I never make mistakes.
I thought I did once, but I was mistaken.
Living Church of God is reeling today at the number
of ministers and members that were served subpoenas for upcoming testimony in the
lawsuit that the Scarborough's brought against Rod Meredith and the church.
The number of those served papers is said to be around 250 people.
You can quickly see why LCG is in such a turmoil today. That is a
huge number of people that can spill the beans on the way the Living Church of
God works.
Some are deeply offended that the Scarborough’s
filed this suit. “Church members are not supposed to sue church members”,
is the claim being thrown around. This is LCG's attempt to divert peoples
thinking away from the actually abuse that Meredith and his ministers dumped on
the Scarborough’s and members that Saturday during the sermon where he
demonized the Scarborough’s.
One comment made here says this:
Matthew 18 says ...and if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.
The Scarborough's took it to the church in the letter they sent all of us. But our leaders wouldn't yield and make peace. So the Bible now gives them permission to treat Mr. Meredith and Mr. McNair as heathens.
It's that simple. LCG leadership had a year to behave as the Christians they claim to be but instead of "manning-up" they continued in their lie. Instead of showing the love and mercy of Christ, they decided remain stubborn and prideful carnal, ungodly men.
I have never been so disappointed.
Living Church of God is now paying the price for
the bullheadedness and arrogance that permeates the upper levels of the LCG hierarchy.
Meredith, Ames, Weston and others have always felt that were
unaccountable to the membership and could say anything they wanted. That has
come back to bite them big time. Apparently the public marking of the Scarborough’s
was particular vicious and extended.
I was at church the day the Scarborough's were marked. It was the most vicious attack I have ever been witness to. The entire day was focused on defaming these people.
I'm sure that is why they are deposing so many people.
250 people won't lie for LCG even if a few decide to.
Witness testimony plus an un-edited copy of services that day will be pretty damning to LCG's defense.
Add to that witnesses that testify to how the Scarborough's helped them over the years or showed generosity toward them to show that they were good people and it seems like a no-brainer (and I'm not a lawyer).
The question many are asking is how many of the
deposed will actually lie in order to keep Meredith and the church in a good
light. If the LCG hierarchy is counting on a large swath of members
defending them, they are going to be in for a shock. By constantly
spreading around the myth that convert church members would never sue other
members, they are counting on people never delving into the topic. Plus,
when the ministry says it is a sin to go against the leader it instills another
level of fear into the members minds.
Rod Meredith teaches that Jesus Christ is the Head of the church, and since Jesus hasn't removed Meredith, He must approve of what Meredith is doing. Therefore, to go against Meredith is rebellion against Jesus Himself. This makes the leader infallible! Any man could say this, could he not? Meredith is very good at manipulating people into following him. Without that manipulation, propaganda, and brainwashing, I wonder just how small his following would be.Throughout all of this the arrogance of the ministry has been at play here as one writer here wrote:
LCG ministry absolutely believe they are above being corrected. I know this first hand. I was once smugly asked by a minister in LCG if it was my job to correct the ministry. In their minds they are too right to ever be wrong.
When Meredith was sued the last time he was
represented by the Worldwide Church of God with unlimited funds and a large
team of lawyers. All he had to do is sit there and let the church pay for
everything, though while this was going he was plotting with others to form a
church he could run after he left WCG. He had no problem in letting the church
spend their money to defend him while he was setting himself up to take
millions in tithe money. Ethics have never been a strong point for
Meredith.
Now he will let his own church defend him with a
large stable of lawyers at his beckon call. Millions will be spent in
tithe money but he doesn't care. His arrogance reigns supreme and is more
important that admitting he made a mistake. Ethic's be damned.
