"Ah..(city/town of your choice).......We got a problem"

The Controlling, Narcissist Leader/Pastor 

              http://setfree0408.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-controlling-narcissist-leaderpastor.html

*I am bringing back this post that I originally wrote on September 16, 2009. Based upon the comments I've received lately, I believe there's a need to bring this subject back to the forefront.

The Controlling, Narcissist Leader/Pastor

Ungodly, controlling pastors have hurt many people. The phrase "ungodly pastors" seems to be an oxymoron. These two words shouldn't go together in the same sentence, but the sad truth is there are pastors and leaders who are only in the position for their own lustful desires.

These dictating leaders can be described by many words - controllers, manipulators, narcissists, psychopaths, cult leaders, false pastors, false prophets, and dictators, to name a few. There are varying degrees of this type of leadership and some are more damaging than others, but I have seen the negative effects these type of leaders can have on people. Some pastors are just strong leaders, while others are narcissistic psychopaths. If you haven't ever been around a person like this it may be hard for you to imagine that there are people who go to these extreme measures. But for those who have suffered under this type of heartless leadership, you know all too well how deep the wounds go.

Here are some signs and characteristics of a narcissist, unscriptural leader.....

*Resembles the same attitude Diotrephes had in III John verse 9. He is proud, carnal, demanding, overbearing, impatient, uncompassionate, "loving" only toward those who submit to him, but mean-spirited toward those who do not agree with him.

*He develops doctrines from pet verses that appear to support his view.

*He makes people feel that they cannot make important decisions and know God's will without him.

*He exalts himself before the people.

*He ridicules his associates, making them look small in the eyes of the church members, thus increasing his own prestige and authority and decreasing theirs.

*He treats people who leave as fools and evil men. All kindness and friendship is withdrawn by the leaders. People are only treated kindly when they submit to his doctrines and "authority."

*He contradicts himself a lot.

*He is accountable to no one.

*He provokes and intimidates people to get what he wants.

*He demands respect instead of trying to earn respect.

*He wears a phony grin and acts like everything is all right even when things are falling apart in his church.

*He acts as if he knows everything, but he really doesn't know how to handle problems he has caused.

*He is a captive storyteller and exaggerates the truth all the time. He is able to spin a web that intrigues others and pulls them into his life.

*He has the capacity to destroy his critics verbally and disarm them emotionally.

*He does not recognize the individuality or rights of others.

*He is extremely self-serving and thinks he deserves royal treatment.

*He has no checks on his behavior - anything goes.

*He has tremendous feelings of entitlement. He believes everything is owed to him as a right.

*He presents himself as a genius.

*He has an insatiable need for adoration. When others aren't praising him, he will praise himself.

*He gives the perception that he lives a grandiose life, but paranoia rules him. He creates an us vs. them mentality because of his perceived hostile environment.

*He lies coolly and easily, even when it is obvious he is being untruthful. It is almost impossible for him to be consistently truthful about either a major or minor issue.

*He is a plagiarist and a thief. He seldom gives credit to the true originators of ideas.

*He is extremely convincing and could more than likely pass a lie detector test.

*He does not have friends.

*He doesn't not have feelings of remorse, shame, or guilt. He feels justified in all his actions because he considers himself the ultimate moral arbiter. Nothing gets in his way.

*He is unmoved by things that would unset the normal person, while outraged by insignificant matters.

*He is cold, with shallow emotions, living in a dark world of his own.

*He can witness or order acts of utter brutality without experiencing a shred of emotion.

*He casts himself in a role of total control, which he plays to the hilt.

*He is tragically flawed in being able to either give or receive love.

*He despises community and emotional intimacy, and so he is profoundly lonely. On the one hand, though, there is something about his loneliness that he likes; for he can attribute it to his unique and superior nature.

*He constantly tests the beliefs of his followers, often with bizarre behaviors.

*He readily takes advantage of others, expressing utter contempt for anyone else's feelings. Someone in distress is not important to him. Although intelligent, perceptive, and quite good at sizing people up, he makes no real connections with others. He uses his "people skills" to exploit, abuse, and wield power.

*He will favor and offer help to people who are down as long as he thinks they will be useful to him later on down the road. Such favors might include offering employment, loaning money, or offering personal counseling. He may call in his favor if he sees you slipping away. Also, such opportunities help the narcissist persuade himself that he is good, despite the gnawing awareness of the dark cellar at heart.

*He has an inflated sense of superiority which propels him to recklessness; for he is subject to fantasies of omnipotence and unequalled brilliance, and he feels that he is above the law. And it is this sense of superiority that allows him to underestimate the intelligence and determination of his adversaries.

*He is indifferent to injustice and it's victims, but he rages against the person who is a threat to his charade and/or who refuses to cooperate with his underhanded schemes. "

Comments:

Bob Thiel Releases First Set Of Youth Lessons

Humiliated that Grace Communion International refused his request to republish the Youth Lessons from days gone by, Bawana Bob has just released his first set of lessons:

• Lesson 1: How to Recognize Proper Dreams of a Prophet
• Lesson 2: Why Your Leader Needs a Double-Portion Anointing But Doesn't Need a Proper Ordination
• Lesson 3: When Is It Time To Stop Shilling For Your Bible Daddy and Break Out On Your Own?
• Lesson 4: The Plain Truth About Mayan Prophecy
• Lesson 5: The Plain Truth About Catholic Prophecy
• Lesson 6: How To Prophesy With Wiggle Room and Disclaim Your Failures
• Lesson 7: Crooked Bookcases Are Not A Sign of Spiritual Crookedness
• Lesson 8: Effeminacy Is A Blessing in a Football-Hating Philadelphian Overseer
• Lesson 9: Why You Should Respect Unaccredited Graduate Degrees
• Lesson 10: All Rod Meredith's Dead Friends Said I Was Much Better Than Rod
• Lesson 11: I'm Predicted In Scripture Even More Than HWA or Dave Pack!
• Lesson 12: It's Not the Gospel OF Bob Thiel; it's the Gospel ABOUT Bob Thiel

ht: anonymous 

GCI tells Bob Thiel NO! and he says he will do it anyway!

One thing that has always amazed by about so many of the current splinter cults of the Armstrongite Church of God, is that while claiming to be commandment keepers they STEAL WCG/GCI owned works for their own use, or plagiarize it as much as they can while adding their own little twists and perverted interpretations.

The Self-anointed great Bawana Bob Thiel says he is going to do just that!

He reached out to Grace Communion International (former WCG) to see if he could use the old Youth Bible Lessons aimed at the youth of the church.  GCI, thankfully said NO!

No matter, Bawana Bob, just like the Kitchen clan, will steal their works anyway.

Youth Bible Lessons 

After being told in writing by Grace Communion International that they would not make available for us to purchase, etc. the old Youth Bible Lessons from the old Worldwide Church of God, we have begun a program to look into republishing slightly edited versions of them. 

So far, I have reviewed and tentatively approved about two dozen lessons, with minor edits (mainly additions of historical facts) in about half of them. 

The intent is to produce the youth lessons in English and Spanish, and perhaps other languages. 

We plan to make relevant announcements in one or more future letters.

Like any ACOG leader, practicing what one preaches is never a given.  Bawana Bob cannot even heed the words that he writes later in his letter to his members:

Brotherly love involves caring for others and keeping the commandments–all of them! As the James wrote: 

27 Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. (James 1:27) 

8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well; 9 but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. 11 For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. (James 2:8-12)

Letter to the Brethren, March 21, 2019 

RCG: Future Homemakers of RCG Make Dinner For Select RCG Ministers

The women of the Home Economics Department gained experience for their role as a proper helpmate for their future husbands by fixing dinner for their adored Pastor General Dave Pack.  Nothing could have been more exciting than this grand culinary evening than to learn their place in a proper RCG household...in the kitchen, cooking and serving.  Dave likes that!

The King of Self Deception Warns ACOG Member To Not Allow Themselves To Be Deceived

It is time for another doozy from the Self-appointed, almost arrested but not arrested, Elijah, Elisha, Joshua, Second Witless Witness, Chief Overseer and eternally Bitter Bob Thiel.  Has the church ever had a man so preoccupied with self-deception as we have witnessed in Bawana Bob?

For many years he thought his prophetic powers so significant that he could tell Rod Meredith just how things should be. That deception clouded his brain so much that he actually thought Meredith and the rest of the boys in Charlotte would actually heed his words. After his spiritual wanna-be father publicly rebuked and humiliated him in front of the entire Living Church of God, the Chosen One had a dream.

In that dream, his brain revealed to him that HE and HE ALONE was the Chosen One of God to lead the remnant group of true believers into the Place of Safety and ultimately into the Kingdom of God where HE and HE ALONE would sit on the right hand of Jesus Christ as they ruled the universe together.  His brain told him that no human leader of ANY other Armstrong Churches of God was as qualified as he was.

His brain also told him that this was NOT self-deception but direct channelling from his god as to how things WILL BE in the end times and that HE and HE ALONE had the ONLY truth.

Nope, no self-deception there, no-sirree Bob!

The Undeceived One has these words of wisdom for ACOG members:

Researchers have concluded that there are costs associated with self-deception:

The invisible downside of cheating in life

People who take shortcuts can trick themselves into believing they are smarter than they are, says Tom Stafford, and it comes back to bite them. …
The researchers ran another experiment to check that the effect was really due to the cheaters’ inflated belief in their own abilities. In this experiment, students were offered a cash reward for accurately predicting their scores on the second test. Sure enough, those who had been given the opportunity to cheat overestimated their ability and lost out – earning 20% less than the other students.
The implication is that people in Chance’s experiment – people very much like you and me – had tricked themselves into believing they were smarter than they were. There may be benefits from doing this – confidence, satisfaction, or more easily gaining the trust of others – but there are also certainly disadvantages. Whenever circumstances change and you need to accurately predict how well you’ll do, it can cost to believe you’re better than you are.
That self-deception has its costs has some interesting implications. Morally, most of us would say that self-deception is wrong. But aside from whether self-deception is undesirable, we should expect it to be present in all of us to some degree (because of the benefits), but to be limited as well (because of the costs).
Self-deception isn’t something that is always better in larger doses – there must be an amount of it for which the benefits outweigh the costs, most of the time. We’re probably all self-deceiving to some degree. The irony being, because it is self-deception, we can’t know how often. http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150225-unexpected-downside-for-cheaters

Jesus taught that Satan was a liar and the father of lies:

44 You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it (John 8:44)

Of course, Satan takes advantage of deception and encourages humans to deceive themselves. Recall what happened to Eve:

Also recall all we have witnessed with Bawana Bob over the last several years! Eve was not the only one deceived!

14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. (1 Timothy 2:14)
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. (Genesis 3:6-7)

Satan was involved, but the woman allowed herself to be deceived. This type of deception happens every day.

It sure does Elijah Bob!  It sure does!

But what about Christians? Can Christians fall victim to self-deception?
Jesus warned that most Christians in the end times would be deceived:

14 “And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write,
‘These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: 15 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. 17 Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’ — and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked — 18 I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that you may see. 19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. (Revelation 3:14-19)

Although most Laodiceans do not believe that they are deceiving themselves, Jesus said that they were. Jesus said that Laodicean Christians needed to repent–they need to change.

This is the same tired and worn out excuse that self-appointed and self-deceived ACOG leaders have been dishing out for 80 some years now.  Anyone who does not believe them is a Laodicean.  Bullshit, Bob.  Bullshit!

In addition to doctrine and how they lead their lives, there are serious prophetic deceptions that the Laodiceans have fallen for. A list of 38 prophetic deceptions that various Laodiceans (and those of Sardis) believe is in the article The Laodicean Church Era. Believing several of these will insure that Laodiceans will not realize that the Great Tribulation is here until it is to late for most to flee (cf. Revelation 12:14-17).

Self-deception is common. Try not to fall for it. The word of God is truth (John 17:17), hopefully you will believe it enough so that you will resist Satanically-encouraged self-deception (cf. James 4:7).

For once I agree with Elisha Bob!  Do not fall for the Satanically-encouraged self-deception of the self-appointed doubly blessed Bob Thiel! Of all the sick idiots leading various splinter groups right now, self-appointed Bob is the sickest of the lot.