Do You Dare Question Church Authority?

For well over 80 years now the members of the Church of God have been told over and over to never question the ministry, doctrines or visions of the leaders.  To do so was equated as rebellion against God.

Healthy faith involves questioning, doubt and anger.  Armstrongism has always made these qualities to be tools of Satan to deceive the brethren.  Any look through Hebrew and Christan scriptures quickly points out the men and women who questioned God, argued with God, and got angry with God.  COG members would never exhibit or admit to these qualities to other COG members.  To do so would make them feel "weak in the faith" in the eyes of others.

That's part of the reason so many in the COG's get angry with the "anti-COG" sites.  They feel their faith, their beliefs and understanding are being questioned. It is easier to sit there week after week and be spoon fed than it is to dare to step outside the box and use critical thinking.  Being bombarded by booklets, magazines, taped sermons, bible studies, TV programs,and members only chruch activities allows them to do the thinking for you which is much easier than daring to doubt.

I know many who sit in COG services week after week, even though they do not believe it anymore, because all their friends are there.  They know full well that if they were to leave they would be shunned. It is better to "suck it up" and suffer for a couple hours each week than it is to step out and fly free.

Steping out and questioning does not mean you have to loose faith.  Many find their faith  grows even stronger.  Others, need a break from religion all together.  That is good too, especially after what we have all been through while being part of the COG.

The Silenced blog has a great posting today about this very topic.

They write:

In fact, COG leaders are abusing your belief, taking advantage of your faith for personal monetary gain. Ron Weinland’s conviction, David C. Pack’s constant hustling, UCG’s insistent demand for newer, bigger toys built on the backs of the brethren and decades of WCG’s golden flatware, mansions and private jets are evidence of this systemic abuse of your beliefs. Without your faith and support, including that of tithing and offerings to the organization, the COG’s senior leadership wouldn’t have jobs, their numerous unearned perks or be in a position to abuse their power.

By associating personal beliefs with loyalty to an organization, you are providing fuel for an engine of dishonesty, something we know so many of you don’t want or intend. We know these aren’t your wishes based on all of the splits and schisms in the church whenever there’s alleged corruption or a doctrinal change. Most of those passing through UCG’s exits to join COGWA did so because they realized the vile way their former organization had been conducting itself.

Check out the article here:  The Appeal #1: Beliefs vs. Affiliation

Honda EV World: Ex WCG Minister Takes Trip Down Memory Lane

Check out this article from Honda's electric vehicle web site.  Bill Moore was a WCG pastor who left Armstrongism in 1980.

Driving the Honda Fit EV Down Memory Lane:  EV World's publisher takes Honda's new EV back thirty years in time.

 It's been 34 years since I last walked the campus of Ambassador College in Pasadena, California. It was early Summer 1978 and I had just spent a year on a ministerial sabbatical after more than five years serving as a church pastor in the Blue Ridge Mountains of West Virginia. Now we were preparing to move back to Illinois to assume a new church assignment, but that year would prove a major turning point in our lives. It had opened my eyes to the world of Biblical scholarship, as well as offered me the opportunity to become a published author in two of the church's international publications. The first would lead me to begin questioning church doctrine, the second would prove to me that I could be a writer.

Malm Asks: Will you commit adultery with the whore because she is going to do it anyway?

The apostle just cannot get over the fact that many COGers go out and eat in restaurants on Saturdays.  That just riles him into a royal lather.  The apostle equates going to Burger King for a quick bite to eat before that 2 hour drive home, is as if you were hooking up with the local whore.  On second thought, given the track record of some of the COG leaders have/had with keeping their pants zipped, this really might be an issue.

And that verse goes straight to the issue of going out and buying in restaurants on the Sabbath. Neither be partaker of other men’s sins. You are NOT to participate in other people’s sin. You don’t say, “They’re going to do it anyway, I’ll participate.” Nonsense: You are to adhere to a higher standard. You are to set an example and you are not to partake of other men’s sins.

Will you commit adultery with the whore because she is going to do it anyway?  Then why pollute the Sabbath with the Sabbath polluters?  That excuse justifies ALL sins!  No matter what sin, there will be someone else doing it.  Quite frankly, that excuse is infantile.  We are to become like God, to internalize HIS nature and to keep his commandments with zeal:  we are not to comply with the wickedness of this world and to seek to go back into the evil that we were delivered out of by such a terrible sacrifice