Leave it to a Church of God to control every aspect of one's life. Forget about free time, you must read the apostles messages. books and articles. How dare you lay around and enjoy a few days of not doing a damn thing!
Dennis Leap, the creepy Philadelphia Church of God minister, has this to say to any PCG members who might dare lay around on the front porch swing and do nothing this summer, particularly if it is a child.
“Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer—those days of soda and pretzels and beer—roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer—dust off the sun and moon and sing a song of cheer ….” So goes the refrain from a song made popular by Nat King Cole in the early 1960s. This refrain and the words of the song reflects the spirit of how most people plan to spend their summer months—being lazy and acting crazy.
When God saw fit to bring my wife and me into His Church, we learned that God designed the summer months for fruitful, joyful, productive and positive work! Think about it. Being lazy and crazy isn’t part of God’s plan any time of the year.
What about you? Are you allowing a song like “Those Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of Summer” guide your plans for the summer? More importantly, are you letting a song like that guide your plans for your children’s summer?Even the children of PCG cannot be lazy:
Herbert W. Armstrong taught God’s people how to approach the summer months when he established the Summer Education Program (sep). These summer camps, conducted in beautiful outdoor settings, emphasized education. Campers were not permitted to be lazy or crazy. Mr. Gerald Flurry raised the ruins of sep by sponsoring Philadelphia Youth Camp (pyc).
Summer is a time for education. Don’t let the productive months of summer get away from you and your children. Parents, get an education program started—today! It is really not that difficult to start and maintain an effective summer education program for your children—even your toddlers.Isolate those young children and toddlers inside in the mornings to do their required 1 hour of prayer and another hour of Bible Study. What the hell? What child needs to do this every day of the week?
Set a goal to read and discuss several proverbs every day. You should do some preparation to find the proverbs that most apply to your child’s specific needs or to events that have happened within the family recently.At least Creepy Leap says to take your children out into nature in the summer.
There is nothing more inspiring, relaxing or rejuvenating than camping along with fishing, hiking or swimming in lakes located in wild, unspoiled nature. The immense vistas of mountains, big skies and star-studded nights show the bigness and giving spirit of God. Teach your child that God wants to give him or her the best of everything. God’s stunning creation demonstrates this fact better than anything a man could come up with.Your children should read during the summer too. Not a bad idea until you see the appalling second paragraph below:
To promote the habit of reading, take your children on trips to your public library. Help them pick out several interesting books to read for the coming week. Be sure to encourage them to choose non-fiction books and only the finest fiction. Most public libraries maintain collections of both. Some of the best non-fiction books for children are biographies and autobiographies. The better biographies and autobiographies, such as Benjamin Franklin’s, will help your children learn from the examples of others.
Older children should be encouraged to include in their list of reading Church booklets, such as Pagan Holidays—or God’s Holy Days—Which?, The Ten Commandments and Which Day Is the Christian Sabbath?Most adults don't want to read this crap, let alone force your kids to do it! Every single one of those booklets is doctrinally unsound and poorly researched, oh wait...copied from Herbert Armstrong's poorly researched and doctrinally unsound booklets.
Another thing Creepy Leap says to do is put your child to work. Do like PCG does and use them as free slave labor at the cult compound in Edmond, Oklahoma.
One of the most important activities at pyc is called “campus improvement.” This activity provides each dorm an opportunity to work at improving God’s campus. It is thrilling for the campers to have that hands-on experience at headquarters. There is an important lesson for all parents here. Learning how to work effectively and hard is one of the most important parts of education. God the Father and Jesus Christ are workers (John 5:17). This summer, teach your child to work.If your child doesn't do the job well, make them do it over and over and over till they get it right. Always remind them that if they don't work, they don't eat!
When your child completes a task you require of them, be sure to check their effort. If his or her work is not up to par, make them do it until it is. Remember, your child will have an employer some day. I never had a boss that was as easy as my mother. When your child goes to work, he won’t either. You do not need to feel obligated to always pay your child for summer work. Remind them this is part of their summer education program. “[I]f any would not work, neither should he eat,” Paul taught the Thessalonians (2 Thessalonians 3:10). My father enforced this lesson regularly with my brothers and me when we were living under his roof.Children in Armstrongism were robbed of the ability to be a child. They were and still are required to emulate their ministers and act like mini-adults. Childhood innocence is sorely frowned upon and is even considered demonic. If your children dare cross any of the leader's paths you too can take them to the local mall and dump them so Child Services can take care of them. then, you can give all that money you have been wasting on your kids and give it to the FLurry's
