Philadelphia Church of God Maintaining the 50's Era for Their Women in the 21st Century

You have to hand it to the men in the PCG.  They know how to keep their wives under control.  You will not find any brawling women in the Philadelphia Church of God.  There have been countless articles in the last month about women being submissive, good homemakers and good mothers.  God forbid if any of them opened their mouths and voiced a theological understanding.

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)  Proverbs 21:9
It is better to dwell in a corner of the housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house.

In the latest screed from the HWA Idolatry cult, they have this article:   The Spiritually Valiant Woman

The article focuses on women of the Hebrew scripture and Loma Armstrong.  Nothing about the strong women of the New Testament story.  Nothing about the rich women who were merchants of trade. Nothing about the women who ruled over men righteously or taught men.

There is Lydia the trader who was wealthy from fabric trade in purple cloth.  She made so much money she was "sponsoring" a local church.  Because they met in her house, it was the tradition the leader of the group was the homeowner.  She was doing such a good job at running the local church that Paul and Silas came to visit her before they left for a trip.

Lydia was the first Christian convert in Europe.  She responded to Paul’s gospel ministry when he visited her town of Philippi.[6]  Subsequently, the fledgling Christian congregation in Philippi met in her home.  Lynn Cohick (2009:190) notes that when Paul and Silas prepare to leave Philippi they went to Lydia’s house (not the jailor’s house) and met with the believers there. Presumably Lydia followed the pattern found throughout the New Testament that the owner of the house in which the church met was also the church leader.

Then there is Pheobe who was a minister (diakonos) of the church and a major patron wisely suing her money.

Tradition holds that it was Phoebe who carried Paul’s letter to the Romans.  As was the custom in those days, the letter carrier bore the authority of the one who sent him or her.  A usual part of delivering letters was explaining their contents to the recipient(s) and passing on verbal messages from the sender.[7] So Paul must have thought highly of Phoebe to entrust her with the delivery of his letter.

In Romans 16:1-2 Paul speaks warmly of Phoebe and describes her as both a diakonos and a prostatis.

I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a minister (diakonos) of the church which is at Cenchrea; that you receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and that you assist her in whatever matter she may have need of you; for she has been a leader/patron (prostatis) of many, and of myself as well. Romans 16:1-2.

 Paul only ever used the word diakonos (which literally means “servant” or “minister”) in the context of ministry.  [See endnote 8.]  Phoebe was a Christian minister in the church of Cenchreae.  Phoebe was also a prostatis. This word and its cognates mean “leader”.

Phoebe was also not a stay at home mother.  She travelled sharing the gosepl as she went.

It seems that Phoebe traveled widely for the sake of the Gospel.   In his commentary on Romans 16:1-2, Theodoret of Cyrrhus (393-460) writes, “[Paul] opened the world to her and in every land and sea she is celebrated.  For not only do the Romans and Greeks know her, but even all the barbarians.”

Phoebe was not a stay-at-home wife and mother. She was active as a minister in the church of Cenchreae and as a leader-patron in the public sphere. Paul used Phoebe as an apostolic envoy in Rome by entrusting her with his letter to the Romans.  Paul trusted Phoebe and recommended her highly to the Roman Christians. Working Women of the New Testament

None of these strong courageous women matter to the "men" at PCG.  They need their women kept down in the glory days of the 1950's and 60's when Loma was alive.  Her words and actions mean more to them than anything in the New Testament does.  It is more important train PCG women in housekeeping, cooking and child rearing than it is to be agents of God's word.

"The woman should be mentally able to do many of the things the man does, but she typically doesn’t unless he isn’t there to fulfill that role. Deborah judged a nation and led men to battle! Her song is canonized in Judges 5. Mr. Armstrong often said he always looked for a woman who could “wear the pants,” but didn’t. "

"In addition to developing other feminine traits, a female’s development of her mind must be at the top of the list. However, beware that Satan likes to use that intellect whenever women are doing “mindless” tasks—to broadcast thoughts like, My mind is too sophisticated for this. A woman must understand what it means to be feminine and why her role is what it is to truly thrive in it."

 "In 1 Samuel 1, one woman altered the course of history because of her understanding. God prohibited Hannah from bearing children until she learned the vision behind it (request our free book The God Family Vision). Once she learned this, she conceived and bore Samuel. After his birth, Hannah began to prophesy! You can find that in 1 Samuel 2:1-10.

“She probably understood God’s family plan more deeply than the most righteous women of God in the Bible,” Gerald Flurry writes in The God Family Vision."

"Hannah’s prophecy continues to be fulfilled today. David’s throne still exists, and we look toward the resurrection when we, as God’s firstfruits, will step into the role of the Bride of Christ and spiritual mother to multiple millions in the World Tomorrow. If our ladies understand the vision behind their “physical” duties and don’t let those duties become more important than their spiritual development, it will put them at a greater advantage spiritually—not hold them back.
“If you have a son, can you look into his eyes and begin to educate him about the resurrection and the God Family vision? Can you really help him see why he is alive? Can you see as Hannah saw?” Mr. Flurry asks. “Hannah was some wife. She was desperately unhappy for a while; but it was because of that unhappiness that God could teach her this deep spiritual lesson” (ibid).
That’s right! Women can—and must—learn deep, spiritual lessons! Then they must be able to educate their children about those lessons."

"Armstrong College is based on this understanding. Men and women take mostly the same courses—the only ones that differ have to do with speaking (based on the principle stated by the Apostle Paul)—and while the male students take advanced courses on speaking, the young ladies learn about homemaking and nutrition. But they all have to learn the same doctrines and memorize much of the Scriptures."

 "Mr. Armstrong always reminded us that it was his wife, Loma, who was the instrument God used to call him and start the Philadelphia era of God’s Church. Many young women on all three of the Ambassador College campuses in the 1950s and ’60s looked to her as a guidance counselor. As Mr. Armstrong wrote in the May 1967 Plain Truth, “She, herself, marveled at the wisdom that just came spontaneously from God as she counseled with these many girls about their many problems.” God inspired her with wisdom through His Spirit! Her intellect, now combined with God’s mind, was serving a tremendous function in the Work!"

Dennis On: "You should not make that decision on your own." Really?

"You should not make that decision on your own."

Gerald Flurry

Really?

 

"I have the authority to tell you to do it... I have the moral and spiritual, and ecclesiastical authority to tell you to do what I have also done"

Be careful that you don't tell us how to spend your assets... It belongs to God.. You don't tell God or His servants how to spend it"

David Pack

Sometimes when being lead up the hill 
you need to check your immediate surroundings.  

And therein lies the problem does it not?  YOU should-should not, must-must not, are-are not, will- will not, be-be not, go-go not, attend-attend not, believe-believe not.   I suppose we can appeal to "Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,"  but I'm thinking that was written to consolidate someone's power back in history and it was a threat to those who thought their own thoughts.  Since "you shall not permit a witch to live," was probably a well known concept, it was simply a threat to the critical thinker that carried the message of "or else."

Any time in religion and in particular the one man show of religion we see in far too many COG congregations, splits, schisms, splinters and slivers, the idea that you must and should tends to go wildly out of control.  It is all about control after all.  If someone has a differing opinion from the Church or the Pastor, it is an immediate run back into the Old Testament stories of Moses vs the Children of Israel in the wilderness.  Moses always won.  Ask Korah and the WHOLE family who were finally told,  "Well Korah...with ideas like that really big things are opening up for YOU!"   I think you get my drift. 

I could never see how complaining about no food or the same old food over and over ad nauseam was such a sin.  Being thirsty in the waste howling dessert seems to me to be a valid concern.  I have dug at archaeological sites in Israel and by noon of any day, the day out digging is drawing to a close.  There was always someone assigned to be sure everyone was hydrated during the dig.  Heat exhaustion with its nausea, sweating and fatigue was waiting in the wings and heat stroke with its no sweating and soaring body temp leading to death was stage two.   But in the Bible, these things were rebellion, bitching, moaning and complaining.  I never go that view.  I suppose Moses had all the water and variety of food he wanted.  That's how it usually works with the one man show vs the people.  Telling others to give up their resources or sell their homes and pull big triggers is easy when you are building new homes, taking in the resources of others and are the one  who reaps what you shot. 

The idea behind the above quotes is obscene.  Neither Gerald Flurry nor David Pack has the authority to tell anyone anything.  Please recall these men are self appointed.  No one calls or believes they are "that Prophet" or "Apostle David" outside of themselves and an a very miniscule number of zealots and people who have surrendered their souls and minds to them.  Truly, brains are left at the door for all who enter there.  Our most recent comical and relatively harmless example of this is the self appointment of Dr. Robert Thiel to the office of prophet.  Getting a double portion can also mean one gets twice as much bullshit dumped on them as they intended but I spare you.  No one believes Dr. Thiel is really a prophet.  He is a news reader, speculator and Internet comber, but he is no prophet.  

Dave Pack and Gerald Flurry, cut from the same cloth on the other hand, are more dangerous to ones mental, emotional, spiritual and even physical health.  It takes a special kind of arrogance to command people to do the insane, ill advised , illegal and immoral such as these men do.  Telling you who you can see and who you can't, who you can talk to and who you can't, what you must give and from whom you can take it away from is simply insane.  Those who surrender their own critical thinking, resources and minds to such spiritual BS probably deserve what they get but perhaps simply pointing out the insanity of it all here will help someone somewhere not make some of the biggest mistakes of their lives.

“Take the risk of thinking for yourself, much more happiness, truth, beauty, and wisdom will come to you that way.

Christopher Hitchens

"Responsibility to yourself means refusing to let others do your thinking, talking, and naming for you; it means learning to respect and use your own brains and instincts; hense grappling" with hard work.

Adrienne Rich

"There are few things more dangerous than inbred religious certainty.”

Bart D. Ehrmam

"...if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense in you, then you cannot distinguish the useful as from the worthless ones."

Carl Sagan

I was told the wonderful story of the good ol' country boy deacon in the WCG who after heard Joseph Tkach's classic sermon on how WCG was going to change, when asked to lead the closing hymn, stood up and said,  "Now ain't that the biggest load of shit you ever heard!  Let's rise, take our hymn books and sing to the real God!"    I fell out!  There was man not easily lead!  Nice job!!

In the COG's everyone knows the rebellion stories in the OT and the consequences of such.  They are marched out when needed to control current thinking and usually to defend the views, opinions, pronouncements, edicts and views of the Lone Ranger pastor.  Everyone else is just Tonto and that's being generous.  In the New Testament we have the implausible story of Apostle Peter , through the Holy Spirit I suppose so he is not charged by the Romans with murder, striking down Annanias and Sapphira for holding back on their pledge.  I can imagine the Apostle Joshua C. Pack has already pulled this one out on his derelict pledgers.  It was designed to instill "great fear on the church," I suppose but it also , as I have said before, a slam and a joke on Peter by Luke and Paul who hated him.   Here we have the great Peter killing off two nice folk who said they would do one thing, give all and did another, held back.  Of course Peter also did the same by saying one thing, "I will never leave you Jesus,"  and did another, denied him.   We lose the intent in translation and not knowing the politics behind the ever competing and rebellious Apostles of the day.

For those of you who visit this site and who are involved in these or even lesser than these slivers of churches and egos gone nuts I simply wish to remind you that you do not have to surrender your mind, resources or common sense to anyone.  We, as humans, are all equal and all connected.  We are all part of the one big benevolent thing whatever you perceive that to be.  The idea that one man or one church tells you and I how it all is, is archaic and in the case of these men, a dangerous road to go down.  You may think you are safely following the leader up the trail, but don't fail to look to the left or right into the bushes for your own safety's sake.  Looking too far ahead can deceive you into not seeing what is actually about to happen to you. 

"Common sense is not so common."

Voltaire

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.

Buddha

Faith is believing in things when common sense tells you not to.

George Seaton

Faith is what you cling to before you get the facts.

Dennis Diehl

Step outside the box of "the Bible says" long enough to realize that it's ok for you to do so.  In so many cases, it does not actually matter what the Bible says which I know is almost impossible for most Bible haunted  Apostle and Prophet followers to grasp.  These men, pillars so called by themselves mostly should make no difference to you at times in what they declare , demand or expect of you. 

If the glorious and also self appointed Apostle Paul can say of Peter, James and John who he called "reputed  pillars,"  can say...

"As for those who seemed to be important--whatever they were makes no difference to me: God does not judge by external appearance--those men added NOTHING to my message."

Galatians 2:6

...I would think you can lighten up a bit on yielding to the kind of men who would say such nonesense as quoted at the start of this short article.  Would it not be awesome if the day could come when these men and men like them utter profound stupid from their pulpits and people stood up right there and then and simply said...

"Well ain't that the biggest load of shit you ever ever heard.  Let's rise, take up our hymnals and sing to the real God."

I love that guy!

contact Dennis at: denniscdiehl@AOL.com

"Get Over It and Move On!"

How many times over the years have you been told to "get over it and move on" when you talk about the abuses in Armstrongism.  It is a common catch phrase of those still entrenched in the the destructive nature of so much of the church.  They do not understand that those who have walked free from the abuse, lies and manipulation go through many stages of recovery. 

I am on a private Facebook group that is filled with hundreds and hundreds of former COG members who have left the cult behind, but still need to process through it.  It includes kids of  ministers, elders, deacons and even one of HWA's grandchildren.  The stories of abuse these people tell they suffered through at the hands of ministers and splinter cults of Armstrongism are appalling.  There are former PCG, LCG, UCG, WCG, COGWA and people from Wade Cox's and Coulter's personality cults.

One of them pointed out a web site that discusses the snarky saying of "get over it and move on."

Spiritual Abuse Sanctuary

"Just get over it and move on with God." We hear this phrase way too many times coming from well-intentioned people regarding our spiritually abusive experiences. It sounds great on paper, but in reality it is impossible. You will never "get over" spiritual abuse - you just need to get through it. For example, a rape victim cannot just "get over it and move on". They need to process their grief, and deal with the pain and emotional trauma. It's the same for spiritual abuse victims. You cannot just stuff it all to be "religiously correct", because it will never go away.

The phrase "get over it and move on" is a term that was authored and abused by authoritarian spiritual abusers to get their followers to turn their brains off so that they won't think for themselves. I can remember this phrase being used on me so many times. Whenever I showed any human emotion whatsoever, I was told to "rise up" and "get over it and move on". I would choke back my pain and grief, and stuff my emotions. While it may be the only way to win on a battlefield, it is simply not a healthy way to deal with all of life's issues. It simply serves to get you to stop analyzing and thinking for yourself.

Let's face it, if there really was a healthy way to "get over it and move on", there would not be a need for websites like this one. In my opinion, you cannot just "move on" or escape from a spiritually abusive experience. You must go through it (the recovery process), and eventually you get to the other side. It's a journey that takes time. The only way to "move on" would be to go back and erase the abuse that you experienced. Since you cannot do that, you just go through it. I think of it as a withdrawal from a dangerous addictive drug.

I have found that before I was able to go through a grieving process, I had to allow myself to become angry about the abuse I suffered. In the group that I was involved with, we were taught to passively allow someone to use and abuse us. Through this process we learn to stuff all of our emotions. This can result in people not allowing themselves to get angry when someone violates your personal boundaries - or when they do, it becomes passive/aggressive. I'm not talking about going out and beating your abuser with a ball bat, but rather, just getting mad enough inside to evict the passivity that we allowed to rule us. This passivity is the force that caused us to not only allow the abuse, but also to stuff sadness, anger, grief, and even our ability to be analytical and skeptical about what we were being taught.

Once we begin thinking for ourselves again and getting our ability to say "no" back, a flood of emotions may come back to us: anger, grief, and sometimes even hate. Anger will turn to grief, and then we can process the grief to get rid of the anger. Tolerance of our abuse will turn to hate, and then we can process the hate to bring about true forgiveness and build healthy boundaries to keep it from happening again. Sadness about being a victim will drive us to break out of our isolation, and we can begin to trust again.