Race and Ambassador College

I don't know if you have seen this or not.  This was by Gregory Doudna and was posted on the AC Alumni site.  Doudna was the author of Showdown at Big Sandy: Youthful Creativity Confronts Bureaucratic Inertia at an Unconventional Bible College in East Texas.  

I came to Ambassador soon after African-Americans were admitted to the student body.  The racist comments were still being thrown around by many administrators and ministers as to why the college had to admit those people.

Anon

We came from a white-entitlement church ideology yet saw ourselves as loving and benign not hateful to all races. All here from AC Pasadena before 1970 were part of a college which by explicit policy excluded unmarried African-American applicants, including from tithe-paying church member families, from admission. That practice ended in 1970 when an IRS threat of loss of charitable-organization tax exempt status forced an end to the whites-preferential admissions policies at the two AC campuses in the US. Members were not told this true reason for the change. As an entering student at Big Sandy in 1972, I did not know that that was the reason Big Sandy had begun admitting for the first time unmarried black students only one year earlier in 1971. HWA never explained to the members and coworkers: “I, as chancellor of the three Ambassador Colleges, foretaste of the World Tomorrow, with the advice of counsel at headquarters, hereby decree that it is now time to admit some of our unmarried black brethren applicants to the two campuses of God’s colleges in the United States, not applicable to the campus in England, in repudiation of my longstanding teaching of God’s strictures against racial intermixing, because a higher power, namely the IRS/federal government, has threatened our income and for the good of the Work I am obeying man instead of God.”

The wcg ideology was white identity politics with an entitlement mentality: that white Europeans were Israelites and as such, entitled to the best land and natural resources in North America and worldwide. We believed in a church which broadcast booklets about a World Tomorrow which spoke of the glories of Assyrian-scale forced deportations in the millennium in which African Americans, who have been in America for generations and this is their home, would be forcibly sent to Africa en masse, leaving America all white. HWA, who authored this literature whose circulation we supported, was aware that some people might object to being forcibly removed from the only home they have ever known, but that was no impediment as he explained it; God assisted by Noah and HWA and members of the true church would force those people to go and "no defiance will be tolerated". In this ideology these soon-coming Wonderful World Tomorrow Assyrian-scale ethnic cleansings and mass deportations would be good not bad because they were in the forcibly deported peoples’ best interests, even if the first reaction of some of the ethnically cleansed in this administration in the millennium might be to cry tears not understanding immediately. (Footnote here: that is exactly what the ancient Assyrians told their conquered peoples anciently.)

Yet few of us thought of ourselves as racist. HWA and all of us at the time--probably without exception here-- professed love for all races. There was no hate speech from HWA or in church literature. The racism was institutional, not in most cases on a personal level. It was not hate-speech kind of racism. 

GTA: The Games People Play

In 1976, Garner Ted Armstrong toured all of the United States Feast of Tabernacle sites, giving a sermon during the day, and then performing that evening with none other than famous country-western star Buck Owens. 

In 1977, Owens, who was the host of the long-running TV show, "Hee Haw" had GTA on as a guest star, where GTA performed "Put your Hand in the Hand" in front of a national television audience. 

I just recently found this track that GTA performed with Buck Owens, and thought the crowd here at Banned would find it fascinating, especially in light of all of the events that transpired post-1977. 

The song is a cover of the well-known hit "The Games People Play"  

Regards, 

Tonto Sixkiller 

Facebook-Pharisees and Cyber-Sanhedrin

Permission Granted! Either Way. Whatever!

The advertisement began, "There's been a lot of talk about hot dogs lately" and then went on to promote a particular brand of hot dog.  I recall thinking, that I had not heard one bit of talk about hot dogs almost ever.  "There's been a lot of talk about ______ lately", you fill in the blank, seems to have caught on as a way to introduce one's view about something that probably no one at all is talking about or asking but the advertiser wants to push his product anyhow.

Welcome to the world of Prophet Robert Thiel, who now has given Christians the definitive answer, which is  "Sure fine if you wish" or "Don't worry of it if you don't, about  it being appropriate or not for Christians to observe Thanksgiving and whether it is appropriate for to be thankful. 

 I am surprised the article did not contain the obvious warning found in Galatians 4:10-12.

¹⁰You are observing special days and months and seasons and years! ¹¹I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you. ¹²I plead with you, brothers and sisters, become like me, for I became like you. You did me no wrong.

... but that would be unhelpful and only open the traditional can of worms associated with this scripture and what it might actually mean. The good news is that his scripture can be used effectively by Jewish and Gentile Christians against each other depending on what constitutes days, months, seasons and years observed, but let's spare us.

The only reason I bring this up the day before Thanksgiving is that there has been A LOT  of talk about this whether it is right or wrong for a Christian to give thanks, on Thanksgiving practically everywhere I go this past week.  It dominates the news and that's all I hear in stores and in the workplace.

Last Sunday and certainly Saturday, churches were filled with near riot conditions begging clergy for the answer to this nagging question, that with the actual Thanksgiving holiday looming, simply MUST be answered NOW, lest we fall into depravation and offending The Most High with our mere human reasonings and wisdom, which we all know is  pure foolishness if we are not careful in our discernment to the answers of such deeply troubling questions. Just don't ask about football on Thanksgiving. 

Thanksgiving: Can a Christian give thanks?

https://www.cogwriter.com/news/religious-news/thanksgiving-can-a-christian-give-thanks-2/

"The fourth Thursday in November is the American holiday called Thanksgiving. Unlike most holidays observed in the USA, this one is not of pagan origin. Hence, the vast majority in the Church of God (COG) consider it an “optional” (not biblically-required) holiday."

Comment:  First of all we need to get the actual date set firmly in our minds so we evidently don't confuse it with Christmas which, sadly and of course will be addressed far more seriously soon. 

It is not of pagan origin.  That's a good thing and of ultimate importance to understand before going on to answer this pressing question that so many have been talking about. It also does not rank up there with the Biblically required ones either, so get that straight.

The Prophet Robert goes on: Concerning the persecution of the Pilgrims and their coming to America. 

"The persecutions of the Pilgrims somewhat remind me of the history of the Church of God"

Comment:  Somehow we knew it would

The Prophet Robert goes on then nostalgically reminding the savvy reader of the old WCG hymns speaking of, praise and thanksgiving along with a good round of proof texting with a Topical Bible on words like "give thanks", "thanksgiving" and such.  Without those, we simply can have no clue as to what the answer to the question might be. 

In conclusion Prophet Bob adds another piece to God's Puzzle on the rights and wrongs of living on Earth.  He boldly ventures into a scripture that actually more have talked about the meaning of than even hot dogs. But let's keep use of it to focus in on the pressing question at hand. 

"While Christians can observe national holidays, presuming they can do so without sinning, they do not have to keep holidays like Thanksgiving. While he was mainly referring to fast days, the following from the Apostle Paul seems to be applicable here:"

NOTE: Sinning is a function of national holidays, not God's Holydays. And too, Thanksgiving is not like God's Holydays, which you do have to keep,  so let's get that straight from the start. 

Continuing... and seemingly applicable

"5 One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. 6 He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks. (Romans 14:5-6)

If one has a problem of conscience keeping Thanksgiving, then one should not. But, either way, Christians should thank and praise God.

Give thanks and praise the Eternal!"

So there we go!  It's ok to give thanks as a Christian!  Or not!  It depends on how you feel about it but it's OK!  Or NOT! Go for it!  Or NOT! Also, let's be sure our praise and thankfulness is of and for the Eternal and not the harvest. 

Sadly and of course, being grateful and thankful , as an agnostic, pagan or atheist, is not addressed in this article so I don't know the anwer to that question.

But, and may the gods forgive my human reasoning and wisdom of man, which I know is foolishness to Prophet Robert, I will risk a personal gratitude for the harvest even though I don't have to if I don't wish to, but I will so I do and we all should, unless some feel they shouldn't. Do what you wish, or not.

“When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.” – Tecumseh

So,  Happy Thanksgiving

or not

depending!