The Hierarchy the Churches of God

That's Rod and Lil'Jimmy at the top doing nothing 

while the members below trying to salvage what they can.

Going to Petra: ExCOG Member Radio Program Top Rated by TED Blog

Hats off to Glynn Washington who hosts a radio program called  Snap Judgement on NPR.  He shares many fascinating stories about life in general but has also shared stories about what it was like for him to grow up African American in Armstrongism.

TED Blog recommends:

Snap Judgment
“It’s a 56-minute whirlwind that always seems to go by too fast,” says Ellyn Guttman, of our TED Books team, about this hard-to-describe NPR podcast hosted by Glynn Washington. “It’s similar to This American Life but edgier,” adds Kim Nederveen Pieterse of our Partnerships workgroup. “It questions race, identity and ‘the system’ through personal storytelling and music.”

Previous articles on this blog have mentioned Glynn's programs:

Loosing My Religion

The Reunion

Apocalypse

Son of Ham

Going to Petra

While the Ministry in LCG, UCG, PCG and RCG Stay in First Class Hotels, the Little People are Left to Fend for Themselves

Exit and Support has an interesting letter up from a former COG member detailing what it was like being part of the Church of God.  This is NOT an isolated case.  Another life potentially ruined...but now free.

I was eventually baptized with Church of God the Eternal; however they had no services in my state, so I was baptized at their "Feast of Tabernacles." The minister told me that I could not work during the Sabbath. I followed that and it put me living hand to mouth for 2 years. He said God would open the doors for a job if I was living in His truth. COG the Eternal also said that if I were in God's good graces, I would not be so poor, and that God would provide if I was doing His will.

I have also been involved with RCG, PCG and UCG. I have been hooked on these "Armstrong groups" for years and now am trying to free myself. I have also been to Feasts of Tabernacles with them. The big shots and wealthier members stay in large, expensive mountain homes and go boating; go to dinners, socializing, etc., while us "poor" members who struggle to tithe are staying in small no name motel rooms and being left out of all the activities, left to entertain ourselves. This has all damaged me emotionally. I have never known how to have a true relationship, I've always felt distant from other people, and like I'm not good enough. It has been a life long struggle so far, and I am now 50. Running across your website may be setting me free. Thank you. --Impacted survivor.

The entire letter is here:  May 11
 

COG Prophet Claims: The U.S. Debt has been caused by abortions and that bad weather is because of Homosexuals

God's most well informed and greatest Church of God leader ever is back talking about sex again today.  After quoting a long letter from Norm Edwards, the doubly blessed prophet Bob Thiel makes this claim:

I would also add that I believe abortion is a factor in USA debt and the increased acceptance of pornography and the homosexual agenda is a factor in difficult weather.  This is consistent with many biblical prophecies

Using this logic we will soon see the country of Ireland sink into the ocean because the heavily Catholic country voted in gay marriage on Friday.

Bob League and Rod McNair's Love Letter To "Wayward" LCG Members

 

Click to enlarge this great letter of Christian "Love"

I received the above "love" letter that Bob League and Rod McNair send out to all those people who need Jesus Christ's love the most during challenging times.  Both League and McNair make me proud to be a Christian considering how much love drips from their hearts.  They are just like Jesus Christ!

Commentary below was with the letter:

Note how the work "mark" is always in all caps as if to really drive home the point and how it's for the "protection of our members" (translation "to keep your unhappiness with our tyranny and doctrinal changes from spreading to others").

It's also somewhat amusing that the marked are not "allowed on church premises" as if they would want to be in the first place.

Then there's the line about contacting a minister if you want to counsel, which we all know didn't turn out too well for the Scarboough's based on the hand written letter from Mr. League essentially saying, "we know you want to counsel, but we don't want to talk to you, so please proceed to take a long walk off a short pier".

It's also of note that it says "based on biblical instruction". There is no such biblical instruction. "Mark" means to "take note of", not to shun and cast off to Satan like LCG interprets it. Taking note is not a tool to be used to rule with and to cast fear into the hearts of others who might disagree or have the nerve to think for themselves.

Christ sat with sinners. Ate with sinners. Admonished people to let he who is without sin cast the first stone. Preached that those that are well have no need of a doctor. Preached to forgive 7 times 70. Preached about love, mercy and forgiveness over and over again. But Meredith prefers to crush any and all who even annoy him in the slightest.

Such a Godly man. No wonder he is third in all the universe!

Is the Living Church of God Out To Destroy Families?

For many years now Rod Meredith and crew have been claiming the LCG is God's best true family on earth.  No Church of God is more unified or loyal as the LCG family.   Or......so it seems.

A reader (LCG member) writes:

Last Sabbath Mr. Meredith had the sermon. I hate to say it but whenever they announce that he will be bringing the sermon I roll my eyes and slump down a little in my chair because I know every word that's about to be spoken. There's thousands of topics available in the entirety of the Bible. Why can't he every shake it change the topic? It is literally painful to listen to at this point. Even if he says the sermon is going to be about something different, it always comes back to the same old thing, just re-packaged under a different title. Same stories, same scriptures, same overall point. Obey and submit, keep the big picture yada yada yada.

I digress.

So last Sabbath he preached on "Family". Funny since this is an area of total ignorance on his behalf. He has been a total work-a-holic his entire life completely neglecting his own family. He now tells married couples to choose the church (LCG) over their spouses even if there are children involved thereby destroying family. He has ruined, God only knows how many families, through his D&R nightmare wherein he had happily married couples separate after years of marriage and children together. Presently he routinely separates wives from their husbands during Gestapo interrogation sessions (to weed out dissenters and "purify God's church")in an effort to turn their stories against each other and prey on the wife's (perceived) weakness. And worse of all, in my opinion, he has disfellowshipped and cut off so many of my spiritual brothers and sisters without trying to keep work through issues with them. Is that how we treat "family"? If a child doesn't agree with the parent, do you just drop them off at the closest bus stop and decide to never speak to them again? That is essentially what is looks like Mr. Meredith has done to so many of the people that I considered (and still consider) to be my "family". All this while knowing that if your last name is "Meredith" you can get away with ANYTHING because you are the top dog's family.

It's so hypocritical I can barely stand it.

The entire sermon, all I could think was I hope a bolt of lightening doesn't come down and strike him in front of all theses children.

Family forgive each other. Family work through differences or just practice unconditional love. Family stick together through thick and thin, not throwing its members away just because they don't always agree. Mr. Meredith has no idea what true family is.

COG Leader Says Atheists Are Caused By Fornicating Evangelicals, Bad Church History and War

Why is it that so many leaders in Armstrongism say the stupidest things about subjects they know nothing about?

Do you know why atheists exist?  A certain COG leader has the answer and like any good Church of God leader it involves sex:

Now, actually one of the reasons that there are evolutionary atheists is, believe it or not, in the 19th century various male “intellectual” were looking for excuses to not have to abide by biblical standards of sexual morality. And back then, some of them even admitted that is why they embraced the concept that life randomly evolved without a creator God.

I would also add hypocrisy to the list. The fact that evangelicals, for one example, are more likely to be involved with fornication than the general public, despite biblical admonitions against it, turns people off.

Did all the fornicating Church of God members cause thousands of atheists to be formed?  Did GTA's fornication and adultery cause more atheists?  Did the sexual escapades of various evangelists lead to more atheists?

This highly "enlightened" leader also blames war:

War is another factor. Many non-believers point to religions such as Islam, Catholicism, and Protestantism as major causes of war, which turns many people off to the idea that there is a truly loving God. But of course, all scholars realize that early Christians would not participate in carnal warfare. And in my opinion, this is still true of faithful Christians today.

Did the fact that the Church of God not represent the God they claimed to follow lead to the formation of more atheists?

There are also scholars, for example, like Bart Ehrman, who started out as Protestant but when they learned more about church history, realized that Protestantism simply did not fit with much of the Bible nor church history. And while he may be more of an agnostic than an atheist, the fact that most of what is considered by the world to be Christianity, is not Christianity, and this turns many off of religion (though it does not necessarily make them atheists).

Did the hundreds and hundreds of schisms in the Church of God cause more atheists? Did the lies of Dave Pack, Rod Meredith, Gerald Flurry, and Vic Kubik cause  more atheists?

All of this amazing information comes from our very own "doubly blessed" apostle and prophet Bob Thiel.  Long may he reign!