Monday, November 14, 2011

Growing up in a Faith-Healing Cult






From the Friendly Atheist Blog

When I was ten years old, my younger sister became increasingly ill. She had always been frail; pale, thin, and lethargic — even her hair was thin and dull. This time my sister Missy (not her real name) was much worse. My older sister (who was then a teenager) tells me that my younger sister was too weak to walk to the bathroom and my father would carry her there frequently. My older sister would barrage my father with demands that Missy be taken to the doctor. My little sister was too weak to even attend Saturday church services where she might have been anointed by a minister in a ritual called the “laying on of hands.” The minister would take the sick person, and the parents if the person was a child, and go into a coat closet and close the door. There, everyone would kneel and the minister would take a small bottle of olive oil out of a pocket and place a dot of oil on the sick person’s forehead. He would hold his hand on the spot where the oil was placed and begin to pray. Everyone would bow their heads as the minister beseeched God to forgive this sick person of the sins for which she was being punished. When a person was too ill to attend services (which for us were an hour drive away from our hometown) the minister would send home an anointed cloth. It was a piece of gauze with a drop of oil on it that the minister had prayed over. The small square of guaze was ceremoniously placed in a small manilla envelope for safe keeping. At home, our parents would take us into their bedroom where we would all get down on our knees and one would hold the oiled cloth to our forehead and all heads bowed, praying that God would heal us. Some people take a spoonful of medicine. Not us. We got down on our knees and put oil on our foreheads and prayed. Sometimes we got better. Sometimes we did not.

Prayer and anointing were not working for my little sister. In her six years of life we couldn’t imagine what horrible sins she had committed to be so drastically ill. Armstrong explained, however, that “you might not have been guilty of any wrong, yet nature’s laws were violated or you wouldn’t be sick!” How’s that for double speak? Sickness and injury are the result of sin. Unless they’re not. But, hey, something caused it!

So my mom searched herself for what sin she must have committed to cause her daughter to be so deathly ill. I heard her murmered prayers from her room (Armstrongists go behind closed doors to pray in private) asking God to forgive whatever she has done to make my little sister sick. She always emerged from those sessions wiping tears from her face having sobbed the entire time.


Read the entire story here:  Growing up in a Faith-Healing Cult

Make sure you read the comments section about the WCG member who was hit by a falling tree and what happened.

Dennis On "And try to use a 'yes' or a 'no' in your answer!"








"And try to use a 'yes' or a 'no' in your answer!"

 
Dennis Diehl - EzineArticles Expert AuthorI was sitting in the Ambassador Auditorium, in Pasadena, California at a Bible Study, in the early 80's, on the Nature of God given by the then resident Greek scholar and thinker. He really was a very intelligent teacher and I always enjoyed, to a point, hearing from him. At times, it was an exercise in going around and around but never quite landing anywhere.
 
The fact that I have yet to understand the true nature of the true God and how He/She/Him/Them relate is irrelevant. It was all pretty heady stuff for my denomination's ministry. I'm sure I was not privy to the half of all the drama being played out behind the scenes between those that were teaching and those that thought THEY should be teaching, but I suspect it would have been much like the Council of Nicea back in 325 where being on the wrong side could have serious consequences.
 
But the most hilarious moment came from a simple question in which the questioner, after trying to frame an intelligent question for this very astute teacher on this profound question, said... "please try to use the word 'yes' or 'no' in your answer."
It was a moment of sheer enlightenment. "Please try to use the word 'yes' or 'no' in your answer." I laughed to tears in that way that is much deeper than the comment warranted because it struck at the heart of what many who repeat the mantra, "God said, I believe it, that settles it for me." are incapable of doing---using a yes or no in an answer to a sincere question about obvious contradictions, impossibilities and inconsistencies of scripture.
 
So let's take play Yes or No. Take your time but you MUST pick a yes or no for the answer. No yeah-buts. While we are well aware that the Bible speaks of three kinds of leaders in the NT (the Pharisees, the Sadducees and the But-u-sees) try to leave them out of it.
 
From Matthew 1 and 2
 

Yes or No: It is interesting that Matthew includes a victim of incest (Tamar), a prostitute (Rahab), a foreigner (Ruth) and an adulteress (Bathsheba) leading up to Mary's birth of Jesus, rather than four upstanding women of Israel in Jesus' lineage.
 
Yes or No: With Matthew and Luke showing that Jesus' REAL father is not literally Joseph, but rather literally God himself through the Holy Spirit, the idea of Jesus being related through Joseph back to David and Abraham is broken and irrelevant.
 
Yes or No: If the Holy Spirit is a entity of himself, the Holy Spirit is Jesus father.
 
Yes or No: If God did not wed Mary as the father of Jesus, Jesus was born of  divine fornication?
 
Yes or No: While in the context, Isaiah 7:14 predicted the child would literally be named Immanuel, Jesus was never literally called Immanuel.
 
Yes or No:  Isaiah 7:14ff  indicates the child to be born would not know the difference between right and wrong until taught it.
 
Yes or No: Following a star from Iraq/Persia that rises in the East to a specific home West, five miles south of Jerusalem is not literally possible.
 
Yes or No:  Stars,comets and meteorites and planets in the sky can stand over a specific home on earth until you get there.
 
Yes or No: It is odd that Herod and his astrologers could not see the star and could not follow it themselves.
 
Yes or No: When the Magi arrived, (perhaps up to a year after Jesus birth) Mary and Joseph lived in a house with no mention of a home in Nazareth or a need to go back to another home in Nazareth where they had just come from.
 
Yes or No: According to Matthew, lots of children in Bethlehem and the region paid for Jesus birth with their lives so that Jesus as an adult could die for their sins.
 
Yes or No: The angel told Joseph it was safe to go back to Israel but then changed his mind and told him "oops I forgot about Herod's evil son", so Joseph returned to live for the first time in Nazareth.
 
Yes or No: All gift shop angels are female and all Bible angels are male.
 
Yes or No: I can't find any place in the Old Testament where it says a Nazarene is a person who lives in Nazareth and foretells Jesus would be from there. In fact, I can't find Nazareth mentioned as a city in the OT.
 
Yes or No: Quoting a verse in the OT about Israel exiting Egypt is not much of prophecy of Jesus going home from exile in Egypt.
 
Yes or No: Matthew knows nothing of homes in Nazareth, taxes, mangers, shepherds, staying in Jerusalem 40 days for Mary to be purified according to Moses, turtle doves (offerings of poor people) and the long quiet trip home to Nazareth.

 
From Luke 2
 

Yes or No: Making everyone return to their city of birth to be taxed sounds like a formula for empire wide chaos.
 
Yes or No: If Jerusalem was able to care for the tens of thousands who came each year to the three great Festivals, one might think there would be more than a few places to stay comfortably especially if one was a young pregnant girl.
 
Yes or No: Mary having to give birth in a stable indicates the people of Jerusalem at Feast Time were inhospitable.
 
Yes or No: It seems odd that Joseph would take a nine-month pregnant Mary on the dangerous trip to Bethlehem when it was not necessary for her to go.
 
Yes or No: It seems odd that if Zechariah was a Priest in the area of Jerusalem, they might not have thought to let Mary and Joseph stay with them. Mary had just been to see them three months earlier when finding Elizabeth to be six months pregnant.
 
Yes or No: It is interesting that angels and the heavenly host went out into the fields to sing and witness to a few shepherds who then had to find Jesus and tell everyone else themselves what had happened.
 
Yes or No: Heavenly Hosts can't sing for the whole town.
 
Yes or No: The Shepherds seemed to know just where to find Jesus without the star.
 
Yes or No: Eight days after his birth, Jesus was circumcised in Jerusalem.
 
Yes or No: After 40 days, a time of ritual purification for Mary, they walked peacefully back to Nazareth, to their home, with no mention of fleeing to Egypt.
 
Yes or No: Living in Bethlehem in your own home, having Magi bring expensive gifts including gold and causing you to have to flee to Egypt for your lives as Herod slaughters all your neighbors children, is not the same story as trekking to Bethlehem to be taxed, giving birth as if no one knew you, and hangin' out for 40 days to safely return home to Nazareth.
 
Yes or No: If Nazareth was a safe haven, fleeing all the way to Egypt seems unnecessary save for Matthew's need to find more OT prophecies about Jesus.
 
OK, OK, enough! This "yes" or "no" game can be played with many many Biblical references. Just a few more outside of the Birth Narratives to illustrate.
 
Yes or No: If in the beginning, there was only Adam, Eve, Cain and Abel, (Seth was called the third child of Adam and Eve after he was born after Abel's murder), it seems strange that Cain was worried about those that would kill him if God banished him to wander the earth. There was no one else. Was he waiting for Seth to grow up, marry an as yet unborn sister, and hunt him down with his kids? Did God forget there were no others out there to hunt him?
 
Yes or No: Jesus overturned the money changers early in his career as John said. (Jn 2:13).
 
Yes or No: Jesus overturned the money changers just prior to his arrest and crucifixion as Matthew said. (Matt 21:12).
 
Yes or No: John names turning water to wine as Jesus first miracle.
 
Yes or No: Matthew, Mark and Luke never heard of it.
 
Yes or No: Paul seems to know nothing of the Gospel accounts of Jesus real life, and says he was simply born of a woman like everyone else.
 
Yes or No: Paul was converted, wrote all the meaning of Jesus and died before the Gospels, which seem never to have heard of him, though he was "a Pharisee of the Pharisees" and "above all my fellows,", were ever written.

 
I would like to think that had I been asked these questions when pastoring, I would have at least said, "That's a great question."  I have sat in on nerve wracking sessions with some HQ type coming to my area to straighten out some member who asked the wrong questions or came up with different answers from those given.  Seems both were wrong when it is all said and done!
 
Sometimes, most simply don't even know what questions to ask.  It never dawns on someone to even wonder how you can flee to Egypt for two years AND simply leave town and go home to Nazareth after 40 days. 
 
Instead of "apologizing" which I know is a sincere defense of scripture as presented, the ability to think for oneself and come up with a yes or no is also an excellent exercise in being honest with a presentation. 'Nuff said....the birth narrative realities are my way of asking us to think about what we have always been told by others and honor your own observations about the Bible, without fear what your minister or organizations might think or do.
 
Dennis C. Diehl
DenniscDiehl@aol.com

Zambia Cattle Rustling Saga Paints Kubik and UCG In Bad Light



Poor Victor Kubik keeps getting raked through the coals and looks worse every day in regards to the Zambia cattle rusting situation.

First he made false public allegations against Zambia COGWA members stealing cows he had given to UCG brethren (this was prior to the split) through his "charity" Lifenets.  COGWA hit back denying the allegations just prior to the Feast.  They essentially called him a lair and took the UCG members who stole the cattle to court and won.  The cattle had to be returned.

Kubik hits back at them again and COGWA quickly responds calling him a lair again.

Today, Apostle Malm has a behind the scenes background on UCG and Kubik which gets into how UCG was formed when they jumped ship in 1994/5.

Kubik and a large group of cronies met for months while on WCG's payroll in the 360-390 apartments on the Pasadena campus.  They plotted and schemed on how they could form a new splinter group, take a lot of money along with them, and to ensure that their standards of living would be maintained.  For many of these in this group it was more about maintaining their living standards that they were used to than it was about leaving over doctrines.  Remember that almost all of these men had never held a normal civilian job in their lives.  They had no work ethic to fall back on to.

Malm correctly points out that many of these men (who were still employed by WCG) actively kicked out WCG members during this time because they were not agreeing with the changes.  Yet while they were doing this they were secretly plotting to form a new church where some of these disfellowshipped people would join after it was formed.

You would think that once they been abused by these abusive men that they would steer clear of the new organization, but no, they jumped right over and started getting abused again.  Many in the COG are just like battered women.  They hate the abuse, but find safety in the presence of the abuser because they think they have no where else to go.  A beating now and then pales in having a "home" to come back to all the time.

Malm lists several things that these men were concerned about as they were sitting in the apartments plotting their new group:


Finally in Dec 1994-Jan 1995 both shoes fell. The new doctrines were presented to the brethren, shocking those who had insisted on keeping their eyes tightly shut and denying the reality around them. Then the shock treatment was applied to the ministry.


  • The Jan 95 Pastor General Report indicated that the Pastors could not be guaranteed their jobs in the future and should now start evaluating their marketable skills.
  • Over 40 ministers were handed “last chance” retirement packages.
  • 30 more ministers were scheduled for lay-off with a 150 additional lay-offs projected by the end of 1995
  • Contracts for the entire fleet of ministerial rental cars were canceled.
  • Many local churches throughout the US merged for services.
  • All subsidies to the International work have been discontinued.
This was BEFORE most of the brethren had left; and was PLANNED well before the announcement in the PGR. This was a very carefully prepared corporate move to divest of potential dissidents and financial burdens.
In additional news:
  • The WCG airplane was put up for sale.
  • Hundreds of regular employees were laid off.
  • Imperial School closed as of July 1st.
  • 1/2 of the editorial staff was dismissed.
  • Major cuts abound at the Festival Office, and the Feast of Tabernacles `95 (now known as the celebration of Jesus Christ) looks questionable.
  • Seven evangelists were offered healthy severance packages [only if they agree to never preach again and to keep quiet about their WCG experience] including Debar Appertain, David Hulme, Dean Wilson, Leroy Neff and the famous Gerald Waterhouse.

Some elders left because of doctrine!  Others left to get and hold a job!  Still others left to continue the effort to apostatize the brethren!  In most cases they did NOT leave of their own will, but were FORCED OUT!

These men were FORCED out; and the later meeting led by Denny Luker, to form a new entity was done with the knowledge and tacit approval of Joseph Tkach!  Most of these men did not leave voluntarily; they were forced out by Tkach for economic reasons, or as a part of the stripping away of any potential dissidents to his new doctrine.

 Very many in the vanguard of the Tkach doctrinal changes, also left WCG to have a job and the adulation of the people;  These folks wanted to follow the Charismatic mega church success model and to eventually bring the Tkach changes into the new organization called UCG.  Others were indeed followers of the HWA success model and wanted to maintain the HWA focus and his traditional teachings and style.

From the very beginning UCG was a deeply divided organization with these two internal founding groups battling for power and control.  That made a further split inevitable which ultimately came in Dec 2010.
The HWA based folks left to form the COGWA and those who wanted the Evangelical mold remained and now control UCG.

Malm is pointing all of this out because he says this is the background story of the Zambia cattle situation.  It's the HWA men (COGWA) vs the liberals in UCG who want to maintained their power positions.

The present situation in Zambia developed when the majority of the Zambia board  chose to terminate Association with UCG and instead Associate with COGWA.  COGWA being much more Armstrong loyalists.  The church in Zambia was registered as an independent legal entity in accordance with the UCGaia Rules of Association. All Zambian church assets were vested in this legal entity and not in individuals, and certainly not solely in Mr. Banda.  The legal entity in Zambia is managed by 5 Trustees of which Banda is one.

The situation in Zambia came to a crisis point when a person was unwilling to subscribe to the terms of the loan program of the cattle revolving fund. The animals in question were NOT the personal property of these particular individual. This person, angry over losing the animals (which were all voluntarily returned), and angry over the split of the congregation fabricated the  “rustling” story.

Then Malm says that Kubik sued the COGWA for  the return of the cattle and lost the lawsuit.

Vic Kubik sued Banda as an individual, demanding that he (as an individual) hand over assets to himself [to Kubik], which belonged to the Zambian church entity mentioned above. It would be illegal (and theft) for Mr. Banda to take assets registered in the name of this entity, and hand them over to Mr. Kubik. Mr. Banda has no authority to do this.

After the above was explained to the court, the injunction that was obtained against Banda at the behest of Mr. Kubik was discharged, and Mr. Kubik was stricken from the proceedings. It seems that Banda was involuntarily dragged to the courts of this world by Vic Kubik.

UCG is ripe with corruption  and greedy men.  This was well known by many when they formed their group back in the mid 90's.  That is why so many who disagreed with the changes did not go with UCG and stopped attending.

UCG had a chance when they formed their church to start a new and revitalized organization. Instead they brought the same corrupt men over, put them into the same power positions where corruption reigns to this day.  Their homes, cars, and salaries are their first priority, power is second, and for a select few, caring for the brethren is then taken into consideration. Others couldn't give a rat's ass what happens to the members.  They have made this quit obvious in their actions.

If UCG had truly believed in their core doctrines they would have stepped out in faith and might had done amazing things.  But greed and power was the model for the day and remains to this day.  It is no wonder that UCG is losing members rapidly and is NOT the glorious beacon of Truth that they let on.

Read the rest of Malm's blog entry here:  The Zambian situation explained


Sunday, November 13, 2011

Comments Being Moderated




For now I have set the setting for COMMENTS to "moderated"  that will still allow anyone to post, though I have to let them though now.  It however will stop the high school dropout and bedwetter from posting his childish nonsense.   I will give it a while and then will change the setting back.

Sorry for anyone offended by this fools language.  It is just a sign of a lack of education.  That is what happens when the Church of God discourages it's youth from educating their minds.

I will only be stopping the bedwetter and his lower class language from getting through. Those that disagree with blog posts, or with commentators will still be let through as long as it is a civil discussion.

So comment away!

COGWA: Kubik Needs To Apologize For His "Ugly, Filthy Lie..."



The UCG/COGWA battle is gearing up again.  Charges of slander against Kubik are being leveled.  Once more we get to see the finest of the "true" church engaging in what seems to come naturally to so many in the hierarchy of the COG.  Thanks for showing the world once again what TRUE Christian love is all about (at least in Armstrongism.)


Open letter from Tine Banda 

The question of how much time one should invest in countering slander is of course a personal one, a question that I have been wrestling with for months. The return on such an investment is usually low, and if one values their autonomy, the residual risks can be high. But in light of the fact that both my family and I are now inundated with genuine queries (interestingly from some in UCG), and also in view of the fact that on multiple occasions I have been solicited and encouraged to give my personal comment on the matter (more vigorously so when I travelled out of jurisdiction to attend the Feast of Tabernacles), I did make the decision a couple of weeks ago to address a few core issues. Even then, it did take me a while to finally put pen to paper, because quite frankly, I do not labor under a sense of urgency when it comes to countering propaganda.

While I realize that for the most part this effort may well turn out to an academic exercise with little practical benefit (whether for myself, or for my readers), to the extent that what I am about to say will help some people (however few) better understand the issues, I am convinced that the benefits outweigh the hassle, perhaps only marginally.

My statement is a tribute to all of you (regardless of affiliation), that have displayed exceptional maturity in seeking first to understand the full scope of the issues at play, before presiding as a self-appointed judge, jury and executor in a matter that you do not, and cannot, fully understand. The world, both the present and the next, needs you.

But on to the issue at hand: On October 7th 2011 a dramatic prayer request was widely disseminated, and those who have come to know both myself and my family over the years immediately knew that something was amiss. The gist of the request was essentially that brethren worldwide were to “pray for Zambian brethren in need of protection from cattle rustlers” [paraphrased]. While many were, and still are, stunned by the severity of the allegations that were dispatched far afield in such dramatic fashion, I personally was not.

The same allegation made its debut as early as May 24th 2011, this time on Oath, in an Affidavit that formed the core pleading of the law suit (for church assets) mounted against Mr. Banda by Victor Kubik. So for my family and I (and the rest of the brethren in Zambia), it was simply a matter of here we go again. That aspect of the court case was of course found to be lacking in merit. But as I have noted to several individuals over the past few months, the court of public opinion, similar to a kangaroo court, does not follow the procedural rules of evidence. And as such, a case can be built, tried, and won entirely on hearsay evidence.

But I digress. To get back to the prayer request in question, if at all anything surprised me about that request, it was the issue of timing, not of content. Court pleadings in Zambia are a matter of public record and as such, this accusation has been in the public domain for a term of months. That being the case, the question ripe for posture is this: If cattle rustling had been occurring as early as May, why did the situation only become of sufficient urgency to warrant an “urgent” Prayer Request in October?

In his open letter of October 7, Mr. Banda lamented the fact that these accusations had been spread abroad before the persons besmirched could be approached in private as per the biblical mandate. In response to the open letter, Mr. Kubik then went ahead and published a letter he had written to Mr. Banda on September 30, and also published Mr. Banda’s subsequent response on even date, presumably to demonstrate that contrary to Mr. Banda’s assertions, he (Mr. Kubik) had so approached Mr. Banda.

Let’s be clear, these allegations had been in the public domain for months. The prayer request of October 05 was merely the latest installment of slander. Indeed, prior to Mr. Kubik’s letter of September 30, an elder from the United States had already alerted Mr. Banda via email and phone of the allegations Mr. Kubik was making. It is therefore preposterous to claim that the letter of September 30 qualified as a private confrontation when the defamatory allegations had already gone far afield. Moreover, Mr. Banda had already made substantive responses to those allegations both in and out of court. It would be superfluous and redundant for him to replicate a defense to Mr. Kubik, the very person who had dragged him to court just a few months earlier. Further, the tone of the September 30 letter (with official signature) was hardly conciliatory or fact-finding. It very much carried a “do what I ask/or else” tone. It did not merit a response, and I was surprised that Mr. Banda even offered one.

The “or else” part of the letter of course had no bite. It would take much more than that to intimidate a man who had just recently emerged from a grueling court battle. And having so emerged, Mr. Banda was in no mood to entertain threats.

I also wish to earnestly lay to rest the false allegation that Mr. Banda rebuffed peaceful reconciliation. Let us be absolutely clear, Mr. Banda resigned from the ministry of UCG-aia in January, and that very month, received a threatening letter from a lawyer acting on the instructions of Mr. Kubik. Legal instructions and threats had already been issued as far back as January without a single attempt at “peaceful resolution”, and in a letter to Mr. Banda in February, Mr. Kubik’s lawyer informed Mr. Banda that he had instructions from Victor Kubik to issue court process against him.

It was only in April that Mrs. Kubik emailed both Mr. Banda and me, expressing a desire to talk. Mr. Banda immediately responded to Mrs. Kubik expressing a desire to speak to Mr. Kubik directly AND requesting that Mr. Kubik do the biblical thing and drop the legal charges he had initiated against him as a brother. Mr. Kubik then contacted Mr. Banda expressing his willingness to talk, but he curiously did not address the issue of the law suit he was initiating.

Mr. Banda then sent Mr. Kubik the email I copy below, reminding him to address the issue of the law suit. Could Mr. Banda’s email even remotely be classified a rebuff? Or does this sound like a man genuinely interested in reconciliation premised on an adherence to scripture?
From: Kambani Banda
Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2011 11:35 PM
To: ‘victor kubik.
Cc: ‘bev kubik
Subject: RE: I will be glad to meet with you

Good evening sir
Thank you very much for letter. I really was looking forward to hearing from you for a long time.

I deeply appreciate your willingness to meet with me but I want to quote from the letter I sent to Mrs. Kubik.

If Mr. Kubik genuinely wants us to reconcile, then I request that he does what God’s Word instructs and refrain from legal action and talk with me.

Paul’s instructions in 1 Corinthians 6:1-7 make it clear that Christians should strive to sit down and talk through differences and discuss matters and make judgments based on His Word, before ever considering going to the law or courts of this world.

In order for this to happen, he would need to:

1) Instruct his lawyer Mr. Nyirenda and copy the instruction to me. The instructions should read that Mr. Nyirenda write a letter to my lawyers informing them that, his client, Mr. Kubik has dropped all legal claims against me.

2) When my Lawyers write a letter to me confirming the facts in 1 above, then, we can make a plan to talk

I checked your letter thoroughly and there in, you make no reference to my above request.

Was this an error of omission? Or God forbid and I even tremble as ask the next question, could it be that you are not willing to do what God instructs in his word? I certainly hope that this was an error of omission.

We met in 2000 and began a relationship, which I still deeply value, based on the understanding that we both feared God. Our proposed meeting will only bear good fruit if this premise still holds true.

When I receive a comment on both of my requests then:

a) I will be in a position to comment on the rest of your letter

b) I will also be in a position to decide whether to meet you next week or to meet you in court; should you choose to travel the later route.

Yours sincerely
Kambani Banda

After Mr. Kubik failed to state whether he was willing to abide by scripture, Mr. Banda for the third and final time in a subsequent email dated April 21st, repeated his request to Mr. Kubik and never heard back from him. The next “communication” Mr. Banda received from Mr. Kubik was formal court process.
 In light of the above, how can it seriously be maintained that a “peaceful resolution” was pursued, and that for months! Aside from the April communications I have alluded to above, Mr. Banda and Mr. Kubik did not communicate until September 30. Sadly, it is Mr. Kubik who rebuffed peaceful reconciliation by his unwillingness to drop the lawsuit as an overture to resolution.

And so began a very sad chapter in church history, where brother went to law against brother, and that before unbelievers. It seems to me that the question that needs to be asked is this: why was a lawsuit (for church assets) initiated in crude defiance of the clear instructions in 1st Corinthians 6?

With all the Hullabaloo that went abroad concerning the “unconscionable” thievery of cattle, it may interest you to learn that Armstrong Maninga, the individual who filed the bogus police complaint against Winter (and then subsequently against the four trustees of the church including Mr. Banda), this past week visited the home of Jerry Schachoongo (one of our elders that resides in the Mumbwa area) to APOLOGIZE for the lies that he has told, the lies that have thrown the whole community into disarray, and in particular, the ugly and filthy lie that our brethren STOLE cattle belonging to him and two other members of similar affiliation. This apology was made in the presence of witnesses including senior members of the village community and Armstrong cannot distance himself from it. What is interesting is that local members of the community (not affiliated with any church group) are acquainted with the revolving fund of oxen and have strongly castigated Armstrong for his fabrication. Please understand that these falsities have not only impacted those in the church, they have also impacted the small rural community where these people live. And while we cannot withhold forgiveness, the havoc that these lies have wreaked in the lives of innocent people is horrendous, not to mention the many precious hours that have been dithered away resolving this issue.

All the Oxen in the revolving pool are in the custody of the Trustees where they belong. Despite Armstrong’s public apology and the various assurances the police have given to drop the matter, I would not be surprised if these allegations resurface again. If criminal charges are pursued, my professional opinion is that the allegations will be relatively easy to dislodge given that the revolving cattle fund is of such notoriety in the community: almost every last person in a particular radius (from the weaned toddler to the senior citizen) is aware that the charges leveled against a son of that community (Winter) were malicious and bogus.

As I conclude now, I wish to make this abundantly clear: if you do not hear an immediate response to allegations disseminated on the internet or elsewhere, understand that we are otherwise occupied. We are not paid to sit and answer allegations; we have to make our bread and butter elsewhere; we too, have to eat.

Do not however, mistake our silence for acquiescence. You will observe that even when an internet article misrepresenting the outcome of judicial proceedings was published, we let the fabrication go unchallenged (never mind the fact that the outcome reported in the article was actually the exact opposite of the outcome that subsisted in reality).

The months that we spent fighting the court case were incredibly involving and stressful: countering misinformation was not a top priority then. Moreover, when policemen come to your home to arrest a family member on trumped up charges (as they tried to do last week, albeit with little success) the last thing on your mind is the latest spin or innuendo gracing the internet. I just thank God that I returned home from my nomadic wonderings in time to support my parents deal with this drama…which has now become a torment of unmitigated proportions.

To those of you inclined to question the authenticity of this basic piece of writing, please do your homework, and stick to an issue based discussion. Yes, I wrote this, and no, nobody “polished” it up for me. I graduated at the top of my Cornell Law School class, so I am sure I can string together a sentence or two…and pay appropriate heed to American grammar and syntax.

The author of this article can be contacted at:    tinebanda@yahoo.co.uk