Reactions to the Pasadena Rubble

The reactions have been swift at the latest photo's of the demolition of the Hall of Administration.  This meme was done by a child of the church (an actress) who's life was screwed up because of it. Others have been moved to tears at seeing the debris because they have been hurt so much by the church, yet still identify with it.

Broken families and marriages, suicides, and mental disorders have been a result of the church and its teachings.  Some have been scared for life by the church and so many want to sweep it all under the rug and act like nothing bad ever happened, and if it did, it was the person's fault for being weak and not the church.

On the Banned Facebook page and the FB pages the following comments have been made: 

Reminds me of the destruction of The Temple signifying the end of the Levitical Priesthood and the daily sacrifice and how many still insisted on living in OT OC times. The splinters are in denial of this being a significant sign, Armstrongism is dead...

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I fight very hard not to be bitter because it is counter productive. That said, after a 50 year exposure to that hot mess, I can't help not be angry. It was bad enough being raised in it, but now, in my early 60's, I have no hope of ever retiring, a still live paycheck to paycheck. After all, we should be in the Millennium, right? Who needs IRA's and Social Security when we are all now in the Wonderful World Tomorrow! 

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Many lives and careers are a pile of rubble just like that. it is not so easy just to sweep away the damage done to children and marriages. I contributed thousands of dollars and there it is in a pile of trash. 

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I'll say it again. That pile of rubble was what was stolen out of our mouths as kids, was stolen of our backs. That building, was built and paid for by people like my parents with the thousands of dollars they didn't have to spare which they sent to Pasadena every paycheck. It seems a waste to see a beautiful building that my parents in part paid for laying there as a pile of rubble. I don't miss the organization but to see the sacrifice decimated is a hard pill to swallow. Just my thoughts and feelings on this.

Glynn Washington weaves his childhood in the WCG into his stories on PBS

Glynn Washington has a highly successful radio program that is known around the country.  He weaves his story of growing up in Armstrongism into many of his broadcasts.

Glynn Washington adding diversity to radio one story at a time New York Amsterdam News

"On this night, Washington opens up about his childhood in Pasadena, Calif., which was spent in the now infamous Worldwide Church of God, headed by the apocalyptic radio evangelist Herbert W. Armstrong. Many, including Washington, called the church a cult.  

I don’t know how this is possible, with the sadness and seriousness that was woven throughout the story, but laughter erupted in the room. Here is this man telling us that when he was a 9-year-old, he was going to school and telling his best friend goodbye, sleeping in shoes and trying to get right with Jesus so that he wouldn’t perish in the rapture. He was surrounded by adults who were doing the same thing. His family was almost convinced to send their lifesavings to Armstrong, then pick up and leave their home to follow this self-proclaimed prophet to a “safe place” before God’s rapture came, and we were all laughing. This is a true story, but we can laugh because it’s a part of his life that he has come to terms with. Now he is sharing it with us, so that we can take from it what we need or want."

NPR’s Great Black Hope The Atlantic

"That was 1997, when This American Life, Glass’s public-radio show, was just two years old, and people were beginning to suspect that his style of curated storytelling might be radio’s next big thing. Now Washington, a proud student of Glass’s, is the next big thing. In its first three years, Snap Judgment, Washington’s fast-paced, music-heavy, ethnically variegated take on the public-radio story hour, has spread like left-end-of-the-dial kudzu. It is on 250 stations, reaching nine of the top 10 public-radio markets, and its podcast is downloaded more than half a million times a month. And while there has long been minority talent on public radio—a realm that includes National Public Radio and other producers of non-commercial radio, like American Public Media and Public Radio International—Washington is the first African American host to swing a big cultural stick, the first who seems likely to become a public-radio superstar on the order of Glass or Garrison Keillor."

"Many NPR hosts come from NPR-ish families. Not Washington. “I grew up in a cult,” he told me. His parents were members of the Worldwide Church of God, a sect founded by Herbert W. Armstrong, an apocalyptic radio evangelist based in Pasadena. Washington got out—a story he tells with an escapee’s pride—and went on to the University of Michigan and its law school. He studied in Japan, then worked for the State Department, then ended up directing a program at the University of California at Berkeley. Some of the best Snap Judgment segments are drawn from his own life, and you get the feeling he could carry several episodes a year by himself."

Greg Nice/PCG: Being Happy Is Pagan!

This is a comment from the thread on Greg Nice justifying shunning of family members.

Can this man truly be this stupid?

A couple years ago when Greg was at HQs for the birth of his grand baby, he graced us all with his presence and gave a sermonette. He spoke about "happiness" and how being happy is pagan! He said the origins of happy came from China and no where in the Bible is happiness mentioned and that we should never strive to be happy. I just remember staring at that doofus in absolute disbelief! 

His daughter in law almost died during childbirth and he was rambling on about how it wouldn't make any difference if she lived or died because all things work out for the good. 

He's a very callous man! 

But then, the PCG teaches us all to be callous and cold, it's all part of the grand Brotherly Love Plan!

From the First to the Last: The Destruction of the Church

This is the very first building that the church bought in Pasadena that held the offices and classrooms for the fledgling college.  This was the old Ambassador library building.  This was also the very first building to be demolished on the property.  It occurred at Feast time in 2012.

Then we move to 2016 and the demolition of the Hall of Administration.  This was the seat of the power that controlled the church and established doctrines.  It was also the seat of those that abused the members so terribly.  It's fitting that this is the last building to be demolished.  From the first to the last.  Its a fitting epitaph of the state of the Church of God today leading into Passover season.  

A pile of wrecked debris, unsalvageable.