Voices In Her Head

Our conservative COGer buddies on Yahoo are always entertaining.  They had this little bit tonight about that magical god that stops nasty little kids from splashing water on the godly COGers:

Some Church of God people were spending a weekend at the Beach, After Sunset Saturday night with a near full Moon, they decide to walk to the beach, passing a wooden skate ring, a 14 year old girl goes running around in it. Hearing a loud BANG, we all turn our torches on. This girl was crouched with her knees bent; we see this big hole behind her, with 6” x 4” wooden joists crisscrossing it. With her being only inches away from death or major harm. We all said. “You were lucky you never jumped into this dark bit.”

She replied. “I thought it was a puddle of water and I did a big jump to splash you all, then I heard this load voice in my brain, “Do not jump in the black bit.” So I lifted up my legs and just managed to land heavily on the bit with the moon shining on it.”

The next day with the sun up we had another look. We all agreed that this should have been, more the likely death.

We were very thankful for this protection. 

UCG First COG to Admit There Are Rampant Mental Health Problems With Its Members?

UCG is the first COG I have seen to openly admit that there are serious mental health issues with it's members.  I think that is a good thing to admit that its members are just like the rest of the society instead of being a  "special called out group" who is immune to life issues.  You will never see Davie Pack or Gerald Flurry's cults ever admit such a thing.  "True COG members can never have mental health issues because they are True followers of God."

Mental health issues have been a tremendous problem in Armstrongism over the decades and it was always swept under the carpet.  If the Church had met those issues head on we would not have the rampant alcoholism problem plaguing ALL of the COG's today.  We would not have the rapists, stalkers, child molesters, murders and suicides that have plagued the Church.

When a person grows up in a sect that isolates it's self from society, imposes strict rules and regulations, demands high use of members time, prohibits everything under the sun it starts to mess with peoples minds.  You hear the same familiar strain over the decades.  "If only I can graduate from High School," followed by "If only I could graduate from college," then "If only I could get married before the end times," "If only I I could have kids before we have to flee," "If only we could have our first home a few years before we have to sell it for the final push."  The list could go on and on.

There is even more anxiety if you are a rebel rouser and make waves.  Your eternal salvation is at risk if the Church kicks you out and disfellowships you. Being marked and shunned was equivalent to a death.

We are placing more focus on educational issues such as addictions, anxieties, self-injury, depression, abuse and other relevant maladies that afflict many in our congregations.
We would like to form a team of “experts” who might be able to write or bring presentations to educate others on the seriousness of abnormal behavior. With that knowledge our brethren will be able to get the affected person the necessary help and encouragement needed to overcome one’s difficulties.
If you have special skills or have experience in focused education issues, please send me an e-mail explaining your credentials. Once I have that information, we will form a team who will be able to write and/or present relevant information for the edification of the brethren.

Much remains to be seen how this "new" focus of UCG will accomplish. As it attempts to break all ties from the past will they eventually dump Armstrongism?

With UCG's income down it has decided to put the brakes on the proposed new facility in Cincinnati. That is unless the Council of Elders decide to be idiots and build it anyway.  That is how so much of Armstrongism operates anymore.

We have received many responses to our building proposal survey. Most responses have been positive, to step out on faith, but with concerns about financing so much of it. The members responding mention they are glad to be included in this decision. We are family and this exercise has helped to increase unity.  Although the determination will be up to the Council of Elders, with the needs of our church areas and members, I don’t see at the present time how we as an administration would suggest adding this expansion into the upcoming budget. That being said, I believe we should have a contingency that would allow us to move forward with building it IF our Texas property sells or enough money is raised during the year to make it viable. We want what is best for the church, as God shows us, and at the moment we do not plan to put these building expansion plans into the May budget. We will not cut our service to God’s people to force an agenda.

Armstrongism and UCG has always had a convoluted way of manipulating numbers to make things look different than they really are:

We anticipate positive income comparisons each month for the rest of the year, even though our year-to-date income will remain negative.