This guy claims he helped over 50,000 COG members leave Armstrongism in the 1990's. You have to read his story and his many claims, including dying and coming back to life. I knew about the 300,000,000 income when I came to Pasadena. There for a while the church bragged that it was bringing in close to a million dollars a day.
Thank Heaven for 7-11 (2012, that is)… “American Kabuki: First Ever Radio Interview on The Light Agenda”
In a far-ranging interview, we find out that American Kabuki is, not
surprisingly, American and grew up in a family of five kids; his
father would talk about the UFOs he’d seen flying during the war; his
mother’s cousin broke the land speed record; and that at the age of
nine, when camping in the desert with his father as part of a group of
30 kids and parents, he experienced his first ‘cowboy’ angel; an angel
who may have saved the whole group from dehydrating and possibly dying
in the heat.
He also suffered terrible asthma and a dog mauling as a young boy;
only to be healed, instantly – twice – by a minister of the church. And
it is that same church which had a such major impact on his life – and
for way longer…
From the age of five, American Kabuki was an integral part of the
World Wide Church of God, led by former advertising guru Herbert W.
Armstrong, which his father had joined. The church soon had control over
many of the family’s regular activities – from the food they ate, to
what they drank and where a percentage of their weekly income went.
Sometime after beginning his working life as a carpenter, American
Kabuki finally landed, by accident, in the world of IT. He loved it and
it brought him into a whole new world. IT widened his eyes on many
fronts, as he soon had dealings with and access to people and
confidential corporate and banking information from way outside his
church group – and from all around the world. His work also led to him
living overseas for several years, in the UK and France, and took him to
countries as far away as Australia, regularly.
The Worldwide Church of God and its doctrines, meanwhile, retained
American’s Kabuki’s devotion for 35 years. Yet it was his IT knowledge
and worldly experiences, combined with what he was seeing and hearing
within his church, that led him to uncover a mass of untruths about the
church during the 1990s. Including the fact that his church had an
annual income of over $300 million a year!
His disillusionment with the church – and his IT know-how – led him
to setting up and running what was, albeit, a very archaic, early
version (it was the 1990s, after all) of an email database and online
chat room. But it was one that was highly effective, as during the late
1990s, he and a couple of others helped over 50,000 people come to terms
with the church he had by then left – or leave themselves. Most joined
him and left.
Since then, American Kabuki has enjoyed what he describes as a continuous and wonderful awakening.
But he has also endured incredible physical hardship. In 2007, he
contracted an illness which, in early 2009, saw him die. He tells me
what happened during his death and how, once he was eventually brought
back to life, his life changed even further.