Psychological Child Abuse in the Church of God

double click on picure to enjoy the gruesome details

There is nothing to compare to growing up as a child in the Church of God.  As a small child I had to sit and listen to Rod Meredith, Carn Catherwood, and others wax eloquent on the soon coming imprisonment of the United States, Canada, England, Australia and New Zealand.  Lengthy sermons were preached about concentration camps where we would be strung up on meathooks by the Germans if we failed to make it to Petra.

It was sermon after sermon on famine, pestilence, war, and Germans as we would sent off to be their slaves in Germany and elsewhere.

Who in their right mind would preach this kind of crap when kids are represent?  It takes a sick warped mind to do such a thing.

One of the sermons I remember vividly was the one about the brazen bull that Christians would be put in and slowly cooked to death.  This idiocy was told to us as we were were small children.

Meredith, Malm, Flurry, Pack and others still preach this kind of crap.

What child needs to hear this in church?  What adult needs to hear this kind of stuff?

Living Church of God: Eighteen Year Member Asks...Where Is Your Love?

From a reader here:

Rod Meredith and company love to brag about LCR and claim that it is the "Only TRUE Church" - the only true remaining Philadelphia church on earth today carrying out "God's only true Work" (they always capitalize "work" as if their efforts are elevated to the stature of a God-being). Their proclamation is based on three basic ideas:

1.) The idea that they have an "open door" to preach the gospel - judging themselves to be the only true church preaching the only true gospel. Of course, these days, all of these "churches" claim to be "preaching (their version) the gospel" - so what makes LCR so special? The ultimate point of all of LCR's messages these days is to point lay members to themselves, and not to God. Furthermore, RCM and Co. think nothing of compromising scripture (creating "upgrades" - which is a stupid descriptor, btw) for political expedience. This is hardly the Gospel of God.

2.) LCR is the only organization with their interpretation of "God's" form of so-called "top-down" government with "no voting or politics." Anyone with half a brain cell can see that this organization is completely corrupted by politics - from every corner and cranny of the organization. One window into the political rancor existing in this organization observes the acceptable standard of conduct, and evidences that standard is directly related to one's relationship with RCM. After 18 years of attendance, I've observed the following:

RCM & Family (By Blood or Marriage) - Anything Goes.

Close Friends of RCM or Family Member - Almost Anything Goes Based on Loyalty to RCM.

"Leading Ministers" or Just Plain Old "Ministers" - Anything Goes Based on Loyalty to RCM.

Family Members and Close Friends of "Leading Ministers" or Just Plain Old "Ministers" - Almost Anything Goes Based on Loyalty of Related Minister to RCM.  

Suck-Ups and Wannabe's - Conduct Judged Case-by-Case Based on Individual Loyalty to RCM and Local Church Government.

Average Lay Person - You Suck and You're Stupid, But We Need Your Money & Someone to Blame. Your Attendance is Permitted Based on Your Loyalty to RCM.

Any Individual Who Refuses to Play Politics - You Suck, We Hate You, Please Drop Dead.

...You read it yourself - RCM thinks "murder" and "child molestation" are less evil than causing church division. It isn't too far of a leap to assume that he would allow a "loyal" person to get away with just about anything.

3.) The idea that that LCR members "love" each other. However, "loveability" is entirely based on a person's rank in the organization, their relationship to RCM or someone in "church government", their monetary worth, and their attendance record. As soon as someone falls out of favor, they are seemingly shunned by the entire organization, and are no longer worthy or deserving of love, or basic humanity. "Falling out of favor" is utterly subjective, and could either be based on serious issues, or entirely baseless (as evidenced by the Scarborough case).

How can anyone think this is a true church of God?

What Are Rod McNair's Qualifications To Judge Members?

The one thing that struck me about Elizabeth Scarborough's letter was her comment about the excuses Rod McNair and Rod Meredith used to disfellowship and mark them.  Talk about a bunch of petty reasons!

Rod McNair has no qualifications, no real leadership skills, no real theological training or any other skill necessary for leadership.  What "qualified him several years ago was nothing more than having a couple of "famous" relatives in the Church of God. Because he has no real skills he has turned into one of the most abusive and despised "ministers” in the church. He is right up there with Cal Culpepper.

The lack of leadership skills and a sound theological education has led him to make rather absurd accusations against the Scarborough's which are downright silly and trite.

It is hard to imagine a minister being so intrusive that they have to grill someone over a party that celebrated a trip to Greece.  Those pagan Grecians are still disrupting society centuries later, well at least in LCG. It's no like they were having a Saturday Night Live toga party.

The silver lining in all this is that after over 20 hours of depositions, we now know why Rod McNair and Rod Meredith decided to mark us, which is something we have struggled to understand for nearly 2 years now. Rod McNair testified, under oath, that we were marked for the following reasons: 1. we had a Greek-themed party in 2009 (after returning from a trip to Greece) that looked like a “toga party”

Next McNair gets all pissy over an Andrew Sisters song.  A song that HWA listened to and never complained about!  Leave it to a wet behind the ears and immature so-called minister to determine a 1945 song is satanic. That is essential what McNair believes.

2. In 2011 I sang the Andrew’s Sisters 1945 hit “Rum & Coca-Cola” at Spokesman Club ladies night and McNair believes the song promotes prostitution (they asked me to sing that night and pre-approved the song but I still got in trouble for it)

One of the dumbest and controlling things the church does is to try and control every aspect of the member lives when it comes to Bible inquiry.  A person must never read any book outside the pre-approved lectionary that the COG leaders deem worthy.  Those books and articles are all penned by church leaders who claim to posses some kind of inspired knowledge (which they do not have.) Reading the Book of Enoch is not a faith destroyer as many of the cult leaders assume.  While it has been essentially discounted by many, it still is of interest to others.  There is nothing earth shattering about a group of friends sitting around and discussing a book.

3. In 2014 I invited two couples, close friends (or so I thought at the time but apparently I was wrong) to my home for a bbq to show them unconditional love because they had been suspended from church and were feeling discouraged. They had been suspended for reading the Book of Enoch and having private Bible studies which we were NEVER a part of but we loved them and wanted to support them because they were very discouraged and upset. We ALL expressed concern over the behavior of HQ’s ministry that night but these couples were Rod McNair’s friends so they got off unscathed while “speaking negatively of ministry” and “causing church division” was added to McNair’s file against me when he found out about our conversations. 

McNair has to have known that Bob Thiel has denied over and over again that Patrick was NOT the source of the Apartian information.  McNair was so filled with vengeance that he had to resort to anything he could find in order to smear the Scarborough's.

The interesting thing below is that an LCG minister testified under oath that the comments about Apartian were true!

And then lastly, 4. They blamed Patrick for being the source of information posted on cogwriter.com about Mr. Apartian. Bob Thiel emailed LCG, called LCG and posted on his blog that we were NOT his source (we subsequently found out WHO the source actually was) but LCG continued to pin this accusation on Patrick because they literally had NOTHING else to justify marking him. One LCG minister even testified under oath that the information posted on cogwriter was TRUE and that Mr. Apartian had actually made those statements to a handful of people in his last year of life. So they marked Patrick for TRUE information that he didn’t give Thiel!

McNair sounds like a petulant spoiled brat that has to stamp his feet and have a hissy-fit in order to cover up his insecurities. Being mean and nasty does not make you a leader.

Even though LCG may be celebrating that they "won" the lawsuit, the fact of the matter is they lost!  Big time.  It may look good in paper, but communally they lost in the eyes of the membership. People now know how truly debased they are in their treatment of members.  Grace and love are not qualities they possess.  Why should they when everything they believe is based upon Hebrew laws instead of following Jesus.