United Church of God: Why do so many UCG members stand by criminals in their midst?

If you watched the video about Stephen Allwine (Web of Lies: The Murder of Amy Allwine) that was posted earlier, you would see mentioned several times that the courtroom was filled up almost every day with United Church of God members who were there to support Stephen during his murder trial. You will also hear the prosecutors surprised by this large show of force. The video even shows them showing up at the trial with their faces obscured.

Many years earlier than this, United Church of God members showed up in force at another trial for a stalker that was harassing COG women. They too showed up to support the stalker and essentially were blaming the victims as the cause of the problem and not the stalker.

Several years ago, in Bluefield WV, a UCG woman who was a bank manager, embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from the bank she worked at.  She essentially stole the life savings of hundreds of elderly people and bank account holders. She bought her husband numerous motorcycles and cars,  that he paraded through the town daily on, they also built a fancy house.  They built a permanent church building for her local UCG congregation which was alter repossed by the govenment. At Feast times she passed out envelopes filled with money in them to help the less fortunate UCG members.  UCG members flocked to her trial and supported her like she did no wrong.

This does not include some of the other court trials that I have heard mentioned over the years where UCG members were on trial and regular member supported them, regardless of their crimes.

Why are they so supportive?

Dave Pack Denies He Was Ever A Source Of Controversy

"Who? Me?" should really be Dave's mantra.  He has never done anything wrong in his entire life.

Some today assert that Church Administration, and later Ministerial Services, perceived Mr. Pack as a source of controversy in his pastorates, and that there was a necessity to frequently transfer him through the years to alleviate problems he had supposedly created. Had this been the case, and this should be obvious, he would not have been systematically promoted in 1976, 1977 and 1981 (and other times later).

On the contrary, he was viewed as a pastor who could reorganize and stabilize injured congregations.

The expanded Rochester/Syracuse/Buffalo pastorate spanned five and a half hours east to west, and three hours north to south, from Dunkirk to beyond Utica, and from the St. Lawrence River (Canadian border) down to Cortland, New York, below Syracuse.

Now pastoring almost 1,100 brethren, the Packs drove almost nonstop to attend three Sabbath services each week, on top of giving Bible studies and directing Spokesman Clubs and youth programs, as well as also making many visits each week. He did have two unordained, but full-time, ministerial assistants to help.

Dave Pack takes credit for turning HWA against Stan Rader

Is there anyting in the COG that Dave has not stuck his nose into and taken credit for?

Three months later, in mid-April 1979, Mr. Armstrong’s chief legal counsel was interviewed on the popular CBS television news program 60 Minutes.

At a point, after a heated argument with reporter Mike Wallace, the man stormed off the set, warning before the camera, “You’re on my list!”

Mr. Pack was far from the only minister who was terribly disturbed by what had happened on national television. A month later, at a regional youth track meet in Hershey, Pennsylvania, three field pastors vented their frustrations to him.

“If Mr. Armstrong doesn’t do something about this man, the Church will be destroyed,” they said with one voice. “You’ve got to say something.” Of course, many other ministers felt the same, but these three actually urged Mr. Pack to speak up to Mr. Armstrong. Their request was formal.

Convinced he had a duty to apprise Mr. Armstrong of the damage being done by the Church’s attorney, Mr. Pack called the Pastor General the next day.

“Mr. Armstrong, we have a major problem brewing with [name],” he warned.

Mr. Armstrong became angry. (He had been satisfied with the interview, not knowing he had been given an edited version of the program! He had no idea that all of America had witnessed a representative of the Church engage in an emotional outburst and seem to threaten a prominent journalist.)

“Dave, you just have to understand that he has a temper,” Mr. Armstrong said, “and when he shows it to me or raises his voice to me, he always regrets it and apologizes. You need to extend him the milk of human kindness.”

Unsure of how to get his point across, and very much now on the “hot seat,” Mr. Pack simply stated, “Mr. Armstrong, I just don’t understand how he is allowed to scream at you. People know that he does this. I would never dream of even talking back, let alone raising my voice at Christ’s apostle.”

His words stopped Mr. Armstrong in his tracks.

“You’re right!” the Pastor General said with some volume as he made an instant 180-degree turn in thinking. “If he ever screams at me again, it will be the last time!”

Mr. Armstrong’s perspective was the same as most others. He had grown accustomed to things a certain way. However, when someone presented him with the reality of the situation, he realized, “That’s right…That can’t happen. What is being tolerated here?”