Girl Priest: I grew up in an apocalyptic, utopian, socialist, Christian cult.

In surfing around the Internet tonight I found this interesting thread on Reddit.  It is  a pretty long thread of different comments by different people who have been tainted by Armstrongism. I grew up in an apocalyptic, utopian, socialist, Christian cult. 

I see that the fine folks at SILENCED, Escaping Eden and IRONWOLF also found the thread.

Both joined before I was born. They met at the Church sponsored Ambassador College.

My Dad joined when he was 14 because of HIS dad. Why his dad got into it, I have no clue. I guess I could ask my dad that one of these days.

My Dad's dad got cancer when my Dad was only 17. The church was not supportive of conventional medicine on the whole (I wasn't vaccinated until the school told my mother I couldn't attend unless I got my shots) so my Grandpa died fairly quickly.

After he died, my grandma went a little ape-shit and left her grieving 17 year old son alone in their home in California while she ran off to Montana.

My family has a big problem of running off to Montana when things get tough.

My grandma never bought into the church. She liked to smoke. Wouldn't quit Christmas and stuff. And interestingly, after the death of her husband, who was a fire Captian in LA, she slept with a good chunk of the Los Angeles fire department. I guess she had a type.

The key thing is that The Church really took care of my dad after his dad died. A church family took him in. And he went to the church's college, Ambassador College. That was where he met my mom.

My mom was born and raised in Nova Scotia. She is the middle of 7 children. She was a shy, anxious child and, from what I hear and understand, being the middle child, she was often sort of pushed to the side. She started listening to Armstrong on the radio in the early 70's when she was an early teen. I know she found Armstrong's prophecies and interpretation particularly fascinating. There was a lot of End Times stuff. Very sensational. He was always interpreting news with the Bible and vice versa.

I remember her telling me that, when she was 13, she stopped participating in holidays because of Armstrong's teachings. So imagine a 13 year old staying upstairs on Christmas morning and refusing presents.
When she was 18, she left home to go to Pasadena to one of Armstrong's colleges. Ambassador College

Church of God International Continues To Promote a COG Lie

I had a blurb a while back about the Waldenses and how they were NOT Sabbatarians or a remnant of the 'true church".  You would think that the various COG's would do some actual research before they write their articles.  CGI apparently did not feel the need to do so and relied upon illogical research of past COGers.

CGI's magazine Armor of God had this to say:

Extreme and excessive persecution was used to wipe out every historical trace of the Sabbath-keeping, Feast-keeping Church of God, which stood up for the doctrines left by the Apostles. As the Church of God struggled to survive, moving from place to place, it took on various ‘nicknames’ in different territories.

Names like the Paulicians, Waldenses, Leonists, Vaudas Cathars, and Albigensians were all attached at some time or another throughout the centuries, describing
these people and their movements.

Who does CGI rely upon for this information?  An outdated and poorly research book and a COG members' research:

For example, Orthodox Christians date the Waldenses as originating in the twelfth century and named after a wealthy French merchant Peter Waldo, who was founder of a radical ascetic Christian movement. But much information has come to light proving the Waldenses existed as early as the second century.

The recent work of Andrew N. Dugger and Clarence O. Dodd, titled, A History of the True Church, and Richard C Nickels’ Six Papers on the History of the Church of God, have done much to preserve some of the earlier writings about these groups.

In another bold claim, they said that England was a sabbath keeping nation until Ethebert, King of Kent converted to Catholicism in 597 AD.

“Catholicism was not established in Britain, until the conversion of the Angles in the 6th century by Augustine of Canterbury. According to Butler, Ethelbert, king of Kent, was converted to Catholicism at Pentecost 597AD with some 10,000 subjects baptized at the pagan midwinter Christmas festival of 597. The Christians of Britain were up until that time, predominantly, Sabbath-keepers, who kept the food laws and the Holy Days.”

Being the Anglophile that I am and in the collection of numerous books I have back several hundred years, there is no mention in any of those books that the nation of England was a nation of sabbath keepers! Even my extensive collection of Celtic books never refer to the English or Saxons as "sabbath keepers."  Sure, many of the traditions of the Celts were carried north to England as they travelled across Europe and Asia as the people migrated, but, sabbatarianism is not one of the traits that is ever mentioned.  Of course, there is a reason for this in COG lore.  It is not mentioned because Satan was seeking to destroy the true remnant with intense persecution and those evil Catholics stopped the truth from being published.  Ho hum......

Jesus Is Back!

Here is PROOF!  Flurry was right after all!  Or maybe it was Meredith.  Or was it Pack?  Or maybe it was Weiner Dude Weinland.  There are so many "One and Only's" out here in COGland it is hard to keep track of them all.

Maybe he is really ticked at the COG's and is back to REALLY straighten them out!  Maybe someone can tell him he that he is on the wrong mountain...............

click to embiggen

An eerie figure appears to stand on a cloud high in the mountains, arms outstretched, bearing an uncanny resemblance to Jesus. To complete the picture, the figure is crowned with a perfect halo of light.

Amateur photographer Luc Perrot was stunned when he saw the apparition 2,000ft up on top of the volcanic Cirque of Mafate peak, on the island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2033825/Jesus-shadow-seen-Cirque-Mafate.html#ixzz1X7hVfozk

UCG Doctor Writes Book On "When Does Human Life Begin?"

A UCG Doctor has written a book on when does human life begin. 

When Does Human Life Begin?

A Fresh Look at Scientific, Scriptural, and Historical Evidence
There is a tension that exists between those who believe in scientific  progress through any means and those believe in a foundational morality  as the basis for all of our actions, and scientific advances. Nowhere is this debate more fiercely seen than that in the stem cell and abortion  debates seen today. What is the basis for this conflict and for the  positions each side takes? The nexus of this conflict is one of the most fundamental questions mankind has faced one that reaches the very  level of our own unique human identity When Does Human Life Begin?

In order to understand the question of when life begins we must first  attempt to understand what forms the foundations of our current history. This book is the beginning of an effort to align history with the  perspective of scripture and biology to investigate life’s origins. This book provides a unique perspective into a debate totally entrenched in  dogma and emotion. While is it deservedly so a hot-button topic - few  may stop to consider the reasons for their belief, or of their  opponents. It is hoped that by further understanding the foundation for  our current thinking - that we can come to an understanding that brings  greater clarity to the debate _ and the solution.

Excerpt from book : Chapter 1

 

J. Lawrence Merritt II, MD•• John Lawrence Merritt III •• John L Merritt, MD