Trust:

noun
1. reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence.
2. confident expectation of something; hope.
3. confidence in the certainty of future payment for property or goods received; credit: to sell merchandise on trust.
4. a person on whom or thing on which one relies: God is my trust.
5. the condition of one to whom something has been entrusted.

Good question. How do you place your trust in men who seem to never do what is right? Men who serve the interest of themselves first and the interests of the member last?

Adrian from Australia wrote with these questions in mind.

•        In a my 3^rd church service members were instructed to burn booklets published by the wcoa. 1975(72?) in prophesy was one of these. What type organization burns records of their teachings to cover their traces?
•        The organization claimed to be inspired and led by an infallible God, but had policies on makeup and birthdays that constantly changed from one policy that was the opposite of the other. A contradiction indeed.
•        The religion claimed the just shall live by faith, but then contradictorily claimed to be able to prove there is a god.
•        The religion published books like the proof of the bible that was later withdrawn because of errors.
•        The church claimed that everything was inspired by the ministers who promoted members to leadership roles only to find out later that the member claimed a false baptism.
•         GTA was disfellowshiped, but was given around  $200000/yr in 1970’s money and  tithe payers money paid for this.
•         The church claimed to be the church of brotherly love. My wife often said to me that if that’s what the church people are like then she didn’t want to be a part of the 1000 year reign with them. I agreed. I wondered how come my own family who I was told to reject as worldly, were always kind to us despite us not giving birthday presents to them and having Christmas etc. Despite the bible saying that if you see your brother in need and you do nothing about it how can God’s love dwell in a person. My physical family always helped us materially, church members didn’t ever.  Of course I forgot about all that free advice about how bad you were from members,  but I don’t think that qualifies as helpful. The bible says by their fruit you shall know them. It bothered me that they claimed to have brotherly love.
•        Wearing second hand clothes from opportunity shops because the church took our money, and then being told by the ministry you are not blessed because you don’t have the material possession that they have.
•        Being told to pay third tithe despite making yourself  the key candidate for financial assistance.
•        Reading scriptures in Galatians,  Colossians for example, rereading Armstrong’s  teachings of these verses and trying to convince myself what he said made sense. Never saying  anything  because you would be told you weren’t converted if you questioned anything.
•        If you didn’t understand (blindly) everything then you weren’t converted.
•        How members would rush to open the minister’s car door the rudely treat other members with disdain.
•        That this is only the beginning of my list and there is so much more…that really bothers me.

In my article, “Politicians, Priests, and Pornographers” I touched on how people give their hopes and dreams to others, often compromising their personal integrity in the process.

In the next few blogs, I and another blogger, Bob Dixon, will touch on how easy it is for people to forsake their freedom and give their hearts and minds over to promises made by the less scrupulous among us.

To get started, here is a short video by Bill Abram entitled
“THE CRIME OF THE CANADIAN BANKING SYSTEM”

“For nearly 40 years, Canada – the people of Canada – had control of their own currency! Imagine! They founded their own bank and issued their own currency with no debt obligations to banks.”
—Bill Abram

Politicians are putting people, corporations, and nations in debt. Religious pimps are putting people, communities and societies in peril as they exploit the naive masses, building a base of blue ribbon tithe payers who sacrifice all for the lie of a glorious future.

For example, when the COG’lets decide they need a multimillion dollar auditorium they borrow money from a bank, and in the process put the entire congregation into debt. If you signed a support pledge to your church, you are stating that you are personally responsible for some of that debt.

Exploiting the world for profit by any means is something all of us experienced in and out of Armstrongism. We were told the fairy tale that our tithes and offerings honored God and paved the way for a new and glorious world tomorrow. In the end it was all a lie. We were put into unnecessary and unending debt. Many of us never recovered financially.

Why then do some of us who have abandoned religion now embrace and put our faith into another man made disaster? Politics.

 A man who wanted to buy an Ass went to market, and, coming across
a likely-looking beast, arranged with the owner that he should be
allowed to take him home on trial to see what he was like. When he
reached home, he put him into his stable along with the other asses.
The newcomer took a look round, and immediately went and chose a place
next to the laziest and greediest beast in the stable. When the master
saw this he put a halter on him at once, and led him off and handed
him over to his owner again. The latter was a good deal surprised to
seem him back so soon, and said, “Why, do you mean to say you have
tested him already?” “I don’t want to put him through any more tests,”
replied the other. “I could see what sort of beast he is from the
companion he chose for himself.”

-Aesop’s Fables.”The Ass and his Purchaser”

When people’s confidence in their beliefs is shaken, they become stronger advocates for those beliefs. The book When Prophecy Fails, an American cult leader, Dorothy Martin, convinced her followers that flying saucers would rescue them from an apocalyptic flood. Many believed her, giving up their livelihoods, possessions and loved ones in anticipation of their alien saviors. When the prophecy failed and nothing came to pass, the group decided that their dedication had spared the Earth from the apocalypse. Far from shattering their faith, the absent UFOs had turned them into zealous evangelists.

Without altering their belief system, people will go to great lengths to reduce the internal conflict caused by their cognitive dissonance. They will hunker down and attempt to still this conflict by trying to convince others that their views are correct. This is re-writing the brains neural processes.

Dopamine levels:

• Low levels of Dopamine make concentration and focus very difficult. Low levels also are associated with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
• Mild elevations in Dopamine are associated with addictions like nicotine or cocaine, producing feelings of excited euphoria.
• Moderately high Dopamine levels make the individual on-guard, suspicious, and prone to misinterpret experiences in our environment. Known as “idea of reference” in psychiatry, they begin thinking unrelated experiences are suddenly directly related to themselves. Paranoia ensues. The mind races in an attempt to incorporate all these experiences into their lives. With the increase of Dopamine, the individual may become extremely religious, paranoid, or feel to be a very important person. Increased Dopamine also increases the perception of senses, as though turning up the volume in all the senses – hearing, vision, taste, smell, and touch.
• As Dopamine levels increase, the noises suddenly become auditory hallucinations. Inner thoughts are now being heard outside the body. These voices begin talking. Some take the form such as derogatory (put downs), religious topics, command (telling you to do something), or sexual content. Hallucinations (experiencing something that is not truly there in reality) will soon develop in all the senses.
• High levels of Dopamine in the brain often cause the loss of contact with reality. The individual begins to have bizarre ideas. Paranoia, experiences delusions (false beliefs)  or may think they have super powers (exaggerated self-importance) and can experience prophetic  visions of the future. High levels of Dopamine are found in Schizophrenia, drug intoxication, and other psychotic conditions where the ability to distinguish the inner world from the real world is impaired.

“People may use religious agents as a moral compass, forming impressions and making decisions based on what they presume God as the ultimate moral authority would believe or want. The central feature of a compass, however, is that it points north no matter what direction a person is facing. This research suggests that, unlike an actual compass, inferences about God’s beliefs may instead point people further in whatever direction they are already facing.”

-Nicholas Epley.
University of Chicago.

Learn more. “Athene’s Theory of Everything “

Mark Twain Cartoon