Tuesday, January 25, 2011

UCG Asks: Why Are We Fighting? What Happened?


I had to laugh when reading UCG's agenda for their upcoming conference.  On the first day this is their topic of discussion:

9 a.m. – 10 a.m. • Opening prayer
What happened and why? (Luker/Rhodes)
10 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. Break
10:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Q&A: What happened and why, and lessons learned
(Council/Administration/Elders & Wives)
Does anyone actually expect that they will discuss what happened and the root cause of it?  It will be blame game extraordinaire.  No one in UCG will take responsibility.  They will not acknowledge that the core foundational beliefs of the church are morally and spiritually bankrupt and totally void of Jesus.  They will not acknowledge that legalism is killing their church and destroying the lives of their members.

How many Elder's wives will speak up? Will UCG allow these woman to speak?   UCG knows the place of women in their leadership, that's why they are being relegated to a side room for tea, crumpet's and cookies because they perceive women have no capabilities on advancing the work of Christ.

2 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. • Opening prayer
• Advancing the work of Christ (Rhodes)
2 p.m. – 3:40 p.m. Women’s-tea fellowship time for those interested

That belief is no more evident in the following quote by uber-legalist Malm on his Dead Light blog.
Malm quotes a letter from Tim McCaulley which has to be one of the most ignorant things I have read lately.   If you talk about Jesus you are a Tkach follower?  This is just further proof on how spiritually bankrupt Armstrongism is!

Because I had an infected sore on the bottom of my foot, I got a seat in the front row in front of the stage and by coincidence near a major entry way for people looking for seats.  This is how i got to meet none other than Leann Luker, wife of the president.

 I decided to play dumb and introduce myself and tell where I was from and then ask, “and who might you be?”  I have found this an excellent way to allow people to show themselves for who they really are.  When she said her name, of course i recognized it and welcomed her to Florida and asked if being the wife of the president of the UCG made her the “first lady” of the UCG.  To her credit, she insisted that no it did certainly not do any such thing and that I should regard her as “your sister in the faith”.

 As pleasantries continued and we talked about the rather difficult situation that both her and her husband had stepped into, she made the comment that she wasn’t worried because, “you know Tim, it’s all about Jesus”.  This immediately set alarm bells off in my head, (because I remembered my own wife saying the same thing as she embraced the heresies of the post-’95 WCG) but all I said was ‘Jesus said He came to reveal the Father” and He also said “I and My Father are one” and then I said, “you sound like Joe Tkach in the late 80′s”.

Another UCG Resignation

Monday, January 24, 2011

A Personal Note From Dennis Diehl





Dennis Diehl - EzineArticles Expert AuthorFirst of all I would like to thank the many kind and supportive comments sent along by those who find my articles and insights with my own experience as a minister in WCG helpful.  I have to say it gives me a bit more sense of purpose in this life than just having to figure out what to do with the rest of my life now that the "wonder years" are long past.

I would like you all to know that writing is how I have processed my own experience as a man who really really wanted to be a part of the right church and teach the true Bible truth.  I had been accepted to a Methodist Seminary at the same time I was accepted at AC and obviously made the "wrong" choice.  I have no illusions about the fact that I believe that no matter where I had ended up learning someone's denominational truth,  I would have had just about the same kind of crisis there too.

It is not my purpose to anger to challenge anyone's beliefs.  Perhaps I just wish to open up our minds to the fact that there are bigger boxes to be looked in that when we first believed.  Having been a WCG pastor, I know how we were "trained" and it was not well.  You cannot understand origins and the history of the Bible by reading booklets written by in house wondermen or just by reading the text and commenting on what it seems to mean.  An educated Pastor has a formidable education in the right place and often cannot bring all he "knows" to a congregation being about 50 years ahead of their ability to  understand it.  It is why pastors who fall out of favor with the company line usually end up teaching it if they have the initial credentials to keep on.  In the WCG a minister did not and is why I now rub people the right way along with helping them with anything from headaches to injuries.  I always had a medical side to me.

I have made some rather large mistakes since having to move on from those days.  Actually I made some large ones during those days too.  I have had to wrestle with the anxiety of separation from everything familiar and I caused it in some cases.  My tone in some writings is a bit cheeky because it is my anger turned sideways which seems to be the definition of sarcasm.  As a pastor in WCG one never expressed anger or that was it for you.  I also grew up where "we don't say that," was a mantra to be obeyed.  Thus one ends up a bit repressed an unable to express one's self when needed for good mental health.

I have had to find counselors through out this post WCG time and actually I had a few in the midst of it all.  It is the sign of a wise person who has a counselor in this nutso world so I don't apologize for it.  I am suspicious of having a "disorder" that briefly came up once in counseling as a possible explanation of feelings, thoughts and behaviors along the way that were  and still are annoying, but I spare you.  It's kinda like when I teach pathology for massage students.  After awhile, if not careful, one begins to feel they have all the symptoms of all those diseases!!!  So I'll do some homework on the disorder as it helps me but try not to buy into it too much.  I have to say, I do have most of the symptoms so it can be a bit of a relief to at least know I didn't invent it.

Thank you for your support.  I only wish to share so that we see the actions and reactions are normal for such life experiences as losing faith or at least having to move on to better perspectives.  Most do, some struggle and a few have been lost in the shuffle along the way.

Be kind to each other.  Be patient with yourself and remember...."How do we know the experience we are having is the experience we are supposed to be having? ........Because you are having it!"  .....or so they say.
Amen

11 Step's To Spiritual Freedom








http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jack-watts/recovering-from-religious-abuse_b_811710.html

"That's why Recovering from Religious Abuse has just been released by Simon & Schuster. Until now, there has been nothing that addresses the problem, while also offering a solution that helps the victims. Using an 11-step method, wounded Christians -- those who have been used, abused, and discarded by self-righteous religious leaders -- can reconnect with God in a healing, transforming way.

After being victimized, most wounded people lead half-lives, consumed with anger, bitterness, shame, and pain. They question whether the best years of their lives have already passed, hoping they haven't but suspecting that they have. They are prone to depression and acting-out behavior, which includes over eating, over spending, alcoholism, drug addiction, pornography and promiscuity.

Because such leaders call into question a person's relationship with God, this kind of abuse is particularly devastating emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually. Such malicious castigation, which is internalized by the abused person as true, crushes the spirit of the recipient, and they retreat from the life they were living to follow the script of their destruction -- becoming a self-imposed prophecy. "

amen!
Dennis