning into another one and not the original story I had envisioned for myself.  Finally the stories of others pretty much ruined my original story and a dramatically new story, yet just another story, came into my life to play out.  That story changed too into yet another and another and another. 

Everyone has a story to tell and yet one of the real skills in life is not to identify too much with the ever changing story  of one's life.  If it was not one story, it would have been another complete and replete with different characters, experiences, offspring, relationships, drama and outcomes.  Yet in it all, it is still just a story.  

Eventually, if we are lucky and live long enough to accumulate stories, we begin to look back and remember, repeat, react and resist the stories that were burned much more deeply into our memories and self more than others.  These are stories that leave deep impressions on us, have hurt us deeply or put us in situations where we had to come up with yet another story to fix or at least learn to accept the consequences of the last story.  Yet again, it is all just another story.

I don't believe we here have to speak in code.  The WCG story, which for whatever reasons, we allowed into our lives and become a major player in our own personal life story , has left some pretty big scars, lessons and , if we are not present in the moment of our current life story, can easily put us all back into the ever looping cycle of remember, repeat, react and resist.  What we resist persists as far as I can tell.   

In other words, we get stuck. 

Personally, and in the context of my own story, I am not confident of what may be really true and what is not.  Well meaning friends or readers sometimes will try to explain it to me or sometimes we all endeavor to explain it to  each other, but I don't ever see myself or others finding much encouragement in the stories and conclusions of others in their stories.  I'm thinking we each have our own unique story, experiences and such to learn our own life lessons.  It is why we find so little success in using our own stories to influence the story of others.  It's certainly why we see little "success" in bringing one sitting in their own story to "their senses" and filter their lives through the opinions, views, truths and discoveries of our own stories.  Simply put, it is why few change much from their own story to ours, yours or mine.  

I have noted that one of the reasons, if not the main reason, people of all kinds of faiths and beliefs don't easily give them up is that they/we adopt our beliefs to protect us from the fear we have of death.  All religion is born out of this fear and conscious awareness that we only seem to have that we will go through the cycle, no exceptions, of "Not here---Now here---No longer here" whether we like it or not.  The Apostle Paul, in his-story, for a time thought that others would die in the faith, but of course, WE who will be alive shall be changed.  Bzzzzzzzzz..thanks for playing Paul, but you got that wrong didn't you.  

Ministers give sermons every week and tell stories.  Ministers are story tellers and because of our story, we get to have access to some pretty amazing stories that are spun and woven every week called sermons in the COGs.  Ron Weinland spins a tale, as if he really knew, and draws people into his story.  Dave Pack has a story to tell as does Gerald Flurry, Rod Meredith, Joe Tkach Jr and hundreds of others, all competing to include others and even sometimes each others audiences in their story.  The real trick is to tell a story so compelling or in such a way as to seem to be the "True Story of the True Church," that others drop their current story, include them in yet another story of their lives and give up their resources to perpetuate the story.  All this is designed to alleviate the fear of death and , of course, to give meaning to all the previous stories no matter how crazy they were.  

Most of us here have dropped out of the previous story and gone on to create new ones.  In many ways, the old story infects our new one.  It keeps coming up and I imagine most of us think about it in some form or another every day. And of course, doing so, pushes our own new story this way and that affecting our present lives.  We remember, repeat, react and resist a bit and get a bit screwed up, if just for a moment, in our present moments.  

But no matter the story each human being finds themselves acting out, all stories tend to teach us the same lessons.  It seems not to matter how we learn but that we learn the real truths of life that will serve us well and give us peace.  Because when it is all said and done, all I ever wanted to have and teach was peace, kindness, compassion and the kind of love which passes all understanding.  I can't say I have that kind of love and part of the reason is that , like most humans, I get stuck in the story and it impedes the progress I envision as being more meaningful than how I learned it.

So, I can't speak for anyone but me, but here is a sample of what the story of my journey into, with and out of the WCG has left me with.  They are in no particular order nor will I classify them as the bad things, the good things or the in between.  Of course I could make up a list of really negative ones like, "never trust anyone,"  "everything is bullshit," or "everyone is a liar (except me) and just out to screw you out of your mind, money and moments,"  but those aren't so much lessons as results of a perceived bad experience which was painful.  I suppose when we use the words, "everyone, everything, never and always," it is the pain speaking (painbody:) and not our genuine self.

So here are the biggies I learned up to this present time as a result of my personal story as connected and played out as a minister in WCG.

I had to resign as Master of My Universe, and admit that we actually control very little in life.

The story of others can infect my story and change my own story.

I don't have to allow the story of others to become my story but in not allowing that, I also change my own story 

We really are all small conscious parts of the same one big thing and we are all equal in it. 

I was/am responsible for my conscious and unconscious thoughts, actions, perceptions and views and that anyone of these can dramatically change my story whether I like it or not.

I chose to include WCG in my story.

I chose to want to be in the ministry of WCG aware or not aware of what may lie ahead. 

Life is not fair nor are humans who play a part in your story.

Good mental health depends on the ability to tell the story yet remember that is all it is. 

I am not my story.  I do not define myself by my story.  I cannot allow the story to define me.  

The only moment we really have is this moment.  The story is in my head and exists nowhere else.

Anger and depression lies in reliving the story or refusing to remember it could have been so many other stories.

Anxiety lies in using the story to create fear over what will happen in the future when no one on earth knows what will happen in the future.  (Sorry Dr. Bob and company)

One needs not to judge the goodness or badness of a story.  Good stories can lead to bad ones and bad stories can play out into very good ones.  Be careful what you wish for applies here. 

All suffering that comes from the story is the direct result of non-acceptance that the story happened. 

Clinging to a particular story keeps me stuck and living anywhere but the present

Sharing a story can help others with their own story

Sharing a story can be of little help to others with their own story

Pious conviction with marginal information is not good enough for me

Seeking may be more satisfying than finding

Once one finds a new story, it starts to change into another one

A

Some stories I wish I never read or heard of

I look forward to the stories that have yet to play out or I have never read or heard of yet

Realizing that I neither need to forgive anymore or require forgiveness is liberating

Never take anything personally as the reactions of others are based on their own perceptions of their own story

I spoke my truth as I understood it in the past and speak it today as the story has changed

Present truth is neither plain nor simple or set in stone

There never was nor ever will be one True Church or human beings who are more chosen than others

Any Deity who is omniscient and all knowing will completely understand my story and why I am who and what I am at this point in time.

That Deity will not judge me for my story that is different from all others as they are from mine and even HIS.

I did my best or I would have done better back then.

How about you......?  What life lessons has your story as reflected in your Church experience left you with?


Dennis C. Diehl
DenniscDiehl@aol.com

More Tales From The Darkside: William Behrer Eye Anointings!

Here we go again with the eye anointings at Apostle Davie's Restored Church of God.  Our latest "minister"is William Behrer. He had his eye anointing and has now seen the light.

When my wife, Jackie, and I anointed our eyes (Rev. 3:18) we were living in northwest Connecticut. In addition to my five-hour daily commute to NYC via car and train, we traveled two hours to attend a United Church of God (UCG) congregation in Worcester, MA. My wife and I were both baptized into God’s Church (WCG) in the early 1970s and we attended the Worldwide Church of God until February 1994. I was ordained as a deacon in 1985 and as a local church elder in 1987.

Of course, like Schurter and Vidal this story is all about him. William and RCG's PR Department want to make sure you know that only the world's most important men are joining the most important and worlds largest end times ministry. These men have to come with huge qualifications in order to make it into Davie's spotlight.

My name is William Behrer, and I have been serving as the executive director of operations at The Restored Church of God Headquarters in Wadsworth, OH. My previous employment was as the chief operating officer of an international non-profit organization in New York City, dedicated to strengthening ties between the people of the United States and Israel. My first trip to Jerusalem was through my work with the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation (AICF) and the International Cultural Center for Youth in Jerusalem (ICCY), an endeavor dear to Mr. Armstrong. I have been to Israel 40 times, most recently introducing Mr. Pack and others to senior government officials.

Oooooooooh impressive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

William then gets right into the gist of his letter.  Attacking the United Church of God.  It's all UCG's fault that he had to leave and join the RCG.  It seems that William was really upset that UCG had married a young man from UCG to his Roman Catholic fiancee!  The Great Whore of Babylon was infiltrating the church!  It was time to flee!

What finally got my attention was a young man from our congregation calling me from ABC (UCG’s Bible learning center). He said that he had been advised by a teacher to marry in the church—“if” he could find someone. What?! I participated in this young man’s baptismal counseling and covered this point clearly with him, i.e., that we should not marry outside God’s Church (I Cor. 6:14-18). He was confused by the counsel he had been given by his “teacher” and his statement hit me like cold water in the face. I began to see how “lukewarm” I personally had become regarding the Truth, standards and traditions God restored to the Church through Mr. Armstrong (Rev. 3:16-17). Shortly after this phone call, I saw the error of this “teaching” demonstrated when the local pastor consented to perform a marriage between a UCG member (man) and his Roman Catholic fiancée! Though my wife and I received an invitation to the wedding, we could not tacitly approve such disregard of Scripture by our attendance. When I later asked the pastor why he performed this marriage he said, “Well, they were going to get married anyway.”

William's wife then immediately started looking for another "true church" to attend.  That lead them to Davie Pack and his little 2,200 member cult.  William was at first blinded by the Internet blogs and web sites that were making fun of Davie.  William was a little confused and he wants to make sure you are not confused now by this little blog and the other blogs and web sites that ridicule and expose the lies of Davie Pack and the Restored Church of God.  William writes:

My wife began to look for God’s Church because we knew it had to exist somewhere—somewhere else (Matt. 16:18). To my deep regret, in 1999 and early 2000, I had allowed the stories and avalanche of lies promulgated about Mr. Pack to keep me from seriously considering The Restored Church of God (RCG). I urge you not to make the same mistake. Do not let the several self-appointed Internet “watchdogs” (of varying perspectives) who espouse hatred, venom and disregard for the Truth to keep you from looking into RCG.

Brethren, do not let the stories you have heard or things you have allowed yourself to read on the Internet—about Mr. Pack, Mr. Schurter and others—keep YOU from investigating for YOURSELF as to where God is working today (Ezek. 14:14, 20). Examine fruits (Matt 7:20)—not accounts from others.

William and Davie Pack are not happy that this blog and others are mocking their "anointing eyes" malarkey.  William has this to say:

Anointing your eyes is NOT simply reading a book, and it is not a mantra from Mr. Pack as “watchdogs” accuse. It is an overt biblical command from Jesus Christ (Rev 3:18). It is a process that all those in the seventh era of God’s Church must undertake! Again, so says Christ. I had to come to understand that I was a branch cut off from the Vine, and to repent of thinking that I wasn’t. Though I still had a small dwindling amount of the Holy Spirit, like all in the seventh era of God’s Church, I had become blind to my spiritual condition. I needed to anoint my eyes, as Christ commands all in the Laodicean era to do (Rev. 3:17-20). It was the knock of Jesus Christ—NOT MR. PACK—that my wife and I heard. Open your ears to hear if He is “knocking” at your door.

William, I hate to tell you but there is another ministry that is "Knocking" and it is NOT the RCG.  Though it is a fraud just like RCG.

William goes on to write about the world's most amazing Church of God:

The Restored Church of God does not claim to be the only place where people have God’s Spirit. But RCG is the only place where Christ is working, through the government in which He is Head. Many in the organizations of the seventh era (the Church [ecclesia] of Laodicea, composed of “called out ones”) DO have the Holy Spirit—and that is the reason for the urgency of our message! Christ is standing outside and knocking on the doors of individuals who are sitting in organizations HE DOES NOT LEAD. He is not the Head of your organization, else He is divided, no matter how your leaders spin this. In Laodicea, the people rule, not Christ!

Not once in Williams story or in Schurter's and Vidal's, have they talked about the new amazing life in Christ.  They never talk about the things Jesus did or what he accomplished.  It's all about Davie, the RCG, church government and law and law and law and law and law and law.


William then goes on to list several sins that are in all the other COG's (partucarly UCG).

Some of the egregious sins are:

Rejection of the government of God as Mr. Armstrong taught it—every aspect of it.

Use of makeup is permitted, even though Mr. Armstrong said time and again this is the very thing that permits the devil to get a toehold in the Church.

Members in some groups no longer have the responsibility to keep third tithe (denying them the blessings promised by God – Deut. 14:28-29), and instead are encouraged to depend on social security and other government aid to care for widows, orphans and others in need.

Most physical standards from the past have been thrown out—proper hair length (men and women), proper dress, Sabbath or otherwise (men and women). If your congregation is a little closer to “Ambassador” standards, but others are not, how is that “all speaking the same thing” (I Cor. 1:10)?

Voting is permitted in a host of settings

An “open door policy” now exists 

allow birthday celebrations, a wide liberalizing of how the Sabbath is observed, as well as Sabbath attendance, 

allow true ministers to retire (being temporarily or permanently forced aside by bad health is different), with the church (really the brethren) giving them a pension to do nothing.    

But there are two really important sins that they are committing:

 Assistance to worldly relief organizations in times of disaster is encouraged—instead of following the clear command of Christ to care for the brethren (Matt. 25:40).
   

The injection of the Person of Christ into the gospel. 

How dare these people bring Jesus into the picture!  Damn them!  Everyone True Christian knows Jesus is a long haired pussy boy and has nothing of value.  Their standard is Herbert W Armstrong and Davie Pack who carry on the Restored Gospel!  Enough of that wimpy Jesus crap!

In light of that, William closes his missive with the following quote from Jesus, sorry Christ, sorry,  Herbert W Armstrong:

Finally, I leave you with a quote from Mr. Armstrong, from the October 1962 Good News article “Must God’s Ministers Be Ordained by the Hand of Man?”

“The Word of God clearly teaches us that there is but the one Spirit, and the one Body. (I Cor. 12:12-13, 20.)” 

“That one body of Christ, carrying on His work, must function as a unit. It must work in harmony and unity, with teamwork, for God is not the author of confusion. There must be no pulling off in different directions by different men in that one Body. There must be no competition, or division. And any who knowingly promotes, or encourages anyone in promoting, such disharmony, competition, and division, becomes the enemy of God, and is serving the devil and not God! 

“In order that this oneness—this unity of purpose and action—this harmony and co-operative teamwork, be maintained and preserved in God’s work, God has ordained government in His Church. And He has empowered His Church with divine authority. 

“That government in God’s Church is government from God, thru Christ, thru apostles, thru evangelists, thru pastors, thru other elders, in that order!”

Did Mr. Armstrong’s statements apply only to his time? Or are they timeless, and applicable today?

You can read Williams entire missive here:  Don’t Allow Others To Do Your Thinking