Sunday, March 18, 2018

"Every cult has its currency – ours was fear."



Medium Magazine has an excellent article up dated March 16, 2018 on what life was like growing up in the Worldwide Church of God.

I grew up in a cult.
And this is what it taught me about real life.

Go to the profile of Fleur Brown Fleur BrownEntrepreneur, writer, cause marketer. Passionate about the future of #media #entrepreneurship, freedom of identity & the rise of #personalbrand
Mar 16 

When my Mum lost her Dad in her early twenties, she was looking for answers and a soft place to land. A confusing time to be human, the 1970s was the era of the Vietnam War, equal rights and the disruption of all kinds of traditional values.
She found sanctuary in the Worldwide Church of God, an American fundamentalist religion that offered concrete answers for seekers; a road-map for the meaning of life, infused with a little self-help theory and some healthy eating tips. 
Aside from a conservative dress code and a ban on makeup, the church was full of fairly normal looking people. There were millions of followers at its peak — families big and small, rich and poor joined from almost every country in the world. 
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Like most cults, there was a gnostic layer to the sharing of “truth.” Our church masters cautioned us against sharing church secrets with school friends, neighbours or other outsiders — they were priviliged truths to be revealed when they decided someone had been properly ‘converted.’ As a consequence, I kept my mouth closed at school and the church theories were rarely challenged. Later, I was often labelled mysterious and secretive. It took me years to realise this was not an intrinsic part of my nature, but something I had developed in an attempt to not draw attention to myself. 
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Niceness is next to godliness
Another characteristic of cult life is the absence of authentic self expression. Cults have a powerful unifying mono ‘cult-ure.’ In ours, everyone was magnetically nice.
“Everyone is so …(can’t quite put my finger on it … ah there it is) … so nice!” was the comment I frequently heard growing up from neighbours, school friends partners — anyone who had a brush with someone from our Church group. It felt like heaven on earth for new recruits; who were often battered and bruised by life’s tribulations.
The indoctrination process was the best part of being in the group. New people were invited to dinner, quizzed intensely about their past, offered home cooked meals and support around the home, had their dance card filled with happy social events. Love bombed.
Niceness let the barriers down. It also stopped the appropriate boundaries from being in place whenever members felt uncomfortabke. But that seemed a small price to pay to fit in. In a dog-eat-dog world, who doesn’t want to be part of an intoxicatingly nice community — even, any community?
That community feeling was the thing I missed acutely when I left … and studies show this is a big reason many people exit one cult to join another. Sometimes the ‘cult’ is a corporation with a similar restrictive culture. 
This niceness nirvana cannot be comfortably sustained. There was a ‘Stepford’ feeling to our community — and our emotional kaleidoscope had a limited spectrum. Some feelings were more spiritual than others – self-reflection, sadness and anxiety were encouraged and rewarded with praise – anger, joy and celebration were considered self indulgent, less spiritual, Ungodly. Birthday celebrations were an example – the pinnacle of self focus – and were banned, along with the ‘pagan’ celebrations of Christmas and Easter. That caused me no end of embarrassment at school and kept me away from forging deep connections with my non church peers.

Read the entire article here:   I grew up in a cult.  And this is what it taught me about real life.

Restored Church of God Ministerial Exodus


Here are the ministers and wives who have left David C Pack's Restored Church of God in the last couple of years....



William Behrer
Jackie Behrer
Charles Bishop
Pat Bishop
John Capozzolo
Margaret Capozzolo
Scott Clark
Kevin Denee
Jennifer (Pack) Denee
Jonathan Dicen
Retzel Dicen
Robert Farrell
Gary Goebel
Donna Goebel
Bob Harrington
Gail Harrington
Gabriel Lischak
Davina Lischak
Tom Marchione
Anthony Mew
Melanie Mew
Joe Milich
Allison Milich
Justin Palm
Stacey Palm
Daniel Quimby
Nicole Quimby
Jake Toews
Robin Toews
James Turck
Steve Wazny
Candice Wazny 
Mike Webster
Jill Webster

Saturday, March 17, 2018

A Most Dangerous and Tenacious Church Myth



Just what exactly is so safe about The Place of Safety?  Of all the motivators to remaining in your seats, The Place of Safety is always the place one will not make it to unless they abide in church, depending on which one of course. Even growing up as Presbyterian we sang "Abide in ME!" meaning Jesus but that theme seems to escape those who foolishly incorporate The Place of Safety mantra and myth into their teachings.

Why on earth anyone would believe that moving to a waste howling wilderness within striking range of...oh everyone in the Middle East,  is a safe place to await the Don't Count On It Second Coming of Jesus?  Gerald Waterhouse touted the POS as "A Place of Final Training" but that was before distance learning became are safer option.  Even as a pastor, and I hated this fairytale that always lurked in the recesses of Churchthink , "oh hid me in the grave until thy wrath is past" always seemed easier to swallow and endure.  I liked the "In a moment . In the twinkling of an eye, we shall be changed" far more and as more practical than this POS nightmare. I never had any intention to uttering the words "Herbert Armstrong has announced it is time to flee..." ever.  It was always a repulsive and dangerous teaching my mind and thought it would die with HWA.


SIQ and YE SHALL FIND

Taught as the only way in, the Siq gave the perfect impression of how safe it would be.

Still safe....single file please

Well, ok. Maybe it was just an impression .

Once you got in...oh...Hmmm.  I thought it had a cover or something over it.

Looks like easy pickings  for modern weapons of warfare and I'm not seeing why this place is so safe yet. Can we stay in America and go to Zion National Park or Bryce Canyon?



The moment you "flee"  you become what the world knows as refugees and you will live like them...waiting...waiting...waiting....

We know the Exodus stories, and they are just stories but you won't really get water from a rock. You'll wait for it like all refugees do

It may get messy so you'll be hearing much about Captains of 50's and 100's . They'll probably have yellow plastic grocery bag armbands.

Get over your clothes won't need washing or your shoes wear out

If your lucky.  "You said you'd bring the tents!"

You'll end up saying "I wish we had died back in North Carolina, Ohio or Oklahoma!

I understand all the apologetics for just how safe and how good Petra will be all taken from the Israelite's sojourn in the Wilderness.  Shoes that don't wear out, clothes that last for generations, food from heaven and firewood from...from...somewhere.   Be very careful you don't complain about anything . When the Israelites said "we thirst" which seems a natural thing in a waste howling wilderness with no water marching by day to who knows where, Moses had a fit beat a rock and ended up being told he was not going to make it into the Promised Land for his attitude.  Now if the leader mucks up and gets barred from the "It was a conditional promise land", what chance do you have?  Remember if you take the analogy too far, no one who originally left Egypt made it.  

(The Exodus never really happened as reported)

All one picture is worth a thousand words aside, the teaching of The Place of Safety is a dangerous belief that can go very very wrong quickly.  Your Apostles and Prophets are making scripture mean what it never meant and certainly never means for YOU TODAY.  


If you are bound and determined to find a place of safety and final training waiting out the last three and half years before Jesus comes back for sure because Ron Weinland, Dave Pack, Bob Thiel or Gerald Flurry have it all figured out....

May I suggest:

The Columbia River Gorge between Washington State and Oregon?  It is just outside Portland and you can tour all the HWA hotspots of Church history such as The Hinson Baptist Church where HWA was baptized or even go to the Portland Public Library and sit in the very rooms where it all started.  At least you'll have something to do.