Gerald Weston: UK Banned Our Program On COVID-19 Because They Didn't Like It Due To The Fact They Eat Bacon And Sausage

This has to rank up there in "The Dumb Things Church of God Leaders Say" category.  Gerry sent this in a letter to supposedly 300,000 co-workers and members recently. What a shining example of logic this man displays!

It is still too early to have final figures, but our telecast “Why Does God Allow Pandemics?” looks as though it will bring in twice as many requests as normal. The offer for that program was a DVD titled, “God Answers His COVID-19 Critics.” Sadly, the program was censored in the United Kingdom because they did not like it. Perhaps it is because their “traditional English breakfast” includes two or three types of bacon, pork sausage, and black pudding (something that is made with blood, often pig blood, and looks like a thin hockey puck). If you were one of those who missed the program, just let us know and we will be very happy to send you the DVD that contains the program, or you can go online right now and see it at Why Does God Allow Pandemics. May 21, 2020

UCG: The Experts On Leadership

UCG is trotting out an article written in 2008 by Scott Ashley concerning biblical leadership and UCG members are sending it to their social media pages as a shining example of what is wrong with leadership in the government, instead of what is wrong in the leadership of their own church.

Well, if God looks at the example that the United Church of God leadership has set, then we are really screwed over!

Ashley writes:

What does God look for in a leader? Does He expect certain standards and behavior in a person chosen for a role of leadership and service to others?

At a time many Americans are asking themselves what behavior they should expect from their president, and the holder of that office is frequently heard quoting the Bible, perhaps we should examine what God expects of a leader.

The Bible is clear that God expects one put in a position of responsibility to meet certain qualifications. This is first brought out when God began working with the Israelites after their exodus from Egypt. God was working with a nation of former slaves, shaping and molding them into a new nation. Where would He begin?

One problem quickly became apparent. Since the people brought their questions, problems and disputes to Moses, the decision-making process quickly became a bottleneck and ground to a halt. The solution? Share the load by delegating authority to capable leaders.

By what criteria were leaders to be chosen? Moses was advised to “select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness …” (Exodus 18:21).

With a core leadership of able, God-fearing, truthful, unselfish men, the new nation would build a firm foundation. Moses solved his immediate problem and gave his people a sound start on nationhood.

Through the apostle Paul, God enumerated requirements for positions of leadership and service within His Church. Consider the standards, listed below, that Paul gave to his fellow minister Timothy for choosing such leaders:

“… The presiding elder must have an impeccable character. Husband of one wife, he must be temperate, discreet and courteous, hospitable and a good teacher; not a heavy drinker, nor hot-tempered, but gentle and peaceable, not avaricious, a man who manages his own household well and brings his children up to obey him and be well-behaved: how can any man who does not understand how to manage his own household take care of the Church of God? … It is also necessary that he be held in good repute by outsiders, so that he never falls into disrepute and into the devil’s trap.

This certainly does not describe UCG leadership.  From pedophiles, adulterers, inappropriate touching, stalking, and verbal harassment, UCG has led the way on how to NOT do what is right. 

“Similarly, deacons must be respectable, not double tongued, moderate in the amount of wine they drink and with no squalid greed for money … They are first to be examined, and admitted to serve as deacons only if there is nothing against them” (1 Timothy 3:1-10, New Jerusalem Bible).

Many of the leadership in UCG were well know around Pasadena as alcoholics. 

Apparently, we are also to believe that UCG leaders are NOT arrogant, hot-tempered, not heavy drinkers, or filed with avaricious. Seriously?

Titus 1:7-8 adds: “The presiding elder has to be irreproachable since he is God’s representative; never arrogant or hot-tempered, nor a heavy drinker or violent, nor avaricious; but hospitable and a lover of goodness; sensible, upright, devout and self-controlled …” (New Jerusalem Bible).

We should ask ourselves: If these are minimum qualifications for overseers of a small congregation of believers, what should we expect from those who oversee states and nations?

Those who excuse the president’s admitted peccadilloes fail to note that any schoolteacher or principal, university professor or supervisor in private business would likely be immediately fired for such conduct. Military officers would be discharged, court-martialed or imprisoned—and many have been—for actions many are willing to tolerate in the nation’s commander in chief. Many Americans don’t seem to appreciate the irony that they hold the presidency to lower standards than any of these jobs.

Moses and Paul understood that leadership requires moral authority to be credible. If one is to accept advice, decisions and instructions from leaders, one must have confidence in the core values and moral foundation behind their words. GN

Leadership in the church does require a moral authority to be credible. Sadly, the Church of God leaders across the board have failed in this matter abysmally.

Living Church of God Minister Sets The Standard For All Other Ministers

Once more, we have the sterling example of Christian love that the Living Church of God exudes through its ministers. 

Sadly, the bar has always been low, but they keep lowering it.

I attended what I hope was my last WCG-splinter funeral today for my mother-in-law...a faithful, 50+ year member of WCG, then GCG, and for the past 20 years or so, LCG. 

I understand that in the eyes of their "pastor" that my husband and I are the worst possible people on the planet... Former members, apostates, the "fallen away". And it boy, did it show!!!! 

The pastor didn't offer a single word of condolence or comfort to my husband or his brother... The last living members of their immediate family. He didn't speak to my husband, didn't shake his hand and say "I'm so sorry for your loss... Your mother was a lovely woman and so proud of you both." You know, the kind and decent things that people usually say when two men just lost their last surviving parent. 

To be fair, his wife did make an effort to be polite and nice... Which frankly made the fact that her husband utterly ignored the deceased person's two sons even more noticeable. 

My husband, on the other hand, this EX member, the apostate, the fallen one... Went out of his way before we left to walk all the way across the cemetery to thank the two men who were waiting in their pickup truck to place his mother's coffin into the ground. You tell me... What would Jesus do? 

Reprinted from Facebook with permission.

United Church of God: Why doesn't it have representative leadership of its membership?

From a reader.

The UCG "Council of Elders" , is 100% USA based, with all white ministry. Even the international regional representatives are home-based in the USA.

Nearly half of the UCG membership lives AWAY from the USA, yet has no council representation of someone who lives there!

Thousands of black Africans are in the UCG, yet not one council member who lives and works in Africa.

Baseball desegregated in 1947 with Jackie Robinson, but it was 30 years later before a black manager was seen in baseball (Frank Robinson). UCG, just like baseball, speaks out against racism, but the real proof will be when they allow empowerment in upper management at the Council level of a minority presence and representative to the population numbers that are members of the UCG.

UCG, on the international basis, is still practicing a Colonial European plantation mentality to its own members. Tonto

This lack of leadership diversity in the Church of God is not unique to UCG. Living Church of God, COGWA, Philadelphia Church of God, Restored Church of God, and many others are white based in its leadership and almost exclusively American in its international leadership.

UCG: Victor Kubik "I can declare with authority that we condemn racism."

With the tragic death of George Floyd at the hands of corrupt policemen, UCG has jumped on the bandwagon with their own take on the situation.

Nothing works better for a Church of God splinter group than taking advantage of some tragedy or world event in order to push their version of the Bible that they claim is right.

For my wife Bev and me, the news of the tragic murder of an African American in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by police officers really hit home. As many know, we both lived and served in Minnesota for many years. Minnesota was home to us. Just before going to Ambassador College in California, I first started attending church services near Lake Street and 1st Avenue South—less than two miles from the Powderhorn Park area where George Floyd was murdered. I saw many personally familiar landmarks in the television coverage, except this time they were marred by rioting people burning and destroying businesses and property.

The rage ignited in Minneapolis has since spread all over the United States and has set the country on fire. This is in the wake of a country exhausted by thousands of deaths, record unemployment, and economic catastrophe all fueled by COVID-19.

What should we be doing? What is our response?

Scott Ashley, the managing editor of Beyond Today, saw the importance of speaking out as quickly as possible on this searing issue. He rearranged the July-August lineup of articles accordingly to create space at the last minute before sending the magazine to the printer. I was given the task of providing an article. My column here contains excerpts from some of those thoughts, which were written for a more general audience—one that needs to hear our voice in these increasingly tumultuous times (Isaiah 58:1).

Kubik starts off by letting us all know he knows all about African American discrimination because his family was discriminated against when they fled from the advancing Russians in defeated Nazi Germany. Also, living a life of exceptional privilege since entering the COG ministry and still wallowing in that privilege, he knows all about discrimination that Blacks deal with in housing, jobs and daily life.

As we live in this world, awaiting the powerful return of our Savior in glory, we must recognize that the wrongful death of George Floyd represents a deadly serious, unresolved issue in America. As one familiar with oppression (many know of my background as an immigrant to the United States as a refugee fleeing advancing Russians in defeated Nazi Germany), I grieve when I hear the accounts of violence and discrimination against people of color.

Kubik's next statement is his "bold" stance that UCG does NOT discriminate and that UCG condemns "white-superiority" and racism.

To God—who is no respecter of persons (Romans 2:11)—skin color and cultural background don’t matter. All have full access to Him through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. That is why—as the current president of the United Church of God, an International Association—I can declare with authority that we condemn racism. Make no mistake. As a Church and as a people called out by God, we condemn so-called “white superiority.” Neither has anything to do with God!

If this is true, then Kubik and the entire United Church of God need to IMMEDIATELY discard their belief in British Israelism. They still hold dear Herbert Armstrong's racist propaganda teaching that is the basic foundation of UCG and every single splinter group out there today masquerading as a true church.  UCG makes weak comments occasionally that the church does not follow those teachings, but they do.  Many high ranking evangelists and leaders believe it is 100% accurate.

Kubik then goes on to state that he and UCG know a "better way." He starts off by quoting Colossians 3:11. As long as he still keeps BI as a basic tenant of the UCG he CANNOT believe the following, because the scripture below totally invalidates BI and the teaching that in Herbert's world tomorrow races would be segregated in their own nations

As members of the body of Christ, we know firsthand what Paul meant when he stated in the first century: “It doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile [Greek], circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us” (Colossians 3:11, New Living Translation, emphasis added throughout).

Ironically, in ancient times a “barbarian” or “being barbaric” was a cultural slur that referred to anyone who didn’t speak Greek, which essentially meant anyone outside the Mediterranean area—the rest of the world. Together with anti-Semitism, it represented an early form of racism.

What is our response? Simply put, we are called to a higher standard. We are called to live a better way.

Really? 

There is a better way.

So he quotes Rev. Martin Luther King...a man Herbert Armstrong and almost all ministers reject as a trouble maker and an adulterer.  Every time any posts King's words, some COG members whip themselves into a frenzy about King being an adulterer and of course, being a "so-called" Christian.

Let us take a moment to consider the words of Dr. Martin Luther King. In 1966, Dr. King remarked: “I’m concerned about a better world. I’m concerned about justice … and when one is concerned about that, he can never advocate violence. For through violence you may murder a murderer, but you can’t murder murder … Darkness cannot put out darkness; only light can do that.”

The answer, according to Dr. King? “Love is ultimately the only answer to humankind’s problems … I have seen too much hate … If you are seeking the highest good, I think you can find it through love.”

God defines and manifests this incomparable quality, and Paul urges us to “be imitators of God and live a life of love” (Ephesians 5:1-2, NIV). There is no room for racism.

God’s great purpose marvelously focuses on “bringing many sons to glory” (Hebrews 2:10, ESV). This includes men and women of all walks of life, being brought together in the coming future Kingdom of God.

Jesus gave us our focus: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9, ESV). Note this: first, Jesus didn’t say “blessed are the peace-lovers,” or those who simply wish for peace. Jesus said that God favors—blesses—those who pursue peace and live peace. Secondly, the Greek word translated here “sons” is anthropoi, referring to both men and women—all of humanity!

If we want to be peacemakers, we must understand that peace begins by peace with God. When we have peace with God, we have peace with all men and women, regardless of background.

Note this marvelous statement from the apostle Paul: “Christ himself has brought peace to us … our hostility toward each other was put to death” (Ephesians 2:14, 16 NLT).

If Kubik actually believes this then why does he continue to reject everything Jesus said and accomplished by his clinging to the law and forcing his followers to keep things no longer required of New Covenant Christians.

As we follow the living Leader of our Church, Jesus Christ, we must hold to high standards, being examples of the way He taught (Matthew 5:14). Let us pause and consider what God told the ancient Israelites: “You must not follow the crowd in doing wrong … do not be swayed by the crowd to twist justice” (Exodus 23:2, NLT).

Kubik believes that UCG knows the way to peace, and yet this is the very church that actively worked to bring dissension and trouble to the Worldwide Church of God as he and his small group of men sat in the 360 Apartments on the Pasadena campus planning on how to take as many members and as much money with them as they could. Then a few years later they fought again over leadership positions and COGWA ruptured off taking well over half the ministry and members with them.

There is no justice in the path UCG is on and never has been.

This world desperately needs God’s truth. Tragically for many, “the way of peace they do not know, and there is no justice in their paths” (Isaiah 59:8, ESV). Tough times are ahead. Given that this is a presidential election year, we can anticipate these issues will be inflamed for some time. We can be sure of what Jesus emphasized: “For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light” (Luke 8:17). We must be patient. And we must be faithful.

What are elements of this better way? “What does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8).

This much I can agree with, if only he would do it and reject Herbert's teachings, including British Israelsim 

Let us live a better way! Reject racism. Make peace with God through Jesus Christ and let us all live a life of God-centered love, striving to be an example in these challenging times! 

Will Victor Kubik do what is right and set the example for all the other Churches of God and publicly denounce the racist myth of British Israelism?  Until he does, UCG will NEVER be the "better way."