Living Church of God "Updates" On Understanding Has Led To Major Discontent in LCG

There has been several years of constant rumblings about discontent of LCG members in what the Living Church of God is doing.  I received the following email that sheds some light on what has been transpiring and what has led to the continuing discontent.

This letter from Meredith, in my opinion was the beginning of the end for LCG. Around this time was when I noticed members start to openly criticize the leadership in LCG. Winnail came out with an "upgrade" about the "Falling Away" wherein he promoted the notion that the entire world was going to fall away from Christ and His teachings in opposition to the belief that only the little flock or God's true church would have members fall away in the end times which had been widely preached in the COGs for decades. Ames came out at the same time with the "upgrade" that the Saints would go to heaven for the wedding supper in opposition to the belief that was, again, preached for decades, that only the Father and Son were ever to be in heaven and that the Saints would be resurrected to establish the Kingdom on earth. They both gave one sermon on the topic and then expected the sheep to just accept their new "knowledge" without question. They were inspired by God after all so we sheep should just swallow it whole. Forget the notion of "prove all things". We sheep are no longer allowed to think for ourselves. If one were brave enough to question the ministry it would likely lead to the accusation of "causing division". It was at this time that they began to promote the notion that if RCM supported it, it was the same as if Christ himself had stamped His name to it. The mistrust of LCG ministry has been growing ever since. 

 
 

LCG Weekly Update: May 10, 2012

From the Presiding Evangelist Greetings dear fellow servants, It was really great to see nearly all of you at our recent General Ministerial Conference! It was so wonderful to renew old friendships, make new ones and have the loving fellowship and inspirational talks that we did. Many, many of the older ministers expressed their feelings that it was the “best ever” conference even going back to Worldwide days. So I want to thank all of you for your part, for your prayers, and for your love and loyalty. I especially appreciate the wonderful help in organizing and setting up this conference which came from Dr. Doug Winnail, from Mr. Ames, from Jim and Sue Meredith and so many others here at Headquarters. So many pitched in to make it a success—for which we are thankful. All remains well here at Headquarters, and we appreciate the outpouring of positive response to the conference and for the Work in general. Please follow through by doing all you can to build, to strengthen and inspire our brethren around the world to draw closer to God and to do their part in this vital Work which Christ has given us to do! Please help them think through these “upgrades” in our understanding of the Wedding Supper, of the timeline of final events and also the great apostasy. This is a vital challenge for all of you, and I hope that you can be alert to anyone’s misunderstanding and help them—or help your local elder to work with them to come to understanding on these basic issues and help them realize that these changes are, in fact, simply “updates” of our understanding. As you know, we have always said—at least I have—that “someday” we would get the chance to go to heaven to see our Father even before the end of the Millennium. But we have not nailed it down and given the details of all of this—as Mr. Ames has done in recent months. We have always indicated—at least Mr. Armstrong, and I—that the apostasy would be much broader than just the falling away of a few people in the Worldwide Church. As I indicated at the conference, over 99% of the world never even heard about the Worldwide Church and certainly nothing about that falling away. So the really huge apostasy is still ahead of us—as we have explained—and will affect billions of human beings before it is all over! Also, I hope all of you will do all you can to “hustle” and personally contact or visit all of the new prospective members coming in from the telecast, from our campaigns and from the Internet and other sources. Please realize the opportunity we have out there right now—before they lose interest—and help bring these new people along and bring them into the Church, if God is calling them, so they can be truly strengthened and made part of the “body” which is helping back the Work and get this Message to the whole world. Things are moving! Even since our conference, as you know, the state of North Carolina overwhelmingly voted against “same-sex marriage.” Yet, the very next day, our American President came out in favor of men marrying men and women marrying women! As one who has been in the ministry now for about 60 years since my graduation from Ambassador College in 1952—this frankly is astonishing in one sense—though many knew this was in President Obama’s heart all along. Never would we have even dreamed of such a thing back during the years of Presidents Truman, Eisenhower or Kennedy. May God have mercy upon us, and upon the other nations where all of us live. We need to pray for our leaders that they will at least not interfere with our opportunity to worship and to do the Work. But we need to cry out more than ever, “Thy kingdom come”! It is very obvious that God’s Government is desperately needed as more people in Syria are butchered by their own government, as more people are “starving” or being raped or humiliated in Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere, and as our own “western,” former “Christian” nations turn further and further away from the God who gives us life and breath. But we can take heart, “fellows,” for as Jesus said, “When you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near” (Luke 21:31). May God continue to inspire, use and bless all of you in this end-time Work. My prayers are certainly with you—and I deeply appreciated seeing so many of you again. Thank you, again, for your love, your prayers and your dedication to serving God’s people and preparing for His Kingdom! Your brother in Christ,   Roderick C. Meredith

Doug Winnail Takes A Jab At Lil' Jimmy Meredith And His Wasteful Misuse Of Tithe Payers Money

This in from a Charlotte member:

During his sermon, Winnail listed signs that a church is not fulfilling its mission properly, One sign was "spending money on changing the color of its carpets." LCG insiders will instantly recognize Winnail's reference, since Jim Meredith spent tens of thousands of dollars putting new carpet all over LCG headquarters even though the old carpet was fine.

But Winnail's sermon wasn't an attack against Meredith. It can't be. LCG is more unified than ever. Rod has said so.

Alas, Lil Jimmy was not in town to hear the little dig at his expense. Lil' Jimmy is in Hawaii staying at his expensive resort hotel negotiating LCG's Hawaii feast site.  Only the best for the Emperors child!  Why worry, it is at tithe payers expense. Besides, since he entire LCG is so incredibly unified every single LCG members thinks that Lil'Jimmy deserves to be in Hawaii at their expense.  His is the holy offspring of the sinless Leader after all.

Fallout Over "Banned" Blog and New Letter Sent to LCG Members by a Wrongly Disfellowshipped Family is Wrecking Havoc in Charlotte

Rod Meredith is still spitting and snarling at this blog and its evil postings.  After making an ass of himself by publicly criticizing this blog, leading hundreds and hundreds of LCG members here, Meredith was strangely silent about us today.  He has other worries that are hitting LCG right now.  This trouble is coming from the outside too.   This time it is a letter to the LCG membership from a family that McNair and League spiritually abused and kicked out of LCG.

Remember a while back I had a post about Bob League becoming Meredith's new gestapo agent?  Rod Meredith and Bob League Continue Gestapo Tactics In Living Church of God - particularly read the comments.

In that post a reader said the following:  

In the last year, 24 people that I know of have left the Charlotte congregation alone largely in part to these Gestapo tactics and absolute tyranny against anyone who dares question or have a critical/independent thought. Absolutely nothing has changed since Leona McNair. RCM uses his position and his microphone to destroy those who don't bow down to him. 

The more RCM feels he is losing control, the tighter he clamps down. Practically every sermon is about obeying and submitting. Not to God, but to church authority. They demand blind obedience. Mr. League even went so far as to say that if he were to call a member in the middle of the night and ask them to drive circles around the block for 4 hours, they should obey without asking questions.

The League/ McNair team also monitors members private Facebook pages and ask members to remove posts or pictures that they don't like for whatever reason. They are so blinded by their power and agenda that they can't see all the members taking note of the false allegations they make about long-time members, the late night interrogations and the exodus of LCG members. It is widely talked about in whispers after services and at Friday night get-togethers. There is a storm brewing and they are completely oblivious!

Today I received the following update on the fall out from the Meredith/League purge.  It seems that one of the families has written a letter to the entire Living Church of GO detailing how awful McNair and League were to them.

In the last year, 24 people that I know of have left the Charlotte congregation alone largely in part to these Gestapo tactics and absolute tyranny against anyone who dares question or have a critical/independent thought. Absolutely nothing has changed since Leona McNair. RCM uses his position and his microphone to destroy those who don't bow down to him. 

The more RCM feels he is losing control, the tighter he clamps down. Practically every sermon is about obeying and submitting. Not to God, but to church authority. They demand blind obedience. Mr. League even went so far as to say that if he were to call a member in the middle of the night and ask them to drive circles around the block for 4 hours, they should obey without asking questions.

The League/ McNair team also monitors members private Facebook pages and ask members to remove posts or pictures that they don't like for whatever reason. They are so blinded by their power and agenda that they can't see all the members taking note of the false allegations they make about long-time members, the late night interrogations and the exodus of LCG members. It is widely talked about in whispers after services and at Friday night get-togethers. There is a storm brewing and they are completely oblivious! - See more at: http://armstrongismlibrary.blogspot.com/2015/01/rod-meredith-and-bob-league-continue.html#sthash.qGH8GvyN.dpuf

To make matters worse, one of the victims of the McNair/League purge wrote an open letter to hundreds of church members outlining how horribly they were treated. It went out yesterday. McNair admonished members not to reply to the letter during announcements in Charlotte today. He said, "we are not going to respond to it and neither should you". The letter plus the articles on Banned are reaping havoc at LCG headquarters! It seems like they are finally reaping what they sow. 

More on that letter is to come.

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As an added bonus concerning Bob League.....remember the "donkey sex" article?



Bob League was also obsessed over sex like Meredith is. Skirt Lengths, Carob and Bob League's Fascination With Donkey Sex

Thanks To Rod Meredith Readership Increased by 10,000+ Hits This Week

Thanks to Rod Meredith's rant in his sermon last Saturday the viewership on this blog has increased this week by well over 10,000 hits.  That is NOT a few disgruntled people in LCG checking us out.  Its a LOT of people looking into what is said here. People are waking up!

Thanks Spanky and Lil'Jimmy!!!!!!

How's That Conversion Thing Working For Ya?

Check out the latest article by Douglas over at the Painful Truth on Conversion:

CONFUSED?

"Herbert Armstrong spoke of conversion. We’ve had an opportunity to have observed his behavior. We’re a bit confused. After seeing what he did and how he acted, we’re not really sure what conversion is."

"It would seem that if the process of conversion worked properly, this is what we would see and we would not expect to see this:

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Galations 5:19-21

This is where things get really dicey: We have seen over decades the behavior of the founders, leaders and ministers of the Armstrongist Churches of God. We have especially noticed Roderick Meredith, David Pack, Gerald Flurry, Ronald Weinland, those fun guys at United and the CoGWA, along with the minor sects which barely exist but seem to have attracted undo attention from their bizarre and extreme behavior. As we examine the ‘fruit’ so to speak, we seem to see more of the ‘works of the flesh’ than ‘fruit of the spirit’"

"It just seems that this conversion thing isn’t working with the Armstrongist Churches of God. People are unhappy. There’s quite a lot of power politics. There’s a lot of cruelty and abuse. People are being simultaneously abused and neglected. The leaders seem to get more greedy and DEMAND more money every week that goes by. There are complaints from the congregants (some just grumble). Those who complain are then accosted and accused of being disloyal. Many are disfellowshipped. We’re thinking that this sort of thing just doesn’t happen in the joyous spirit filled congregations of the converted faithful."

Meredith Thought His Mother Pushed Him Into "Borderline Immorality" When He Was 12 And She Made Him Dance With A Girl!

Rod Meredith is well known in all Church of God circles cor his over the top obsession with sex.  Every article he writes, every sermon he preaches and every commentary he makes, sex is brought up. Fornication, adultery, gay sex, bestiality, etc., you name it and he knows about it.

What contributed to his obsession?  Was it a trauma in childhood? Overly strict parents?  Health education in high school? Stolen glances at porn?  Something has pushed Meredith off the deep end when it comes to sex.

Back in 2007 Gavin Rumney had a little ditty about Meredith on the Ambassador Watch on how disgusted Meredith was with his mother concerning how she forced him into borderline "sexual immorality" when she made him dance with a girl.  He was 12 years old and repulsed at the idea of touching a female.

Quote:

---

Violence against women is a serious issue, and it's good to see Presiding Evangelist Meredith addressing it, however hamfistedly, in a TW editorial. But what does one make of this little tirade?

"Even back in the 1940s, my mother and her friends - no doubt like millions of mothers all across the United States - had pushed me and dozens of my classmates to attend "dancing school" - where we were taught to dance face to face and chest to chest with young girls barely entering puberty. We were just little children who wanted to play baseball and "kick the can." God does not forbid dancing, of course, but He does command us to "flee sexual immorality" (1 Corinthians 6:18). Why did our mothers push us into the kind of semi-romantic, semi-sexual behavior involved in that kind of dancing when we were only twelve years old?"

Uh...

"We were so embarrassed at holding these girls in our arms that we simply took off running - not knowing what else to do with ourselves. It would be several years before we were truly ready for such "romantic" involvements even in an innocent way. Why were our mothers pressuring us into this kind of precocious behavior?"

Uh...

Rod's childhood was traumatised by dancing lessons at age twelve? Rod - now a septuagenarian - still has unresolved issues with his mother?

As they say, "who'd have thunk it?"

How Rod Meredith Betrayed Married Couples By Asking Them To Reveal Intimate Aspects Of Their Marriages And Then Forcing Them To Divorce

For many years when Roderick C Meredith was over the Church Administration Department he was the main agent of enforcing Herbert Armstrong's perverse Divorce and Remarriage "doctrine."  I remember in my church area watching families and good marriages being ripped apart by this disgusting and vile teaching.

In July 1969 Rod Meredith wrote a letter to the ministry giving them instructions on what he expected them to do.

One of the first things he wanted the ministers to do was to gain the married couples trust and to have them spill the beans on every aspect of their married lives, particularly when it came to sex.  The perverse preoccupation that Rod Meredith has for sex is just mind boggling.  It ran his mind back then and still does to this very day.

Here are some excerpts from the letter that is on the Living Armstrongism blog:

WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD
World Headquarters
Pasadena, California
Herbert W. Armstrong
President and Pastor
Office of
Roderick C. Meredith Second Vice-President

July 18, 1969

Special instructions: SAVE!

Dear Fellow Ministers:

This is a special letter of instruction regarding the handling of divorce and marriage cases. I hope all of you will read it very carefully and follow these instructions in handling these cases/

Appeal to them to be open-minded and candid about any pertinent information or intimate details of their past marriages. Let them know that you have gone into intimate details of dozens of cases and that you are not going to to be shocked at all. They should not hold back anything about any pertinent romantic or sex relationships before marriage. Tell them--if these factors apply--that you are God's minister and are married, have children and know about sex. Also, that you are bound as God's minister not to divulge any of it to anyone, and that, in fact, you forget most details anyway as you go through more and more cases.

Notice how Meredith demanded that members share every intimate detail of their sex lives,, both before an during their marriages.  The claim that Meredith makes that minsters do not share this information is a total lie.  That is the ideal that they should have had and that many ministers in Christian domination's actually practice, but it was NEVER practiced in the Radio/Worldwide Church of God.  The ministry wrote down all the juicy details and sent them off to Pasadena where they were read by numerous people.  Ministers regularly talked about the sex lives of their members with other ministers and LAUGHED about them.

I will never forget the time when Church Administration was located in the Hall of Administration lobby on the first floor down the hallway from the Security Department.  Will in the Security Department one day talking to the receptionist we could hear Robin Webber and another man laughing about a counseling that he had just had.  We could hear the intimate details of the conversation that should have been private.  He would talk and then they would laugh, share more details and more laughter.  Not only could we hear it all, but the office clerical staff and other people in CAD could hear it too.

One of the functions of the huge main frame computer system the church had in Pasadena was the ability to keep member files on every single member.  Every letter a person write in, how much tithe money there were paying, how many offerings they made, every question asked, every counseling they had and every comment a  deacon, elder or minister ever made was stored in these files.  There was no privacy then and certainly still is not today.

Meredith made full used of this stored information and it was used over and over to break families and marriages up.

Meredith had a large list of questions that he expected these members to answer.  Many of them were sex related.

1. Has either party been married before? How many times? If so, go through each marriage in chronological order covering the following points to finally determine their present status. Remember to ask about any "common-law" situations or "arrangements" while the man was overseas in the service, etc.

2. When did the original couple become acquainted? (Approximate date and their ages.) Ask the family background, religion, etc., of their parents.

3. How long and what type of courtship did they have? Did they have formal dates? Was petting involved? Fornication?

4. Did they discuss home, family, children?

Meredith was particularity interested in what type of sexual relations they were having.  The more juicy it was the better Meredith loved it.  What did Meredith consider "normal" sex to be considering how preoccupied he was with what he called "abnormal" sex.  That is the sex that has always titillated him.

9. What fruits of point #4 above were evident? Did they buy furniture and dishes, rent an apartment, set up housekeeping, or live with their parents, etc.? Did he properly support her or at least try to be a husband in this regard? Did they make a home and perform the duties of a husband and wife? Did he provide for the home? Did she cook, sew and keep house? Did they have normal sex relations?

10. Was there previous fornication with anyone else or fraud of any kind involved?

 He also had more to his list of things he wanted to know about:

We must judge the spirit of fraud as well--lesbian or homosexual, absolute alcoholic, dope addict, demonism, etc. These are matters affecting the character and being of the individual.

Then to really scare the members into revealing the most intimate details, Meredith make this asinine claim:

Tell the people that what they told us is the basis of our decision. If they have not told us the truth, then they are sternly accountable to God Himself as were Ananias and Sapphira!

Meridith then makes the following comment which shows how manipulative and devious his mind works.  He makes the claim that the church has NEVER asked couples to separate.  However, if they want their salvation assured then they will do it because of that.  They must do it on their own though.   When salvation is threaten to be taken away, what is a COG member going to do?  They are going to do what the minister expects them to do.  Fear is the greatest tool that Meredith had in his arsenal.

Then Meredith tells the ministers to explain to unconverted mates that "just like any other club, the church has its own rules."  Club?  The church is a "club?"

If one of the mates is not interested in the Church, just explain to him or her that just as any club has its own membership rules, God has set down certain requirements that must be met before a person can become a member of the Church of God. It is our responsibility as His ministers to explain these requirements, but what the individual does about it is his own private and personal business.

Meredith also expected his gestapo agents to go to family and friends to dig up more information:

If an antagonistic mate simply will not divulge information on previous marriages, try to find out the basic details from the converted mate--or other relatives or friends--and you may be able to be sure from that. 

Then to further emphasis his deviousness he says:

Do not, under ANY circumstance, put the decision in writing! It could be used against us in court, as occurred in one case that all of you are familiar with.

While he was more than willing to break up marriages an families he did not want the courts to every know what he was up to.

Once Meridith's rules have been enforced and a couple agree to separate Meredith expected them to move long distances apart, preferably to another state!

If they both agree to the separation, we should offer help and advice in carrying out their decision. They should separate geographically--at least a state away in most instances, and in every case should be in different Church areas.

Then Meredith makes a shocking statement.  Apparently incest has been quit common in the Church of God, so much so that the church has even approved it at times!  Of course they did, they had the highest example set for them when they knew about Herbert Armstrong's incestuous relationship with his daughter!

Only in very rare circumstances--perhaps when one or both are senile and when one or the other is crippled or severely disabled--might a brother-sister relationship be approved. In no case, however, should you hold out this hope until this arrangement has been approved by Headquarters! We have found that brother-sister relationships just do not work--even though they might, and I say might, be able to remain sexually separate. They are still living in a husband-wife relationship in their minds. Only in very unusual and extreme circumstances would this arrangement be approved. We have learned some hard lessons on this through the years!

 You can read this entire disgusting letter here:  Roderick C Meredith's Shameful Role in "Divorce and Remarriage " Policy
 

LCG HQ On Lock-down Damage Control Mode To Prevent Further Persecution By Satan Through This Blog

Received this today in a comment:

LCG Headquarters is in crisis lockdown mode over the truths being publicized on this website!

The panic button has officially been pushed and the alarm has been sounded. The troops have been assembled for a damage control conference.

My money is on the "it's right before the spring holy days and we are God's only true church, so Satan is attacking us more powerfully than ever" excuse. It's an oldy but a goody and it completely negates the possibility that LCG leadership might actually be bring this on themselves by their un-Godly behavior.

LCG is not happy that members of the group are not too happy with the state of affairs in the church.  How dare these members express an opinion contrary to the happy-clappy-never-more-unified church that LCG attempts to portray.

Alas, it is Passover season which Satan HATES!  It is his attempt to cause the LCG persecution at this time of year.

Fed Up Living Church of God Member Says: "All the Church of God ministry live in luxury on the backs of the people. "

Fed up LCG Member said...

All the Church of God ministry live in luxury on the backs of the people. They suck off the church and live high on the hog. I recall helping a minister to move. He had a semi-ranch with horses and stables and a 6 bedroom home in a very upscale neighborhood. I soon learned that all the ministry lived in upscale homes that most of us could never dream of owning. It made me sick as I was driving a second hand car and there were 5 of us in a 3 bedroom , one bath 1000 sq ft home badly in need of repairs. Paul and Peter etc worked for a living. These ministers suck off the congregation and then as the bible says feed the swill to the people. They don't seek the lost or help the wounded, they simply blame the people for all the damage the ministry has done. They even blame God for scattering the church when it was they themselves who did exactly that. These guys are as phoney as can be. March 25, 2015 at 1:06 PM