Wayne Turgeon: Trust the ministry and learn to say "Yes, sir!" and do what your minister instructs

One of the most abusive ministers in the Philadelphia Church of God has been Wayne Turgeon. From kicking teenagers out of homes to breaking up marriages, he has left a path of destruction in his wake through the years.

Turgeon has decided to write an article about "trust". Given the track record of Gerald and Stephen Flurry and many other PCG ministers, trust is NOT a quality that any of these men exemplify.

The only thing members in PCG are allowed to "trust" is the ministry. None of them are ever able to make proper decisions to do what's right.  They aren't even allowed to study the Bible and form their own opinions without PCG ministers telling them what to believe and how to act. It is all about control from birth to the grave. Trust them, they know what is good for you!

“[W]hen Jesus Christ gives a command or instructions to you through His Word or through this very Work of God—as you prove it in the Bible—do you realize that God’s laws and instructions always work out right? That you can and should have total faith in living by them? That God stands behind them and backs them up? That whenever you have realized or proved that any command or instruction comes from God you should learn to automatically say: ‘Yes, sir!’ and do what your Creator instructs?” (Plain Truth, February 1966).

The PCG endlessly reinforces the command to PCG members that whatever ministers say has to be obeyed. They are never wrong. If a minister says it, Christ approves it!

We need to focus our minds on important things, including truth and honesty (Philippians 4:8). Our righteous thoughts need to become our inspiring, encouraging and uplifting words. Those words need to translate into our beneficial and fruitful actions. We must live and breathe truth and honesty, even as both virtues expire in Satan’s society. Imagine the World Tomorrow when such conduct won’t be the exception, but the rule!

Please tell me WHEN has the PCG EVER "practiced truth and honesty?"

What truly matters is how much we are becoming like God. When we are Christ’s Bride for eternity, we will think and act as He does. That means we must make ourselves ready today!

There is no way in hell that the PCG ever acted like or thought like Jesus. It simply has never happened. Telling people to leave their rebellious daughter at the mall so someone else can take care of her is not acting like Jesus or the god they claim to follow.

In the end, God will give this magnificent reward to those to whom He can say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithfulover a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things” (Matthew 25:21, 23). That should highly motivate us to be faithful to God, trustworthy in even the smallest matters!

Think about the many great responsibilities God has given us and is expecting from us even today. That shows that He already trusts us, that we’ll finish His Work—and He is giving us opportunities to grow in this trait even more.

The only "responsibility" PCG members and COG members have ever been entrusted with is tithe paying.  It is always about the money and nothing else. They "need" that money in order to finish their precious "works."

What big projects is He preparing us for after our warning commission is complete? We should be motivated to live up to His expectations of us and be unified as a trustworthy people—the very elect, firstfruits of God, privileged to be at headquarters in Jerusalem! Our profession is striving to overcome, qualifying for the high offices God is preparing for us. We don’t want to let God down!

If these bastardizers of the word ever paid attention to the words of Jesus and that inconvenient new covenant, they would see that the "qualification" work has already been done.  No PCG member, or any other COG member, needs to be constantly beating themselves up wondering if they are doing things right.

We are being prepared to rule with Jesus Christ. Now is the time to prove our trustworthiness. God has done His part. We must do ours—and invest in our God Family trust!

UCG: Because we are such great communicators, we need to take advantage of a captive audience with people homebound because of COVID-19

Those fun boys in Cincinnati are excited to get their message out to all of the people of the world who are homebound and stressed out because of the COVID-19 pandemic. After all, the more stressed people are the more receptive they are to UCG preachers. WUT?

President’s Report—Victor Kubik

President Victor Kubik greeted everyone and answered submitted questions from Council members through this section of the meetings. President Kubik commented on the coronavirus health issues and also the concern for the economy. We need to be aware of this and prepare for possible consequences as a Church.

How is the United Church of God (UCG) reacting to the coronavirus crisis? The safety of our brethren has been our number one priority and we are striving to keep our members from danger.

Here are some of the questions submitted to President Kubik:

What has the administration seen during the coronavirus that the UCG should give more attention to?

Answer: We have done well canceling services when we did. We had a meeting with pastors and are staying in tune with government officials in regards to reopening.

What is the UCG doing well during this coronavirus?

Answer: We are doing well in communication.

What can the UCG do better?

Answer: We can have better contact with the community.

What are some opportunities during this time?

Answer: We can preach the gospel in a more stressed environment which is usually more effective. We need to preach all aspects of the gospel message that are seen in Acts:3:19-26.

We cannot have a studio audience for the Beyond Today episodes at this point, so it may be a good time to look at a different format to point to God’s truth. We shouldn’t waste this opportunity. We know God is leading His Church.

We need to look at ways to cut finances when and where possible for best case and worse case scenarios.

President Kubik concluded by mentioning that the home office continues to function effectively during this time even though only a few were there in person.

Faith of Our Fathers: A Racist Legacy

FAITH OF OUR FATHERS: A RACIST LEGACY

A friend forwarded me an article today that appeared in The Atlantic at the end of last month. White Christian America Needs a Moral Awakening by Robert P. Jones encourages Christians to confront "their faith’s legacy of racism." Unfortunately, this article will not be well-received by many of the folks it was intended to address. The notion that their forefathers' spiritual views were tainted with racism - a racism which influenced the faith that was passed on to their descendants - is anathema to many of them.

Nevertheless, Jones is on a firm historical footing when he talks about the overt support for (or ambivalence toward) black slavery and notions of white supremacy which existed within most Christian denominations of the 18th and 19th Centuries. Moreover, this racist underpinning was not confined to Protestant denominations - European Catholics were convinced that it was their mission to convert the ignorant black and brown heathens of the world and save them from roasting in hell. In short, the notion that white Europeans were specially favored by God was widespread and extended to all areas of human endeavor (be they cultural, political, economic or religious).

Of course, this is not the history that has been taught or emphasized in most American classrooms. And Jones points out that this fairytale version of history has not been confined to the narrative we tell ourselves about our nation as a whole - that it has also extended to the story which these denominations tell about themselves! He writes: "Underneath the glossy, self-congratulatory histories that white Christian churches have written about themselves—which typically depict white Christians as exemplars of democratic principles and pillars of the community—is a thinly veiled, deeply troubling past. White Christian churches have not just been complacent or complicit in failing to address racism; rather, as the dominant cultural power in the U.S., they have been responsible for constructing and sustaining a project to protect white supremacy. Through the entire American story, white Christianity has served as the central source of moral legitimacy for a society explicitly built to value the lives of white people over Black people. And this legacy remains present and measurable in the cultural DNA of contemporary white Christianity, not only among evangelicals in the South but also among mainline Protestants in the Midwest and Catholics in the Northeast."

Jones goes on to underscore the fact that these racist proclivities continue to exercise a powerful influence on white Christians of today. Is there any hope of changing this dynamic? He writes: "Today, 400 years after the first enslaved African landed on our shores, and more than 150 years after the abolition of slavery in America, a combination of social forces and demographic changes has brought the country to a crossroads. We white Christians must find the courage to face the fact that the version of Christianity that our ancestors built, “the faith of our fathers” as the hymn celebrates it, was a cultural force that, by design, protected and propagated white supremacy. We have inherited this tradition with scant critique, and we have a moral and religious obligation to face the burden of that history and its demand on our present. Inaction is a tacit blessing on white supremacy’s continued presence as a Christian habit and virtue. Doing nothing will ensure that, even despite our best conscious intentions, we will continue to be blind to the racial injustice all around us."

Many of our forefathers worshipped together regularly and thought of themselves as Christians. They didn't see any irony in doing so while simultaneously taking land away from Native Americans and enslaving their black brethren. Like them, white Americans of today often fail to see the incongruity in proclaiming their faith in Jesus Christ and accepting and supporting the system that their forefathers created. The entire thesis of Jones' article is that white Christians must eventually confront this incongruity for the sake of their own souls.

He wrote: "If we are finally going to live into the fullness of the promise of liberty and justice for all Americans, we will have to recover from our white-supremacy-induced amnesia. Confronting historical atrocities is indeed difficult, and at times overwhelming. But if we want to root out an insidious white supremacy from our institutions, our religion, and our psyches, we will have to move beyond forgetfulness and silence. Importantly, as white Americans find the courage to embark on this journey of transformation, we will discover that the beneficiaries are not only our country and our fellow nonwhite and non-Christian Americans, but also ourselves."

Miller Jones