Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Church Head Admits Atheists Are Right



Let's Get Logical By Joseph Tkach Jr. (Speaking of Life Series)

By James Baldwin

Let's understand what logic means: The study of the principles of correct reasoning. It is thinking that aims at a conclusion. It can be subject to errors and these errors can be studied to great advantage when someone is trying to foist something over on us like proving that which cannot be proved.

Today's aggressive atheists like to point out that God cannot be found through science and conventional logic, or by looking for God in the deep recesses of the universe. As believers, that doesn't bother us because we know they're right. God can't be found using those tools.

Then Mr Tkach moves onto the old evasive standby that has served religion so well, faith. Let's look at the dictionary to understand faith in this context.
Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material existence.
A modern writer describes faith as the act of pretending you know something you don't now.
God can only be known through God's own revelation of himself. The proof of God's existence is in the realm of faith, not in the realm of science. Belief in God is a matter if faith, not in the realm of science. It's a faith issue. God reveals himself to us.
Again, faith is only making believe,  lacking logical proof or any material existence.

A quotation from The Macmillan Encyclopedia of Philosophy (1966) concerning popular arguments for the existence of God reads on this wise:
It is even more common to speak of faith in God as if this were a specially compelling reason for belief and moreover, one beyond logical criticism. Faith however, is merely determination to believe and no kind of reason. (Vol 6, P 107).
So, what happened to HWA's little booklet on proving God exists? Well, after HWA passed away his successors got some higher education and advice discovering he was wrong and scrapped the booklet. Here is a comment from a highly educated leader among the Episcopalians, Bishop John Shelby Spong:
Our God has also been taken away from us. For us, however, that removal of God did not occur in a single moment of violent defeat. It rather happened over a period of centuries as the steady and relentless advances in knowledge altered forever our ability to believe in the God content that stood at the heart of our sacred tradition.  "Why Christianity must Change or Die", P. 29 (1998)                                                                                                                 
We cannot park our brains at the door of our places of worship in order to accept as real the words that were used to interpret God in years past but that can no longer today illumine our understanding of God. (P 18.)
...we already know that we can only know God by his spiritual revelation of himself, not by studying science.

Spiritual means not tangible or material.

***That won't come through science, it will only come through the Holy Spirit.

Another entity that cannot be proved.

Again, the Macmillan Encyclopedia of Philosophy has a handy explanation of the problem of proving the existence of God:
Argument about the existence of God is rare (in 1966) for religious beliefs are effectively supported in our society by means that are not principally rational. (Vol 6, P107).
This helps explain why in the early '60s i was ill-equipped to question what the WCG and Ted Armstrong were teaching. I wasn't trained to think critically or be able to do research. Today, this environment has richly changed with access to the internet and the implosion of the WCG.

Tuesday, June 28, 2016

The Lily-White Church of God Leadership

Living Church of God Council of Elders
All white men, one hispanic, no blacks, no asians




Philadelphia Church of God ministry
All white, one token black, one asian 


United Church of God
All white, no blacks, asians or hispanics

Restored Church of God 
All white



COGWA
Only COGWA has one black man in a leadership position, no asians or hispanics

For a church that claims to be God's restored truth on earth, a church that is supposed to be the remnant of Paul's ministry to the Gentiles, it is a church that is almost exclusively white in it's racial make up.  Do they really think Paul took his ministry exclusively to the caucasians populating the Middle east/Mediterranean at that time? The people living in that region were mixtures of all kinds of races.

Because of the British Israelism malarkey that the church has taught for decades it has led to the all white leadership in the COG. Even the progressive types, no matter how much they pretend to dismiss BI, they still all promote it to this day.  Without it they could not exist.

This is why deep seated racism is still prevalent in almost all of the Churches of God.  It makes them uncomfortable to have gentile blacks in leadership positions. "Gentile" was the favorite catch-phrase thrown around Pasadena by the ministry and leadership when talking about minorities in the church and world around them.

According to the malarkey of British Israelism, its the chosen white people from the 12 tribes that are God's most highly favored.  Those few gentiles that happen to join up only receive blessings because they chose to join the "truth", otherwise they are always outside the circle.

Because the church still places all of its religious significance upon Jewish laws while ignoring Jesus, its no wonder that they find this verse so discomforting:


Sunday, June 26th lectionary readings for the day were the very verses that make the the "chosen people," the Judaizers, and bastardizers of the law so uncomfortable in the Churches of God. These are the verses that push the buttons of James Malm, Rod Meredith, Dave Pack, Gerald Flurry, and Vic Kubik.

Galatians 5:1The Message (MSG)The Life of FreedomChrist has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you. 

Galatians 5:13-26The Message (MSG) 
13-15 It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then? 
16-18 My counsel is this: Live freely, animated and motivated by God’s Spirit. Then you won’t feed the compulsions of selfishness. For there is a root of sinful self-interest in us that is at odds with a free spirit, just as the free spirit is incompatible with selfishness. These two ways of life are antithetical, so that you cannot live at times one way and at times another way according to how you feel on any given day. Why don’t you choose to be led by the Spirit and so escape the erratic compulsions of a law-dominated existence? 
19-21 It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on. 
This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.22-23 But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely. 
23-24 Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way. Among those who belong to Christ, everything connected with getting our own way and mindlessly responding to what everyone else calls necessities is killed off for good—crucified. 
25-26 Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives. That means we will not compare ourselves with each other as if one of us were better and another worse. We have far more interesting things to do with our lives. Each of us is an original.



There is neither Jew, nor Greek nor gentile, but the Church of God has missed that message somehow, though as long as you are white and male you have it made.  Church leadership is just waiting for you.

SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave

LCG headquarters in in an uproar that John Robinson story was leaked to Banned.



From another LCG source:


LCG headquarters in in an uproar that this story was leaked to Banned. 

Members are irate over what they did to John and the blow back has been far more than Meredith and his henchmen were expecting. 

They are presently in the middle of trying to figure out a new spin to the story to make it look better than reality. Sadly, John is probably so desperate to stabilize the situation for the sake of his wife and children that he will willingly participate in whatever made up story Meredith/McNair come up with. 

John likely doesn't yet see that God's church wouldn't treat people the way he has been treated or hasn't realized that God's true church wouldn't lie to cover their collective asses. I'm sure the spell has been broken at least in part though. It might take him another year of being awake to the abuses in LCG before he gets brave enough to make a move but once you are the victim of something like this, it's extremely difficult to stick your head back in the sand.

Knowing how LCG has operated in the past, they will come up with a story about how John needed to return to Texas to care for his mom. Another option could be that they need to make budget cuts and he was the last editor hired so he was the 1st one fired. Or they decided to let him work remotely from home. The LCG spin doctors are weighing options. Whatever they come up with will probably be posted in the Weekly Update in an effort to counter act the readers of this and other blogs.

The original story posted on this site is the truth but LCG have become masters at re-writing the truth if the truth makes them look bad. John was fired and stripped of his minister title for saying something unflattering about LCG administration. Period. What ever they come up with next is bull.

Monday, June 27, 2016

Why do the leaders of Living Church of God feel they are not accountable to the membership?



A reader here commented yesterday:
I just can't believe that these Chalottans KNOW that every evil deed they think they are doing in secret gets discovered, leaked, and reported, and yet they make NO effort to modify their behavior! It just doesn't make sense!  

Somebody had ought to call or email the judge in the Scarborough case and give him the link to Banned! How could the defendants in that case NOT make a concerted effort to be on their best behavior, at least until the trial is over?
That is the 6 million dollar question!  Given the abysmal track record of the LCG leadership in the mistreatment of members and all of the negative publicity it's caused, why have they not changed their behavior?

Do they actually think they are immune to criticism?  The Scarborough lawsuit should have been a wake up call, but unfortunately it has not.  They continue to mistreat members, with zero accountability. They have proven time and time again how arrogant they are.

When you look at the characteristics of men with narcissistic personality disorders you can quickly see what is wrong in Charlotte, Wadsworth, Edmond and Cincinnati.





    False Sense Of Superiority:
  • Arrogant; feels superior to others; has snobbish or patronizing attitudes
  • Has a grandiose sense of self-importance
  • Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love.
  • Believes that he or she is "special" and should associate with other high-status people
  • Has a sense of entitlement
  • Is often envious of others
  • Is interpersonally exploitative
  • Lacks empathy


Another site has this:

  1. He has a grandiose idea of who he is and what he can achieve.
  2. Is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, or brilliance.
  3. Demands blind unquestioned obedience.
  4. Requires excessive admiration from followers and outsiders.
  5. Has a sense of entitlement - expecting to be treated special at all times.
  6. Is exploitative of others by asking for their money or that of relatives putting others at financial risk.
  7. Is arrogant and haughty in his behavior or attitude.
  8. Has an exaggerated sense of power (entitlement) that allows him to bend rules and break laws.




Dear "I see what I see. I hear what I hear. I feel What I feel PCG/RCG/LCG Members...

Dear "I see what I see. I hear what I hear. I feel What I feel PCG/RCG/LCG Members...

If you see what you see..
If you feel what you feel...
DO SOMETHING!




Kindness is not a virtue when you sacrifice the truth to achieve it.


Artists speak the truth to the public without fear of retribution or damage to their careers.

If You Really Care About it, Please Don't Just Pray About It*


* While I personally don't care about it, I care about you!