They will do so out of so-called "love", obviously... :-)
I had a rather interesting word exchange with a person calling himself "hwa-admin" - behind that alias is Don Wheatley.
I had written an announcement on the Usenet group "alt.religion.w-w-church-god" with the following wording:
Hi everyone
I have created a new blog about Armstrongism, with the following description:
"Armstrongism - The Ultimate Guide is your FREE resource that helps you keep track of the many offshoots of Armstrongism based upon the doctrines of Herbert W. Armstrong who died in 1986. Even a quarter of a century later his ideas are still widespread in the many splinter groups - and the cultic tendencies of Armstrongism so clear to see."
Check out the blog right here:
http://armstrongism-ultimate-guide.blogspot.com/
This caused him to write the following (20th June):
Hi Henrik,
Didn't you fully support Mr. Armstrong just a few years ago?
How could you turn in the opposite direction in so short of time?
I pray that you will repent and hold fast to all Mr. Armstrong taught.
Time is getting short.
My heart is for you and I hope you will consider my words.
hwa admin
I answered the following:
Hi Don
On 20-06-2010 you wrote at 22:14CET:
> Hi Henrik,
> Didn't you fully support Mr. Armstrong just a few years ago?
We all become wiser once we let "prove all things" include proving all things, and not just reading the things that confirm what is already known...
> How could you turn in the opposite direction in so short of time?
Miracles happen - and the eyes of the blind can be opened.
> I pray that you will repent and hold fast to all Mr. Armstrong taught.
> Time is getting short.
> My heart is for you and I hope you will consider my words.
No need to pray for that, for you will be praying in vain.
I am only all too glad to help others who exit the delusion, and announcing that on the Usenet was part of that mission.
Shalom to you all. :-)
--
Sincerely,
Henrik Blunck - Denmark
Are You In a Cult? => http://hubpages.com/hub/Are-You-In-A-Cult
Cults - 5 Keys to Surviving the Cult Experience - http://bit.ly/bJTug2
The Strategy That Never Changes
You can be sure that is ONE thing that will NEVER change with Armstrongism followers: they will try to play a guilt trip on you, expecting you would somehow bow to their idol solely based upon having been in agreement in the past.
You need to study the life of Sir Winston Churchill, former Prime Minister of England. He was a brave man, and he stood by his decisions. He changed party when he was in disagreement with his fellows. You need to do exactly the same when you disagree with what goes on.
The plague of Armstrongism will continue if noone speaks out, so therefore it is IMPERATIVE that you take a stand to stop the abuse that continues in the name of God. How they even DARE to call themselves servants of His with attitudes such as theirs....
Have a nice weekend everyone. :-)
"He changed party when he was in disagreement with his fellows."
ReplyDeleteAs Dennis Diehl would say, it's a pity those in charge of "the changes" didn't follow suit, when they realized they were in disagreement with "the teachings".
You know, I've been an ex-WCG blogger for just over three years now (been out of the church for just under a decade and a half, though), and I think I've gone through most of the stages that others have...and right now I find myself in the (don't shoot me for this) "it wasn't that bad" stage. Not on the end of it, at least.
Please, let me explain, before you close the comments window! Yeah, abuses were ongoing, and the poverty was a mainstay of our lives, but the church was changing, slowly, for the better: I remember shortly before Armstrong's death, ministers were starting to give sermons refuting Meredith's child-rearing booklet (there were rumours there was supposed to be another one issued, but the changes put paid to all that), and they were starting to crack down on corporal punishment.
In the congregation I was a member of, at the time, that is....With no one to write endless brethren and coworker letters per week, begging for money, the poverty might have let up (a little), too.
(Now, there's one Grace Communion International congregation that takes up a special offering every week; and we thought we were poor! Not to mention all the "widow's mites" Junior is siphoning off from the refugees in Africa.)
The professing Christians can whine and complain about how "evil" and "deceived" binitarianism was, but their making a strawman out of that, is what has allowed the cult (and, make no mistake about it, Grace Communion International/the Worldwide Church of God is STILL just as much of a cult, as it ever was), to continue thriving...with the "blessing" of the professing Christians.
Would things have kept improving, slowly, if the changes had never occurred? Probably some changes would have been made...probably some changes would not have. We would still be "watching and waiting", for an end of the world that is three-quarters of a century (or three thousand years, if you hold to the preterist thesis) overdue!
It was a bad group to be involved with, and being born and raised in the group tended to exacerbate that; any "good" the group possessed (i.e., the "members of the God family" crap) was patently false, as anyone who's ever been disfellowshipped, or who walked away (like my family), can tell you.
The way the changes were handled made a bad situation even worse, IMO, and is why there are so many places on the Internet, where all of us are still gathering, looking for...what? Closure? Resolution, which is never going to happen, now that the professing Christians believe "the Church" is A-OK?
I don't know. The answer is, there IS no answer; and maybe none of us born and raised in the church WILL ever be able to completely move on; at least not to the point where we repress and try to forget everything we ever knew; that isn't healthy either.
Wow, sorry, I didn't mean to ramble on so long, Henrik, I just thought I would leave a comment, because there weren't very many on your blog as of yet! :-)
You make a perfectly valid point about the WCG/GCI still being a cult, and I am somewhat surprised Walter Martin has deleted Armstrongism from his new version of Kingdom of the Cults. Although I must also say that book suffered from many misunderstandings. Not that many have really understood Armstrongism, and that causes many to explain things the wrong way when they want to convince them they are in error.
ReplyDeleteI agree it's disappointing when only very few write comments. I have even allowed anonymous comments, but am hoping that these will pick up as this blog builds some better pagerank - and that will come as the blog is regularly updated.
I agree with your points, and welcome your feedback anytime. :-)
"I am somewhat surprised Walter Martin has deleted Armstrongism from his new version of Kingdom of the Cults."
ReplyDeleteBecause church leadership says exactly what the evangelicals want to hear...the thieving bastards at the NAE don't really care what state of confusion and anarchy, the sheeple are actually in, down to this very day!
Just as long as Junior and Weazell keep telling the bible-thumping assholes how much THEY love trinitarianism, now, the evangelicals don't even bother to lift the lid, and try to find out how many of "God's Righteous Under Much Persecution" are still "holding fast to the truth once delivered", and still (Still!!) "waiting for God to correct His Church".
I would estimate at least 50% of the "old guard" members still in the church are like this...it's hard to say how many people that actually is, though, given how many are scattered amongst the splinter groups, and given how many professing Christian sheeple the "trinitarian" leadership has managed to suck in, without those walking through the door even knowing their whitewashed, falsely-named "congregations" are even a member of Grace Communion International, never mind, that they were (and ARE) the Worldwide Church of God....It's a mess of festering maggots, but as long as Ted Johnston, Junior, and Weazell walk around with fake plastic smiles and tell everyone how much "the Church loves trinitarianism now", nobody thinks they're lying through their scum-covered teeth.
Wow, that was a lot of vitriol, heh heh. Sorry.