Allegory/Literalism and the inability to focus upon the deeper meaning

Recently, Banned by HWA posted an article about an artist from our Common Heritage who had the honor of painting the Official Portrait of former First Lady Michelle Obama. The portrait itself - when discussed by members of the COG Community past and present - was not received without criticism - because of the proportions, tones, and - most importantly - realism of the artistic piece - for some, made the piece "terrible". 

I have always been a creative and artistic person. A lot of my time is absorbed in photography and the digital arts - which includes digital painting. This stems from my childhood when I learned during my toddler years that I had a knack for artistic creativity. This was not by any means an exclusion from the ramming head of Armstrong's influence. As a child, I was told to avoid any artistic creativity that was not reflective of "realism" because it would become a lie if I used artistic creativity. In other words, if the sky is blue, you have to paint it blue. You cannot imagine it any other way, either in your head or on media. Doing so would then be "sin". 

Of course, the wages of sin is death - so we were told by the Church sermon after sermon. No, It wasn't threatened that I would somehow die if I used Burnt Umber instead of Orange. But the implication was clear: Obey what the Church says, and what your parents tell you, or the consequences could be enormously severe in just 3 to 5 years. Your parents would be taken to the place of safety, you would be left behind, to feel the full force of the Great Tribulation and World War III. Oh, yes, the fear was real, genuine - and it invaded every part of your life. In my case, even using artistic creativity wrongly which would become sin. Pretending and Imagination were intentionally cut off. 

Was this extreme? Yes. However, in this light, one can understand in a sense (Perhaps not nearly as extreme as the scenario I was a part of) some of the problem that some people (artists included, both in and out of the Church) have when artistic creativity is expressed. One of the commentators stated in the thread mentioned on this forum the many things that were incorrectly presented in the piece of artwork - arm length, hands, skin tone - "unnatural" form and without realism. The same commentator made a very astute observation: "The WCG demanded uniformity of thought". 

It is not about the painting. In truth, there is a reason why this painting was selected as the Official Portrait of Mrs. Obama. It is the exact reason why the portrait has been selected, in my opinion, to be held in such high esteem - to the chagrin and controversy of many. The reason? Artistic Expression, a personal voice, and allegorical image. The very concepts that our religion of Absolute Literalism strongly discouraged. 

When I look at the painting, I do not look at this painting with a literal eye. If I do, I will never understand it. I see long arms that are intended to show strength and compassion - holding many children. I see neutral pastels, conveying softness and contemplation. I see a skin tone that is pleasing when juxtaposed with the background. In short, without going into great detail, I believe this artist used her creativity and expression to shape Michelle not only how "she" sees her, but in a way that allegorically defines her legacy in a clearly artistic and powerful - yet subliminally pleasing manner. 

If you decide to look at this painting literally, you will find all sorts of things wrong with it. That's what happens when you go by the literal letter of anything. You will find and be searching for flaws. You will be inspecting every detail. You will want every aspect to be perfect. You will want every portion to be proper. You will demand absolute conformity. You will intentionally demand proper compliance with expectations. This is the result of literal-ism, and the law of legalism at work. 

If you decide to look at this painting with the mindset of imagination, creativity, and an open mind, you will see this work in a whole new light. You will not see the inaccuracies of failing to comply with realistic interpretations, but the message of creativity expressed on canvas. You will not see a gray, unrealistic skin tone, but a deeper countenance instilled with reflection. You will not see too short of a neck - your eyes will be drawn to her face. This is what excellent art does - it conveys the thoughts, emotions, feelings, and reflections of the artist. This is what makes art great. And this, in my opinion, is why this piece was selected as the Official Portrait of Michelle Obama. The artist - coming from the strict legalistic background of the Armstrong Influence - shoved all of that outside to let her creative energies flow. She painted using her expression, not a paint by number - which is, in itself, the difference between Legalism and Freedom. Legalists will debate, ridicule, dissect, and tear down this painting in every detail. Those who understand Artistic Freedom will look beyond the rules and the lines and the colors and see what the artist is attempting to convey. And this fine artist understands she has the Freedom In Art to do so - and has been rewarded justly for her spirit of artistic expression - the spirit of the paintbrush. It's the difference between a Portrait Artist - and Bob Ross. 

A Lesson many COG - types would be well to ponder in allegory and in principle, indeed, on much more spiritual issues.

submitted by SHT

UH OH...Neolithic Settlement 3000 Years Older Than The Creation of Man Found 3 Miles From Jerusalem. 6000 Year Plan For Man on Hold

Where does the Bible mention the 6,000-year rule of man?

The Restored Church of God says...

"he vast majority of the people in the world today have never heard about the Plan of God. God has put into place a 7,000-year Master Plan, which began at the re-creation of the earth, almost 6,000 years ago. This plan is pictured in type by the seven-day week. Genesis 1:3-31 shows us that God re-created the earth in six days and then created the seventh-day Sabbath by resting on it (Gen. 2:2-3). God is allowing man to work six days (six thousand years), followed with the seventh-day rest (a 1,000-year Sabbath rest).

The apostle Peter wrote, “With the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (II Pet. 3:8, NKJV). No doubt, he understood that the seven-day week pictured the 7,000-year plan of God. Paul also had this in mind when he instructed that the seventh day of the week pictures the millennial rule of Christ that will follow this present evil age of human misrule (Heb. 4:3-11). This “day” will occur after Christ’s intervention and it will last a thousand years (Rev. 20:1-4). References to this principle are also found in Psalms 90:4 and Hosea 6:2.

The seventh day of the week symbolizes the 1,000-year rulership of Jesus Christ; thus, the first six days of the week picture 6,000 years of man governing himself to work out his own ideas and plans. Each day of the week represents a 1,000-year period."

However...

"If you want to assert a truth first make sure it's not just an opinion you desperately want to be true"

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Jul 15, 2018 · A large Neolithic community that dates back 9,000 years has been discovered by archaeologists beside two streams in Motza, which can be found sitting in a comfortable spot beneath the Jerusalem hills. The remains of skeletons, stone houses, and magnificent temples were all discovered during the planning stages of the construction of a new road.

9,000-year-old Neolithic settlement unearthed west of Jerusalem

https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=226103369043606765#editor/target=post;postID=1719657879001913216

Biggest of its kind in Israel, and one of the biggest in Mideast, a unique Neolithic site is unearthed in Motza, boasting the all the splendors of the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture, including burials, jewelry, ritual figurines and testimony to ancient trade routes

A huge settlement from the Neolithic Period, the largest known in Israel from that period and one of the largest of its kind in the region, has been discovered during archaeological excavations near Motza Junction, west of Jerusalem. 

  

The unique site boasts architecture, arrow heads, jewelry and figurines crafted by the peoples who domesticated plants and animals during the Agricultural Revolution and shaped the Middle East into what we know it to be to this day.

The Motza site is located some five kilometers west of Jerusalem, near several springs and on the banks of Wadi Sorek, within a fertile valley thought which people have been hiking up to Jerusalem from the Shfela region since ancient times. 

These optimal conditions are a central reason for long-term settlement in this site, from the Epipaleolithic Period, around 20,000 years ago, to the present day. 

According to Dr. Hamoudi Khalaily and Dr. Jacob Vardi, excavation directors at Motza on behalf of the Antiquities Authority, "this is the first time that such a large-scale settlement from the Neolithic Period – 9,000 years ago – is discovered in Israel. At least 2,000 – 3,000 residents lived here – an order of magnitude that parallels a present-day city!" 

The excavations revealed large buildings, including rooms that were used for living, as well as public facilities and places of ritual. 

Between the buildings, alleys bearing evidence of the settlement's advanced level of planning were unearthed. In the buildings, plaster was sometimes used for creating floors and for sealing various facilities

In a place where people live, there are dead people as well," said archaeologists. Burial places have been exposed in and amongst the houses, into which various burial offerings have been placed – either useful or precious objects, believed to serve the deceased in the next world. These gifts testify that during this ancient period, the residents of the site had relationships with faraway places for exchange purposes.

Unique stone-made objects were found in the tombs, made of an unknown type of stone, as well as items made of obsidian (volcanic glass) from Anatolia, and seashells, some of which were brought from the Mediterranean Sea and some from the Red Sea.

During the excavations, archaeologists revealed artistic hand-made stone bracelets designed in several styles. "Due to the size of the bracelets, we estimate that they were mainly worn by children", said researchers. "We also found carefully crafted alabaster beads, as well as medallions and bracelets made of mother of pearl".

Many flint tools manufactured on the site were unearthed, including thousands of arrowheads that were used for hunting, and possibly for fighting as well, axes used for tree-felling, and sickle blades and knives.

Another exciting discovery was stone storage sheds, which contained a huge quantity of legumes, especially lentils, preserved despite the 9,000 years that had passed. "

"Hey!  Don't forget about us!"

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/01/25/580811109/new-fossil-found-in-israel-suggests-a-much-earlier-human-migration-out-of-africa

New Fossil Found In Israel Suggests A Much Earlier Human Migration Out Of Africa

" detailed analysis of the jawbone and the teeth confirmed that it indeed belonged to someone of our species, Homo sapiens. And when they dated the fossil, it turned out to be between 177,000 and 194,000 years old, making it the oldest known such fossil outside the African continent."

My First Trip To The Dentist

My First Trip To The Dentist:

In the fifth grade I fell at school and broke my two front teeth. About half of them were missing which meant a trip to the Dentist. Of course, my dad contacted the pastor for approval. The Pastor recommend Dr. Pitman, a retired military dentist. Also, he was used to working with church members and would do dental work without gas or anesthesia.

Dr. Pitman said, I needed two root canals done then caps put on. Dad, insisted on no gas or anesthesia being used. The following week we went to the Dentist for the work to start. I was placed in a restrainer similar to the one in the photo. I was picked up and laid in the chair. A strap was place around my head and a device was inserted into my mouth to keep it open. Then the fun started.

I don't remember too much just a hot feeling in my head, black spots, and then the lights went out. I woke up a few minutes later I was out of my restrainer sitting in the chair. I had puked all over myself and the floor. My whole head was throbbing in pain. 

The Dentist refused to do anymore work without anesthesia. Dad relented, I got my first shot of Beelzebub juice. Boy, it felt good. On our way back home dad told me not to tell anyone about the anesthesia. The reason on the "no gas" was it put people in an unnatural sleep. This would make them prone to demons.

Mogen David

Dave Pack: God Frauds People!

Former Church of God Member Is Michelle Obama's Official Portraitist

There was an interesting story out today that's in VOGUE Magazine about a former Armstrongite and the journey she went on to become the official portrait of Michelle Obama.

[Amy] Sherald, of course, is the artist behind the now famous official portrait of Michelle Obama that hangs in the Smithsonian. But when she was chosen for the commission, in 2016, she was still largely unknown. Kehinde Wiley, the artist selected to paint President Obama’s portrait, was an art-world star. His bold, heroic portraits of black subjects in poses that channel the Old Masters were on the must-have lists of savvy collectors. Sherald, on the other hand, was a 43-year-old African American artist who lived and worked in Baltimore. She painted vivid, head-on portraits of people she met on the street (and photographed)—“an American realist, painting American people doing American things,” she tells me. Her name had surfaced in front of the Obamas because she had recently won the National Portrait Gallery’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, a contest open to any professional artist working in the United States. She is the first woman and the first African American to win it.

Sherald’s painting of the former First Lady is larger than life and gloriously untraditional. Michelle sits facing us, chin resting on one hand, arms bare, rising from a mountainous, floor-length white skirt with geometric patterns in black, red, pink, and yellow. But the critical response was mixed. New York Times art critic Holland Cotter thought the dress outperformed the person. He wrote, “Mrs. Obama’s face . . . could be almost anyone’s face, like a model’s face in a fashion spread.” New York Magazine’s Jerry Saltz disagreed. “She is grand, elegant, gorgeous, but her jackrabbit-quick wit is right there.” The most indelible reaction came from two-year-old Parker Curry, who was photographed standing in front of the painting, a look of awed enchantment on her face. “She’s a queen,” Parker told her mother; her reaction, and the painting itself, went viral. To me, the image captures not only the power and spirit of the subject, but also the hope and promise that Michelle Obama embodies, and art’s ability to encompass that.

--------

Sherald was born and raised in Columbus, Georgia, the third of four children. Her father was a dentist, but when Sherald was seven, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, which ended his practice. “We were doing well, and then we were not doing well, because there was no money,” she says. To make ends meet, her all-conquering mother, who had been a housewife, became a bank manager, and Sherald took over a lot of the housework and looked after her younger brother, Michael. “Our house had woods behind it, so we’d walk back there and explore and set traps for raccoons and do crazy stuff.” The family went to church every Saturday, a strict fundamentalist sect called the Worldwide Church of God, which forbids celebrating Christmas, Easter, or birthdays, and bans TV from Friday night to Saturday night.

Read her story here:   Amy Sherald, Michelle Obama’s Portraitist, Readies her New York Debut

Why You Are NOT A Christian Millionaire

Lord have mercy! Just what we need...a self-appointed, self-righteous Armstrongite splinter group leader lecturing us on why there are no Christian millionaires in the church.

Once more the African brethren are being subjected to a totally asinine sermon that not a single one of them will ever have to worry about!  Most barely subsist on the bare minimum of living standards as this privileged white boy from California is telling them why they will never have any money.

The Great White Bwana is having to mail his African followers, office supplies, Bibles, computers, seeds, and my favorite item, pills for those suffering upset stomachs after reading and listening to Bwana Bob.

1) Eleven laptops
2) Bibles
3) Hymnals
4) Moringa seeds.
5) Various nutrients and supplements … {to assist with digestive issues in Malawi and elsewhere}.
6) Five (5) of the heavy duty locks.
7) Office supplies, etc.

On top of that, when you look at his booklet offerings above, he has to rely on a photograph of the Auditorium and egret sculpture that is now owned by Harvest Rock Church, a slain-in-the spirit, holy ghost revival cult. Why is it that not one of the splinter groups out there today have an original thought in their warped little brains? They have to fall back on Herbert Armstrong's teachings, booklets, and the projects he did in order to supposedly "prove" to their followers that they are the true successor of Herbert's empire.

If you have 23 minutes to waste or just want to be entertained by the hands flailing about, then check out his video:

A Helping Tool of Recovery: Radical Acceptance

Every once in a while, for the sake of pure nostalgia, or for self-healing methods, I will go back in time and play some of the Dwight Armstrong hymns of the old Purple Hymnal of generations past. Doing this helps me in reflection, to put life and eras past into perspective. It helps me to remember what was in comparison to what is. It also allows me to put myself back into a time that no longer exists so that I can write about that time now, without distortion. 

I speak as one who was born into the Church - a generation who entered into Armstrongism with an absolutely clean slate. These songs - though understandably dreadful to many - still hold a place within me that cannot be erased. It was these songs that I heard both in the womb, and every week after birth for decades. Each song has been etched into me with the strength and rigidity of a soldering iron. And to this very day, I remember nearly every word to nearly every song. 

Each song plays forth different memories and different memories. Some remind me only of the Local Church area I most frequently attended. Others bring me to the cavernous arenas at the Feast of Tabernacles. The effect gets even more intense for memory recall when I add "crowd noise" and "piano background" - to where you almost could think you were there all over again. 

Why is it that I subject myself to such torture, you might ask? Is it something I need to do? Or is it just me attempting to relive a part of the past that is long gone? 

One of the things that I have learned in my years of de-programming therapy is a philosophy which is called "Radical Acceptance". Radical acceptance is when one accepts wholeheartedly and completely the situation in which one is in - or in my case - was born into and/or lives in today. There are two choices in life, and two ways in which one can go. You can fight your situation and/or reality, moan, complain, whine and pity-party your circumstances and increase your pain. Or, you can accept, embrace, learn from, and be content with the cards you have been dealt with. Radical acceptance is the action of the latter. 

"I cannot accept this", one might say of a particular situation. For those of us who grew up in the Church, we absolutely have to accept that that is what happened, and that is how we were programmed. We have to acknowledge the fact, first, that we became who we are because of the influence of our parents and of the Church. We have to accept the fact that it was not the best situation - and in fact, may have been the producer and influencer of many horrible and awful situations in each of our lives. Pretending it did not happen does nothing but bury the pain deep inside. Pretending it did not happen will never heal. Pretending it did not happen will never allow you to grow past your feelings and your experiences. Ignoring what was trains you to ignore what is. And the only way to change is to accept what you have been dealt so that you can mold and shape what you have into what you want yourself to be. 

"Changing reality requires first accepting it. Rejection of reality is like a cloud that surrounds pain, interfering with being able to see it clearly. We have to see the situation clearly so we can determine if there is anything we can change about it, or, if it can't be changed, what we want to do about it.:"

Although each of our situations were different - some of us were born into a liberal experience, others a very hard-line experience. Some of us sailed through our collective experience without much harm. Others were severely and critically injured and recovering to this day. Some of us have good memories, even great memories, of our Armstrongism experience. Others have nightmarish, horror stories that you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy. Whatever happened may or not have been painful. Yet, if there is one thing to remember, it is this: "Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional."

Regardless of what we went through, we are where we are now, and where we are now is that reality. Radically, wholly, and completely accepting our circumstances will help us handle our emotions and feelings to make our lives better in the days, months, and years to come. As the serenity prayer often says, we must strive to change the things we can change, accept the things we cannot change, and have the wisdom to know the difference. As survivors from a severely dehabilitating experience with spiritual abuse, there is no better advice to help one to radically accept our situations, so we may have a brighter and better future in the times that are ahead of us. 

There is something that I learned when in training for management many years ago. The five words that helped me to accept what reality is: 

"It is what it is". And accepting reality is the first step toward being able to take the steps for your life to make it better, more whole, more enjoyable, and more happy.  It was what it is, it is what it is, and what it can only be changed by being able to handle, accept, and grow with and from whatever comes our way. It's the secret to being content. It's a step toward recovery. No matter what life brings, or what paths we go, finding the gems in the rough can be a happy moment if we take time to learn to work with all the things that came and come our way. 

Now, instead of burying the past - I don't regret listening to those old Dwight Armstrong hymns. (I know, I know.)  I accept the fact that that was the music I was born into. I listen to them now and remember, to feel, to reflect, and to acknowledge the fact that this was my reality for a good part of my life. My goal now is to take those memories, experiences, harmonies, and words - to wholly build those chapters of my life for myself into a chapter of understanding for personal clarity. Maybe you would never think of this approach - but - Could this work for you? Maybe, maybe not, depending on where you are in your journey of recovery. But, if it doesn't work for you - don't feel bad about it or think something is wrong! This isn't so much about the "songs" then the underlying principle. - Just accept where you are on your journey on your best path, and remember you are uniquely special in YOUR story, whatever it may be. I wish you all the best as you grow in life as it is now in its present reality. 

*quotes from an unknown source

submitted by SHT