ESN has a two letters up for a young man who grew up in the WCG then left it during the changes to join the United Church of God.
Here is a quote from his letter:
My wife and I moved to another area. I still felt a tug to go to UCG.
I wanted familiarity. So we would attend a living room fellowship a
couple times per month, and attend UCG a couple times per month. The UCG
area was large, so this arrangement went virtually unnoticed.
This was about the time I first got DSL internet. I was able to do
a lot of research in a short period of time. This was the first time I
learned about the scandals in Pasadena and the moral corruption of HWA,
GTA, and Stan Rader. I mulled over this question that changed my life
forever: "Can a good tree bear bad fruit?" And the answer was "No." This
raised a credibility issue with me and exposed these unique doctrines
to cross-examination. Like the Bereans, I was going to open the
Scriptures and see if these things were true. HWA taught that the first
centuries of the early church were undocumented, yet he was restoring
the Truth believed by them after 1900 years. But within minutes I was
able to find a lot of early church writings from that time. It gave a
clear indication about the things the Christian Church believed and
taught at that time. I read my Bible and prayed fervently for guidance. I
read the writings of the Early Church Fathers. I read writings like the
Didache. I met with pastors from several denominations in order to see
how they viewed the Gospel, Jesus Christ, and the End-Time. Some of the
pastors I met with were Lutheran, Anglican, and Baptist. In so many
words I asked each of them, "What does God expect of me? What must I
do-- where should I go to please Him?" The response was unanimous: It
was not what I had to do to please God, but I had to realize what God had already done for me!
I wrote in to UCG with specific questions about how they saw the
ministry. This was regarding a strange comment they made in one of their
booklets. A UCG pastor told me that the UCG ministry were in effect,
the "representatives of Jesus Christ Himself." I thought to myself about
what that implied. What they are claiming is that they are a
priesthood--new Levites if you will--not a ministry. But I contrasted
that statement with the pastors of other denominations, who seemed to
have a humble attitude, seeing themselves simply as people who wanted to
love and serve Jesus Christ. Furthermore, UCG's teachings on the
Sabbath, Holy Days, and the nature of God did not add up. Also their
paranoia and hostility towards Christmas was hypocritical, inaccurate,
and completely unjustified. British Israelism
is patently false, and I have a suspicion that many in the UCG ministry
know that, but teach otherwise. Plain and simple, UCG and groups like
it teach heresy and their fruits show it. I found that when you
impartially read Scripture, have a good grasp of church history, and
compare UCG's doctrinal statements against the doctrinal statements of
other denominations, the Truth will certainly come out. UCG and the
other offshoots rely on ignorance.
Read the entire letter here: Why I Left United Church of God
From his WCG letter he writes:
WCG emphasized money. This was core to their message. It wasn't
reflecting the love of God in Christ to the world, feeding the hungry,
or caring for the poor. WCG considered that "false" Christianity. This
should have raised a red flag right there, but it didn't with us. Where
was all this money going? Although we were so poor, when I was older my
dad sold some recently inherited land and was able to scrape up enough
money to go to the Feast
in Pasadena. I saw items such as a gold-foil ceiling in the Auditorium,
and carpet made from the wool of an extinct species of sheep. Was that
preaching the Gospel or materialistic self-glorification?
As a very personal case in point, I'll explain how raising money
was so important to the WCG. My uncle and aunt were members. Their son
(my cousin) contracted HIV at the age of two because of a blood
transfusion he received. Distraught, they asked the local minister to
pay them a visit for counseling. The associate pastor came by their
house but did not appear to be the least bit concerned about my cousin's
fate. On the contrary, he was shocked and dismayed upon learning that
my uncle and aunt were unable to tithe. My uncle now had huge medical
bills to pay and he did not have health insurance. From what I heard, my
uncle threw him out of the house. My mother disputes that part of the
story and said that my uncle was just extremely upset. Either way, my
uncle left WCG that very day and has not expressed any interest in
religion again. My cousin survived for several years before succumbing
to complications from AIDS at the age of twelve.
Another story that comes to mind is how one evening our pastor and
associate pastor was over at our home. As they were finishing up their
visit, my dad asked him why God was not blessing our family despite his
obedience over the years. My dad was often working to 10pm so he could
have enough money to both support the family and "the church." He would
always say that he had to "support two governments." The pastor,
leaving, partially turned around to my dad and shrugged his shoulders.
He casually said, "I don't know. Maybe you're under a generational
curse." Then he turned right back around and walked out the door. My dad
took him seriously. I did too. Maybe we were. This influenced a lot of
my decisions in life having that in the back of my head. I would tell
myself, "I'm prone to fail anyway because of the curse my family is
under. After all, that came out of the mouth of one of God's ministers."
Later I found that this same minister did not have a lot of
credibility. He had been arrested for DUI on the evening of the "Night
To Be Much Observed." A teenage girl was in his minivan at the time and
he claimed to be taking her home. He announced at services how he was
suing the Police Department because they left that girl in his van when
they arrested him. I don't think that anything came out of that
though--or whether in fact that he followed through on this lawsuit
threat. Later he was abruptly transferred to another WCG area. He had
been was accused of molesting young boys and Headquarters quietly
transferred him to another congregation, where it is alleged that his
behavior continued. This sounds not too different from the scandals in
the Roman Catholic church. But when you place faith in a clique of elite
"ministers," you always run the potential for abuse.
Read the rest of the letter here: Childhood Memories of Growing up in Worldwide Church of God