The "Creepers" In The Church of God

Silenced has a great blog entry about creepy men in the Churches of God.  Those were the single guys over 35 that stood around with their tongues hanging out watching all the single women.

Pasadena was full of these creeps.  Because Pasadena was the HQ for the Church it attracted a lot of really weird and sick people.  Most were men.  There were a few women in the mix, but mostly it was men.  The auditorium attracted most of these guys because the students were assigned to attend there, so it was a young and nubile smorgasbord.

They would stand in the lobby of the auditorium and stare at coeds and well dressed women.  Some would then follow these women into the auditorium and sit behind them so they could stare at them all through services. Others, would have typed lists of expectations on how women were to act if they ever accepted a date from one of these guys.  It was all about being submissive and knowing who was in charge.

Church dances were a favorite venue for these creepers to come out of the wood work. They would gather up the courage to ask the single women to dance with them and then the touching would start in.  You could see it in the women's eyes as they returned to their seats with their friends.

Sadly the ministry never did much about these guys.  However they would tell women to go out with them, sometimes even commanding women to date certain of these creeps.

Silenced goes further into the topic relating how women were molested by these men.

Creepers and terminally single males

There weren’t many men to choose from anyway, and the remaining single, unattached males tended to be older and mentally unstable, as they had been trapped by COG dating prohibitions to keep their sights within the church. They sunk into loneliness, depression and instability as their opportunities and years passed them by.

The “terminally single males” as we jokingly called them tended to be 35 or older and socially awkward with the tendency to stalk. They would single-out women they liked at dances and social gatherings, despite their obvious disinterest, glare at them, make them uncomfortable and even sometimes make crude or harassing remarks.

These “creepers” were pervasive across COG groups, and the ministry did nothing about them. After all, they were men and tithe-paying members. Drop-kicking them out of the congregation would hurt the COG’s bottom line.

There were hundreds of tales of older men stalking and hitting-on women half their age or younger. These women are powerless and often frightened to bring this before COG pastors, who would simply be negligent to do anything about it anyway.

Many of these men ended up being sexual predators.  Silenced relates how a man in United Church of God called Mr. H preyed on women in the church and STILL does to this day because UCG will not do anything about him.

One illustrative example of a sexual predator online and in real life was a COG member we’ll call Mr. H.

He was a young man, late teens/early twenties, who was an infamous stalker of UCG women, teens and young adults. He would send them salacious, sexually charged messages, harass them before and after church, made lewd and suggestive phonecalls, and do things that would usually get people arrested.

However, his victims were afraid to speak out against him, because he was a “member in good standing,” his profile’s gallery was full of pictures of him and prominent church pastors shaking hands and smiling, and he outwardly was one of the pious and self-righteous church sheep ever produced, and that hid a very dark side that was gaining fear and infamy throughout the young people in UCG.

Mr. H is still a member in good standing, as the ministry has done nothing about him.

A horror story related to Mr. H was recently left on one of our posts by a current member of COGWA:

I will say that I completely agree 100% with Silence/et al, who point out the creepers/stalkers. I know exactly who you are referring to with Mr. H – I have had my own experiences with him, and after he sent salacious messages to a MINOR, I had him reported.

Mr. H was not reprimanded by the COG for this.

Most of these men jumped ship during the changes and went with the various splinter groups. LCG, UCG and PCG took in a lot of them. These guys have to be in their 60's now which makes it even creepier!

 Read the entire entry here: I wept for my sisters

Andrew on "What Is Sin?"

What Is Sin?

Anyone who has spent anything more than a few minutes involved in Armstrongism knows what sin is. All twenty-seven definitions. I jest. Slightly. It’s the transgression of the law, the missing of the mark, and all those wrong thoughts that are “broadcast” telepathically directly into your brain all 43,200 seconds of the day by the Prince of the Power of the Air, a.k.a. Satan.

In secular terms, a “sin” would just be a mistake, an error in judgment, or a grasping and fumbling in unfamiliar and confusing circumstances. But as soon as you wrap it up in religious terms and propose that every embarrassing thing you’ve ever done has been chiseled into eternal stone to be used against you in the most intimidating circumstance imaginable to determine your eternal fate, well then every thought, intention, and act, necessarily becomes fraught with eternal significance.

We’re not really going to argue things like murder, rape, grand theft, etc. There isn’t anyone who doesn’t agree that these are serious offenses that one cannot generally do “accidentally.” Probably no one in history has ever uttered the phrase, “Oops, I didn’t mean to become a serial axe murderer.”

“Oh,” we might all say, “that was an understandable mistake. Becoming a serial axe murderer could have happened to anyone.” No, I think we can all agree that does not constitute a valid defense in anyone’s book. Instead, we’re talking about the criminalization of much smaller mistakes.

A key problem with turning every trivial error into an act of cosmic significance is the fact that we are born not really knowing very much, and learning involves making mistakes, and that means doing some “sinning.” Realistically, it just can’t be helped. Yes, it is true, we do have a “choice” in a manner of speaking, whether to sin or not in any given situation, but given tens or hundreds of billions of people, the bible itself says that not one person ever passed the test of living a “crime”-free life.

If the bible is to be believed, on the one hand, God intentionally designed us so weak that every single one of us is going to do some “sinning” every time we try to do anything at all. On the other hand, every mistake and every learning experience has cosmic significance, obviously as an expression of the idea that God doesn’t want us to ever do any “sinning.” Does anyone else see a conflict here? Why would God put us in a no-win scenario like this? Under the burden of so much religious-based accusation and judgment, is it any wonder that so many people suffer from low self-esteem?

Of course, this is a biblical thing, not just an Armstrong thing, so Armstrongism isn’t alone in this. Catholicism, Judaism, and Islam all have their fundamentalism that inflicts the same conundrum upon their followers.

So then, because every single human being ever created is such a heinous criminal (hmm, I wonder why), God’s kingdom would have exactly zero new additions from this earthly experiment except for the enormous and benevolent grace of God, who sent his only begotten Son to die to pay for all our heinous crimes. And we must be eternally grateful and beholden for such a wonderful deed done on my behalf because we are all such heinous criminals.

At the risk of sounding like an absolute heretic, excuse me, but who set this whole system up in the first place, starting with how I was created, and then criminalizing every mistake I was sure to make, thus guaranteeing such an enormous debt of “sin” would be hanging over my, and everyone’s head, that needed paying for in the first place?

The traffic codes are written in the same way. If they were written for safety, then they were written for robot  drivers, not human drivers.  The way the traffic laws are, you can’t help but break some of them every time you drive. They seem calculated to take advantage of human frailty. Any time the city needs some extra income, they can simply go out and fleece the people by issuing a slew of moving violations. Every time you get behind the wheel, you are probably incurring hundreds or thousands of dollars worth of debt (I know I am), which may or may not be demanded of you.

I understand the point of much of the “law” laid out in the bible as a code to genuinely help everyone avoid making some large mistakes, and that’s fine. But what if the whole system of “sin” and “sacrifice” was laid out with the same intentions as the modern traffic laws? What if it’s just the fabrication of a fictitious debt combined with the biggest guilt trip in history for the sole purpose of bringing an entire society under the control of religious authorities?

What if we were to let go of all the neurotic energy bound up in the word “sin”? Not to say that many “sins” aren’t genuinely bad ideas, but just to say, let’s abandon the cosmic significance part of it.

What if we were to say that a mistake is just a mistake? Yes, there will be consequences. You won’t score the brownie point, you might lose the girl, you'll have to pay the fine, or maybe you’ll look like the loser and idiot that we all feel like from time to time. And then a funny thing happens. Everyone forgets. And it’s just not that big of a deal anymore. There’s no cosmic significance. Nobody is going to bring it up a thousand years from now and rake you over the coals for it. And a mistake suddenly becomes something that is affordable. It’s just not that serious. And you can afford to laugh at yourself.

-Andrew

Is The Prophet Thiel and Beast Guttenberg Bromance About To Heat Up?

Prophet Thiel is all hot and bothered today with the prospect that Baron Guttenberg will be speaking in Georgia this week. Prophet Thiel breathlessly writes:

The former German Defense Minister Baron Karl zu Guttenberg  is to speak in Georgia next week:

Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg will join F. William Smullen III, chief of staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell for the keynote addresses at the Feb. 23-24 event. The symposium will focus on the role of conflict management and peace building in the United States’ security strategy.
It will feature panel discussions with experts from the military, academic institutions and international policy organizations.
Guttenberg will speak at 6 p.m. on Feb. 23 at the Embassy Suites in Kennesaw. Smullen will speak at noon on Feb. 24 at The Commons on the campus.
Both speeches are free and open to the public.  http://www.wrcbtv.com/story/16928431/german-defense-minister-to-speak-at-kennesaw

The Prophet goes on to write:

As regular readers know, I have long had my eye on former German Defense Minister Baron Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg...

We KNOW Bob, Really!  We KNOW!

Prophet Bob's sick obsession with Guttenberg seems to grow more and more each day.  Will Bob fly to Georgia so he can listen to the guy speak?  It's real close to LCG HQ so he could run up there afterwards and give a full report.  Stranger things have happened.

Prophet Bob thinks Guttenberg is the Beast of Revelation and that he is on reconnaissance here in the US to gather information with which to destroy us later on during LCG's tribulation.

...one to watch as a possible candidate to be the final King of the North of Daniel 11 and Beast of Revelation.  I believe that he is making political and military contacts in the USA and elsewhere that he may be able to use later.

Prophet Bob has spent a couple of years now smearing the mans name and reputation in Living Church of God circles and on the web.  He has been spreading the same lie all this time.  Of course he conveniently tries to cover his rear by adding this to all of his posts, AFTER he has maligned Guttenberg:

Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg could simply be a somewhat politician with many ups and downs. And all his intentions could be fine. But Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg does seem, to me at least, to be taking the types of steps that one who could possibly be the final King of the North would actually take.

Bob, giver it a rest!  Either that, or come out of the closet and admit your secret desire for the man.  Your obsession with him  is really starting to look suspicious!  Besides, you are embarrassing the hell out of the Living Church of God! 

When those German tanks come rolling into Charlotte, I can give you three guesses on where they will head first!

Dale Schurter Resurfaces Claiming He Is Suffering "Intense Persecution"

Poor little Dale is suffering from persecution!  Are we making your miserable life even more miserable?

One thing I have learned over the years is that when an Armstrongite claims persecution they are generally lying through their teeth.  Armstrongites have NEVER faced persecution like they perceive they are. Real persecution is what is happening to the Copt's in Egypt, Iraq and Syria.  Persecution is the 50 some million Jews, gypsies, gays, JW's, Russians, etc., that were killed because of ethnic cleansing in WWII. Persecution is what happened to the Christians martyrs killed in Rome's coliseum.  Being pussy whipped by a few blogs is NOT persecution.

You despots in leadership positions in the Churches of God that claim persecution, while sitting in your quarter million dollar homes around your dinner table with a spread of food before you as classical music plays on your stereo on Friday nights, have NO idea what persecution is!

You, Dale Schurter, are one sick puppy!

There also continues to be persecution for me, some quite intense. All who have regained spiritual sight will suffer persecution. As we participate in this end-time Work of proclaiming the Good News of the coming Kingdom of God, along with the trials we also experience joy. Both will continue to increase “as we see the day approaching” (Heb. 10:25).

Dale starts out his appalling letter with this:

Thank you for the encouragement we have received from so many of you. What a joy to have returned to the Body of Christ, with God’s Government in place and all its parts zealously doing the Work, headed by Jesus Christ!

It's all about control! Government that makes members lives a living hell is NOTHING to be joyful about! I have news for you bud, Jesus is NOT present in your organization. Never has been and never will be!

Apostate Schurter continues:

My wife and I are so thankful to God for answering our prayers to be led to where He is truly working. We had become severed from the True Vine, but are now reattached. As some of you may know, I have studied and employed biblical agriculture for decades, and understand what happens when a branch is cut from a vine or tree. The environment in which it falls will determine how long it will remain alive and able to be reattached, grafted back into the vine before it completely withers and finally dies—then to be gathered and burned. Brethren, I was withering as a part of Laodicea, as “blindness and nakedness” crept into my life and work. I had taught against taking on a Laodicean attitude and lifestyle for decades. Yet I had drifted into it myself. What a sobering reality!

Yes, denigrate the WCG and UCG which paid you hundreds of thousands of dollars which you took eagerly over the decades.  You stayed on the dole in UCG stealing their money for years when you were researching and teaching things that UCG did not agree with.  As for your "biblical agriculture," your experiments at Big Sandy have left infertile ground that can only support pigs right now.  Some fruitful vine that produced!

You continue:

After we prayed diligently for a solution, God performed a miracle and led us to The Restored Church of God. It was a jolt, to say the least, but so heartwarming to confirm where the Head of the True Church is continuing His Work—and not only continuing, but greatly expanding it. The fruits are truly manifold. I cried with inner joy! We had again found the faith once delivered to the saints, the Government of God, the Church of God headed by Jesus Christ, an apostle in place, and a dedicated ministry, staff and brethren—all on fire—vibrant and very busy doing the Work of God!

News again bud, the "faith once delivered" was NEVER lost.  Millions of Christians have know about it for centuries. I also have news for you, that if HWA ever came back, he would not recognize the filth that RCG preachers.  Even he would be appalled!  Thanks for confirming that your apostate leader has now declared himself an apostle.

Apostate Dale writes about his reeducation process he has been through recently:

Last week I had the privilege to again travel to The Restored Church of God’s World Headquarters in Wadsworth, OH, and engage in an uplifting and motivating three-day work experience. The urgency and work ethic there are inspiring.

I certainly do bet it was an "experience" to be told to abandon the things your have been fraudulently preaching for the last few years as revealed truth.  Apostle Dave  can't have his minions running around dreaming up new ideas and thoughts.  If his brain did not manufacture it, it is not worthwhile.

For those of you not turned off by revolting garbage, you can read the rest of Apostate Dale's pathetic letter here:  What a Joy to Be Back in the Body of Christ!

Excuse me while I go and throw up.....

Van Robison on "All Humans are Captives"

All Humans are Captives

In the "United" States of America we have been led to believe that we live in "freedom."  We don't live in freedom!  We are all captives and prisoners on planet earth.  We are prisoners to taxation in all its forms, which is nothing more than armed robbery.  We are captives to the "laws" of men, which are nothing more than force, compulsion, violence, fear, threat and intimidation that if you do not conform, you will pay the price for non-compliance.  Human governments and the religions of men are very much alike, in that they both take captives.  We are captives physically and psychologically.  We don't really have freedom of choice, because if we did life would be drastically different.  During the age of prohibition, the government (mafia) decided that it was "illegal to manufacture booze, because the government did not approve.  Consequently the gangsters working for the government smashed, destroyed and otherwise demolished every "illegal"  alcohol operation that it discovered.  It was the "law."  The "laws" of governments are all man-made.  What gives human governments the "right" to use violence against those who resist their man-made edicts?

Christians by the millions think that God is the author of human governments based upon such passages as Romans 13 and other verses.  I have emailed some websites that proclaim that they are "Christian Cops" and
cannot be persuaded that God is in fact NOT the author of human governments.  This in fact proves that what is called "the Bible" has such an influence upon human thinking that many live their lives on the basis of how they interpret the so called "Holy" Bible.  It seems to me like a sick mentality that cops will attempt to entrap drivers on the road and ticket (armed robbery) them for speeding, when we all know that those same cops will themselves speed against the limits even when not on call or duty (obviously they are all hypocrites).

Humans are very self-deceiving.  They play-act and pretend that "violators" will be ticketed or arrested, while they themselves have no problem with tasering people on the pretense of "necessity."  Many have died at the
hands of cops who tasered innocent human beings.  In the Phoenix airport a few years ago, the "security" people actually killed a totally harmless woman in their stupidity and senseless over excitement.  Believe it or not, this type of situation has happened many times to very innocent human beings.  The abuse of human beings is legendary and is very common in life on earth.  And yet "Christians" by the millions think God is the source of abusive human governments and the source of churches, man-made religions and human "authority" over their fellow man.

I would suggest that God is NOT the source of control, abuse, authority or power over human beings.  Life itself proves that humans were NEVER intended to have power and control over their fellow man.  The religious minded and the political minded have yet to learn this lesson, even after thousands of years of human experience.  The Worldwide Church of God is no exception, and is also guilty of taking captives for the purpose of $money and all that $money can buy.

Human governments are not God anymore than are "pastors", churches or the religious beliefs of humans.  Herbert W. Armstrong may have been sincerely deceived (who really knows?), but he was most definitely a false preacher.  Only the simple minded would believe that in the "United" Sates of America we live under "freedom."  For those who have no clue, the U.S. has military bases in over one hundred countries around the world.What for?  World domination?  It is the same old story over and over and over, to demonize another country or ruler of that other country and then destroy them as a pretense about "security" and "defense."  We are not all that naive and gullible.

All humans on earth are captives and prisoners to governments of men and to the religions of men.  Is there a rocket ship to another inhabitable planet without human government and without man-made religions?


Van Robison

Hey Dale Schurter! Where For Art Thou? Is Your Email Being Monitored?

Thanks to MishMash for pointing this out to me today.

Our beloved Dale Schurter has been absent from the scene after he posted his initial letter on the Restored Church of God site for defecting UCG ministers.

He had his own email address, mailing address and phone number listed.  He encouraged people to call him or write with questions.

No longer are you worthless Laodician peons allowed to do that.  Dale's email is now being filtered through the Restored Church of God servers and monitored by them. Brother Dale's new address is:  dschurter@rcg.org



MM writes:

His previous one was a Juno address.  Also his phone number is gone.   Hmmm.   I have a feeling that he taking a lot of heat and they are now cutting off access to him.   For sure they are now monitoring everything that comes into him.  I still have his regular email address its daleschurter@juno.com  I wonder if he has pulled the plug on it or not.    If he is smart, he would keep a private laptop on a separate isp and keep his own email.  But who said anything about smart.   Or, the other scenario is that he is kicking himself right now for such a dumb decision.   Latest article on the ministers site says that Dale is upset because people are thinking that he is saying that they lost the holy spirit.   Mr. Bill wrote that one for him.  Why didn’t he write it himself?   Suspicious is all I can say ! 

RCG's Gestapo made one tiny mistake though, his old email address is still visible on his initial letter:

Dale L. Schurter
daleschurter@juno.com
(631) 561-8784

Van Robison on: "RETHINKING THE BIBLE"

RETHINKING THE BIBLE

Like millions of others, I too believed the Bible was infallible and inerrant for many years of my life.  I have read the Bible from cover to cover, more than once and studied portions of it many times.  Based upon certain verses in the Bible, we have all been led to believe that it is all inspired by God.  Perhaps part of the reason for that belief is that even Jesus Christ made reference to certain individuals in the Old Testament.  In life I have learned to question and that to automatically assume something is true, is a sure ticket to deception.  Bible infallibility is actually a form of CENSORSHIP, which means to Bible apologists that it cannot be questioned, because to question the Bible is to question God.  Not so!

Strangely, even in the New Testament the reader is told to "prove all things" and "try the spirits whether they be of God."  The things Jesus Christ taught during His human life time, were jaw-dropping.  Jesus Christ was is in fact the most renowned whistleblower the world has ever known and His impact upon human beings is monumental.  We read that Jesus came to SET THE CAPTIVES FREE.  Jesus also DEMOLISHED man-made religion as recorded in Matthew 23, which is worthy of being read and thought about by all church goers.  Jesus was profound.  Jesus offended the religious rulers and the religious elite.  I would even suggest that should Jesus Christ walk our streets today, He would bypass the "pastors", the "senior pastors", the "bishops", the "elders", the "reverends", the mega-church leaders, those with titles such as "Dr. Pastor", the "scholars", those with "masters" degrees in theology, those with "doctorate" degrees in theology and so forth and once again hand-pick "uneducated fishermen", or perhaps farmers or housewives as disciples (people with common sense).

Jesus Christ bucked the religious status-quo.  Jesus and His disciples picked corn and ate it on the Sabbath Day.  Jesus healed the sick on the Sabbath day.  Jesus proved that man-made religion is just that---man-made.  Jesus did not wash His hands before He ate, which was an offense to the legalists.  In our world today, we also have the legalists, not only in the original Worldwide Church of God and its many daughters, but the world is overrun with religious legalists in many different groups.  Going to church itself is a form of legalism.  What does it really have to do with salvation or eternal life?  Sure Jesus entered the synagogue, but not to learn truth, but to enlighten those who lived in darkness.

The church world is Bible obsessed.  They think life on earth revolves around Bible study.  It does NOT!  Life really revolves around LOVE (at least it should), and God is LOVE.  How is God love in the face of tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes and "natural" disasters?  What about endless wars of death and destruction?  The issue is that God created human life and we all suffer because of the decisions humans make in life.  Most of us are not responsible for the heinous wars of mankind, but many suffer because of them.  Why does God not intervene and stop them?  I have asked that question a million times and the only conclusion I have is that we have to learn from living, but that does not make God responsible for insane wars.  As to natural disasters, I have no answer, but I do not assign evil to God.  Who does not have questions with no valid answers?

The Bible in my opinion is a great deal of fiction, myth, legend and human fabrication.  That of course offends the senses of many.  I can receive the fact that there are some good teachings in the Bible, especially the words attributed to Jesus Christ, such as about love, compassion, mercy, empathy and humility but that does not cause me to believe that everything in the Bible is fact or truth.  I have no idea how the New Testament was penned, even though I have read that it was penned many years AFTER the life of Jesus Christ.  Was Jesus Christ quoted "verbatim?"  How does anyone know?  Truth is---they don't know!  For many it seems that their faith in Jesus depends entirely upon the false belief that "the Bible is infallible and inerrant."

The Old Testament and the book of "Revelation" both defy the teachings of Jesus Christ and are cause to seriously doubt inspiration.  Just because one verse says "all scripture is given by inspiration of God", does not make what is called the Bible, the word of God.  In the end of the book of "Revelation" we read that anyone who tampers with "Revelation" will suffer the consequence.  That is an obvious attempt at CENSORSHIP and I would suggest that the real author of this novel and fiction had an ulterior motive.  Throughout history men have always put words in the mouth of God that God never spoke and attributed events to God that God is not responsible for.  The gullible and naive "think" God authored the Bible, for no other reason that they read "all scripture is given by inspiration of God", and the hard fact is that ANYONE with pen in hand could pen such words and attach anything to those words they wish, causing the reader to believe that God did it, when He did not.

Anyone who digs deep will learn that there are mountains of information about the Bible, that will overturn what millions have believed about it.  There is an avalanche of knowledge about the Bible that will no doubt change the course of how human beings see the Bible in the years to come.    In my personal convictions, that does not cause me to be an atheist or cause me to doubt Jesus Christ.  In fact, without Jesus Christ there is NO LIGHT in the world.  Naturally I read that Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life, but also the Living Waters, the Bread of Life, the Manna from Heaven, the Light of the World, the Vine, the Door, the Resurrection, the Good Shepherd and the ONLY Master from the Bible and I accept that.  What other hope is there?  NONE!

Is what is called "the Bible" really a man-made idol?  Do many worship "the Bible?"  Of course they say they do not, but I believe they do.  The Bible is really just INK on PAPER.  It is not God and God is not the Bible.  God is a Spirit Being, He is not INK on PAPER.


Van Robison