New Book: “The World in Flames: A Black Boyhood in a White Supremacist Doomsday Cult”

The title of Jerald Walker’s new memoir “The World in Flames: A Black Boyhood in a White Supremacist Doomsday Cult” (Beacon) sounds like it was ripped from the front page of a supermarket tabloid. Yet this was his life growing up in Chicago in the 1960s and 1970s.

Walker, a writing professor at Emerson College, is one of seven children. Both his parents lost their sight in childhood accidents and Herbert W. Armstrong’s Worldwide Church of God gave them hope that their sight might be restored and that they had been chosen for a better afterlife. Struggling to make ends meet, his parents sent tithes to Armstrong even when they needed the money for heat and food.

After “60 Minutes” aired an exposé of Armstrong and his lavish lifestyle, Walker and some of his siblings left the church. His parents did, too — for a while.

Walker will speak about the book at 7 p.m. Friday at Harvard Book Store in Cambridge. 

“World in Flames” is Beacon Press’s first title to be simultaneously released as an audiobook. Boston Globe

Amazon Books has this:

When The World in Flames begins, in 1970, Jerry Walker is six years old. His consciousness revolves around being a member of a church whose beliefs he finds not only confusing but terrifying. Composed of a hodgepodge of requirements and restrictions (including a prohibition against doctors and hospitals), the underpinning tenet of Herbert W. Armstrong’s Worldwide Church of God was that its members were divinely chosen and all others would soon perish in rivers of flames.

The substantial membership was ruled by fear, intimidation, and threats. Anyone who dared leave the church would endure hardship for the remainder of this life and eternal suffering in the next. The next life, according to Armstrong, would arrive in 1975, three years after the start of the Great Tribulation. Jerry would be eleven years old.

Jerry’s parents were particularly vulnerable to the promise of relief from the world’s hardships. When they joined the church, in 1960, they were living in a two-room apartment in a dangerous Chicago housing project with the first four of their seven children, and, most significantly, they both were blind, having lost their sight to childhood accidents. They took comfort in the belief that they had been chosen for a special afterlife, even if it meant following a religion with a white supremacist ideology and dutifully sending tithes to Armstrong, whose church boasted more than 100,000 members and more than $80 million in annual revenues at its height.

When the prophecy of the 1972 Great Tribulation does not materialize, Jerry is considerably less disappointed than relieved. When the 1975 end-time prophecy also fails, he finally begins to question his faith and imagine the possibility of choosing a destiny of his own.  A World In Flames

UCG's Subtle Brainwashing of it's Youth

It has taken 20 years for UCG to get where it is today.   Most of its members were already WCG members when they jumped ship, so they have been indoctrinated for many more years than this 20.  So with a minimum 30-40 years now they have heard all of the teachings of Armstrongism, yet they still lack the wherewithal to truly explain what they believe, especially to their children. Its no wonder they are struggling to remain relevant.  Decades  of booklets, articles, tv programs, and sermons have told them what to believe, yet they have never experienced it for themselves. That's what happens when law trumps grace and mercy.  Rules and regulations are more important that freedom.

One key subject was discussion of the Christian living theme. For the coming year it will be “Building Your Relationship With God.” Each day a sub-theme will delve deeper into the main topic. Our camps are not activity camps to just have a lot of fun. Camps have a carefully crafted plan to educate our young people throughout the day about spiritual values that we hold true and dear. We start by speaking of the Zone that all are to live within while at camp and beyond. From morning till night the camp theme is impressed on campers from prayers, compass checks, Christian living discussions, assemblies, storytelling and almost any other opportunity in communication.

We spoke about the Mission Statement of the Church, which includes the important component of making disciples. Are we making our children disciples of God the Father and Jesus Christ? Are they students and followers as a result of our teaching and example? Are we doing the best we can in making them students and learners of the spiritual values that we hold true?5When we went over last year’s exit surveys from campers, staff and parents, we noted that one area that needed attention was to give our youth a stronger ability to explain God’s Word. What could we do better? How can we instill more confidence in our campers to expound God’s Word? Update from President September 15

The COG Need For A Hyper-Masculine Jesus vs His Female Followers

Why is it so important to some COG leaders that Jesus MUST be a hyper-masculine man?  Apparently it's more important for him to be a "man's man" that it is to follow any of his teachings.

Rod Meredith has ranted for decades about how Jesus was a "man's man."  Rod's "jesus" was a  buff, hard working, carpenter who liked to sweat manly sweat.

Surprisingly the quote below is NOT from Meredith, it's from the hyperventalating scaremongers at ItstimeCOG.  

Chris was a MAN'S MAN, not some weak whining milk sop.  

He was a carpenter, a tradesman, a physically strong healthy man who said what He meant and meant what He said.   

The kind of guy that would sit with anyone and have a chat and share some wine over a good meal or have a few beer with the guys.  

There are places in the bible that describe Him doing that very thing.  

His first recorded miracle was when He made some wine at a wedding, so obviously he wasn't and isn't against the use of alcohol but all things in moderation.

This "man's man" that Meredith and others claim to follow was also the very man that all the MEN that were present at the crucifixion turned their back upon.  Who was there for Jesus?  The women!

The men didn’t get it. They betrayed, abandoned and hung him on a cross. Yet while he was there, who stayed with him? The women. They got it. They stayed at the cross. They returned to the tomb, and as a result, were the first to see the risen Christ. The crucifixion and resurrection stories do not have a “masculine feel.” Indeed, the whole life of Christ is decidedly opposed to the masculine norms of his day.

Well, Luke 8:1-3 adds even more depth to the women’s support:

Soon afterward, Jesus traveled through the cities and villages, preaching and proclaiming the good news of God’s kingdom. The Twelve were with him, along with some women who had been healed of evil spirits and sicknesses. Among them were Mary Magdalene (from whom seven demons had been thrown out), Joanna (the wife of Herod’s servant Chuza), Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their resources.

The women didn’t just support Jesus at the cross. They essentially bankrolled his and his disciples’ ministry. Whatever shape Christianity has, it wouldn’t have had any at all if not for the support provided by Christ’s faithful female disciples. From the Disoriented, Reoriented blog

Here we have the women supporting Jesus while the men cowered on the sidelines, just as most of the men leading various COG's today ignore the man.  Malm, Thiel, Meredith and others worship the law and elevate it to a higher level than any thing Jesus ever said or did. They all find Jesus embarrassing.

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