My First Trip To The Dentist

My First Trip To The Dentist:

In the fifth grade I fell at school and broke my two front teeth. About half of them were missing which meant a trip to the Dentist. Of course, my dad contacted the pastor for approval. The Pastor recommend Dr. Pitman, a retired military dentist. Also, he was used to working with church members and would do dental work without gas or anesthesia.

Dr. Pitman said, I needed two root canals done then caps put on. Dad, insisted on no gas or anesthesia being used. The following week we went to the Dentist for the work to start. I was placed in a restrainer similar to the one in the photo. I was picked up and laid in the chair. A strap was place around my head and a device was inserted into my mouth to keep it open. Then the fun started.

I don't remember too much just a hot feeling in my head, black spots, and then the lights went out. I woke up a few minutes later I was out of my restrainer sitting in the chair. I had puked all over myself and the floor. My whole head was throbbing in pain. 

The Dentist refused to do anymore work without anesthesia. Dad relented, I got my first shot of Beelzebub juice. Boy, it felt good. On our way back home dad told me not to tell anyone about the anesthesia. The reason on the "no gas" was it put people in an unnatural sleep. This would make them prone to demons.

Mogen David

Dave Pack: God Frauds People!

Former Church of God Member Is Michelle Obama's Official Portraitist

There was an interesting story out today that's in VOGUE Magazine about a former Armstrongite and the journey she went on to become the official portrait of Michelle Obama.

[Amy] Sherald, of course, is the artist behind the now famous official portrait of Michelle Obama that hangs in the Smithsonian. But when she was chosen for the commission, in 2016, she was still largely unknown. Kehinde Wiley, the artist selected to paint President Obama’s portrait, was an art-world star. His bold, heroic portraits of black subjects in poses that channel the Old Masters were on the must-have lists of savvy collectors. Sherald, on the other hand, was a 43-year-old African American artist who lived and worked in Baltimore. She painted vivid, head-on portraits of people she met on the street (and photographed)—“an American realist, painting American people doing American things,” she tells me. Her name had surfaced in front of the Obamas because she had recently won the National Portrait Gallery’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, a contest open to any professional artist working in the United States. She is the first woman and the first African American to win it.

Sherald’s painting of the former First Lady is larger than life and gloriously untraditional. Michelle sits facing us, chin resting on one hand, arms bare, rising from a mountainous, floor-length white skirt with geometric patterns in black, red, pink, and yellow. But the critical response was mixed. New York Times art critic Holland Cotter thought the dress outperformed the person. He wrote, “Mrs. Obama’s face . . . could be almost anyone’s face, like a model’s face in a fashion spread.” New York Magazine’s Jerry Saltz disagreed. “She is grand, elegant, gorgeous, but her jackrabbit-quick wit is right there.” The most indelible reaction came from two-year-old Parker Curry, who was photographed standing in front of the painting, a look of awed enchantment on her face. “She’s a queen,” Parker told her mother; her reaction, and the painting itself, went viral. To me, the image captures not only the power and spirit of the subject, but also the hope and promise that Michelle Obama embodies, and art’s ability to encompass that.

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Sherald was born and raised in Columbus, Georgia, the third of four children. Her father was a dentist, but when Sherald was seven, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, which ended his practice. “We were doing well, and then we were not doing well, because there was no money,” she says. To make ends meet, her all-conquering mother, who had been a housewife, became a bank manager, and Sherald took over a lot of the housework and looked after her younger brother, Michael. “Our house had woods behind it, so we’d walk back there and explore and set traps for raccoons and do crazy stuff.” The family went to church every Saturday, a strict fundamentalist sect called the Worldwide Church of God, which forbids celebrating Christmas, Easter, or birthdays, and bans TV from Friday night to Saturday night.

Read her story here:   Amy Sherald, Michelle Obama’s Portraitist, Readies her New York Debut

Why You Are NOT A Christian Millionaire

Lord have mercy! Just what we need...a self-appointed, self-righteous Armstrongite splinter group leader lecturing us on why there are no Christian millionaires in the church.

Once more the African brethren are being subjected to a totally asinine sermon that not a single one of them will ever have to worry about!  Most barely subsist on the bare minimum of living standards as this privileged white boy from California is telling them why they will never have any money.

The Great White Bwana is having to mail his African followers, office supplies, Bibles, computers, seeds, and my favorite item, pills for those suffering upset stomachs after reading and listening to Bwana Bob.

1) Eleven laptops
2) Bibles
3) Hymnals
4) Moringa seeds.
5) Various nutrients and supplements … {to assist with digestive issues in Malawi and elsewhere}.
6) Five (5) of the heavy duty locks.
7) Office supplies, etc.

On top of that, when you look at his booklet offerings above, he has to rely on a photograph of the Auditorium and egret sculpture that is now owned by Harvest Rock Church, a slain-in-the spirit, holy ghost revival cult. Why is it that not one of the splinter groups out there today have an original thought in their warped little brains? They have to fall back on Herbert Armstrong's teachings, booklets, and the projects he did in order to supposedly "prove" to their followers that they are the true successor of Herbert's empire.

If you have 23 minutes to waste or just want to be entertained by the hands flailing about, then check out his video:

A Helping Tool of Recovery: Radical Acceptance

Every once in a while, for the sake of pure nostalgia, or for self-healing methods, I will go back in time and play some of the Dwight Armstrong hymns of the old Purple Hymnal of generations past. Doing this helps me in reflection, to put life and eras past into perspective. It helps me to remember what was in comparison to what is. It also allows me to put myself back into a time that no longer exists so that I can write about that time now, without distortion. 

I speak as one who was born into the Church - a generation who entered into Armstrongism with an absolutely clean slate. These songs - though understandably dreadful to many - still hold a place within me that cannot be erased. It was these songs that I heard both in the womb, and every week after birth for decades. Each song has been etched into me with the strength and rigidity of a soldering iron. And to this very day, I remember nearly every word to nearly every song. 

Each song plays forth different memories and different memories. Some remind me only of the Local Church area I most frequently attended. Others bring me to the cavernous arenas at the Feast of Tabernacles. The effect gets even more intense for memory recall when I add "crowd noise" and "piano background" - to where you almost could think you were there all over again. 

Why is it that I subject myself to such torture, you might ask? Is it something I need to do? Or is it just me attempting to relive a part of the past that is long gone? 

One of the things that I have learned in my years of de-programming therapy is a philosophy which is called "Radical Acceptance". Radical acceptance is when one accepts wholeheartedly and completely the situation in which one is in - or in my case - was born into and/or lives in today. There are two choices in life, and two ways in which one can go. You can fight your situation and/or reality, moan, complain, whine and pity-party your circumstances and increase your pain. Or, you can accept, embrace, learn from, and be content with the cards you have been dealt with. Radical acceptance is the action of the latter. 

"I cannot accept this", one might say of a particular situation. For those of us who grew up in the Church, we absolutely have to accept that that is what happened, and that is how we were programmed. We have to acknowledge the fact, first, that we became who we are because of the influence of our parents and of the Church. We have to accept the fact that it was not the best situation - and in fact, may have been the producer and influencer of many horrible and awful situations in each of our lives. Pretending it did not happen does nothing but bury the pain deep inside. Pretending it did not happen will never heal. Pretending it did not happen will never allow you to grow past your feelings and your experiences. Ignoring what was trains you to ignore what is. And the only way to change is to accept what you have been dealt so that you can mold and shape what you have into what you want yourself to be. 

"Changing reality requires first accepting it. Rejection of reality is like a cloud that surrounds pain, interfering with being able to see it clearly. We have to see the situation clearly so we can determine if there is anything we can change about it, or, if it can't be changed, what we want to do about it.:"

Although each of our situations were different - some of us were born into a liberal experience, others a very hard-line experience. Some of us sailed through our collective experience without much harm. Others were severely and critically injured and recovering to this day. Some of us have good memories, even great memories, of our Armstrongism experience. Others have nightmarish, horror stories that you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy. Whatever happened may or not have been painful. Yet, if there is one thing to remember, it is this: "Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional."

Regardless of what we went through, we are where we are now, and where we are now is that reality. Radically, wholly, and completely accepting our circumstances will help us handle our emotions and feelings to make our lives better in the days, months, and years to come. As the serenity prayer often says, we must strive to change the things we can change, accept the things we cannot change, and have the wisdom to know the difference. As survivors from a severely dehabilitating experience with spiritual abuse, there is no better advice to help one to radically accept our situations, so we may have a brighter and better future in the times that are ahead of us. 

There is something that I learned when in training for management many years ago. The five words that helped me to accept what reality is: 

"It is what it is". And accepting reality is the first step toward being able to take the steps for your life to make it better, more whole, more enjoyable, and more happy.  It was what it is, it is what it is, and what it can only be changed by being able to handle, accept, and grow with and from whatever comes our way. It's the secret to being content. It's a step toward recovery. No matter what life brings, or what paths we go, finding the gems in the rough can be a happy moment if we take time to learn to work with all the things that came and come our way. 

Now, instead of burying the past - I don't regret listening to those old Dwight Armstrong hymns. (I know, I know.)  I accept the fact that that was the music I was born into. I listen to them now and remember, to feel, to reflect, and to acknowledge the fact that this was my reality for a good part of my life. My goal now is to take those memories, experiences, harmonies, and words - to wholly build those chapters of my life for myself into a chapter of understanding for personal clarity. Maybe you would never think of this approach - but - Could this work for you? Maybe, maybe not, depending on where you are in your journey of recovery. But, if it doesn't work for you - don't feel bad about it or think something is wrong! This isn't so much about the "songs" then the underlying principle. - Just accept where you are on your journey on your best path, and remember you are uniquely special in YOUR story, whatever it may be. I wish you all the best as you grow in life as it is now in its present reality. 

*quotes from an unknown source

submitted by SHT