(For the record, AW regards British Israelism in any form as irredeemably fallacious, totally discredited, and intellectually indefensible.)

The Divine Dr. M

Have you ever wondered what the appeal of some of these all so abusive men in power in the church of gods might be? It's a real mystery. Failed prophecies. Personality disorders. Broken promises. Outright lies. Wouldn't you think that people would get out at light speed? How do people like Roderick Meredith attract people like... well, people he attracts?

We know a lot about the Divine Dr. M. Ambassador Watch has:

We can see what sort of man Roderick Meredith was over at The Painful Truth and particularly revealing is:

Also check out a couple of other things while you're there:

Just so you know on that one, Roderick Meredith is included beginning at #6 and it sort of goes from there. Check out #120: "we will soon find that hoof-and-mouth disease will spread COMPLETELY OUT OF CONTROL!". Truer words were never spoken. We couldn't agree more. We will be inundated with a Tsunami of hyperbole.

Joe Tkach took a whack at Roderick Meredith's "prediction addiction" in chapter 11 of his book Transformed by Truth:

And Herbert W. Armstrong wasn’t the only one caught up in prediction addiction. Consider some of these historic predictions from the pen of Roderick C. Meredith, who now leads one of our splinter groups. The predictions below were written while he was a minister in the Worldwide Church of God:

1957 – "After 1965, we are destined to run into increasing trouble with the Gentile nations. America and Britain will begin to suffer from trade embargoes imposed by the brown and oriental races.... We will begin to experience the pangs of starvation and the scarcity of goods!"¹³

1963 – "You might as well wake up and FACE FACTS! The world you live in won’t be here 15 years from now!"¹⁴

1965 – "Frankly, literally dozens of prophesied events indicate that this final revival of the Roman Empire in Europe – and its bestial PERSECUTION of multitudes of Bible-believing Christians – will take place within the next seven to ten years of YOUR LIFE."¹⁵

The Global Church of God is merely one of a number of splinter groups that continue to dust off failed predictions and reinsert new dates, over and over again.

The Rays take a whack at him at their site under the section "Beware of Men":

The Exit and Support Network Recovery folks want you to know:

No treatise on this subject without William Dankenbring's commentary [look under the title What about the “Living Church of God"?]:

It has been said that Roderick Meredith knows how to dish it out -- but can he take it?  Can he himself take correction and rebuke?  The apostle Peter took public rebuke from Paul, and later called him a "beloved brother" (see Gal.2:11-14; II Pet.3:15).

A quick read of "The Shocking Truth about Queer Men" would suggest his opinion of himself is unassailable. Undoubtedly, this confidence began when he won regionals in high school. His opinion that he is best at everything as an alpha-male undoubtedly contributes to his personality profile.

In the end, Roderick Meredith's statement, "I have never committed a major sin since baptism" speaks to the character of the man. Repentance is not an option.

My wife and I noted a woman who attends United part time. She explained to us that she went over and attended the Living Church of God because it had better prophecy.

Here's what she means: UCG hyperbole of death, disease, destruction and punishment of the United States and British Commonwealth is OK, but to satisfy the yearning longings of blood lust, nothing can beat Global... er... Living. You want massive destruction on a global [sorry!] scale, UCG has it's "World News in Prophecy" which certainly has its appeal in the gore department, but nothing, and we mean nothing, can even begin to touch the rantings of the first and last Living [sorry again!] false prophet of our age. Bloodshed and misery are from wall to wall. The wicked will be punished. [Self] righteousness will triumph!

Picture a sweet little old lady so modest and frail looking cheering on "the good guys" at a professional wrestling match and you get the idea. The problem does not entirely lie with the man himself--his followers have something they gain from "the bottom line" of beating the competition to a bloody pulp until they cry for mercy and promise to repent and submit. Such people will make great godletts in the world tomorrow.

This still isn't the end of the man's appeal.

I spoke with a young man 17 years old who visited United a couple of sunny Sabbath afternoons. His mother attended between the UCG and the LCG. This young man was very fit and athletic. His girlfriend was wrapped around him during the sermon like a snake on the Caduceus. He was a street smart leader who had spent some time in Remann Hall Juvenile Facilities for crimes he had committed [In this context, YES stands for Youth Emergency Services]. He told me that he preferred the Living Church of God because it provided him with discipline.

So there you have it. The Living Church of God is preferred by eight out of ten juvenile offenders because the authoritarian structure of right and wrong and the police state to administer it gives them the environment they need to overcome their social deficiencies. I'm pulling your leg somewhat, but the fact remains that such an ordered social structure where people do not need to think about making decisions about right and wrong would have an intense appeal to someone who doesn't seem to know the difference. If you don't have to make moral decisions and you practice what is preached at you by rote, then maybe, as a sociopath, you can remain within certain tolerable limits to live your life. In Jeopardy I point out:

In the Analog Science Fiction and Fact Magazine, Dr. Stanley Schmidt wrote an editorial, "Useful Illusions & Deadly Faith" in which he argued that religions consist of two parts: Cosmology and Morals; and that the two can be separated--that a religion can be wrong about the cosmology of how the Universe was created, but still have effective morals which are useful to society.

But, he adds:

"The idea that dogmatic and more or less incorrect belief can have real individual and/or social benefits may be hard for a very rational person who cares about facts to understand and accept. About as hard, for example, as for a conventionally religious person to accept that a strong moral code can exist independently of belief in a supreme being. To many readers of this magazine, I suspect, it's clear that it can and often does. To them, the notion that people can't behave decently without being afraid of punishment by somebody bigger and stronger implies that all people are, in effect, perpetual children. But children are expected to grow up and do right things because they are right, not just because of fear of what somebody else will do if they don't. Maybe species should be subject to the same expectation. It's quite possible to develop moral principles--even some that most people can agree to enforce--by rational consideration of what's good for individuals and society."

In this case, it would seem that Living provides a service as a religion: To establish an environment of structure for the morally challenged. As Dr. Schmidt points out, that's one of the fundamental purposes of religion. Unfortunately, as he also points out, to do so is to produce perpetual children who never blossom into a fully functional moral and ethical being because it's all done for you.

That seems to be one of the root problems of the church of gods ministry: They don't trust their people to do the right thing. By the right thing, they mean what they believe is the right thing, which might not be the same thing. Lack of freedom of expression and freedom to explore the world and moral consequences stunts the growth of people. Without freedom there can be no accountability--all blame will fall on the person dictating a person's actions if that person follows exactly what is demanded of his or her leader. Unfortunately, the Law is not so forgiving if someone follows their Fuehrer into lawlessness: You can't claim that you were just following orders, because the fine and jail sentence are going to be the same either way.

That's a problem. Roderick Meredith has allowed crimes in the church under his direction. Stalking, fondling, rapes--some by ministers--were met with a threat to disfellowship members for protesting such activities. This qualifies him as a self-righteous bastard committing the worst of depraved indifference. In the opinion of many, he should have gone to prison himself, rather than be a model for juvenile offenders.

So what's the appeal? It's a police state proclaiming the good news of disease, destruction and devastation, giving little old ladies something to cheer about and teenagers structure to avoid any more jail time.

At least that's one view of the Divine Dr. M.

Also visit http://www.cultabuse.com

Ambassador Watch: http://ambassadorwatch.blogspot.com/

Last Updated: Monday, January 17, 2005