Sabbath Day Journey: Chernobyl

There is a great new blog up about one man's journey through Armstrongism and out of the madness:

I turned 18 years old in Russia. What I wanted most at the time was to be a journalist. The jacket and the trip to Moscow seemed to be an auspicious start. Immediately after high school I went to work in the editorial department of the Worldwide Church of God, famous or infamous for its widely circulated magazine, The Plain Truth. I landed a job as an assistant editor for the church’s magazine for teenagers. They issued me a laminated press card just in time to declare my occupation as ‘journalist’ on my first passport.

When I wrote about the trip for the student newspaper at Cal State L.A. it was full of snark and posturing. I had a costume, and I struck a pose. I was a worldly correspondent, like Mel Gibson in The Year of Living Dangerously. I had even secretly snapped a few photos from the roof of our hotel in Moscow, a transgression that could have had serious consequences. In my imagination I was a true journalist, not like the propagandists at Pravda or Izvestia.

But even then I was embarrassed by my employer. I was an unquestioning believer in the doctrine of the One True Church, but I hated the name of our flagship publication. For me, the The Plain Truth was too cheesy, too on-the-nose. Not worldly enough. (I might have noticed that Pravda means Truth in Russian, but I didn’t see the irony then.)

A decade later, as I lived through the collapse of our cult, the educational field trip to Russia began to offer some lessons, a lens through which I could frame what was happening. As I understood it, reform in the Soviet Union began small, with a bit of openness to the world, a little glasnost, a little letting in of some light from the outside. There were deep social and economic forces underneath, but that new openness gave people a taste of intellectual freedom that couldn’t be contained. It would lead inexorably to a complete restructuring of the state, and then to the state’s collapse.

Herbert Armstrong died a few months before our trip, on Thursday, January 16, 1986. He was the unquestioned, absolute leader of the flock, the Apostle that God raised up to restore the final era of the One True Church in 1933. He was “the voice crying in the wilderness,” Elijah and John the Baptist rolled up into one, the faithful servant whose radio, television and publishing empire would at last preach the gospel to the nations, paving the way for the return of Christ.

There were stories of abuses, some of them well publicized. In a divorce case, Herbert Armstrong’s son accused him of molesting his daughter for years. Mike Wallace found enough financial and moral scandal to devote an episode of 60 Minutes to the church in 1979. But inside we had a word for people who made unpleasant accusations. They were “dissidents,” a word usually associated with authoritarian states. To label someone a dissident was to discredit and dismiss them with a single breath. My mother was a dissident.

When Armstrong died, his appointed successor began to let in just a crack of light. He lifted restrictions on women wearing makeup and no longer forbade the use of medical doctors. I’m certain he never realized how far most people would go when given just a little taste of freedom. I’m sure he had not the faintest idea how new technology, the internet, would open a flood of ideas and conversation that could no longer be centrally monitored and controlled.

Check out  Sabbath Day Journey

Somewhere on the road between paradise and the world's end.

Dale Schurter Health Declining After Dave Pack Used Him and Then Abandoned Him

Remember several years ago when Dave Pack was crowing like a strutting cock in a barnyard about how he had scored a major coup when Dale Schurter jumped COG's and joined up with the Restored Church of God?  Dale then disappeared from public view. Dave then boasted about how he had to reeducate Dale into the true mysteries of the RCG.  Dale disappeared for several months as he was being inculcated into the great mysteries of  God Dave. Then Dale was back for a while and then suddenly Dave went on the warpath and publicly shamed Dale and his wife.

Like any good Church of God leader, Dave did not take care of Dale and left him on his own as various illnesses took their toll on him.  While Dave built himself a new home and expanded his campus, Dale was left by the wayside without any assistance.

This is the latest on Dale Schurter:

Hello everyone,

Wish this was good news, but without God's intervention, does not look good. 

Saw an update this morning, offering great hope for Dale's recovery.  Meantime, just learned this afternoon that Dale fell at some point in the facility where he was being kept and broke his hip.

With a broken hip, the facility now says they cannot care for Dale and will not accept him back.  Insurance says it will not cover the costs for a facility that does care for such patients according to Linda Schurter who has been helping Dale and Mona by handling their financial matters even before all these latest health issues.

At this point their son David also has serious health problems (just diagnosed as having Lymes disease) and is only mobile about 30 minutes or so a day, spending the rest of the time in bed.   

Vernon and Marian say they cannot care for both Mona and Dale and are thinking to put Mona in a home for alsheimer's patients and have Dale stay with them if other arrangements cannot be worked out.  I fear that will be the end for Mona, as her thinking seems to be very clear at times and not so much so at others, but clear enough to comprehend she is alone and apart from Dale I am sure, unless they keep her sedated with drugs as I hear is standard practice in some of these facilities.

This is as much as I know to give at this time in order to help our prayers be beaten fine for them both.

"Christianity: It's Personal": A Response to Dennis (for the benefit of all Readers)

I received many responses on my previous contribution entitled "Christianity: It's Personal". I want to personally thank every person who commented on this article, I appreciate each comment and have read every one. Tonight, I want to specifically discuss a comment from Dennis concerning the approach of witnessing from a Christian to one who has gone through a substantial amount of loss and pain in their walk of life as Christian. Dennis' comments will be in block quote, and in italics. 

SHT said: " I can tell you right now that I am absolutely certain – fully convinced – of the personal intervention of spiritual beings in my life – interventions in my path, interventions that have saved me from harm, interventions in daily life, warnings that have stopped me from certain catastrophe – even direct angelic experiences. There is no other explanation to me. This is personal."

First of all, I completely understand the reality of events that could have ended our lives , didn't for some reason and it is completely normal to attribute them to divine intervention and protection when in a church environment. It is natural and something expressed by people of all faiths when something almost happened to them that didn't or did and they recovered etc.

That is true. I am well aware of the fact that if you are Muslim, you thank Allah. If you are Christian, you thank Jesus - and the same goes for even atheists, who thank "their lucky stars" or even "good fortune". There is an inherent gratefulness in the hearts of everyone who for whatever reason experiences a good nudge from certain doom to their favor. So you and I both are in complete agreement about the human response of thanksgiving. We simply differ on to whom, or what, receives the gratitude. 

I just want to relate the downside of being overly public and enthusiastic about our perceived divine interventions and yet be unaware or careless around those that also have their faith and suffered a loss without intervention or protection within the same community.

You raise an interesting point that I believe all Christians should take a good and hard look at. Is their witness - or testimony - perceived as haughty, callous, self-righteous, or even smug? Can a witness approached in the wrong way actually turn someone off from the Lord when it was intended to help? Can a person be working not out of love, but out of self-serving pious conviction and not even see the hypocrisy of their actions? Yes, that can happen. It has happened. I've witnessed people - even close people - who are completely insensitive to the emotional fragility of the person they are speaking to or praying for, ignoring the substance of love in favor of the normalcy of "Christian etiquette". There was a person that I witnessed who was praying for a person with cancer who only had days to live. The Christian praying a prayer was praying commands to the cancer for it to be gone and etc... and the end result is that the cancer did not leave, and the individual died not many days after this happened. I've seen interventions fail to happen, and I've seen protections fail to happen. I - and I believe every other Christian (and non-Christian, and other faithful people of different belief) have experienced the "lack of response" of prayer or protection and yes, it can be a very faith-trying experience to have something not happen that is, to us, "supposed" to happen. I believe that the main differences have to do with a general public testimony versus a specific personal testimony, and when you talk to a person as if they were a general audience, then that is where the problems come in. TOO many people lack personal sensitivity and compassion and common sense love when personally counseling a person who has suffered a loss or are in general, suffering. It is difficult to be unaware or careless in a "general" testimony or witness, because the general testimony and witness is geared to many, not a personal conversation with a genuinely suffering person. 

You relate this story: 

At a Festival back in the day my church area and others close by had suffered horrible losses of children through drowning, farm accidents leading to rather difficult deaths from which I will spare us the details and auto accidents etc. One minister during his sermon went on and on about a miraculous intervention by God that saved one of his congregants children etc. It was a long story and while I understood his enthusiasm to impress God's intervention, he was not aware of was not thinking that any number of families in such a large crowd had not received such a blessing. They got a funeral and all in the same context of the church. While he is going on and on about God's intervention they are reliving the horror and dying inside refeeling guilt and asking why they were not so blessed. It was very unwise of the minister to do this I am sure he was simply oblivious to the fact that the audience may have had dozens of such families regrieving their loss and perhaps losing faith or the ground they had gained since the death and no protection.

At lunch I approached him and had this chat with him about being careful and being aware of such brethren in the audience who were being forced by his good tale to relive their bad one. He looked at me like I was stupid and moved on. Oh well, I tried.

It is a difficult thing, balance. Especially when talking to a group of people (whether it's 10 or hundreds, or thousands) to fully address every circumstance in a public sermon or discussion, where people of many different experiences gather together. I think the right thing to do in these situations is to devote an entire message to exactly what some congregants experience. To address the question "Is it Me, Lord?" and "Should I feel Guilty?" and at the least, interject that those questions would be spoken to in a different sermon soon to come. I, too, can tell you certainly that I have also experienced those times when I have felt "not blessed" when others have been, "ignored" when God was certainly helping others when I also felt he should have been helping me in the same manner, and all those feelings. In fact, I think that the majority of the congregation (not just the few families of the congregation) probably had those thoughts. A good preacher would have acknowledged that the congregation would have been thinking such and at least addressed a teaser in that message, and not doing so was a mistake that many (myself included) make in talking about interventions, miracles, and divine interventions. Perhaps, it's due to excitement and that desire to share without thinking about those who are going through discouragement and hard times and doubting, questioning, and thinking about quitting the faith in pure hurt, depression, discouragement, and despair - and sometimes anger at God himself for the way things have gone and life has turned out. The thing is: Everyone who claims to be a Christian has had those moments at one time or another, and if they haven't, they will. You make a good point that compassion and understanding towards all who read or listen to a testimony or a witness should be top priority, and such a witness should be carefully and prayerfully thought on and how it will be perceived by anyone and everyone in their congregation or audience. Sadly, in the COG's, this was very rarely the case by most pastors, who instead were more concerned about other things than that. 

Just a note here to be careful in such matters in public and aware of the feelings and challenges in the loss of their children in the same Church environment and all the chaos and doubt that brings with it.

Agreed. I do need to add that there should not be an apology for enthusiasm and witness. One wouldn't be a Christian if they were ashamed or embarrassed or hesitated to witness the interventions and miracles of God - it's part of the deal, you could say - but it must always be accompanied and carefully embraced with love and compassion toward the situations of your audience. Could I have done better with my last article? Absolutely yes. No one is harder on myself than myself when I fail to consider certain elements when I am sharing my story and my faith, because it's what is important to me. So, I will gladly take your counsel, acknowledging the fact that you are a compassionate and caring person who genuinely has the interests, feelings, and compassion of those who read or hear in mind. You truly do have the heart and soul of a caring and considerate teacher and pastor. 

Personally to me, time and chance happens to all of us. I have escaped weird and near fatal things as a pastor (near plane crash, near falling out of one (don't laugh), missing a flight hit by a fighter jet over LA, inexplicable headon crash that ...I don't know what didn't happen there as I thought "It's finally happened to me", but I learned my last words would be "oh shit...' :)

It is true. Time and chance - and random events do happen to all of us. Yet there are just as many times when there is absolutely no denying what happened was not just "time and chance", but the absolute masterminding of an extraordinarily powerful intelligence that had to take over where my human stupidity nearly completely took me off whatever path I was supposed to be on at the time. What's random? What's not? What's just happenstance - and what's a divine intervention? In my opinion, some things we just don't know, and it's okay not to know. My thought is in everything, be grateful and for happenstance or divine intervention, for the good and for the bad, for the times of plenty and the times of poverty, for the times of gain and the times of loss, the lesson is trust and reliance on that great Intelligence and thinking beyond ourselves. A Scripture in the Bible says, "The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still". It's a scripture I hold to when I find myself spinning paddles against the water. 

I am writing this not to convince you of my side of the coin here, but to acknowledge your validity of your statement, and to share a response that I believe the entire audience here might benefit from. Many might condemn you for your lack of belief and current positions on all things spiritual. I do not. Instead, I thank you for your compassionate nature and heart of understanding that many in the COG's have never had and never will have.