The Lifton Criteria Vs Armstrongism

Below is a quote from one of Herbert Armstrong's letters where he screams at members who were getting sick of HWA's incessant begging for money by accusing them of being like his his wife's blocked bowel.

HWA Co-Worker Letter April 1967:

Many professing to be Church MEMBERS say, when a Co-Worker letter arrives, in a grumbling, complaining disgust: "Oh, that's another of Mr. Armstrong's REQUESTS for MONEY," and many don't even read the letter!

Are YOU one of those? If so, LET ME BURN YOUR EARS before the Almighty GOD burns YOU in the Lake of FIRE! If that has been YOUR attitude -- if YOU are only on the GETTING side, and SHUN helping, and giving to the cause of GOD, then I say to you ON AUTHORITY OF JESUS CHRIST, if you don't REPENT and QUICKLY, and change that hostile, despicable, detestable attitude, you DO NOT BELONG in GOD'S CHURCH! You are some of the ROTTEN, PUTRID, spiritual WASTE that has been PLUGGED UP INSIDE OF THE SPIRITUAL BODY OF CHRIST'S WIFE, just as physical waste is plugged up in my dear wife's body! And the living Jesus is just as able to EXPEL YOU from the spiritual Body of HIS WIFE as He is to expel this physical waste from my wife's body!

And if THAT doesn't make your ears tingle, and AWAKEN you, then Jesus Christ says to YOU through me, YOU are in danger of the Lake of FIRE!...

Below is the Lifton Criteria, a list of ways that cults control devotee's.  This is exactly what the Worldwide Church of God did. This is also what Gerald Flurry, Dave Pack and Bitter Bob Thiel are doing.

We are always aghast as to why so many members stand by Flurry, Pack and Thiel's sides when they KNOW for a fact that they are being abused.  Here is why they do it.

Dr. Robert J. Lifton's Eight Criteria for Thought Reform

1. Milieu Control.  This involves the control of information and communication both within the environment and, ultimately, within the individual, resulting in a significant degree of isolation from society at large.
2. Mystical Manipulation.  There is manipulation of experiences that appear spontaneous but in fact were planned and orchestrated by the group or its leaders in order to demonstrate divine authority or spiritual advancement or some special gift or talent that will then allow the leader to reinterpret events, scripture, and experiences as he or she wishes. 
3. Demand for Purity.  The world is viewed as black and white and the members are constantly exhorted to conform to the ideology of the group and strive for perfection.  The induction of guilt and/or shame is a powerful control device used here. 
4. Confession.  Sins, as defined by the group, are to be confessed either to a personal monitor or publicly to the group.  There is no confidentiality; members' "sins," "attitudes," and "faults" are discussed and exploited by the leaders. 
5. Sacred Science.  The group's doctrine or ideology is considered to be the ultimate Truth, beyond all questioning or dispute.  Truth is not to be found outside the group.  The leader, as the spokesperson for God or for all humanity, is likewise above criticism. 
6. Loading the Language.  The group interprets or uses words and phrases in new ways so that often the outside world does not understand.  This jargon consists of thought-terminating clichés, which serve to alter members' thought processes to conform to the group's way of thinking. 
7. Doctrine over person.  Member's personal experiences are subordinated to the sacred science and any contrary experiences must be denied or reinterpreted to fit the ideology of the group. 
8. Dispensing of existence.  The group has the prerogative to decide who has the right to exist and who does not.  This is usually not literal but means that those in the outside world are not saved, unenlightened, unconscious and they must be converted to the group's ideology.  If they do not join the group or are critical of the group, then they must be rejected by the  members.  Thus, the outside world loses all credibility.  In conjunction, should any member leave the group, he or she must be rejected also.  (Lifton, 1989)
   
   

Another version is here with more points:

1. Control of human communication.
2. Totalist environment seeks to control external information (that which a person sees, hears, reads, writes, experiences, expresses) and the inner life of a person's thoughts (communication with himself).
3. This milieu control can't become absolute, there will always be "leaks".
4. The leaders are considered the source and dispensers of truth and knowledge so they try to create a rarefied environment in which only this truth exists.
5. To be engineers of the human soul, the leaders must bring it under full observational control, monitoring information and thoughts.
6. Person is deprived of both external information and inner reflection, which are crucial for testing realities.
7. Strivings toward new info, independent judgment, and self-expression are thwarted.
8. A person who experiences a reality outside of the group will negate the experience by not considering it legitimate since it is outside the milieu.
9. A hampering in the human quest for that which is true and relevant within and outside a person.
10. Us/them mentality keeps outside information from being processed critically
11. Person's entire frame of reference becomes the group, has no independent reality or information against which to test the verity of the information the group is giving him.
12. Separation from family and friends who represent the outside.
13. Control of books read, movies seen, music listened to.
14. Communal living further controls the milieu.
15. Activities are limited because time is dominated by group. Even if a person wanted to hear another pastor there wouldn't be enough time to do so.
16. Intense indoctrination seminars or retreats.
17. Information for making decisions supposed to come from "seeking counsel" or consultation from leaders.
18. Anything that is not the sacred science (see below for explanation of sacred science) is rejected as evil.

This list came about because of the authors book on the following subject on how China brainwashed the minds of American prisoners and their won people.

Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of "Brainwashing" in China is a non-fiction book by psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton on the psychology of brainwashing and mind control.

Lifton's research for the book began in 1953 with a series of interviews with American servicemen who had been held captive during the Korean War. In addition to interviews with 25 Americans, Lifton also interviewed 15 Chinese who had fled their homeland after having been subjected to indoctrination in Chinese universities. From these interviews, which in some cases occurred regularly for over a year, Lifton identified the tactics used by Chinese communists to cause drastic shifts in one's opinions and personality and "brainwash" American soldiers into making demonstrably false assertions.

More can be found here by a man who was deprogrammed from a religious cult in Santa Barbara.

Proof That Polish Cherokee Is The True COG Leader: He Played Dress Up in 1970!

From  Welcome to COGSR

The great Polish Cherokee Indian, Latter Day Prophet, and Church of God Leader Eric King posted a picture over the weekend as proof that he is the legendary Koga of the TRUE Church of God who's lineage has directly descended from the bloodline of King David through the Cherokee female line of Nanye-hi Hialeah (Goes About Beautiful Meadow) the wife of the great warrior Degataga Gawonii (Standing Together He Is Speaking).

The last part is made up, the picture is not.  The problem with "Little Koga" above is that he never received that name till he started playing Cherokee dress up as an adult.  The rest just illustrates the idiotic logic that COG leaders come up with to justify their standing as a leader.  Little Koga is now writing about how the Cherokee traditions are compatible with Christianity.

Watching the mental melt down of Eric King, David C Pack and Bitter Bob Thiel is a fascinating experience.  Sadly what we are  witnessing may only be the tip of the iceberg.

Bitter Bob: Relax My Children, Hillary Clinton is NOT The Antichrist!

Whew!  I am glad Bitter Bob has set the record straight on Hillary Clinton!  Who knew!

Bitter Bob writes:

Some with Protestant ties have claimed that she is or will be the final Antichrist.

Is this true or even possible?

No.

The final Antichrist will be a man (cf. Revelation 13:11-18).

Bitter Bob fails to mention that there are many in Armstrongism who believe she will be the Antichrist too.  Armstrongism is always looking for the next boogeyman who will lead the world into damnation.  They seem giddy with anticipation that war, enslavement, pestilence, famine and a host of other calamities might be coming.  None of them ever seem to have the balls to do anything to stop a coming tragedy.  If they did so it would mess up their plan of salvation and how they think things should be.

The only thing we have witnesses so far are nut job Armstrongites who are leading people into thier own damnation.