Ghosts of the Past

New Yorker Magazine

Ron Weinland, Convicted Felon, is Asking Church Members To Try and Influence Judge With Letters

Mike has the following letter on his blog from convicted felon Ron Weinland begging church members to write letters to the court on what a magnificent ministry Ron performs.  Weinland's Impacts

From: “Ron Weinland”
To: elders
Sent: Thursday, June 14, 2012
Subject: To All in the Ministry

Hello to everyone,

This is being sent out to all elders and I am requesting that you pass along this request to members in your area. This should be sent out in a coordinated manner, so please follow the structure of Church government to make certain that all areas get covered.

My lawyer has asked me to send out a request to Church members. It is not requested that everyone respond, but if you have what you believe is a strong story of what has impacted your life by my ministry, and you feel moved to write about it, please send a letter to the address listed below. The purpose for this is for the use of the lawyer in his appeal to the judge concerning my future sentencing if it comes to that time. This is a normal legal process, but this needs to be done immediately if you are going to participate.

Please first read the new post that should be up sometime tomorrow (Friday). It is in the spirit mentioned in that post that you should write–one that reflects God’s way. We are looking for examples of things that have impacted your life like financial assistance or other assistance, help through teaching that has changed your life in some manner or some counseling that has done the same. Perhaps your statement might be about help in overcoming some problem in marriage, addiction, relationships, etc. Your response should contain specifics, while being specific, and not be long and drawn out.

It is requested that nothing be sent that is critical or an attack against the government or the system, and do NOT proclaim anything about your belief in my innocence, injustice, etc. This needs to be done by way of mail and not e-mail, so it is all the more important that this be done quickly. So when you write these letters, you need to mention my name and what it is that I have done which has influenced your life.

Here is the address where you need to send the letters:

Frost Brown Todd LLC
Attn: Bob Webb
{redacted}

Thanks for your help in this matter.
Our love,
Ron & Laura

What Rona and Laura still fail to see, or perhaps are deliberately ignoring, is the fact that at NO TIME did the court, prosecutor or the government go after the church that Ron runs.  Many of the articles in the news media make that fact know in their headlines.  Ron was convicted because of HIS deliberate misuse of funds.  The jurors that comment on Mikes blog also strongly bring this point to the forefront in all their postings.  It was never about the church, it was all about him.

I hope the judge and the prosecutor see through these deliberate distractions and nail his ass for the full extent that the law allows.

Huffington Post: Ronald Weinland, Doomsday Prophet, Found Guilty Of Tax Evasion

Forbes: Man Who Touted 'End of the World' Guilty of Tax Evasion

Doomsday Prophet Guilty of Tax Evasion

Why the Gatekeepers of Armstrongism No Longer Have Control

There was an interesting post today on the Slacktavist blog, "‘Christian bookstores’ and the unsustainable bubble of the evangelical subculture.

It discuses how the Southern Baptists "gatekeepers" are still trying to legislate morality in the Southern Baptists subculture.  One leader was offended that a Southern Baptist bookstore was selling the video The Blind Side because it contains a few swear words.  The movie is about a woman and her family that took in a homeless black youth who, with their care and encouragement, went on to be an NFL first draft player.  He made demands and the bookstore crumbled.  However, the article points out that people will now spend their money elsewhere because the gatekeepers no longer have the power they once had.

LifeWay Christian Bookstores is a large and still-influential chain with 165 locations across the country. But which do you suppose sells more DVDs — LifeWay or Amazon? Do you think it’s even close?
More people shop at Amazon. More Southern Baptists shop at Amazon. More conservative, evangelical and fundamentalist Southern Baptists shop at Amazon. Southern Baptist evangelicals are still buying and watching The Blind Side, but LifeWay no longer sees any of the revenue from those sales.

The walls are gone and no one — not even conservative, sheltered, evangelical-leaning-fundamentalist Southern Baptists — needs to go through the gates or the gatekeepers anymore.

Mass media — from television to FM radio — chipped away at those walls for decades. Then the Internet came along and bulldozed them to the ground. (See earlier: “The evangelical bubble cannot be sustained, part 1” and “The evangelical bubble cannot be sustained, part 2.”)

But even though those walls are gone and cannot be rebuilt, the gatekeepers still maintain some of their power — partly through inertia and custom, partly through demagoguery that convinces their intimidated followers to pretend the walls are still there.

The article reminded me of the Church of God over the last several decades.  The COG ruled with a heavy fists for many years until cracks started appearing in the structure of the organization.  The leaders started losing power in the early to mid 1970's when people started waking up to the abuses around them.  Mass defections occurred and money flew out the window.  Immediately a crack down happened to regain control.  At that time all they had to do was command the members to not read the books or buy the magazines and people did it.  The few books that detailed the abuses in Armstrongism that came out at that time never had much of an impact on the COG.

Then things changed with the power of the internet.  Information began to flow swiftly around the world instantaneously. The COG leadership no longer had control.  People hungry for information read unlimited articles and participated on newsgroups to glean any information they could.  People could read, buy books, and see videos about the corruption and false teaching of the COG in the privacy of their own homes, without COG leaders ever knowing.  The COG started to implode rather quickly at this point and has never recovered.

The article also includes this:

But even though those walls are gone and cannot be rebuilt, the gatekeepers still maintain some of their power — partly through inertia and custom, partly through demagoguery that convinces their intimidated followers to pretend the walls are still there.

The gatekeepers of Armstrongism will never be able to reign in members as they did in the past.  Sure a few will bloviate and bluster trying to act like real macho men, but their hypocrisy is exposed to the world now for all to see.