Privilege and Entitlement in the Churches of God

 

Concretized Christianity has a blog entry up on Privilege and the Churches of God and it has a lot of good points.

If you ever hear II Timothy 3:1-5 read during a sermon on the Sabbath, you will hear it followed by the assertion that it refers to “the world,” to “others,” and not to “us.”

But is that true?

Observing the words and conduct of people who claim to be members of the ekklesia (the body of Christ is not a physical organization, but instead a spiritual organization) on social media and in other venues, I personally can attest that it’s not true.

Every word of God, as Paul points out in I Corinthians 10, applies to each of us personally. If we abide in the word of God, striving to live by every wordin it, then we abide in God and Jesus Christ and they abide in us. Every time we open the word of God, we are one-on-one with God and Jesus Christ in an intimate relationship and conversation.


So every word there is personal to each one of us. The word of God is a mirror into which we look. If God condemns something or warns about something, our response should be to ask ourselves, “Is that how I am? Does that reflect something in my character? Is that something I am thinking, saying, or doing? Does this exist anywhere in my life?”

If we look at the majority of the word of God as being for someone other than ourselves, then we miss the boat of our calling, our converting process, our transformation through the power of God’s spirit completely.

The church and a lot of its leaders have always loved to use scripture as a weapon to denigrate others. It has seldom been used as a tool to be considered with introspection to see if it was actually there for our own benefit to see how we measured up. Of course, most of the time the church and many of its leaders thought they were without blame and that they set the best example of living godly lives as possible. We are eighty-some years down the pipeline now and I think almost all of us know that has never been the case and STILL is not today in 2020. In fact, it seems to be worse today than ever in the history of the COG movement!

The blog entry continues on with this:

It’s quite sad to me to see people revealing their inner selves and to see how far we are from living by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Many of us are revealing ourselves to be the very things that Paul warned Timothy of in II Timothy 3:1-5.

That is disheartening to observe. But what it reflects is ignorance in some cases. But, underneath the ignorance, is one of the main roots of why this behavior exists and that is the sense of privilege.

Anyone who has been around the churches of God for any length of time knows about privilege. First, we see it in action in every one of the church of God organizations. There is a pecking order – a hierarchy – and privilege is layered throughout that until you get to the people who just fill the chairs every week and fawn over and idolize those with privilege, while in the organizational sense, they have no privilege and aren’t even, legally, members of that church of God organization (only the organizational privileged are).

However, those people know they have privilege compared to others (the world) because they are told that over and over. They’re special. They’re the elite. One day, they will be resurrected first and they will rule with Jesus Christ as kings and priests for 1000 years.

We were set up in the church over the decades to view ourselves as the epitome of righteousness in God's sight. There were no better Christians on earth than COG members. We were endlessly told we were a privileged lot that would soon be kings and priests and would be rulers of planets throughout the galaxy. Not only that, but we were to be GOD's.

Today in some of the larger COG groups we wee that "pecking order" mentioned above as the enforcement of "proper government".  The problem with that "pecking order" is that the privilege stays at the top and leaders live lives of excess at the expense of members. That lofty deluded grandeur makes them untouchable in church members' sight and so they are afraid to rock the boat and hold leaders accountable and thus suffer greatly from spiritual and psychological abuse.

The writer above is correct in how those sitting in the seat each week have no privilege in the church. In fact, they are not even members of the churches they think they belong to. The by-laws and legal documents of almost all the COG's state explicitly that the only members of the church are the ordained ministers. Herbert Armstrong did this when he established the Radio Church of God and COG leaders have done so ever since.

Power is an idol in society and an idol in the churches of God. The lust for power is often the sole motivation for what these man-made organizations do and say.

Privilege and power often go hand in hand. Whether the power is real or imagined, organizations and people who believe they have power manifest the corruption of the idea of privilege.

We can see the above in Gerald Flurry, Bob Thiel, and Dave Pack. Their imagined power is a product of deluded minds and not something God has passed on to them. Thiel, in self-righteous anger after LCG and Rod Meredith constantly refused to follow his commands, had to start his own group in order to have the power that he has always been denied, regardless of the COG entity he was a member in. To be seen as a great person in the COG is the prime motivator of most of the current batch of COG leaders. That privilege puts them above the members and all the hurts and problems members have. They are totally oblivious tot eh world around them.

People who have not suffered and who also cannot see, relate to, nor empathize with the suffering of others is a symptom of privilege. James discusses this in the second chapter of his letter. Privilege creates a bubble of illusions that is solely focused on self: what I want, what I need, who I am, and what I think or believe.

The bubble of privilege is opaque, so that anything that is outside that bubble is invisible. Jesus discussed this bubble of privilege in Matthew 25 in His parable of the goats and the sheep.

The sheep had no bubble of privilege. They were looking for needs among the people around them and meeting those needs, no matter where they found them. They weren’t doing it because someone was “important,” or because other people would see them and applaud them, or because it made them feel good or superior. 

The sheep were doing it because it was the right thing to do. They were following God’s word (read Deuteronomy sometime if you want to see what loving God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength – about the first third of the book – and loving your neighbor as yourself – approximately the last two-thirds of the book – looks like in action and ask yourself if this looks like you) and they were following the example of Jesus Christ.

The goats had the bubble of privilege. Inherent in their response was, “well, Jesus, if You personally had come to us and asked us, of course, we would have done these things for You.” In other words, if the Son of God had made the first move, knocked on the door of their bubble of privilege, and said, “I need…,” they would have done it. Otherwise, they didn’t see, know, or care to seek out the needs they could meet right outside their bubble.

I remember the stories in Pasadena as the church was imploding and departments had to start laying off employees. The one that stuck in my mind all these years was one about Bernie Schippert and a woman he laid off. She said he sat there behind his huge rosewood desk with his Rolex on his arm and told her that the church owed her nothing as they laid her off, despite working for the church for over 20 years (this was while the church was sending him to law school and footing the bill).

The church has a sad record over the decades of never being able to see the needs of people in the congregations, or even with employees. When people did go in and ask for assistance it was denied a large percent of the time.  Can you imagine a Restored Church of God member asking Dave for assistance when he is constantly milking them for money!

The best part of the article is the last part and the COG response to COVID.

People across this country are murmuring about COVID-19. Some people, even among those in the ekklesia have bought into the spiritual insanity we see everywhere around us, and believe COVID-19 is a hoax. 

Some people are clamoring to get back to “normal,” complaining that they’ve been confined to their homes, working their fulltime jobs with benefits, and paying the bills and enjoying extras, for too long and they want to get back together with other people, including those in the ekklesia, because, “people die every day, and if people die because we get back together, so be it, because us being together is more important than a few thousand people, who are going to die sometime anyway, dying.” (This is not made up. It is a synthesis of much of the sentiment you’ll see on social media.)

I want to address some of these points of privilege. While people are complaining about being confined in their homes, they are ignorant of the fact that there are many people both in the United States and around the world would simply be happy to have a home to be confined in, as opposed to, if they’re fortunate, living in a vehicle, and, if they’re not, living on the street.

People with privilege will counter with, “Well, it’s their fault they’re homeless. They’re either lazy, addicts, or ‘trash,‘ and they’re where they are because that’s what they deserve.” Some among the ekklesia would be among the people saying these things.

While people are complaining about having to work fulltime jobs with benefits, paying their bills and enjoying extras, they are ignorant of the fact that the American economy over the last 12 years has left many well-educated, highly-skilled people scrambling to find gig work (American work is now highly tilted toward a gig economy, which is freelance with no job security and no benefits and no set amount of income to depend on) just to cobble enough money together to try not to end up homeless.

People of privilege haven’t had to look for work for a very long time. They have absolutely no idea how much the employment landscape has changed. They have been fortunate enough to remain in jobs that, so far, have been insulated from the economic upheavals that have roiled the United States since 2008.

So the response of people with privilege to these gig workers is, “Well, it’s their fault if they don’t have a fulltime job with benefits. They’re either lazy or not trying hard enough, and if they really wanted a job, they’d have a job.” Some among the ekklesia would be among the people saying these things.

The disregard for human life among people of privilege is most appalling. There are some among the ekklesia who would rather people die so they can all start congregating again rather than to have to continue virtual services at home.

There’s some kind of magical thinking about the physical presence of other people and socializing. As if that’s the key, and you’ll hear people say this, to fellowship and unity.

And it is, from a purely physical point of view. But it’s not spiritually. Jesus told the Samaritan woman in John 4 that a physical place of worship was irrelevant because those that God has called and chosen worship Him in spirit and truth.

But that’s not the focus for many of the church of God organizations or many among the ekklesia. Why? If we’re a spiritual organism and we “say” we love each other, why are we in touch with people in the ekklesia on a regular basis, whether that’s an email, a text message, a digital meeting, or some other means to check in and make sure everyone – not just our little group of friends – is doing okay, doesn’t need anything, and has whatever assistance they made need?

Frankly, most of us just don’t care. As long as everything’s okay in our little world, we simply don’t think about or care about anyone else. In fact, the only reason we want to get back together physically is to see “our friends.” The same people we don’t see in isolation, we won’t see when we’re in the same room with them. 

With this insanity of wanting to be physically together right now comes more insanity, among which includes being asked to disobey God.

Pastors of church of God congregations are already scouting for people to volunteer to do a lot more work on the Sabbath than is already being done. People who have no idea how to truly sanitize (they don’t even have access to the commercial chemicals and machines) a space are being asked to work to clean the meeting facilities before services and after services. Other volunteers are being asked to screen people for temperatures before they let them inside.

When they get inside, everyone must wear a mask and stay six feet apart from everyone else. There are no hugs and no handshakes. In fact, there is no conversation. Instead, you’ve got the people of privilege screaming across the room at each other while the invisible, who know that no one will notice whether they are there or not, are home, resting as God commanded (and this virus has enforced a true Sabbath rest, which has been delightful) and worshiping God with like-minded members of the ekklesia in spirit and truth.

Where did we get so off track? This is definitely not God’s way, nor is it agape. It, instead, is the system’s way, the way of the curse, the product of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 

Will we ever see and repent?

That is between God and me and God and you.

What are you personally going to do?

One would think that after 80 years of hearing what we SHOULD be doing that the church today in 2020 would be doing that. It still cannot. Or, won't.

PCG Takes Delight In "Torturing" Church Teens At Summer Camp

 

As we come to the end of 2020 I would think that we should never be appalled at the disgusting things COG ministers say, but then along comes Brad McDonald of the Philadelphia Church of God cult.

McDonald has an article up on the latest Trumpet on PCG's website about the youth summer program it runs in Edmond Oklahoma each summer. If you have ever been in the midwest and especially in Oklahoma in July and August it is not a pleasant place to be at times due to the heat and humidity. McDonald loves that kind of weather so that church teens can become "utterly exhausted, physically."

This past July, 120 teenagers descended on the campus that houses the Philadelphia Trumpet offices in Edmond, Oklahoma, and participated in our 17th annual youth camp here. This camp, sponsored by the Philadelphia Church of God, is designed to ensure these young people go home mentally charged and focused, their attitudes and spirits refreshed and renewed.

They also tend to arrive home utterly exhausted, physically.

For three weeks, these teens spent their days mountain biking, canoeing and practicing archery, as well as playing basketball, water polo, soccer, softball, volleyball and flag football. They walked, and often jogged, between activities, as well as to breakfast, lunch and dinner. In the evenings they often engaged in other taxing activities, including a track and field event and camp dances. And if all that activity wasn’t strenuous enough, much of it occurred in daytime temperatures that hovered in the mid 90s.

Then McDonald goes on to claim the god of the Philadelphia Church of God takes pleasure in this suffering and finds this "...three-week display of physical strength and endurance was glorious and honorable!"

For some, just reading that paragraph is enough to make us sweat. Personally, as much as I love sports and the outdoors, the thought of spending six to seven hours a day out in the sizzling Oklahoma weather—chasing balls, paddling across lakes and biking through ravines—isn’t nearly as appealing as it once was. But to the teens who attended camp, God says this three-week display of physical strength and endurance was glorious and honorable!

You can read His admiration in Proverbs 20:29: “The glory of young men is their strength.”

Of course, it’s true that physical health, strength and vitality in any person is praiseworthy. Isn’t it interesting though, that God identifies explicitly physical strength and energyas a defining and glorious quality of youth? In God’s mind, being a physically fit and healthy teenager—a young man (or woman) with strength and agility, someone who is robust and energetic—is a splendid and honorable accomplishment.

It’s also a state of being that God wants all teenagers to experience!

This is why, beyond merely seeking to make camp fun, we have our teens engage in so much physically demanding activity. Together with the high-quality meals and snacks we feed them, the slew of sports and outdoor activities serve to improve the overall physical health and strength of the teens. It works, too. In virtually every case, teens depart camp stronger, fitter and healthier than when they arrived. Beyond the short-term goal of improved health, one of the longer-term goals of our youth camps is to encourage the teens to embrace healthy and active living as a way of life—a lifestyle.

Once embraced, this lifestyle will help them develop a state of physical health, strength and vibrancy that God says will be to their glory and honor!

There is absolutely nothing wrong in training young adults in healthy ways that will lead to healthy adult lives. But, given the track record of abuse that PCG dishes out on members, this is NOT something to be bragging about when how kids are being abused by its leaders. 

As parents, the responsibility is on us to cultivate within our teens the desire to be physically healthy and strong, to be active and energetic—to be motivated to make their strength a trait worthy of glory and admiration! Read the full article here: Wanted: Healthy, Vibrant Teens!

The abuse that PCG dishes out is not confined to the physical activity in the heat of Oklahoma. but then moves inside to the classroom where spiritual torture is poured out upon the impressionable minds of these youth.

In Balance

Of course, these efforts to cultivate strong, healthy teens must be balanced. They must be complemented with similarly strenuous mental and spiritual exercises. This is why, in addition to all the physically demanding activities at our youth camps, teens take Bible classes, and classes on leadership and womanhood. It’s why we teach them public speaking and ballroom dance. It’s the reason we have them perform on stage and encourage them to play music and embrace art. And it’s why, particularly in this technology-ridden age of perpetual distractions, we encourage our teens to develop a love for reading, study and meditation.

As the 120 teens that came to camp returned home, it was our hope that amid their meditations about camp they think about the strenuous activity they engaged in over those three weeks. Not how difficult or hot it was, or how much they sweated, or how sore they were. But on the wonderful opportunity they had to develop and display physical strengthand vitality—traits God admires as the glory of youth.

 

Exit and Support Network has this up in relation to the same article: 

August 23, 2020

Brad Macdonald wrote a propaganda article about Philadelphia Youth Camp (“Wanted: Healthy, Vibrant Teens!” July 7,2020 ).  He wrote about the “wonderful” experience PCG teens (age 13-19) will have if they attend. In it he not only went through what teens will experience (endure) at camp for 3 weeks but he put the blame on parents if they don’t turn out the kind of teens he described.

They start the day with a “15-minute calisthenics warmup before breakfast.” During the day their time will be “filled” with sports instruction on every sport imaginable.

It was alarming when he said: [bolding mine]

“In the evenings they often engage in other taxing activities, including sports games, a track and field event and camp dances. And if all that activity isn’t strenuous enough, much of it will occur in daytime temperatures that hover in the mid-90s. … spending six to seven hours a day out in the sizzling Oklahoma weather—chasing balls, paddling across lakes and climbing ropes…”

Yet he says this is “glorious and honorable” to God and quotes Prov. 20:29.

How many teens will end up suffering from heat exhaustion, or injuries?

Next he goes on a rant about “strong, healthy teenagers have become a dying breed” and they “display embarrassingly little strength and vitality!”

After he says the majority of teens today have poor physical health and display “embarrassingly little strength and vitality,” he puts the blame square on the shoulders of the parents for the condition of their teen: too much chicken nuggets and french fries; the Internet, video games, lazing on the couch. The parents are “the ones failing to cultivate within our teens the desire to live a healthy and active lifestyle.”

To keep everything “in balance” Macdonald adds “similarly strenuous mental and spiritual exercises” one of which is “Bible classes” (which are sure to be reading GF’s literature) and listening to haranguing sermons.

The reality of this camp and the horrific parts are going to be left out. PYC is patterned after SEP (WCG’s summer camp) and if one remembers what it was like attending that, they have only a hint of what PYC will be like. [Note: My Horrible Experiences at S.E.P. comes close.]

This article was draining to say the least. –[name withheld]

Are We On a Great Quest to Munson the World?

It sure doesn't take much to enact splits among the remnants of the Armstrong cult. Forget about dividing over the Sabbath or doing the Work. Those days are long gone. No, today, God is sifting His people for the purist of the pure, the couragist of the courageous, the faithfulist of the faithful.

For all of you who were dead certain this shake up was about way more than masks and singing...well, you were wrong. Sheldon made two things very clear at the very beginning of his 2nd sermon post-LCG: 1) He did not quit, he was fired. 2) He was fired over his stance on masks and singing.


I have seen many men come and go over the years on a quest to fill Herb's shoes, to take up his mighty mantle and crusade forward in full British-Israel armor, coconut special effects and all. There is a definite script they all follow when they themselves have not come to a come-to-know-Jesus moment or at the very least, everything-Armstrong-is-bullshit moment.

[Full Disclosure: I am by no means siding with LCG in this matter. This is like watching two teams you "love less" in the Superbowl.]


First, they cast themselves as the victim of unfair (nay, Satanic) treatment by those in power. I did not quit, I was fired and I was fired simply for standing up for God's Word. Of course, this always means according to the new narcissist on the block's interpretation of God's Word.


Second is the justification doctrine(s) for boldly holding their ground for Christ's sake. While many men and women of faith have fallen on swords for refusing to deny God's name and denouncing Jesus, some do so to avoid the medieval torture of temporary mask-wearing when fellow-shipping or having your tongue cut out (metaphorically) when you really want to sing whenever you want and around anyone that you want.


Sheldon does point out that what many are trying to get through his thick skull is that the masks are to protect others. But Sheldon very easily brushes this aside as tomfoolery because everyone knows being asymptomatic is nothing new, but a reality concerning diseases for thousands of years.


This was immediately followed up with how once we are called and given God's Spirit, we now know the answers to many things and no longer need science (I know no one is going to believe he said that but go listen to it yourself). He goes on to say that the Bible is the greatest gift to mankind, a sure foundation and so simple to understand, you don't need a high I.Q. to understand it. Life is like a box of chocolates.


Third, build upon one's strengths, especially those brought out by the vicious treatment of the oppressors in power. Sheldon spent time in Acts showing the various acts of great faith and courage of the first Christian leaders. He goes on to say that God loves people with great courage and faith. Again, as he dons the superhero persona of Captain No-Doubt, I am left wondering once again if God does not love brethren that are new or weak in the faith? Does God ignore those who struggle with doubts and uncertainties? Are they expendable until at such a point, they prove themselves worthy of God's affections...of His admiration?


Fourth, the Biblical analogy/story that perfectly aligns with the current situation. For this, Sheldon takes us to Daniel's example who purposely, defiantly, and recklessly disobeyed a direct decree from the king himself by not ceasing (temporarily for 30 days) from praying with his window open. See, the bad guys want to tell us that mask-wearing and not singing is just a temporary situation. These same devils would have told Daniel to stop being a putz and do what you are told for 30 days. But no, Daniel kept throwing that window open in sheer defiance and dared anyone to try and bully him.


He actually went on to liken this to the time of the receivership. Herb was just like Daniel, thumbing his nose at the government, daring them to raid his offices and jail the women he ordered to hold their ground via Raymond McNair. Just like Daniel, the mighty Herb refused to "roll over."


Fifth, build the resume. Sheldon reminded everyone that like Paul, Herb always told us to follow him as he followed Christ. So all of you likewise being "Munsoned" by my sermon, follow me as I follow Christ. Don't be men-pleasers (obvious shot at the LCG COE) and go through life fearful. Support true leaders, even going to jail with them. And now the credentials: Sheldon went to AC from 81-85. He tended to Herb's gardens and got to know Herb quite well. In fact, Sheldon went on to say, "...and HWA knew who I was."


Then after HWA was dead, Tkach called Sheldon into his office and demanded information about someone else. Sheldon assured him that he did not know anything and was promptly fired. But, the next day, Tkach apologized for he found out Sheldon really was ignorant, rehired him, and sent him off in a limousine to go buy him a few new suits. (You can't make this stuff up) Sheldon went on to say that he accepted his job back and the new suits and went on to serve Tkach for several years BUT I DID NOT LET HIS GENEROSITY BUY ME! Okay, Sheldon.


Sixth, promise to lead the Philadelphia remnant faithfully into the place of safety. There are yes-men everywhere in the churches. The path is narrower (yes and always growing narrower with each new Herb) and a very precious few are chosen (and this justifies why we will never amount to anything either in numbers or effectiveness when it comes to work).


Sheldon closed by saying that stories of faith are easy to read but we must live it. Let no man steal your crown. Unfortunately, Sheldon will choose not to live by faith. He will set up a top-down corporation and demand 10-30+% income from anyone he can "Munson" into his low I.Q. ignorance cult. He used the same worn out playbook so many before him have used to create their own fiefdoms. He will join the hall-of-famers like Thiel, Pack and Flurry but never come close to accomplishing anything like Herb. Thank God!

May thee internet continue to be thy holy hand grenade.

by Stoned Stephen Society