Dennis Muses: "Giving up the Ghosts..."

Just What Do You Mean

"God Haunted"?

 

Brutus and the Ghost of Caesar

 

haunt (hônt, hnt)

v. haunt·ed, haunt·ing, haunts

v.tr.

1. To inhabit, visit, or appear to in the form of a ghost or other supernatural being.

2. To visit often; frequent: haunted the movie theaters.

3. To come to the mind of continually; obsess: a riddle that haunted me all morning.

4. To be continually present in; pervade: the melancholy that haunts the composer's music.

v.intr.

To recur or visit often, especially as a ghost.

n.

1. A place much frequented.

2. also hant or ha'nt (hnt) or haint (hnt) Chiefly Southern U.S. A ghost or other supernatural being.

 

 

God haunted is what James Malm, Samuel Kitchen and E.W.King are.  David C. Pack and Gerald Flurry are God Haunted.  All of those who listen to them are God Haunted.

 

Being God haunted, using the above definitions, to often visit the scriptures...any scripture found anywhere on any topic to try and discern what it must mean for you today and to pick a way in which it can control, alter or influence your thinking.  Mistaken and mispoken ministers do this to the congregation knowlingly or, more likely, unknowingly.

 

Being God Haunted is to continually obsess on everything from "God's plan" to "Jesus Christ NOW is _____"  fill in the blank.  It makes you wear or not wear certain clothes or kinds of clothes.  It dictates the foods you eat or don't eat .  It may dictate how you cook that food or even if you do.   Being God Haunted determines  the days you keep or don't keep as sacred or meaningful.  Being God Haunted makes one keep those days in exact and certain ways and times.  It calculates and measures.

 

 

Being God Haunted determines just how you view marriage and "roles."   If it is God/Christ/My Church Leader/Me and then my wife to be followed by the kids and their pets, the woman is going to find out real fast what God Haunted religion is going to do to her individuality.  God Haunted parents ruin kids and teach them that conformity in spite of individuality and the authenticity of each person is all that is required.  God Haunted parents forget they got to make life choices themselves unless they too are the product of God Haunted parents who only demanded conformity to the family ways, now pass it on.  God Haunted parents send their kids to God Haunted Summer Camps or programs where the kids then learn the fine art of either wearing the mask of conformity or the fine art of getting around the rules and having some fun.

 

Gerald Flurry is God Haunted.  His obsession with HWA and the Book of Malachi where in he sees himself as "That Prophet" is classic God Hauntedness.  It's also classic delusional thinking. He's not "that prophet" and he's not even that intelligent.  Gerald is Haunted by the Ghost of HWA who I am not confident was God Haunted in the same ways.  HWA had his ghosts but I don't perceive they were obsessions with how exactly to be and do things to be on God's good side.  Being God Haunted is the fear of doing something Biblically inappropriate or forbidden upon pain of death or being cut off from the Deity.  Purification rites are being God Haunted.  Washings and sacrifices are being God Haunted.  Giving money you really do not have to give is being God Haunted.  Allowing your pastor to badger you into giving up retirements, homes, possessions, stuff, time and effort , with the appropriate scriptures to back it up, against your better stomach twitching judgment, is being God Haunted.

 

Dr. Robert Thiel is God Haunted.  He worries about how God views football, make up and the role of women.  I suppose he has mused on NASCAR too.  I don't know.  But if the question came up, he'd have to search the scriptures for a principle with which to make a judgment on the matter.  That's God Haunted. 

 

Being God haunted agonizes over questions about what constitutes leavening or at what age my child should fast on Atonement.  It never crosses their mind to ask the child or even teen if they wish to participate of their own free will.  They are afraid they might say not this year and then the Deity will be really miffed.  Being God Haunted asks whether God approves of oral sex or not.  As one minister begged when the presenter at a Refresher Program thought this needed to be addressed "in the Church",  "Stop, stop...don't answer that!  You'll lose the entire French Church!"   End of discussion.

 

Being God Haunted begs for an answer to whether you can eat out on a certain day of the week or turn on your lights or stove.  Being God Haunted keeps you near breathless to hear the next "announcement" as to what God is doing this week which obviously  He forgot to include in last week's announcement.  Being God Haunted looks back at what actually happened as opposed to what one said must happen and rewrites the script to keep it ever about to happen.

 

And of course, David C Pack, head of the Restored Church of God, is God Haunted.  Seeing himself as spoken of by the prophet Haggai and Zechariah is classic God Haunted. It is classic mental illness as well I am sure by someone's knowledgeable definition.  I can't judge Dave's religious sincerity.  But he is God Haunted and obsessive about meaning and what God, Christ and the Devil are doing these days concerning his Restored Church of God and himself. . They all are and they search and search the scriptures to find meaning and to define everything they can think up to think on.   He is obsessive about all things HWA.  Being God Haunted never means "I was wrong,"  "I misspoke" or "I got a little carried away with scripture and I apologize."   It always means, "The Prophecy still stands!  We  (not I) were wrong in the "Timing."  And the God Haunted pursuit of the content of God's mind continues unabated and unexamined.

One of the worst explanations of scripture ever given in WCG as to how one should study the bible is found in  Isaiah 28 9-11

…9 "To whom would He teach knowledge, And to whom would He interpret the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just taken from the breast? 10 "For He says, 'Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there.'" 11. Indeed, He will speak to this people Through stammering lips and a foreign tongue,…"



This scripture is God, MOCKING the drunken priests of Ephraim and their way of teaching.  It is God, through Isaiah, telling them they talk like babies.  Later God says if that's the way you want it, that's the way God will respond and we'll see how that works out for you.

New International Version
"For it is: Do this, do that, a rule for this, a rule for that; a little here, a little there."

New Living Translation
"He tells us everything over and over--one line at a time, one line at a time, a little here, and a little there!"

These are not compliments and certainly NOT how one should study scripture to get "Gods intended meaning" or to promote "Letting the Bible interpret the Bible." 
 

When I was pastoring in Kentucky, people would tell me that various areas or places "had the Haints."  That meant it was haunted.  It had ghosts and was full of strange and weird things and happenings. 

 

Is there a cure for "the Haints"?  Only time and with experience I suppose.  Some clear thinking people, and I'm not seeing a lot of that in some of the COG membership as they sit week after week being entertained by the fairy tales of a Dave Pack or the lesseer players like Thiel, Malm, Kitchen and King,,  will reach the point of clarity and finally give up the ghosts.

Many won't and really probably can't. 

 

On this topic in the behaviors, requirements and machinations of the key players in the Church of God unending God Haunted drama, it will take time and a deep level of finally coming to see what "by their fruits you shall know them" actually means to the observer of these things.   This is the only real Ghost Buster I know and you'll know it when it shows up.

 

It usually presents itself when you hear the voice in your head, almost mid sentence or mid sermon say...

 

"This is stupid...I ain't afraid of no ghosts"

 

 

Samuel Kitchen: You Armstrong Haters Are At A Crossroads. Your Salvation Is At Stake. Repentance Came Through HWA

Look at the faces of these people, you can almost see the drool.

Did you know that repentance came to us though Herbert Armstrong? 

In a few short months you may be standing in front of the world court in Jerusalem having to give testimony on why you mock Herbie.

The reason I defend Herbert W Armstrong and what Christ taught through him is to give you the opportunity to repent. You are at a crossroads It is not my salvation that is at stake. It is yours. It is now on your head, the decision. Shortly ahead you will stand before the world court in Jerusalem, and you will have to give testimony to the court. This decision will once again reappear. The Ball is in your court. I am not here to convince, but to defend the Truth, and keep the body of Christ from being slandered, and to focus people in the right direction. You have a right to not believe me, or even to consider what I say. That is your right. We are free moral agents. You believe what you want to believe, and I will believe what I believe and in the end we will know the truth of the matter. But I ask why wait until the end, when we can know the truth now? And if we know the truth , and we reject it, in the end we will not be with Christ.

Samuel Kitchen: You Would Be A Bible Illiterate If It Were Not For HWA

Samuel Kitchen is just like David C. Pack.  Kitchen is a Bible reader and not a theologian.  Armstrongism does not have theologians who actually study the Bible and use critical thinking.

HWA's theology came from a public library where he spent his time for six months instead of looking for a job to support his family.  He mooched off of others as he studied out dated books in a public library.  Public library's are not great bastions of academia.  You need a college library, a seminary library that has more in depth books and study material.

Kitchen wrote this about the great theological knowledge that Herb passed on:

YOU WOULD BE A COMPLETE BIBLE ILLITERATE IF IT WASN'T FOR GOD USING AND CALLING HERBERT W ARMSTRONG! You would have no Ambassador Auditorium, No Ambassador College, NONE!

Apparently God was not too enthralled with Ambassador Auditorium or Ambassador College.  The church lost them both.  Now the college is being torn down.  All gone. NONE!

Samuel Kitchen: Christ Will Not Marry You If You Allow A Member Be Raped, Slandered, Attacked or Debased

In Samuel Kitchen's ongoing slobber-fest over Herbert Armstrong he has these comments for anyone who dares to criticizes HWA, Waterhouse, or other Armstrongite heroes he worships.

Kitchen apparently thinks Herbert is being raped and slandered by countless people on Facebook and elsewhere.

God doesn't need anyone to defend him? Now let me put it this way. Christ is our future husband, and we are to be the bride of Christ. The Church, the spiritual body is composed of many members. If a man comes and rapes a man's fiancee does she cry out defending herself? Or does she just let the raper do what he wants without a fight? If you do not resist or cry out when a member of the body is being RAPED, and slandered, YOU ARE COMMITTING HARLOTRY, AND ADULTERY! This is how I look at it with myself.
 
Christ will not marry you or me if we allow a member of the body BE RAPED, SLANDERED, ATTACKED, and debased! For then Christ sees you have no love for another. And you have no love for him as he wants a wife UNDEFILED.

So by defending a man who I see is over me in the Lord, in the office and spiritual rank of apostle, I see as defending the body in which Christ is going to marry. I LOVE CHRIST AND GOD FIRST! 

That is the greatest of all commandments that Christ taught. Love God FIRST. Then you can Love PROPERLY your neighbor! If you love your neighbor first you are placing them before God! The world will know us for the love we have for one another! YOU DON'T LOVE MR.ARMSTRONG! You consider him not apart of the body of Christ! AND I DO! Even if he was a lay member, and I see him being attacked and slandered I WILL STILL DEFEND MY BROTHER IN CHRIST! Eccl 4:9,12.
 
You don't show love towards him! And I do.

James Malm: Malmite Women Must Cover Their Hair Even When Studying the Bible

James Malm, Armstrongism's greatest Pharisee and promoter of legalistic bullshit has laid down the law for women in his small personality cult.  Any woman attending the feast in Oregon this year with him will need to cover their heads anytime they are in church, when prayers are said and when studying the Bible.

What is praying and prophesying?

I think we all know what prayer is; and that men are to remove their hats out of respect when someone is praying.  When a woman is praying or is in a service where prayer is being made, she should have her hair and head covered.

A woman can certainly pray without her head covered in emergencies or unexpected situations; but that should be the exception and not the rule.  Further a woman should cover her hair in any planned and formal prayer; such as services and bible studies.   

Malmite women also need to go their husbands for scriptural answers if asked a question by another.  Since the man is all powerful and knowledgeable, the Malmite women must be in submission.  The next thing Malm will ask his women to do is genuflect in front of there husbands and walk three steps behind them.

Dennis Muses on a Sunday Morning

1,  2,  3,  ____

 

Before pastoring in and for the Worldwide Church of God, I did not know what either depression or anxiety was.  When the Receivership drama hit in the late 70's, I believe that is where it began to present itself to me and any tendencies I may have had towards such episodes and reactions to life's circumstances.   The first medical experience I had with solving it ended up with my being told, "you'll be on these meds the rest of your life."  Ummm...no.   I have issues that need to be faced and resolved and when they get put in their proper perspective, I won't feel as I feel and won't be stuck.  That proved to be the truth and it did not come from thinking.  It was a gut reaction.

These are not easy topics to speak about.  Well they are if one is being generic and has no actual experience with it, but when it is personal, the first reaction is that others will think one is weak. But now I know how many human beings feel and struggle the same way.  Back then I did not. What good is an experience if you don't share the insights?   In religion and in the Church of God, you "lack faith" or need to get closer to God in some way if you suffer depression or anxiety.  Nonsense of course, but it is effective in promoting the guilt (I did a bad thing) and shame (I am a bad person) that often goes with the turf of religious practice.  Coping with change and events can be challenging with all the things that are at stake in this world. It's ok to need help.  It is a wise person in this day and age who has a personal counselor who actually knows how it all works. 


 My first conscious experience with this dual demon of depression and anxiety came in the late 70's when the WCG went into Receivership.  I knew in my soul when the Receivership hit that the Church and the Armstrongs were  to blame and deserved it.  I didn't want to believe it but in my gut, I knew it was true.  It was not an attack against religion.  It was not government persecuting a church for its beliefs.  It was no angry Satan attacking Herbert W Armstrong for preaching truth.  It was a legitimate concern government and those affected by the WCG and HWA had about the organization and what was going on with it.  It's when I went into my leave me alone shell and simple tried to be the best local pastor I could be.   I still believed the message.  It was the messengers I was having problems taking seriously


At any rate, quietly and insidiously it ate away at me.  It was the first time I wished I had made other choices but the die seemed to have been cast.  One thing lead to another and the many things I knew or heard behind the scenes began to take their toll.  Once transferred for the last time , it broke through and I ended up having to address the depression, which in hindsight was really my internalized and repressed anger with no place to go safely or effectively, had to be addressed. 


n the course of "treatment" I was asked to take a simple 18 question test.  No problem.  here is how it went.


1.  1, 2, 3 __________


2.  1a, 2b, 3c 4______

 

3.  .....and so on.

 

My first thoughts were they thought I was stupid or retarded.  My second thought was along the lines of wondering what the hell was going on and how did I get to this point.  Was basket weaving next?


Question 18 looked something like this.

 

18.  23k547bbl38r844pcy , 35u835hcj92r022 ecy, 15x586wwx99x558 mnw, ___________

 

I could see the answer in my mind.  But when I tried to write it down, I lost it.  It was the only one I missed.

 

When I went back for a "chat" with my counselor he told me I did very well.  I smiled because it was the first thing that felt good in a long time.  Then he cut me to the bone.  "Dennis...it is no great honor to be the most intelligent guy in a mental hospital."  (It was a Charter Facility)



I just stared at him. It was one of those moments where you know someone is right but you want them to say something more kind and helpful than that.  It was then I realized that lots of folk who struggle with such things are very intelligent.  It was the first time I realized it didn't matter if one used it badly or it simply caused one's head to spin with thoughts that lead to depression, which is the anger at the past unresolved or anxiety which seems all about future fears and concerns. 

 

We/I  had to do another little experiment in the program.  A standard wooden pallet was in the middle of the room.  There were about 10 of us and given the simple task of all getting on the pallet with no feet touching the floor.  Great!   Now I'm a complete idiot (You have to recall I grew up visiting a State Hospital every week where my brother, blind, deaf and speechless lived).   Now I was going to prove I was handicapped!   We did as instructed and the counselor said, "Ok , let's go back and talk about this."   Sure, fine.   I was not in a good mood.



 

The counselor asked one question of the group to consider.  "Tell me where you were on the pallet.  The center, the inside or the outside.   Got me!  I woke up a bit more forever.  I was on the outside with my arms out holding everyone on the pallet.  He asked me if I had the thought of stepping off the pallet so others had room?  Got me!  "yes."    He said we had to work on that but I got the point and it was a life lesson never to be forgotten. 

 

What's the point?  Going back to "It is no great honor being the most intelligent guy in a mental facility,"  I see the same thing going on with Dave Pack and his Restored Church of God.  I think you know I have little use for the one man show in church and religion.  It is too dangerous and to think one man would be allowed to filter my world of experience and thought , hopes and faith through his mind is obscene to me.  RCG members allow it all the time. It's why we write about thinking for one's self and not letting others filter your experience through  their own baggage or way of being and seeing.  

 

Dave Pack is an intelligent man in many ways but not theologically and I think most here know what I mean by that from previous comments of mine on the topic.  He, like most in the Church of God ministry, are mere Bible readers and commentators.  He just does it well.  Bob Thiel and Gerald Flurry do not do it all that well. That is not the same, however,  as being theologically trained or competent.   He is an excellent speaker and can present material very well.  Not to me personally of course, as his presentations are almost humorous to me knowing what he is actually doing or how he really does not understand the origins and intent of the original material he now presents, but that's a different topic. 

 

Dave seems both "intelligent" and clever.  Clever is the devious part of intelligence and not a good combo.  Clever always falls to reality and truth.  It serves a short term purpose but clever always ends up biting you in the ass. Clever is what Dave being forced to use now to keep his Haggai Prophecy alive and kicking.  Those outside the sphere of clever influence can see it clear as day. Those inside the circle tend to not see it and excuse it when they do.  You have to be good at that gut stirring denial in the Churches of God at times.  I was.



In some ways, I feel sorry for the man.  The excuse making, rewriting, editing and blame placing where it does not actually belong is a common approach those given to hyperbole and theological nonsense end up perfecting when the excrement hits the rotating device.  In religion you always get to say "God is revealing more,"  "Rejoice!  We have more time," or in Dave's case, "The Prophecy stands true.  It is the timing that "we" i.e. "he"  did not understand.   In my world we call that "Weinlanding."     You actually crash but you survive saying, "any landing you survive is a good landing."

 

"Apostle" Dave is intelligent.  He is clever.  He is persuasive sorta depending.  He is driven.  He reads well.  He can make up many points to be known.  He copies HWA very well.  I think he is sincere and really believes he is spoken of in scripture.   "Apostle" Dave Pack is the most clever and "intelligent" guy in the Wild World of God mental facility.

 

 

But let me pass a life lesson on to you Dave...

 

 

"It is no great honor to be the most intelligent guy in a mental health facility."

 

I'd also be curious to know where you'd end up on the pallet...  In the middle or on perimeter?  I doubt it would be anyplace in between. 

David C. Pack: Where You Choose To Wait For My Prophecy To Come True Could Be Deadly

David C. Pack just cannot get it through his head that NO ONE in the hundreds of COG's came over to his side this past weekend.  Your failure to really trust in his god caused you to deny his god and your salvation is now at risk.  If you stay in your current COG waiting to see what happens, you are destroying your chance of salvation.    David seems to be saying, "It is better to come on over to the dark side, even if I am wrong than to stay where you are and give your money to them.  Its my money and it belongs to me.  Your questions and fears should not be part of the equation.  I am incapable of being wrong, trust me, it will be OK in the end."

Lacking the prophecy’s fulfillment, having vested themselves in the announced date, some brethren outside The Restored Church of God are surely wondering what to do now. You face a choice: wait inside God’s Church and Work—or outside…

If you stay where you are, you have chosen to continue under false leaders in a place of division and deception, one drenched in false doctrine and under a false government, all while witnessing accelerating collapse around you. Of course, some may just go home. Unavailable to you will be healings, blessings and almost daily exciting announcements of God’s Church and Work. (Just view our “Behind the Work” film right after the Feast of Tabernacles to see the sharp contrast with your group.) Or would you rather support the exciting Work of God being done in His Church, under His government, in His full truth, while experiencing the peace, joy, love and unity only possible in one Church?

The only real alternative you have is to follow Christ’s Spirit back to His Church.

Think hard about what you will do. You do not need to wait until our next “Fruits” letter highlights how we continue to explode in growth and the reach of the Work while other groups do not. You need not miss out.

Do not stake your salvation on the timing of the Haggai/Zechariah prophecy. I repeat a final time. The prophecy is TRUE. Just next week’s announcement will inspire you beyond belief—it is way beyond what you could imagine! Don’t miss it!