Dennis on: "Surrendering to the Mystery"

Surrendering to the Mystery

"How do you know the experience you are having is the experience you are suppose to be having?...  Because you are having it."

Eckhart Tolle

I don't think anyone would argue with the reality that the Worldwide Church of God experience was a life changer in many ways.  I can't speak for others, but I know that had I not had the WCG experience, I would have had the same experience in some other form, with others I never met and friends I never made because I had the WCG experience.  I know that whatever theology, and I had been accepted to a Wesleyan Seminary before being accepted to Ambassador College, I adopted, I know that I personally would have had a crisis of faith and gone through the same learning that I feel I have now learned about the Bible and religion.  Somewhere in my 40's no matter what church I had thought I needed to pastor and minister in, I would have generally the same experience and come to the same conclusions though perhaps under different circumstances.

When I was 18, I had to follow the WCG.  You could not have stopped me.  I tucked my application under my shirt and secretly mailed it so my parents would not know what I had done.  I was surprised when the local pastor in Buffalo called me to interview me and my parents invited him over just fine.  They actually became good friends as my parents are like that. 

When push came to shove and I had not heard from AC and the Wesleyan Seminary had already accepted me, I called Pasadena and said I needed a decision now.  The lady on the phone said, "just a minute."  She then came back and said you are accepted.  How hilarious is that.  What a turn of the wheel of fate that was to prove to be and all the associated lessons to come.

I eventually got on a plane and somewhere over the Western US knowing it would be my last, ate a ham sandwich on the approach to Los Angeles.  I had already had my last Xmas and my last Easter.  I was one naive yet sincerely seeking kid at 18.  Oh..and it was the height of the Vietnam draft as well and at 18, my draft number was 14 if I remember and I ain't no soldier.

To keep it short, the whole WCG experience played out over 40 years.  College, 14 congregations, 5 states, a scandal every five years along with a nagging tension that things should not be this difficult in a religious organization.  The older I got, the more I regretted the choice I know you could not have talked me out of originally.  My mind found all sorts of ways to cope.
 "Well this is like the New Testament Church.  They had problems too."  "Well, every organization has its cranks."  "Oh that's not true and even if is, people are just people."  "After HWA dies it will be better."  "I'm not giving sermons on that topic anymore."  "I wish I had never heard of WCG."  "I wish I had gone to the University of Penn and become a paleontologist......"   

Kids grew up, relationships were strained, anger became a suppressed friend,  painbodies erupted, marriage fails,  relationships fail,  I want to now know what I should have known to begin with and the rest is history.

Sometimes I sit here with Chewie the Wookie like Shih Tzu talking to her and asking, "what the hell happened Chewie?"  I get the Buddhist look of "life happened....what's your point?"
 

 

What happened was a story.  We all have one.  Had I gone to Roberts Wesleyan Seminary instead of AC, it would have been a different story.  Had I not delayed a plane trip at age 21 for a day, I'd be dead as it was hit by a fighter jet over Duarte, California June 6, 1971.   So many ways a story can change.

But I had the WCG experience.  Was it a good experience or a bad one?   I don't have to judge it or define it I suppose, but I do have to live with it and the only choice I have is , not did I have it, but what do I do with it?  Crying over spilled milk and all.

I can't speak for anyone but myself.  But I do know that each of us has to answer the question, "Has this experience made me a better person or a worse one?"  Can one accept what is unchangeable now and chalk it up to just being a story which at anytime could have changed courses and been another one?   Can you change one thing about the experience that is already past?  Can I undo it?  Can I fix it?   Can I wish it away?  etc...Nope...It is what it is and the years go on and eventually we run out of time any way.  I'm not going to be an paleontologist specializing in Neanderthal's in Europe.  My Kodak dad always said he wanted to be a State Trooper so I guess this trait runs in the family.  

The stages of going through the crash of WCG and the faith and perceptions of tens of thousands contains all the stages and traits of what one goes through when something or someone dies.  It is a perceived loss.  At the time I wondered why a couple hundred folk could not have run the Tkaches out of town on a rail and kept it all together, but now I realize that, for me, that would have only been a temporary fix.  I was bound to outgrow it in any form.

So, when it's all said and done, are we better or worse for it all?   Only each can answer for themselves.  Some are more vocal than others.  For the thousands that read this site, it is interesting to me that there is just a core group of those who jump in.  I assume all others just read and think about it all.  Because if we perceive we are worse for it all and intend to spend the rest of our time bitter, angry and manifesting all the things painbodies love to feed on, how does that serve us?  How does that serve you?   What does that make of the rest of our lives?

"What eats you...eats you.."  comes to mind.   Emotions can make the heart and the body quite ill.  How does that serve me?

So, for my own sake, and I can't speak for others, I surrender.  I had this experience that was full of both joy and sorrow, good times and bad, great gains and losses, friends and not friends,  success and failure and just about every dichotomy there is in life.  There was much to be thankful for and some to be sorry for in hind site.

"How do you know the experience you are having is the experience you are suppose to be having?...  Because you are having it."

I don't see anyway it could have been different than it was and is.  The only choice left is what to learn from and do with it in what I now consider to be just one more way of attending Earth School.

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Ron Weinland: Court Documents State: "...Weinland has no respect for the law."

Court documents record that Ron Weinland has no respect for the law (of the land.)  That goes against everything that Herb taught us in the church. Wee were told to follow the laws of the land and to render to Cesar what was his.  Weinerdude too what he thought was his and also stiffed the government.

3. Promote respect for the law.
The facts of this case demonstrate Weinland has no respect for the law. Weinland was revered as the leader of his church and as the Prophet. Church members testified that it did not matter to them what Weinland spent or what he was paid. Weinland could have paid himself and his family members virtually any salary, and the members of PKG neither would have been concerned nor known. Yet, Weinland chose to comingle funds and expenses, file false W-2s, and file false returns (or no return), all in an attempt to evade paying taxes. To date, Weinland has neither admitted culpability nor accepted responsibility for his criminal conduct.

Income taxes are a duty required by federal law. The federal income tax system is based on voluntary taxpayer participation. For it to function, taxpayers must respect the law and follow it. Weinland cannot be allowed to fail to pay $245,000 in taxes on approximately $4.4 million dollars under these circumstances merely because he is a religious leader. No one is above the law. A significant term of imprisonment in this case will promote respect for the law.

The entire court document is here: The Sentencing of False Prophet Ronald Weinland 

Ron Weinland: "Has Suffered from Highly Public Destruction and Ridicule"

The Cincinnati.com is reporting that Ron Weinland is two days away from finding his sorry ass sitting jail for up to five years.  Weinland's own attorneys say  Weinland's reputation has been permanently damaged.  Because he has been publicly ridiculed he only deserves to serve 2 1/2 years instead of 5.

“No one who has witnessed the highly public destruction and ridicule visited upon Mr. Weinland and his family will be tempted to engage in similar conduct,” Coffman wrote in his argument for a lesser sentence. “The indictment in 2011 brought increased media scrutiny and public contempt and significantly damaged his reputation.”

200 of his brainwashed followers have written to the judge asking for leniency.  Weinerdude supposedly has helped them recover from drug addiction and has helped them financially.

Nearly 200 followers from as far away as Australia, South Africa and Canada have written U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves asking for leniency for their spiritual leader. While the names of letter-writers were redacted, many wrote that Weinland helped them overcome drug additions or provided them with financial assistance.

Weinerdude wants all of us who have ridiculed him and mocked him to know he prays for us.

Weinland also addressed his conviction on the website. “We are to pray for those who have engaged in activities against us, who have participated in ridicule and shown disdain toward us,” he wrote. “We are to be of a forgiving attitude and remember we were once in those shoes and God has forgiven us.”

Weinerdude claimed religious persecution while the court trial was going on.  The prosecution called him a liar and said this was never about religious persecution.  It was all about his lying and embezzlement. 

At trial, Weinland’s defense team implied the church leader was prosecuted for his religious beliefs. It is a claim McBride denies.

“His assertion is baseless,” McBride wrote.

“It was Weinland at trial who invoked his religious beliefs as justification for his actions. His false claim of religious bias is, however, consistent with his practice of hiding his misconduct under the cloak of religion.”

 You can read the entire article here: Doomsday 'prophet' awaits sentence: Weinland faces up to 5 years in prison for federal tax evasion