Ex-COG Street Musician Says: “The paradigm stopped working for me.”

Accordion player Terri Conti performs on Church Street. / JOHN BRIGGS/FREE PRESS

Her travels have been extensive. She was born on Long Island, moved early to Succasunna, N.J., 

and went to college in California at the Worldwide Church of God’s Ambassador College. 

(She has long since left that group: “The paradigm stopped working for me.”)

Here is an interesting story about an ex-WCG member who left the church and is now a street musician who is in the process of memorizing 1,000 songs for the accordion.

Imagine living a life doing the things you want to do without a minister telling you what you SHOULD be doing.  That is a truly unique concept missing from Armstrongism.

A Street Performer's Life

Van Robison on "Does Any Splinter Group of the WCG Have Truth?

"Does Any Splinter Group of the WCG Have Truth?

Of course they all proclaim they have truth, but the reality is that NONE of them do.  Those who lead all these groups are either self-deceived or else they are in it for the $cash.  The song and dance is that you must
"keep the Sabbath" and annual "Holy" days, along with tithing or else you are among the deceived.  Well, if you are snared by one of these groups, do you live in fear?  Do you really think that God is out to "get you" if
you do not sacrifice your life to one of these groups and whoever pretends he represents God?

Oh what a fraud!  FEAR is the great reason so many are taken captive.  Strange indeed since Jesus came to set the captives free.  Every splinter group of the WCG takes captives and makes those captive think and believe that they speak for God.  Pure hogwash!  NO splinter group  leader or group of leaders speaks for God.  It is exasperating to try to convince childish adult minds that they are being used and abused for no other reason than $money.

How do I know that NO splinter group of the WCG has truth?  Simple:  because Jesus Christ IS NOT the founder of man-made churches that feign that they represent Christ.  No physical church group on earth, among the many thousands of groups speak for Jesus Christ or for truth;  they speak for themselves---pure and simple.  Money, money, money, that is what church is all about.  Think it is not true?  If you feel compelled, why not meet for free at the local park, down by the river, at the flower garden or at the farm?  And while you are at it, why not allow EVERYONE to share what they think and want to say, instead of the "pastor", who thinks he has the only "right" to speak?

Don't we all have a song in our heart?  In the churches, whatever is in your heart is never heard, because the extremely vain and selfish preacher, only wants to hear his own voice, not you.


Van Robison

Dennis on: What is Ron Weinland Getting At?

What is Ron Weinland Getting At?

 

Note: Saturday, September 15, 2012.  Still listening. Quite amazing.  Ron is describing himself but seems about to dis-member  someone for "desiring to be teachers of the law..."  "They want to teach what they believe is right..."  Fascinating....stay tuned...  Someone's ass is grass I think...and it doesn't appear to be Ron's.  He is still beating around the bush... Starting to smell like an ordained man...Here it comes......

 

hmmmmmm.....nuttin'  

 

 

For the last four weeks, Ron Weinland has been babbling on and on about "going to your brother."  Four weeks!!!  With the world plunging into chaos financially, militarily and emotionally, Ron, the Witness of all Humanity, can only concentrate on going to your brother when you have a problem with them.  He is lost in many being offended, betrayed, hating one another and the rise of false prophets.  Four sermons!   What's going on with this man?

 

I can't speak for Ron Weinland.  I can't even figure out what he is getting at half of the time in his sermons, much less understand why he feels he has to talk for hours and hours about "going to your brother."

 

Personally, I think he is simply preparing the Church for his upcoming sentence for fraud and tax evasion.  However, he also seems like he is having to react to someone who is resisting him now after his conviction

 

Seems like a no brainer to me but Ron has not ONCE mentioned his conviction in a sermon since it came down on him.  Obviously, there is NO ONE in his current congregation willing to stand up and ask him what's going on.  He is turning his selfish, greedy, ignorant and materialistic ministry that supplied him with all the physical perks anyone could wish for, into a New Testament example of persecution.  His congregations must be brain dead.

 

Ron talks of those who do things they should not do.  He speaks of things that are wrong and that everyone makes mistakes.  He talks about how others can stumble over the offense caused by others in the church.  He has to be talking about himself and simply cannot admit it.  The man simply needs to put all HIS cards and HIS getting caught doing what no one is allowed to do with the money of others, much less in Church and apologize.  He , like so many before him, seem to have zero capacity to say, "I apologize,"  "I was wrong,"  "Please forgive me."

 

He is today speaking of having the freedom to do what one wants but that sometimes the weak get offended.  Really?  Is that how he feels about his crimes and misappropriation of the hard earned money of those who gave to preach a Gospel? 

 

Ron is trying to retreat to the position of the innocent.  At least in my opinion.  No one gives eight hours of sermons on such a topic after a personal conviction for mispending everyone's money on himself and family and not be talking about himself.  He appears to want to be forgiven, but is going around the barn of the New Testament and topics totally unrelated to his offenses to get there. 

 

Saying, "I am so sorry,"  "I was wrong,"  "I don't know what I was thinking," "Please forgive me,"  "I am getting some help and counseling," is NOT something I ever heard much at all , if at all, in WCG or any of their splits, splinters and slivers. 

 

GTA never apologized for anything to anyone I can remember.  If he had, it might have gone differently.  HWA certainly never apologized for his own arrogance or misunderstanding of himself.  Gerald Waterhouse never uttered the words, "I meant well, but I missed big time..."  The Tkaches certainly NEVER  apologized for tearing the soul out a mostly sincere body of believers and throwing it under the bus.  The Tkaches should have left WCG and taken their Imperial School cronies with them, but pulled off a coup in that everyone but them had to leave.  Pretty darn amazing miracle Jesus worked there!

 

At any rate, this does not need to be long.  Ron Weinland is once again proving that saying one is sorry and apologetic over stupid things done to the harm and at the expense of others simply is not something the man can face.  Forget the Bible Ron.  The Bible does not hold the key to your problem nor an explanation of how your left over members need to view you. 

 

If someone in your church is offended and moves on, they aren't necessarily falling away or going going astray.  You offended them! 

 

Next week Ron...get up at your church and go where no man in the COG has ever gone before.  Read this...

 

"Brethren..I was wrong and I believe you have read enough about my mistakes to not force me to repeat them here.  I will if I need to.  But I apologize for my mistakes. Please forgive me. I love you. Thank you."

 

Then sit down Ron.  Let someone else give the sermon.  Take a break. Show them you're not just another one man show doing all he can to retain power, control and the impression you know what you are talking with every time you open your mouth. 

 

Stop using the word  "you," and change it to "I" on these topics. 

 

Congregants...Ron says you are all called to something special.  I can't speak for that but I think  you are being called to apply the New Testament scriptures in ways that they were never meant to be applied on topics that are not yours to face. 

 

In the world of psychology and how the mind works when faced with personal shortcomings, this is called projection.  Ron is projecting his issues on you.  He reads I Corinthians about fornication in the church and hiding it as if it was YOU that was the problem.  He is projecting all this on you.  It is not about you. 

 

He says YOU are tolerating things in the body that you should not tolerate. On this he is correct.  I do not know if he has others things in the congregation in mind during this long drawn out series on a minor topic but he may be both deflecting and projecting his own stuff. 

 

We'll see I guess....

 

 

Dennis C. Diehl
DenniscDiehl@aol.com

Religious Nuts

I get all kinds of email from wacko's out there in regards to items of interest from the various COG's.  Many obviously have severe mental health issues.  Others are prime examples of what black and white legalistic religiosity will do to people. They have all the answers and everyone else is wrong.  They are saved and the rest of humanity is damned. God speaks to or through them with some secret message that the world supposedly needs to hear..  The list could go on and on.

Over the weekend I received this from a guy who calls himself Junior Watchman.  His magical god is ready to dish out punishments upon all who disagree with him.  Anytime you see the word "Watchman" in the title of an Armstrongite you know that a few screws are loose. 70 years of modern COG history proves that.  How many hundreds of "watchman" have popped on to the scene since William Miller made an ass of himself?


Baby Watchman writes:

Is not the truth of Jesus Christ.

 

You ever been a victim of satanic ritual abuse and survived to tell about it?

 

You ever been introduced to the sons of the serpent who rule the world?

Most of what you say about ‘wacky conspiracy theories’ actually have much more truth about them than you realize, but alas, it’s expected because those who were never part of such things, speak on things they don’t even know from such a position.

Here’s some advise, either stop lying… or every dog has it’s day, not by my works, but by God’s own’s decress when you bear false witness.

Bob Thiel Comments About Meredith's Concerns

Bob Thiel writes in Living Church of God News:

09/14/12 p.m. Dr. Meredith contacted me yesterday and listed some LCG concerns about about my book Barack Obama, Prophecy, and the Destruction of the United States. I provided him feedback related to those concerns, including part of how I feel that book helps tie into the final phase of the work. We both mentioned mutual prayers and the Feast of Tabernacles, and I conveyed my wishes that he would have a great Feast of Tabernacles.
There are a lot of recent false assertions and reports about me and LCG matters on the internet, so this may be a good time to address a few of them. For example, James Malm (a blogger, that seems to be starting to form his own group, long has had major issues with me, LCG, UCG, COGWA, etc.) posted the following:

This ongoing battle through the summer began to climax as the COGWA talks progressed and Bob published his book on President Obama.  After a number of calls from Charlotte on this new book as well as many communications on his disagreement with the new falling away teaching; and especially about his attitude, that he was straightening out Charlotte; Doug Winnail flew out to San Diego for two days of talks with Bob in August.
With the issues unresolved,  and there seems to be far more than only these matters, maybe LCG leadership finally got around to reading Bob’s other books?  More likely it is a power struggle over any potential agreement to cooperate with COGWA.
Rod Meredith wrote all congregations last Sabbath with a warning about believing anything written by Bob.
Now it appears that a choice to either obey and accept instructions from the leadership or be cast out has been given to Bob...
From what I can see, Bob Thiel is the leader of the anti cooperation with COGWA faction. 

The above assertions contain a lot of falsehoods, false conclusions, and/or false assumptions. Because others on the internet have picked up some of this, let me try to set out the facts about the above:

1. According to Dr. Meredith, there have been no positive talks about any type of serious merger cooperation with COGWA (Dr. Meredith, without me even bringing this up, yesterday again declared that no merger type talks with COGWA, or UCG for that matter, are in the works). (More on this can be found in my post RCM: There are No Merger Talks with COGWA or UCG.)
2. I, Bob Thiel, am not leading up any anti cooperation faction related to COGWA. Members and ministers in COGWA who wish to be part of LCG are welcome to contact Charlotte or other LCG ministers. I have never opposed that, but instead long encouraged that.
3. There has been no "power struggle" related to me and LCG's dealings with COGWA.
4. There was never one call from Charlotte (or anyone else in LCG) related to my "Obama" book until after I got the attachment (which had already been made public) to the Weekly Update late September 6, 2012. For James Malm to state that I received numerous calls from Charlotte about the book prior to 9/6/12 is totally false.
5. Dr. Douglas Winnail came out here (and I am nowhere near San Diego) on August 26th and 27th to go over LCG literature concerns that I raised (and the focus was NOT the falling away matter, though that was discussed as well). He did not come out here to warn me about my books. Actually, on both days that he was here I brought up my upcoming "Obama" book and he raised no questions or concerns about it. Dr. Winnail proposed the trip long before he knew about the book and the focus was primarily on matters of church history, doctrine, prophecy, and literature. And I also discussed my views on the final phase of the work and he brought up some Charlotte views. There was no discussion of COGWA, or UCG for that matter, that I can recall.
6. Dr. Meredith was not warning that people not to read my books or anything else. He simply wanted to make it clear, that despite the claims of others (not me) on the internet that I supposedly was LCG's "official spokesman" that I was not an employee of LCG and hence, did not officially speak for the organization. Not only is that true, that type of disclaimer has long been on the COGwriter home page. He advised people to check out what I write (cf. Acts 17:10-11), and I have always advocated that: Specifically, I have written, and it has been at the About COGwriter page for many years, “Don't simply believe me– Believe what the Bible really Teaches – Believe the Truth – Prove all things – Believe God!”
7. The suggestion that a "choice to either obey and accept instructions from the leadership or be cast out has been given to Bob" is not true. This did not happen nor did Dr. Meredith even hint of such to me yesterday either. Nor have I ever been accused of any type of disobedience that I am aware of by any LCG leader.

Perhaps I should mention that also on the internet, some have falsely suggested that a couple of the LCG commentaries in the past week or so were intended to be directed towards me personally. Dr. Meredith, without me bringing that subject up, apparently saw the same nonsense, and told me that this was not the case. And yes, I believe him about that. Dr. Meredith, himself, also took exception to claims that there was any "war" between the LCG evangelists and me.

Yesterday, I noticed that James Malm linked to my recent news article titled Persecution. He, and others who profess Christ, should read it (Christians are subject to persecution per 2 Timothy 3:12, etc. and false accusations per Matthew 5:11, etc.). And James Malm, and others who make false statements about me (and others), should consider what they are doing.

 So there you have it folks!  Straight from the mouth of the world's foremost authority on the end times and the church.  Everything is all sunshine, rainbows and lollipops in LCG right now.