Sunday, October 14, 2018

Why is it not ok to dehumanize your neighbor but ok to dehumanized church members?



The Philadelphia Church of God has the following article, by Brad McDonald, on their website:  The Fatal Consequences of Dehumanizing Your Neighbor.  This is coming from a church that regularly dehumanizes its members and youth, so much so that people are committing suicide.  From its spiritual bankrupt ruling on disassociation with family members (parents, grandparents, children, spouses), to its morally bankrupt sermons.

The Oxford dictionary defines dehumanize as: “the process of depriving a person or group of positive human qualities.” 
To dehumanize a person or group is to stop recognizing the features that identify them as human—their natural rights, their thoughts and emotions, their familial and social relationships—to the point that people consider them to be like an animal or even an inanimate object.        
History is laden with examples of humans dehumanizing one another and the sickening consequences. Recall Adolf Hitler’s dehumanization of Jews, whom he referred to as “rats” and “parasites.” Jews didn’t live in homes, he said, but in “nests.” Like dogs, the Jews traveled in “packs.” During the war, Hitler had Jews herded into camps and branded with a number. Hitler considered the Jews to be animals, and this view, naturally, allowed him to treat them as such. 

Harvard University psychologist Herbert Kelman has studied the effects of dehumanization. When a victim is no longer considered human, he wrote, “the principles of morality no longer apply to them and moral restraints against killing are more readily overcome.” Deprive a foe of his or her status as a human and it becomes much easier to persecute, torture and kill him. History shows that dehumanization is often an inevitable step toward unimaginable suffering, violence, torture and mass murder. 

Since when has the Philadelphia Church of God been a "moral" church?  It is another COG that is founded upon rebellion, theft, and despicable behavior. From rebellion against the mother church to stealing tithe money and the works of Jules Dervaes and passing them off as channelled information through Gerald Flurry. When they do things like this why else would they feel justified in ripping families apart and literally killing its own members by driving them to suicide?

Notice the following from McDonald:

In the end time, men will be “without natural affection.” Many will be cold, heartless, without compassion or empathy. And this lack of natural affection for fellow human beings will make them capable of committing extreme acts of violence. Prophecies in Isaiah 1-3 and Ezekiel 7 talk about America being plagued by race wars and civil unrest.
While he is discussing the current political scene in the United States, the first two sentences above are a perfect description of how the PCG operates. The leadership is cold hearted and calloused towards its members, totally heartless as it demands families turn their backs on each other and friends upon friends. As for compassion and empathy, when has the Church of God as a whole, EVER practiced this towards its members?
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

I am commissioned to BLOT OUT the spots and iron out the wrinkles in the church....

submitted by SHT


So lets get this straight.  Herbert saw it as his commision to BLOT out any COG member that did not follow HIS edicts, especially those not tithing 10%. That became a MAJOR SIN in Herb's eyes!  

Considering tithing is NOT a New Covenant command, it is still amazing the COG had to determine it was a sin to not pay it.  

Everything in the law-based church was a MAJOR sin.  Everything imaginable was used as a weapon to keep people living in fear of being turned away at the gates of Petra.  

Fear is the greatest legacy of the Church of God. Not things like grace and mercy, but FEAR. Death ending fear that is meant to keep people in submission.  It is still the tool today of the merchants of the law in the church. 

Damnation and death is the order of the day.


I am simply indignant to all of this UNCHRISTIAN hostility!

graphic: SHT

Does anyone today believe that if HWA were still alive that he would be defending bellowing fools like James Malm or crybaby-whiners like Bob Thiel?  Can you imagine what he would do with Gerald Flurry and Dave Pack! HWA would drag their pathetic asses to Tuscon and give them a good dressing-down. and then kick them out the door for rebellion.