Living in the___________

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Jesus Flash Christ!

Jesus "The Flash" Christ goes to the Father's throne only millions of miles from here....

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David Hulme, Soon to be new Ambassador Without Portfolio?

Church of God News has this up about David Hulme.

David Hulme’s ‘Vision’

As the church that David Hulme founded slides slowly from obscurity into oblivion, he is seeking to use his accumulated knowledge and diplomatic expertise to bring peace to the world.

His vision is “to become a renowned diplomat to establish peace among international entities” [Crunchbase], because he is “the ultimate resource for all matters about foreign policy” [Twitter].

Why has the Church of God created so many puffed up men who think they are something so superfantabulous that the world needs to hear what they have to say?  COGNews is right in describing Hulme's church as one sliding "from obscurity into oblivion."  It is a sad day on South Marengo in Pasadena when Hulme has to realize that Bob Thiel's little personality cult is doing far more than he is or has ever done! 

He spent 10 years studying International Relations at the University of Southern California, with an emphasis on the Middle East, in order to obtain a doctorate.

What work experience has fitted him for this role?

David Hulme gained a BA degree from Ambassador College, Bricket Wood, and served as a minister in the Worldwide Church of God in the UK, South Africa, Canada and the USA.

He rose to prominence in 1986, when the WCG’s new pastor general, Joseph W. Tkach, ordained him as an evangelist, and appointed him, Richard Ames and David Albert as presenters of The World Tomorrow TV broadcasts.

In 1995 he was elected to be the first President of the United Church of God, the largest breakaway group from the WCG. In 1998 he was removed from this position by the UCG’s Council of Elders for unauthorized spending that had plunged the church into serious debt.

He then left United, drawing away around 3000 members to his new church, the Church of God, an International Community.

He launched a quarterly magazine, Vision, which was printed on very high quality paper. The magazine was almost entirely secular in content, with no mention that it was being sponsored by a church.

David Hulme claimed that the new church would be more active than UCG in preaching the gospel, but in 2013 several of his ministers had finally had enough, and left to form a new church, with probably close to 1000 people.

Stephen Elliott, wrote, in his resignation letter to David Hulme in December 2013: “Our membership has declined, not grown. After 15 years and an estimated expense for Vision of $3+ million dollars for salaries, advertising, publishing, design, shipping, PR, video, travel and whatever, there has been no fruit from Vision or the Vision website. The only new members, other than children of members, have come because of a personal relationship with a member – not because of Vision.”

In 2016 the magazine was reduced to a website version, which is actually just a collection of 5 or 6 articles.

Three early videos – Quest for the Real Paul, Cheating God out of Christianity and Message to the Seven Churches – were filmed on location in the Middle East. These are well produced and worth viewing, but very expensive to make. Latterly, his Insight videos are much shorter and filmed in a studio.

David Hulme promotes himself, but not his church, posting his personal profile on various websites dedicated to business professionals.

With Hulme it has ALWAYS been about him. When he was working in Pasadena he thought he as the most magnificent man to ever walk the dichondra covered grounds of the campus.  He was in his element when he was put over the Ambassador Foundation and got to hobnob with performers, celebrities and dignitaries.  With his British accent, he was the slick and polished face of the Foundation.

If you go to David Hulme’s page at LinkedIn (a social networking website), you find that he describes himself as the President of Vision Media, and clicking on the link to his ‘personal website’ takes you to Vision.org. It’s not a church website, as far as he is concerned.

Like Herbert Armstrong, apparently presenting himself as a minister of God is a total embarrassment and a certain door slammer when he imagines himself as a future "diplomat."

“David Hulme is publisher of the quarterly online journal, Vision (vision.org), president of Vision Media Productions and chairman of Vision Foundation International.”

He lists his previous experience as:

• 1977-1979 Circulation Manager (Africa) of Quest Magazine

Although Quest was owned by the Worldwide Church of God, TIME magazine described it as: “nonetheless thoroughly secular. Armstrong gave editorial control to Robert Shnayerson, 55, a former TIME senior editor and Harper’s editor in chief, who dedicated the magazine to what he called ‘the pursuit of excellence’ in fields as diverse as mountain climbing and genetic research.” Herbert Armstrong closed down the publication when Shnayerson declined to modify his editorial policy.

• 1986-1995 Vice-President of Ambassador Foundation(David Hulme formerly described AF on LinkedIn as a “Non-Profit Organization, Management industry”.)

Ambassador Foundation carried out some charitable works, but Ambassador Auditorium’s performing arts program was not one of them.

Notice what COGNews says below as they point out how Hulme covers up his Church of God connections.

• There is no mention of being a presenter of the WCG’s TV program, The World Tomorrow, 1986-1994. 

• There is no mention of being the President of the United Church of God, 1995-1998. 

• President of Vision Media, 1998- (not President of a church). 

There is a mention of the church on the Vision website (if you search for it):
“Vision.org is sponsored and funded by the Church of God, an International Community. 

The Church does not intend this site to convert readers to its beliefs …” 

As Stephen Elliott noted above, David Hulme succeeded in not converting readers – but surely that was not the wish of the church members?

If David Hulme is so embarrassed by his connections to the Church of God then he needs to admit that to his few remaining followers, shut down his group and set them free to regain their lives unfettered by some of his draconian legalistic rules.