"Is There Anything About UCG That's Not Dishonest?"

A reader here writes his first hand experience with the United Church of God:

It looks like he (Gary Petty) has a ton of makeup on. To me, the smug is overwhelmed by the fakery.

Even back when I was a member of UCG, I always thought what emanated from Cincinnati was, not smug exactly, but more of a goody-two-shoes fake super"nice"ness. It's the conceit that "we know how to live perfectly, and you don't." It's the 2nd grade schoolyard attitude of the "teacher's pet" who thinks they know more than everyone else, thinks they're better than everyone else, and condescending wants to "help" everyone else. They also think they can get away with anything because the teacher is always going to take their side. These Cincinnati "home office" folk think that they're "god's pet." It's unappealing in a second-grader, absolutely repellent in an adult! It's present at the institutional level and nobody projects this more than Steve Meyers, but runner-up would be Gary Petty. I guess the cherry on top is how hard they work to "scrub" not just their own images as "pets," but how hard they've been working to "scrub" UCG's image, trying to deny it's own history and pretend it's not still an HWA-worshiping cult. As if, with all the botox and plastic surgery, we don't know how old the aging movie star is. The deniability isn't plausible.

Not being anywhere near Cincinnati, I didn't have to worry about it too much, how fake and vain those "nice" folks might be. I always guessed they weren't "nice" at all. They just keep all that "human nature" stuff under wraps, you know, the political intrigue, the back-stabbing, the lying, cheating, and stealing. "Nice" people are capable of all the same behaviors as your typical third-world tyrant. All it takes is one little split and you can see the real people under the fake masks and the make-up they all wear. You can see exactly what turds they really are, no guesswork required. As if the deniability ever was plausible? All the scrubbing in the world isn't going to make any difference to me.

UCG wants to present itself as a "mainstream church" full of "nice" people. Is there anything about UCG that's not dishonest? Who needs a dishonest religion? Fish, I'd like you to meet bicycle.

One Man's Journey: Trying To Find A Place In A "Culture" After Leaving Armstrongism

I was sent a link to this blog this morning by a reader here.  The blog, Washed in Tears, is about one man's journey of life in Armstrongism, leaving it, going back to to it and then leaving again because he had too questions that never got answered (thanks to Borg and Spong.)  He's been on a quest to find a "culture," a place where he fits in, like most of us thought we did when we were wrapped up in the Armstrongism.  It was our culture, our identity.  When that was ripped away or we walked away it was hard to find an identity that fit.

Reminisces

And I’ve come to realize that I have spent the last 28 or so years trying desperately to find a culture – any culture whatsoever – that I can claim and fit into and call my own.  A culture, and a family.
And today is the day it finally hit that I will not.  The culture I was raised in was far too penetrated, far too influential, far too ingrained into every aspect of my life.  When I was cast adrift out of the culture and the family – at around nine – all I had left were memories of what was, memories of what were ultimately not horrible experiences, and memories of that which never would be again.  First it was the disintegration of the family, and then, years later, it was the disintegration of the church.

And now, I’m nearly 39 years old, and I come to realize that I’m no closer to finding that kind of community and acceptance – the kind I had when I was very little – than I was all that many years ago.  I’ve come to realize that I’m still just as alone, just as much of an island, as I always have been.  Still just as much of a social recluse, a homeless man in every way but literally, a survivor and nothing more.
And as I try to work through Christianity, I find myself saying that I have an identity – of some type or other – with God.  Great.  I wish it was enough, but it’s not.  If it was enough, then why would I even exist on this realm in the first place?   It’s not enough.  The body of Christ still sees me as an interloper, and frankly, I’m not sure I think too highly of them either.  I ask too many questions, I don’t join the culture.

I don’t join the culture because

It’s

Not

MINE.

Crazy Sweating Stephen Gilbreath Has To Read An Entire Booklet Online Because His Readers Are Too Tired.

If you thought Steve Gilbreath was batshit crazy before then get a load of the video above.  The bug eyed nut job has to drape his tie over his shoulder where it  keeps falling off as he "preaches' on the pagan calendar date of August 9th, 2014.

He also says that he will be reading a entire booklet of Herbert Armstrong because members are tooooooooooooooooooooo tired to read it themselves.

The idiots that have self-appointed themselves as God's most highly-favored messengers throughout the 80 some years of Armstrongism have made a mockery of themselves and the cult they try to emulate.  Herbert Armstrong would truly be disgusted to witness the deviates that have positioned themselves over the hundreds and hundreds of splinter cults.  Each one seems to be dumber than the previous one!