Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Was UCG/COGWA Split Being Planned as Early as Mid 2009?



In some of the comments on Malm's blog there are some telling remarks about the UCG/COGWA debacle.  Neither side comes out looking good.  Both were and still are manipulative power hungry organizations that strategically planned  and manipulated brethren into following each of their causes.  Great will be the day these men all loose their jobs and have to do some real work for once.

Despite what Jim Franks says, the split was carefully planned from at least mid 09 by BOTH sides. And it came as the end result of fifteen years of fighting between the two groups... Denny was right this was about power and control; but by BOTH sides and not just by COGWA as he would want us to believe. This was a mutual divorce and both sides are glad to be separated from the other; although the dividing of the brethren is regretted. 

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People have been fed a lot of self justification in BOTH groups. I was kept up to date through 2010 on the steps taken by the dissenters from my friend John Kilough [Clyde's father] as well as other highly placed persons. [John was disappointed that I did not take COGWA's side and is no longer communicating; altough I still have other sources.] The attempts to reconcile were deliberately set up to make one side look good and the other bad; in other words they made offers that looked good to their supporters, but which they knew contained serious issues entirely unacceptable to the other side. This was done to make the COE seem to be much worse then the dissenters and vise versa. For example to call for a special elders meeting made them look very good, on the other hand, why could they not wait a few months to the regular meeting? It was all a VERY DIRTY political game to win over as many brethren as each side could. There were NO genuine attempts at reconciliation by either side that I am aware of; and I was very well informed through the entire process.

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 The elders on both sides had carefully conditioned their brethren into their take on doctrine leadership etc and it is the case that most of the brethren follow the elder. The brethren split mainly along congregational lines. The split process was a fight over the brethren who could be moved to stay or leave, of course causing some local congregations to split. I was directly told from the top of those organizing the split that they were in no hurry because the CoE was continually “shooting itself in the foot” and making itself look worse and worse causing more and more to join with the dissenters. Of course this was helped along by the disengenous appeals to reconcile, which were really loaded to bring about a coup for the dissenters if the CoE went along with them. This was a VERY NASTY DIRTY fight over the brethren, making merchandise of them for their tithes and support. BOTH sides were very wrong in much that was done. Just like BOTH sides are morally very wrong in Zambia. James



Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Six-Pack Flurry $7 Million in the Red



Armstrong Delusion has taken the latest Co-Worker letter from Gerald Flurry and dissected it rather well.
It seems old Six Pack is in a snit because members pledged a lot of money to help build the Mini-Me Auditorium in the middle of Oklahoma and now aren't sending in the money.  Their lack of faith has resulted in the PCG owing over $7,000.000 for Six Packs monument to himself.  Six Pack is pissed!

Armstrong Delusion includes this excerpt:

…our building fund donations are $700,000 less than they were last year. I want you to think about that.
Before we built Armstrong Auditorium, we sent a letter to our Church members only, asking for pledges to the building fund. We used those pledges to determine how much we could invest in construction and loan repayment until all the construction costs were repaid in full. We’ve enjoyed using the auditorium for over a year now, but we still have a big balance left on the loan–over $7Million.
Have we kept our pledge to God that we would contribute toward this project until it is paid off?

 I won't get into the maniluptaion that Six Pack is pulling on his members.  It's the blame game all over again.  Faithless members who are not relying on God to provide them the money to send it.  It doesn't matter if you have lost your job or have had an income reduction.  You still are required to send it in!  Your salvation is at stake for your unfaithfulness!

I know this is a difficult time financially, and we do have unemployment problems among our members and supporters. But as Mr. Armstrong always said, God blesses us as our ways please Him. The needs of the work have never been greater. And if our ways are pleasing God, no recession or depression could make a bit of difference.

Read the entire article here:  Dear Brethren and Co-Workers!

Joel Meeker and Jeff Caudle = Manipulation Behind The Scenes



Poor Lil' Joel is getting disrespected again today.  What's a poor little guy got to do for a little respect?

Apostle Malm has been going through the behind the scenes manipulation by various COG members around the time of the UCG/COGWA split.

It seems Lil' Joel was trying to change the UCG  Constitution that was set in place in France when UCG was formed there.

Joel Meeker was reported to have attempted to make a move to change the French Constitution to take out this clause. He denies trying to do this. However if you check his denial, (which appears on “Abigail Cartwright’s” UCG Current Crisis site, March 2011, headed“Joel Meeker Answers Challenges Regarding His Resignation Letter”
You will see in his answer to ‘Challenge 2’ that while he says it was a misunderstanding that he was trying to change anything, it is also very clear that he believes the Constitution would need to be changed to avoid UCG keeping control of the organisation, and the assets.

“I was president of a French association with fiduciary responsibilities toward it…… Had I resigned from UCG first, I could not legally have called the association meeting.”

“My statement about removing the necessity for an elder in France to be recognized by the Council was only in response to a question from members about how they could protect their assets from the Council of Elders in the event action was taken against me.”

“In response to the question of how that could be prevented, I said, that the only way I could imagine at the time would be for the French association to remove a stipulation in its bylaws that requires its ministers to be recognized by UCG Ministerial Services, so that even if the Council fired me it wouldn’t be able to take over the French assets. I did not propose this, though again in response to a question, I said it could be considered if the members of the association desired.”

Of course the French Board did not agree to Lil' Joel's demands and refused to accommodate him causing him to resign.



Next Malm discusses Jeff Caudle and his New Zealand exploits.

Things were set-up differently in New Zealand.  Instead of the ‘standard’ set-up of a local board, in New Zealand a charitable trust was set-up, with trustees appointed directly by the COE of UCGaia, I think this was done around 2000.

I would guess the reason was that for some years there was no resident minister in New Zealand, and then later there was only the one, with regular help being given from Australia.
In any event it was reported on by Jeff Caudle, at the annual conference, May 7 2002.

Being a charitable trust requires no National Council; three trustees appointed by the United Church of God, an International Association oversee operations. These trustees are Art Verschoor, Marcel Morreel (both local residents), and Council of Elders member Leon Walker. [Tragically, the Council received word as it began its meeting Wednesday morning May 8 that Marcel Morreel had died the previous evening from a heart attack. No further information is available at this time.] The duties of trustees are fiduciary and legal, not governmental in nature. In the opinion of the Church’s legal advisor in Auckland, a National Council could be set up in the future. But with only approximately 50 members in the country, the current structure works best at this time.”

Checking the current status of the charity, shows that of the three trustees that were there at the beginning of 2010, Lean Walker was [fired as LA Director by the CoE on 23 Jun] removed from the NZ Trustees on 10th August 2010.  It is quite interesting that Leon Walker remained in control of UCG New Zealand for so long after UCG tried firing him as Latin American Directer and much of the LA church rejected that intervention, splitting from UCG.

In many international areas the Council of Elders does have the power to ‘hire and fire’ the trustees.  This was somewhat different in Latin America because Latin America and Leon Walker had already broken from the Tkach WCG well before UCG was formed and made the maintenance of the Walker leadership in LA a condition of Association with the new UCG.

This apparant oversight by the CoE regarding NZ seems to have been a major mistake, as it allowed Leon Walker to influence the other two trustees in NZ.

The other two, William [Jeff] Caudle and Arend  Frederick Vershoor resigned on 3 January 2011.
So guess what Jeff Caudle did behind the scenes while he was still part of UCG and on the NZ Board?  He set up another Charity in October 2010 before the split happened.  He knew one was coming an set this up ahead of time.

I have to hand it to Malm for nailing his sorry ass for his unethical behavior!

This unethical premature separate incorporation while maintaining membership in UCG was done in various other areas especially in the US, which I pointed out at the time.  They should have resigned FIRST, BEORE setting up in competition with their employers.  It is acceptable to look for another job while contemplating resigning, as one would not begin the new job before resigning; it is quite another thing to set up in competition to your employer while still in his employ.  That was and is immoral and unethical.

Church members are supposed to sit there acting like dumb little idiots while these men manipulate and conspire behind each others backs in order to keep a steady paycheck coming in to support their unethical lifestyles!  You would think if these men had a true foundation of faith then they would not need to manipulate and conspire in order to keep things rolling along.  Obviously to them God is a weak old man who can't keep things moving along so it is up to them. Remember that God was so weak that his message was lost for 1,900 years till Herb came along and rescued  it.

Just another reason to dump Armstrongism on the dung pile where it belongs.

Malm's entire article is here: Associated churches and the split