Bob Thiel on Happy Satanday!

Throughout life, the typical year of an Armstrongite or a child born in Armstrongism is pretty bland. Besides the annual year-after-year COG traditions, most celebrations are shunned, banned, or ignored. Birthdays have never been any different.

Of course, our doubly-blessed prophet Bob Theil of the improperly-named "Continuing Church of God" continues assaulting the practice of avoiding birthdays within the Church - this time, those who celebrate birthdays with - you ready for this? Satanism.

He continues to try everything in his glorious scholarly ability to point out what he considers valid reasons why birthdays are so dastardly evil. He looks into as many historic sources as possible to prove his already set in stone bias, to confirm his position. From astrology to Catholic theologians to now even trying to pull out the Satanism card - he keeps hitting the birthdays with his foam sledgehammer over and over and over again. It's the same song and the same story - even though he clearly admits the Bible has no specific commands that prohibit the celebration of birthdays! His latest drivel clearly seems to attempt to provoke fear among people that they might be inviting demons just because they are honoring the day of someone's birth. 

Of course, this is absolutely and totally ridiculous. Celebrating a birthday has nothing to do with either astrology, or the writings of Catholicism, and to even compare it with the practices of Satanists is beyond absurd. It's just plain ridiculous. And here's why.

The celebration of a birthday - especially for a child - is an act of love, acknowledging thanksgiving and gratefulness to God for another year of life for a person. It is a time of family and friends to gather and reflect on the year, enjoy friends and fellowship, give gifts of recognition, and enjoy a great time. Not only this - it's absolutely helpful to help build a sense of belonging, self-esteem, and value among friends and family. It is thrilling to see friends and family come together on this special day, to acknowledge that you - you as a person - are valued, and are loved.

More than this, it is a freedom that all people have a right to choose on their own as to if, how, and when and why they should or shouldn't celebrate it. Certain personalities may not want to have a birthday celebration - and that's fine. Certain persons may benefit from one - to help them out of a depression, or out of a bad time - or to just know that they are valued. Whatever is done, as long as it is done in love toward one another - against such there is no law. Perhaps this is why the Bible never mentions it - because it's personal! It is a decision that can only be determined by a person and a family. It is not a theological issue, or an issue any church needs to get their nose bent out of shape over.

The bottom line is: Because birthdays have no specific command for or against it, Bob should keep his unordained, self-appointed opinions to himself. But since he will not, I would hope that any who read it will recognize that it is their decision, their lives, their families, and is solely between them and the God whom they serve. Birthdays can be of great value if done in the spirit of love to one another. It's time that members of the Churches of God take back their lives from those who do everything they can to dictate decisions people are more than capable of making for themselves.

submitted by SHT

Are the COG's Fundamentalists?

Roger Olsen, a writer on Patheos has an entry up with the title: "Who’s Really a “Fundamentalist?” Again—the American Media Gets Religion Wrong".

He questions, rightly so, how the term "fundamentalist" is tossed around by the press and others when labelling religious groups. He goes on to explain how the word is used to label religious extremists of any religion and conservatives. It is true that the label does not apply because true fundamentalists are defined as thus:

Anyone who knows anything about fundamentalism knows that it arose in America (with simultaneous corresponding movements in Great Britain and Canada) as a militant (not violent) re-assertion of Protestant Christian doctrines in the face of the rise of liberal Protestantism.

What makes his posting interesting is that he uses the United Church of God as an example.  He apparently has relatives in UCG.

Most recently a prime time American television “crime documentary program” called the United Church of God—which follows the teachings of the late Herbert W. Armstrong—a “fundamentalist church.” True fundamentalists would consider any of the denominations that follow Armstrong’s teachings a cult (in the theological sense of the word). (The United Church of God was formed by former members of the Worldwide Church of God (now named Grace Community) when that denomination changed its theology be orthodox and evangelical—after the death of founder Armstrong. (Nothing I say here about the United Church of God is meant in any way to insult or demean it or its members. I have cousins who are members of the UCG. I only mean to point out that its doctrines are not consistent with true, historical fundamentalism.) Earlier in the two hour episode the presenter of the mystery referred to the church as “strict.” I assume, although I remain open to correction, that the writers of the program consider any “strict church” fundamentalist.

There are many problems with this use of “fundamentalist” but the main one I want to point out here is that this is simply dumb. I mean, it is part of the overall and general “dumbing down” of American culture about religion. There are too few labels and categories used and the ones they use become too “thin” to be very descriptive. To call the United Church of God “fundamentalist” is to loosen the label and category “fundamentalist” from history and theology entirely. It becomes nothing more than a label for any religious group that really takes its beliefs and life standards seriously. In that sense, then, one could label some liberal Protestant churches and people “fundamentalist!”

What spurred this on was the 48 Hours recent piece on the murder Amy Allwine by her husband, a UCG elder.

Most know very little, almost nothing, about any church or denomination other than their own (if they have one). Those who are “nones” are woefully ignorant of religion. And part of the blame for that falls on the media who do not even seriously attempt to “get it right” when talking about or portraying religious groups and individuals.

P.S. The particular “crime documentary” program in question here has my e-mail address; the producer knows me and could easily have suggested that the writer(s) e-mail me about The United Church of God so that they don’t misrepresent it. The fact that the married couple at the center of the story belonged to the United Church of God was played up as important to the particular segment of the two hour episode. So what would I have told them to say about it? “Strict” is okay, but I would have suggested they say it is a church that follows the teachings of the late Herbert W. Armstrong who was a famous televangelist considered unorthodox in his teachings by most Christians. That would have been informative. Calling it “fundamentalist” was misleading.

Of all the hundreds and hundreds of splinter groups of the old Worldwide Church of God, UCG is the more "liberal" of them all. even though they stick to the fundamental" roots of Herbert Armstrong.  UCG members tend to believe and practice their belief in many different ways and many times not in alignment with the "official" stance of the church.   This is what infuriates the Pharisaical legalists like James Malm and Bob Thiel.  They look at UCG as "Laodicean", lukewarm in their message and actions.

UCG certainly is not fundamentalist, extremist or even conservative in their beliefs. What exactly would you call them?

Wes White: HWA's Sex Book In Spanish

HWA’s Sex Booklet In Spanish

By Wes White

            1979 was a tough year for the Worldwide Church of God.  Lots of tumult.  Garner Ted had just bolted from the organization the year before -- taking hundreds of members with him and setting up the Church of God International.  Then in January 1979, the receivership crisis began.  

            History seems to have forgotten another traumatic event that exploded in the midst of those turbulent times.  I’m speaking of the WCG Spanish department’s translating of HWA’s book, “The Missing Dimension in Sex.”   

  

Sex?!?  Now you know the story is going to get interesting. 

            My late wife, Linda Hardy White, was the editor of “El Communicado,” the Spanish language version of “The Good News” magazine. (She died of ALS in 2003.)

            Linda learned that the translation of HWA’s sex book was far from accurate.  And it wasn’t just poorly done.  Worse than that, the translators were putting things into the Spanish version that actually went totally opposite of what HWA had originally written! 

As a pompous, true believer, I was indignant when she told me of this.   It’s not that I believed HWAs’ writings were necessarily sacrosanct.  In fact, I thought HWA’s two books on sex were quite silly and lacked any real understanding of sexual relations.  Here was this old man telling us what we should and shouldn’t be doing in the boudoir!   It was actually quite creepy. 

But I did believe back then that HWA was God’s anointed.  Obviously, I have repented of that today. 

            Linda’s problem with the translation was not so much indignation that people would go against God’s apostle.  Her concern was more academic.  She felt that no author’s translation should contain inclusions that went against his original work.   I mean, you don’t even have to be a Christian to buy into that.

            So Linda approached her boss, Fernando Barriga. He privately acknowledged to Linda that this translation was something that HWA would not approve, but he justified it by saying that HWA didn’t understand the Spanish-speaking culture.  Linda suggested that they at least explain this to HWA so he wouldn’t find out later – after the book was in the hands of hundreds (if not thousands) of people. 

            Barriga became furious.  He shouted at her, “I am a minister of Jesus Christ!  How dare you question my decisions?”

            Linda backed down and said, “No problem.  You’re the boss.  We’re done talking.”

            She then asked me to mention this to my boss, Raymond McNair, who was the deputy chancellor of the college.  I was Raymond’s flunky assistant.   Naturally, he became quite alarmed.  

So here is what we did.  Linda verbally translated portions of the book from Spanish to English onto a cassette tape.  Not the whole book.  Just the offending chapters.  Two of the Ambassador College secretaries then transcribed Linda’s words from the cassette into type-written pages.   McNair then took these pages to HWA in Tucson.   

            HWA was initially perplexed.  He found it unfathomable that the Spanish department would do something like this.  So he had another Spanish speaker confirm the accuracy of Linda’s translation.  

And then, boy, did it hit the fan!  Needless to say, HWA was livid when he realized what had been done to his sex book. 

            Within a few days, Linda and I found ourselves on a flight to Tucson to see “the apostle.”  We flew down there with Joe Tkach Sr and Kevin Dean.  (Another story for another time.)  We met with HWA in his home and Linda went over the whole thing with him.  

Since it had taken several days for him to confirm the accuracy of Linda’s translation, the Spanish department in Pasadena continued on with this project.  During this time, the booklet went to press.  I don’t know how many thousands of copies were printed before HWA lowered the boom. Once he closed down this project, Walt Dickinson had all the copies of the book thrown into a dumpster behind the Office Facilities building.  

I couldn’t resist taking one.  I believe I have the only one left in existence today.   Here are pictures of the opening pages. 

            Walt Dickenson was removed from the Spanish department and sent out to the field to pastor a couple of churches.  It was probably just as well.  He barely spoke Spanish.  He was in his position “because he was loyal.”   And I think because his family had once owned Dickinsons Jellies and Jams.  When the family sold out, a big chunk of the profits was donated to “the work.”

            Leon Walker (who at the time was Dean of Faculty) was placed over the Spanish department.  In a sense, he is still over it today.  He joined up with United at its inception and brought over many Spanish-speaking churches from Mexico and South America.  (Churches that had been CG7 for decades originally.  Another story.)  When United wanted to replace him as director over their Spanish department, he refused – saying that HWA put him over the Spanish work and that no man could remove him.  (Kinda like a third world dictator who is in power for life.)  So he left United and joined COGWA.  To this day, I believe he is still “over the Spanish work.”

            But I digress. 

            Looking back, I regret getting involved in this Spanish department dust-up.  In retrospect, so many of us now see how dysfunctional the WCG was.   I should have counselled Linda to just let it go and let things work themselves out.  Sooner or later, HWA would have learned about this mistranslation and dealt with it. Of course, then there would have been a bloodbath with people being fired, disfellowshipped, and marked. Linda was genuinely trying to save her departmental peers pain and humiliation.  

           

 If these folks would have listened, Walt Dickinson would have stayed in his job.  Even though he could barely speak Spanish. 

            Finally, why do I bring up these things from almost 40 years ago?  Two reasons:

            First, I like history.  I want to know the why’s of history.  When I read about a historical figure performing a certain action, I want to know why he took these steps that he did.  What motivated him to do that?   I want future historians to have as much information about the WCG as they can, so they can better understand it.  We must preserve our history – warts and all.  I continue to confess the imperfections of my past.  On this blog site and in sermons, I have admitted things about which I am embarrassed and ashamed.  History needs to know these things.

            Second, those of us who have survived those days need to learn lessons from what went on back then.  If we fail to learn from our past mistakes, we’re going to keep repeating them over and over again.  Too many of our organizations have brought their WCG dysfunctionality in with them. This cancer needs to be removed from the COG movement.  

Enough is enough.  Haven’t enough people been hurt already over the decades?  Let’s learn from the past so we can avoid hurting others today.  

            Wes White lives in Big Sandy TX and may be reached at 

wdwhite49@yahoo.com