Is David Hulme's Personality Cult Imploding?

Poor David Hulme has never been of any success since he walked out on the Worldwide Church of God in the mid to late 1990's.  Prior to that he had a large home on the college campus, drove a Jaguar, wore expensive suits and reveled in the high life.  His self importance was bigger than he was as a person.  For a while he was the public face of the WCG's new doctrinal changes and was an advocate of the trinity.  He was placed over the Auditorium Concert series which made his ego even larger.  One publicity stunt after another was done in the Auditorium in order to make him and the Church look legitimate in the worlds eyes.

Hulme went from living the high life with an office facing the mountains, to getting kicked out of United Church of God, to a small craftsman style house on South Marengo as his mini-cult HQ.  Like other COG's he started producing a slick magazine to appeal to the world.  Also, like other COG's, it was a magazine embarrassed to talk about Jesus Christ.  Long articles were written ending with a couple of paragraphs about some god that was supposedly really, really pissed at humanity.

Not long after his wife died he married a woman who was close to the same age as his daughter.  Tongues started wagging and some people left.  Because of the lack of younger members in the little group some members started dating outside the church.  Hulme did not like that and threw down a lot of edicts that isolated members even further from society.

Now word is spreading that the Hulmerous Church of God is losing members.  Silenced is reporting: Hulme's Cult Imploding?

We’ve received word recently, from some pretty reliable sources/ex-members of David Hulme’s Church of God, an International Community (COGIC), that the cult deemed the fifth largest COG group is quickly imploding. Word is that Hulme has taken a Flurry-esque turn and there’s been a sharp uptick in the number of excommunications and people heading for the exits.

What we’re interested in is to what extent that’s true, and what the current condition of Hulme’s cult is? We know it’s always been obscure, even for a COG group, and that it’s never flexed the same kind of media muscle as even RCG has. They have been very locked down since Hulme was fired from UCG’s presidency in 1998. What’s happened to it since then is rather sketchy, and we would love to know more. Breaching the information control of these little cults can be pretty difficult though.

If you have any information to share about the Hulmerous Church of God let Silenced know: Contact Us

LCG Speaks Out Against Thiel And Those "marching to their own drum"

For quit sometime now Living Church of God knew it had a problem concerning Bob Thiel and his writings.  Thiel has labeled himself as the worlds foremost authority on end time prophecy usurping Rod Meredith of that honor.  His condescending blog directed at other Churches of God labeling them as all Laodicians has not set will with many.  .  The complaints from members reached such a crescendo that Bob had to have a meeting with Doug Winnail and Rod Meredith recently.

Apparently that meeting did little to slow the rantings of Thiel.  Those rantings have had an impact on LCG members and the authority of the Church.  Many members have questioned why the church has allowed Bob to run off at the mouth about so many subjects over the years as the worlds best authority.  They have complained to LCG HQ a lot about Bob.  

Now LCG has spoken out about those in LCG who set themselves up as authorities and "march to a different drum."

Doug Winnail writes on December 20th:

‘Blessings of Unity: David wrote, “how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity” (Psalm 133:1). Jesus said, “I and My Father are one” (John 10:30), and He prayed for His disciples, “that they may be one as We are” (John 17:11). The Scriptures reveal that the disciples had different personal perspectives (Acts 2; Galatians 2), but they learned to work together as a coordinated team to achieve their mission (2 Peter 3:14-16). They obviously realized that if each marched to his own drum, the job they were given would not get done. This is why the Apostle Paul stated that as we do the Work of God we need to be respectful and patient with each other, “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:1-3). Paul also emphasized there is “one body and one Spirit… one Lord, one faith, one baptism” and the work of the ministry involves fostering the unity of the faith and not being split apart by different ideas about methods or doctrine (Ephesians 4:4-16). As we are led by the same Spirit, we will see divisions diminish and we will be more “perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment” (1 Corinthians 1:10). Peace, harmony and unity in the Church of God will become visible fruits when we are led by God’s Spirit.’

UCG Budget cuts

 As the money continues to drain from UCG's coffers, they have instituted the following budget cuts.  I still do not see any budget cuts for UCG executives, Council of Elders, Evangelists or ministers.  When will they set the example?

• Reduce mileage reimbursement by 20%;

• Reduce subsidies overall for U.S. congregations by 16%;

• Reduce subsidies overall for international areas by 16%;

• Use online ministerial training in lieu of a ministerial development conference

• Postpone area ministerial conferences;

• Conduct Senior Pastor & UYC Camp director conferences by video conference

• Reduce travel reimbursement by limiting travel outside of church circuits

• Reduce travel budget to international areas by 44%.

Media and Communications Services: ($1.4 million):

• Reduce The Good News (GN) magazine from 48 pages to 40;

• Renew GN subscriptions more often to reduce the print run and related costs (as well as consolidate the mailing list with more motivated subscribers)

• Curtail direct mail card packs and outside magazine print advertising for The Good News and our booklets;

• Drop World Harvest Network for televising the Beyond Today program while maintaining coverage on WGN America and the Word Network

• Suspend home office paid Internet advertising for our literature in all areas outside of the United States to reduce GN and booklet circulation costs to those areas;

• Publish United News six times a year instead of ten;

• Move Vertical Thought, our teen and young adult magazine, from print to a solely online production for the time being;

• Publish the United Youth Camps brochure in the February issue of United News rather than as a separate item;

• Reduce the Spanish and Portuguese publishing budgets;

• Reduce funding for bulk literature sent to our international offices.

Aaron Dean identified other ways to economize:

• Modify healthcare program, adding employee premiums, raising deductibles;

• Transfer funding of international ministers’ travel to the annual meeting of the General Conference of Elders from home office to each international region;

• Conduct at least one video conference for the Council of Elders each year, and more when appropriate, to save travel costs;

• Visiting ministers will stay with home office employees during conferences and be served economical lunches and dinners at the home office to save hotel and restaurant expenses.