Living Church of God and Rod McNair Go βαλλιστικός Over Greek Themed Party

On June 22 there was a comment on the LCG Collecting Facebook Screenshots of Members? thread describing how McNair and League demanded that several LCG members take down photo's they had put up on Facebook of a party they had attended.  It seems some LCG members had recently returned from Greece and decided to throw a Greek themed party.  In most of society this would not even ring any alarms or raise an eyebrow.  However.....we are talking about a Church of God now and things are NOT normal in most Churches of God, particularly in the Living Church of God.  Power and control must be maintained over the sheeple at all times.  They must never think outside the box or have fun without the permission of a minister!

A reader here wrote:

McNair and League personally approached me and told me to remove pics of church members (ministers included) from my Facebook page.

The pics were of families. There was nothing crazy or inappropriate going on in any of them. Just mothers and fathers with their kids enjoying fellowship on a Sunday night.

"What's wrong with that?" you might ask. Well I'll tell you.

The host and hostess of this get-together had just returned from a trip to Greece. The party was Greek-themed and the guests came dressed as Greeks (aka togas). Apparently wearing a toga means you are engaging in an Animal House type fraternity party with drunken mayhem and other lude and lascivious behavior which "paints the LCH headquarters in a negative light". I was told that even if nothing bad happened at the party, "it was better to avoid the appearance of evil" so I needed to take the pics down asap.

Many others were also told to take the pics down. Some did. Some refused.

LCG headquarters (especially Richard Ames) believes that costumes are evil and that God's people should have no part in them. I was told that the Pagans used to wear costumes/ masquerade so that they could have orgy sex with each others wives without their identities actually being known. From that, coupled with the ever-evil Halloween, a true Christian can deduce that costumes are bad. Interestingly, other LCG congregations can engage in costume parties without retaliation. But in Charlotte not so much.

In true LCG form, there are different rules for different people.

I only wish I could share the pics with all of you so that you could see how harmless they were. Maybe I can email them to the blog owner and he can post them?

June 22, 2015 at 6:21 AM

 

This same reader responded today with these pictures and comments:

The pics are relevant in that they are perfectly harmless. No booze or sexy outfits. Just families and their kids in modest costumes. We were all asked to take the pics off our FB pages because HQ's felt they made them "look bad". We were told to "avoid the appearance of evil".

I don't know about you but I don't see anything "evil" or embarrassing in them.

Living Church of God: Does It Have Any Ministers Above Reproach?

Here are the guidelines that ministers in the Living Church of God should be following when they dish out punishments on rebellious LCG members..

Guidelines for Exercising Church Discipline and Authority  (Handout 3.4) pg. 3-12

To exercise ecclesiastical authority properly and effectively, a minister:

• Must BE MOTIVATED BY LOVE.

• Must be ABOVE REPROACH in his personal conduct.

• Must have INSPIRED the flock to follow the RIGHT WAY by means of his personal           EXAMPLE and PREACHING.

• Must be FAIR in judgment and in NO way a RESPECTER of persons.

• Must be CONSISTENT in the use of authority and BALANCED in frequency of its use.

• Must ensure that the degree of severity is suited to the seriousness of the infraction of God’s           Laws (1 Corinthians 5:1-4).

Notice #2 above.  Is there really such a thing for a minister in the Church of God to be ABOVE REPROACH?   Especially when you read things like this:

Why was there such an epidemic of adultery at LCG headquarters in Charlotte in the first place? I can count 6 people that I have sat in church with for years, ALL OF WHOM WORKED FOR THE HEADQUARTERS CHURCH who are now known adulterers.

Four were disfellowshipped, one was marked, one still has her job and is in good standing with the church solely because of her husband's position (friendship with Meredith does have its kickbacks)

Doesn't it seem like a disproportionate number when so few work in that building? I have worked in many "worldly" offices and none of them have had such rampant sexual escapades!

I'm just curios to see if there are any theories out there as to why it happened.

Ripping It Down, Building It Up