Defending Sheldon Monson and What It Is Like To Be Mistreated By Living Church of God Leaders

 

I have gone back and forth several times about commenting here. But, ultimately, I feel that I need to comment more than I care about what people think about the fact that I'm posting on this forum. You see, although I am no longer a part of Armstrongism, my family is and I love and respect them all and would hate to upset them. That being said, I can't remain silent. 

When I read what LCG was doing to Sheldon Monson I was completely shocked. Not that LCG would over-react or be unfair, because that has come to be their standard method of operation, but that they would do this to Sheldon.

Reading about what they did to him has triggered so many emotions within me. Mr. Weston's letters literally create a physiological response within my being. The trauma that LCG inflicted upon me was the worst thing I have ever gone through and reading about Sheldon brought all that pain back up to the surface. I wonder if I will ever be completely free of it. 

I know exactly how it feels to lose all your friends. I know how shocking it is to be going along, thinking everything will work out after being called into to HQ to "talk" only to be blindsided by the men at LCG headquarters a few days later. I know what it feels like to be shunned by friends that you truly loved with all of your heart only because the Presiding Evangelist tells them they can't associate you any more without risking their own security within the church or worse. I know what it feels like to find out you've been marked via a FedEx letter instead of a personal phone call or meeting. I know exactly how Sheldon Monson,his wife and his kids feel right now and it pains me.

My heart goes out to Sheldon and his wife and children who were as integrated into LCG as much as anyone could possibly be. This is a wound from which they will never fully recover. Sure, they will move on and hopefully they learn from this but one can never really be the same after being butchered by the high and mighty men at LCG.

All of that aside, the comment that was burning within me so much that I ultimately decided to post on this forum, is in defense of Sheldon Monson.

I first met Sheldon and his wife when they were in ministerial training in Kansas City (2002 or 2003 I think). We became friends. He is a genuinely nice person. He is loving and sincere. He has a huge heart and is fun to be around. He loves God and is a talented speaker and excellent camp leader. More than anything he is genuine which is not a characteristic of minsters (or members) in LCG. Whether you liked it or not, he had the courage to be who he really was without pretense. In a church full of fake people, he had the bravery to be real. He was the same person to your face and behind your back. He was the same person whether he was with the COE or drinking beer with you on the back porch. Did I agree with everything he believed? Hell no! In fact I ardently disagreed with many of his beliefs. But I appreciated his candor, openness and courage to be who he is, like it or not. I loved that we could utterly disagree and openly debate topics and then continue to be friends. People like that are rare in this life. People like that are almost non-existent in Armstrongism. His reputation deserves to be defended. He's a good guy and Mr. Weston should be ashamed that he couldn't handle this situation more maturely with the Fruits of the Spirit.

I was shocked that hardly anybody had the courage to stand up and defend my husband and myself When LCG unjustly marked us. People who know our character sat in cowardly silence instead of saying something as they watched them destroy us and tell lie after lie about us. But guess what? I am not that person. I will defend those who deserve it. I will stand up when good people are brutalized by LCG headquarters. I will openly love those whom I chose to openly love and no man will ever have the authority to tell me who I can fellowship with. I am not afraid. I am ruled by God Almighty and not by the small, egocentric, insecure men that sell fear in an effort to control their members. I am free.

Sheldon Monson was one of very few in LCG that went to bat defending my husband and my character repeatedly during my fiasco with LCG in 2014. After that, he continued to make a concerted effort to remain our friend and to show us out-flowing love and concern. He was the only minister in all of LCG that acted like a shepherd. The rest of LCG ministry scraped us off their shoes like dog poop. Even ministers that knew us as well as a person can possibly know another and that includes Gerald Weston. Mr. Weston knows us better than most. He counseled us for marriage prior to leaving KC and he baptized my husband. He has stayed at my home more times than I can count. We are very well acquainted. Yet he did nothing because he lacks the fortitude to do the right thing. 

Sheldon was specifically told not to affiliate with my husband or me in 2014 but he refused to comply on the grounds that until we gave him a reason to believe we were bad people, he simply wouldn't cut us out of his life just because Rod Meredith told him to. if only more people in LCG thought like him! He continued to go out to dinner with us and check in on us even after the marking. One night we got busted by Jim Meredith who promptly ran to his daddy to tattle tail. When Rod Meredith called Sheldon up to his office the next day to ask if it was in fact true that he had gone out to dinner with us, he courageously said, "yes" and defended our character once again. That is the kind of character Sheldon Monson has. He is a stand-up guy. 

Is he perfect? No. But who is?

I know that ultimately this will be one of the best things that ever happens to Sheldon, even though it might be insanely painful. It was for me. I saw the true character of people who called themselves my friends. I saw the true character of men pretending to be ministers of God. My eyes were opened to the nature of these people. I have found happiness and I have a connection with the Almighty that I could have never attained in a church that can not even begin to conceive of the love of God because they themselves only understand conditional love. I am love. The love of Christ flows abounds within me and fills my being. I have a connection to Source that no man can ever alter. He is mine and I am His. I wish the best to all who read this. Be real. I promise it's worth it.

PS: If you are in a "church" that tells you not to be friends with good people, you might be in a cult
PPS: I would like to personally thank every minister and member of LCG for setting me free through your harsh and unloving actions. 

With Love & Light,
Elizabeth Scarborough

Gerald Weston Intends To Shut Down Live Streaming Of Sermons

 

Church of God News has this little tidbit up:

It used to be possible for anyone to view LCG’s live Sabbath services, but one of Gerald Weston’s first actions on taking control of LCG was to deny access to non-members.

Soon afterwards he took this a stage further: “We ask you, brethren, please do not share passwords outside of your area.”

In his sermon on August 8th he announced his intention to cut off livestream services even to members … “when this whole thing is over.”

“Some who are healthy, some who really could go to the feast just think, well, it’s just an option. Yes it is an option, in the sense of you have to make up your mind what to do. But there’s coming a time, brethren, when we have to come out of our basements, and there’s coming a time, when this whole thing is over, we’re going to have to cut off the livestreams to just anybody.

And I think we’ll have to do that because otherwise people will say, oh, I’m so comfortable here at home. Why do I have to dress up and go all the way over here? I would maintain that, when we assemble together over the internet, because everything is closed down, I’d say that’s still assembling together … but this is not what we want to do forever.”

Why not … if it’s still assembling together? What is he worried that his members might be doing?

Weston has to be one of the pettiest COG leaders out there.  Everything irritates this guy and causes him to lash out in anger. As usual, LCG members are at fault. Can they ever do anything right in this man's eye? 

Ever since Terry Ratzmann murdered seven LCG members during Sabbath services, LCG has sought to close down access to their sermons to the public. One of Meredith's sermons drove Ratzmann over the edge and the media sought to gain access to what was being preached. LCG clamped down tighter than an oyster shell. So much for the Good News that they claim to be proclaiming to the world!  How can anyone ever hear the message if they cant listen to the truth? None of their watered-down crap in their magazines preaches the Good News. I thought LCG was BOLDLY and without fear, preaching the truth? Instead, they cower and whimper in their little office building in Charlotte dreaming about the good old days when people obeyed the ministry regardless of what they said.

Adult Sabbath School: "And women shall rule over them"

Dr. Making It Mean What It Never Meant Bob is once again misunderstanding and misapplying the classic WCG concept of how to study the Bible.  You know,  "Line up line, line upon line, here a little, there a little..."

In his "Kamala Harris selected for VP" comments Thiel says, as we would expect from Old School WCG....

"The 2020 presidential election is featuring people who are against many aspects of biblical morality.

The Bible itself warns that if the children of Israel sinned and did not repent, the following would happen:

"As for My people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them..."  Isaiah 3:12"

Bob goes on, as to be expected, that the Bible warns us the time would come when female rulers as well as those not racially Israelite would come on the scene.  No really. He says this.  "While Barack Obama may have been about 1/2 Israelite descent, Kamala Harris is less so."  No really, he said that.

Bob then goes on to tell us that "since the time of Margaret Thatcher" he has felt likely that the USA would end up with a woman President.  Horrified, he goes on to note that women already rule as Prime Ministers in Australia and New Zealand and UK and Canada have had their Queens. I'll spare us the part about his fears about "Aliens rising up."

The fact that modern female Prime Ministers seem to do a much better job than their male counterparts escapes him. 

You can read his foolish Bronze Age misapplication of Isaiah 3:12 here:

https://www.cogwriter.com/news/prophecy/kamala-harris-selected-for-vp-by-dnc-here-is-more-from-and-about-her/

You can read the actual meaning and context of  "here a little, there a little, line upon line, precept upon precept" here:

https://armstrongismlibrary.blogspot.com/2017/01/dear-bobi-repeat.html

But to the meaning of Isaiah 3:12. 

And while I would not endorse the Israelite Bronze Age view of women as weak and troublesome so as to use their womanhood an analogy about how the men, rulers and priests were acting, it is generally understood that the concept or supposed "prophecy" is of a time to come when just before Jesus returns, women would rise to political positions over the lost, yet found Israelite nations thousands of years into the future.  That is lame and dishonest to the text and intent. 

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

As for my people, children are their oppressors - This refers, doubtless, to their civil rulers. They who "ought" to have been their "protectors," oppressed them by grievous taxes and burdens. But whether this means that the rulers of the people were "literally" minors, or that they were so in "disposition and character," has been a question. The original word is in the singular number (מעולל me‛ôlēl), and means a "child," or an infant. It may, however, be taken collectively as a noun of multitude, or as denoting more than one. To whom reference is made here cannot easily be determined, but possibly to "Ahaz," who began to reign when he was twenty years old; 2 Kings 16:2. Or it may mean that the "character" of the princes and rulers was that of inexperienced children, unqualified for government.

Are their oppressors - literally, 'are their exactors,' or their "taxers" - the collectors of the revenue.

And women rule over them - This is not to be taken literally, but it means either that the rulers were under the influence of the "harem," or the females of the court; or that they were effeminate and destitute of vigor and manliness in counsel. The Septuagint and the Chaldee render this verse substantially alike: 'Thy exactors strip my people as they who gather the grapes strip the vineyard.'

They which lead thee - Hebrew "They who bless thee, or call thee blessed." (See the margin.) This refers, doubtless, to the public teachers, and the false prophets, who "blessed" or flattered the people, and who promised them safety in their sins.

Cause thee to err - Lead you astray; or lead you into sin and danger."

And destroy - Hebrew "Swallow up."

Geneva Study Bible

As for my people, {k} children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they who lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths.

(k) Because the wicked people were more addicted to their princes than to the commandments of God, he shows that he would give them such princes, by whom they would have no help, but that they would be manifest tokens of his wrath, because they would be fools and effeminate.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 12. - As for my people. Return is now made to the sins of the dwellers in Jerusalem, and the first thing noted is that the people suffer from the childishness and effeminacy of their rulers. The rulers are called "oppressors" by the way here, the sin of oppression being dwelt on later (vers. 14, 15). Here the emphatic words are "children," "women." Children (see ver. 4). The rulers are "children," or rather "babes" - foolish, capricious, cowardly. It is not clear that any prince in particular is meant; rather, by the plural form, the upper class generally seems to be intended, as in Isaiah 1:10, 17, 23, etc. Women; comp. Herod., 8:88, where Xerxes says that "his men have shown themselves women, and his women men;" and see also Virg., 'AEneid '-

"O vere Phrygia, neque enim Phryges." The rulers were womanly, i.e. weak, wavering, timid, impulsive, passionate, and are therefore called actual "women." There is no allusion to female sovereigns. They which lead thee cause thee to err; or, they which direct thee lead thee astray. Professing to point out the right path, they led men away from it. Destroy the way; literally, swallow it up, or obliterate it.

Sorry Bob

Your racist and sexist defects are clearly on display in, yet again, making the Bible mean what it never meant or could.