Carla Powers Mother Has Died

Mary Ann Holloway Powers wrote the final page of a remarkable life story on April 28, 2019.

Born September 17, 1932 in Wooster, Arkansas to Doyle Patrick Holloway and Cordie Delia Matchett Holloway, Mary Ann was the fourth of five children. Growing up during the Depression on a sharecropper’s cotton farm, she was ready for a new life when Charles Daniel Powers came calling. Married April 4, 1949, at age 16, the couple settled near Conway, Arkansas where Mary Ann worked as a clerk at Sterling Drugstore while Charles learned auto repair and later served his country during the Korean War. After Charles returned from the service, their first child, Carla Anne, was born in 1955, followed by Charles Steven in 1958.

Their lives took an unorthodox turn when Charles joined the Radio Church of God, a religious cult founded by Herbert W. Armstrong. Required to separate themselves from nonmembers and cut off from the world by adherence to the church’s unusual practices, the family moved to the church headquarters in Big Sandy, Texas in 1960. It didn’t take long for Charles to become disenchanted with Armstrong’s dogma and soon disenchantment turned into violence. Four years later, their third child, Daniel Franklin, was born. In 1968, Mary Ann escaped from Charles with the three children, taking only the clothes they were wearing.

After relearning to live in the world, first in Jackson, Mississippi and then in Minden, Louisiana, Mary took it by storm. She got an education, worked as a legal secretary and became a realtor. By 1980, she owned her own real estate company in Longview, Texas and during the 1980’s was one of ERA’s top brokers. After orthopedic issues ended her real estate career, she joined son Steve to form Propulsion Technologies in Shreveport, Louisiana. PowerTech Propellers was a success and she was honored by the Small Business Administration as a Woman of Enterprise at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. In 2000, she retired to her home on Cross Lake in Shreveport.

Mary is survived by her three children: Carla Powers Herron (Spicewood, Texas), Steve Powers (Shreveport, Louisiana), and Dan Powers (Austin, Texas) and four grandchildren: Andrew Herron (Houston, Texas), Connor Powers (Shreveport, Louisiana), Evan Powers (Austin, Texas) and Samantha Powers (Shreveport, Louisiana). She was preceded in death by her parents and three siblings: Dortha Holloway Hightower, Bob Holloway and L. D. Holloway. She is survived by her brother, Doyle Patrick Holloway of Conway, Arkansas, as well as numerous nieces and nephews. Bossier Press

You can read more on Mary Ann and Carla's time in Armstrongism in Carla's book:

Matches in the Gas Tank: Trial by Fire in the Armstrong Cult

Carla Powers was Daddy's princess back in Arkansas in the late 1950s. Then Daddy got religion.

That religion, based in the teachings and deprivation of narrow-minded, punitive ministers, tormented her dangerous alcoholic father and her entire family. Growing up, Carla never knew a woman could do anything more than she was asked—or demanded—to do. She definitely never imagined that other worlds would open up to her and she would rise to become a powerful attorney.

Matches in the Gas Tank tells the story of life inside the Radio Church of God and the influence of Herbert W. Armstrong, the Church's founder and prophet. Under his influence, Carla's family moved away from relatives and friends to Big Sandy, Texas, an enclave in which everyone lived by strict and unforgiving rules arbitrarily determined by Armstrong. His vision of how to get to "The Kingdom of God" and avoid a sea of flames consisted of unending lists of rules covering everything from food consumption, to financial responsibilities, to sexual behavior. The only way to rise above the poverty level was to become a minister, and the only way to become a minister was to continually police your neighbors for sin. Ministers were allowed to barge in a home any time of the day or night to inspect everything from the cleanliness of a family's kitchen to the contents of their tax returns.

This is the story of how Carla escaped the control of the church and found a way to deal with the legacy of abuse and shame left to her by her father. As she embraces her difficult childhood, she comes to understand that while those we love have the power to hurt us, they can't destroy us. We can find strength in unexpected places.

Anyone who has had a less-than-perfect family, has struggled with the faith of her fathers or has gone through recovery from abuse, perfectionism, or any cult of personality will connect with the power of redemption in this moving memoir.

The Lies Jehovah's Witnesses and Church of God Leaders Say...Notice the Similarities

Submitted by a reader here

Satan continues his attacks by trying to scam highly favored prophet of God, but who is REALLY being scammed?

Satan has been working overtime to discredit and humiliate the greatest prophet and Church of God leader the church has ever had in its midst.

The Chief Overseer and self-appointed prophet of Arroyo Grande went into detail the other day on how people at trying to trick and deceive him.

CBS put out a report a while back about what one author believes are the top six scams that affect people in the USA:

Overall, the nation’s most prevalent scam remains a fake check con, which involves “overpaying” for a product or service and asking the recipient to refund the difference. By the time the victim realizes that the check used for payment was bogus, the con artist has walked away with the consumer’s money…
The top six scams in order:
1. Fake checks
2. Bad Internet sales – products never delivered or misrepresented
3. Sweepstakes/prize/free gift cons that request payment to get your winnings.
4. Advance fee cons that promise a loan or line of credit, if you pay them first.
5. Phishing scams that attempt to get personal information to get access to your accounts, your tax refund or to open credit cards in your name.
6. Recovery/refund cons that promise past victims a recovery of swindled funds in exchange for a fee. http://www.cbsnews.com/news/top-6-us-scams/ 

Of course, there are also other scams. 

As far as these six go, a while back someone tried the fake check scam for a business I own. I did not fall for it. The only one in the list that someone has not directly tried to involve me in is number 4 (although I may not have read every loan offer enough to see if that was the case). Otherwise, numbers 3, 5, and 6 are very commonly pushed to me. But other than number 2 (I have made some purchases over the internet that were misrepresented, so took action), I have not fallen for any of the scams. 

 The prophets of God have to be constantly on guard! Satan is a tricky dude!

Sadly, many people are greedy and do not care how they harm others. Scams are based upon lies, theft, and deception. Scammers are, according to what Jesus said, a type of destroyer and murderer:

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)
10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. (John 10:10) 

The Bible teaches “love truth” (Zechariah 8:19) and that those who do not have the “love of the truth” will perish (2 Thessalonians 2:10).

Lying is prohibited by the Ten Commandments:

16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. (Exodus 20:16)

20 ‘You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. (Deuteronomy 5:20)

Bawana Bob claims he is immune to scams yet he has been scammed by some of his African members for some time now.  They are playing him for money as they also seek money and items from the Seventh Day Adventists and other Sabbatarian groups.

Even worse though, is the scam that Bawana Bob is concocting by claiming to have been doubly blessed by God and set apart to start a new splinter group of the already fractured Armstrong Churches of God.

Elijah Bob tosses out scripture to state that lying is wrong, yet he has lied from the very beginning of the start of his splinter personality cult.  God no more blessed him to start a new group than God made Bob the modern day Elijah, Elisha, Joshua, Amos, or any other crazy personality's he wishes to be associated with.  He preaches lies in his sermons and leads sincere people away from God.

Elijah Bawana Bob's followers in Africa do not need some "white savior" to come and save them. They do not need a church leader from America preaching Westernized religious cultish bullshit at them, particularly when it is tainted by so many heretical teachings of Armstrongism.

Bawana Bob is too blinded by his narcissism to see what he is doing.  He defiles himself with his heretical nonsense,

Those who scam defile themselves. 

Those of us who believe the Bible, have read the Bible, and believe in keeping the Ten Commandments have long realized that telling the truth contributes to happiness. Notice the following:

18 Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; But happy is he who keeps the law. (Proverbs 29:18)

14 Happy is the man who is always reverent (Proverbs 28:14).

Since he doesn't believe the Bible he claims to follow, he is incapable of preaching anything about Jesus and the New Covenant.  He thinks it is easier to follow a bunch of rules and be kept in the safe box of legalism, all safe and comfortable than it is to be lost in the wild abandon of grace and freedom.

Update on Kevin Dean

The latest from one of his victims:

He is in jail and they won't let him post bail because he is a flight risk. He was in Germany for a time but they caught him in Mexico and he was extradited to the states. 

ACOG Claim: "The Jews don't know their own scriptures"

"... the best Jewish response to "The Jews don't know their own scriptures" 

I have ever heard and from the "horses mouth."

Anyone who has grown up in the church, heard repeatedly from the pulpit that the Jews have a veil over their eyes and are unable to see Jesus as Messiah (II Corinthians 3:14). this was widely taught until the church opened the Ambassador Auditorium and sought to bring Itzhak  Perlman to perform.  Even though the church had been active in working with archaeological digs in Jerusalem for years, they still taught that the Jews were deceived.  The Jewish community in Los Angeles had grown tired of the endless accusations against them and stirred up a stink warning Perlman not to perform.  The Church quickly backtracked that teaching and actively started courting the Jewish community in Los Angeles.  After dumping hundreds of thousands of dollars on private dinner parties and receptions, they slowly brought many in the Jewish community to support the Auditorium.

Having Arthur Rubinstein open the Auditorium helped the church immensely and it soon was actively involved with government officials in Israel.

This is the verse we used to denigrate the Jewish people:

II Corinthians 3:14

But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away.

No mind they have turned this veil into a blindfold which is not the meaning  of the Old Testament passage about Moses and the veil he wore going into God's presence and the shine on his face after receiving the Law or Old Covenant. .
 
Amstrongites are on shaky group for claiming Jews have a veil over their eyes, when most of the splinter groups have a thicker veil covering their eyes about Jesus than any Jew has. The various ACOG's are just like the Jehovah's Witnesses and Adventists when  it comes to trumpeting the law over the new covenant. Rules keep people safe and withing the box. Freedom leads people to do amazing things, which is why so many COG's false prophets can't stand it.