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

All2True Editorial

January, 2005

Worthless

From the very first moment, for most people entering the venue of the Churches of God, there is an onslaught of personality destroying attacks to render a person vulnerable by making them feel worthless as part of their initiation to the group.

First thing right off, people are taught Jeremiah 17:9--"The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" Romans 7:18 is quoted--"For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not." Psalm 14:3 may be quoted out of context--"They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one". Matthew 19:17 may be offered to inculcate some guilt--"And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments". Romans 3:23 is the piece de resistance--"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God". And? Romans 6:23 is thrown in for good measure--"For the wages of sin is death". You're gonna die! Unless of course you sing with us Psalm 51 to show you know what a terrible unrepentant sinner you are.

Strange thing, though: The leaders are righteous. On the Ambassador Watch for The Missing Dimension, a contributor, Dateline Pasadena, remarks about Roderick C. Meredith: "RCM has publicly stated that he has never committed a major sin since baptism!". That's an impressive record, if true, and certainly would tend to discourage the lowly Church member struggling to attain to righteousness. Others, such as Gerald Flurry, declaring that they are "that prophet", meaning that they are actually Jesus Christ in the flesh and not just in spirit, are also problematic to the guilt ridden submissive cult... er... church member. Also problematic with the obvious [self] righteousness of these leaders and others is Herbert Armstrong's 209 False Prophecies, of which many are not Herbert Armstrong's, but people like Roderick Meredith. Here's just one brief example of a prophecy by Roderick Meredith in a sermon circa 1966: "within three years by 1969 society will have collapses in America; millions will flee into cities". Some more gems from the Rod of Iron [poor blood]:

August 1957 PT: Another old favorite still with us today. Roderick Meredith: "at the conclusion of the drought and floods we are now just beginning to suffer this nation is going to be punished by horrifying DISEASE EPIDEMICS - plagues." When? He approvingly cites a 1956 Plain Truth title: 'Disease Epidemics Threaten USA in Two Years!" Clearly, 1958 was meant. Meredith continued, "In addition to those warnings ...we will soon find that hoof-and-mouth disease will spread COMPLETELY OUT OF CONTROL!"

Same article, same Meredith: "After 1965 we are destined to run into increased trouble with the Gentile nation. America and Britain will begin to suffer from trade embargoes imposed by the Brown and Oriental races and by the coming German-dominated 'United States of Europe.' ...We will begin to experience the pangs of starvation and of scarcity of goods." The close student of herbert-ology should note here the extreme PRECISION with which NOT ONLY herbert BUT ALSO his disciples got even the smallest and most unlikely points WRONG!!! 1965-73 - Not only no trade embargoes or shortages of goods in America and Britain, but the greatest material prosperity in history for both countries. Far from imposing any trade embargo on dealing with the United States, East Asia began its modern industrial "miracle" with booming exports to America precisely during those years. Even when an economic embargo DID rock Britain and America eventually, it took herbert and his disciples completely by surprise. It came from the Arab oil producers and Iran in 1973-74. The "Brown" and "Oriental" "Races", to use Meredith's condescending terms, had nothing to do with them at all.

We don't have to necessarily pick on Roderick Meredith, even though he is one of our favorites, it's just that his wrong headed self-righteousness makes him such an easy target. Dr. Hoeh came up with gems too, as did Gene Hogberg, GTA, and David Jon Hill. Of course all of the afore mentioned men are all dead now, without a single one of their prophecies ever coming to pass in our life times. But we are the ones who were told we were unrighteous dirt-eating worms who were not worthy to loosen the Velcro straps on their shoes, while we were deflected from seeing that they were utter liars as false prophets. Is it me, or is there some inequity there?

Recently, Al Boocher, a man who was a deacon in the WCG and an elder for 25 years, came on the forum and responded to someone who complained about being a victim of Herbert Armstrong and the Worldwide Church of God:

You are right, but who gave HWA and WCG control of these peoples minds. I didn't, in fact I did not give them control over my mind or any part of my life. There in lies the difference. I chose everything that I did or did not do. This is what God tells us to do. He says I set before you good and evil, He says to choose good (because it produces the best results), but He allows us to choose evil. When it comes right down to the nitty-gritty facts of the situation people choose to allow someone other than God (even God doesn't choose for us)to make their choices in all walks of life.

There was a time when a minister's declaration about harmful dye in toilet paper controled the choice of toilet paper. Was that my fault? Was it HWA's or WCG's fault? Was it God's fault? No, it was the people who gave their responsibility of choosing to someone else. I cannot control you unless you allow me to and I do not even want to. You can't control me, don't even try.

So here's the deal: You were a terrible lowly sinner; you believed the leaders of the church; everything you did wrong is your fault; and, oh, by the way, the elders in the church were smarter than you are.

And the message is... You are worthless! Stupid too.

What a con.

But Mr. Boocher did not stop there. After describing that he was a big burly blacksmith, he added: "I could have responded with words unfit to hear or could have simply flatten Carn [Catherwood] and walked out and no one would have stopped me." Here we have a Nimrod strong man who bought into the power the WCG had over its people. This mentality is frightening. Stephen Richards of the MD Forum had this to say about Al's posts:

This is called hazing. It is extremely effective and is used by relatively benign organizations (like fraternaties) as well as by malignant ones. When one accepts the organization's right to inflict pain, one becomes a true member with greatly diminished capacity for critical evaluation of the organization, contrary to Al's claim not to have bought into all that WCG said or did; he bought into WCG's right to inflict pain and that was enough.

Surrendering the power to judge basic human decentness while retaining judgment over whether to eat in a restaurant on the sabbath or over some prophetic interpretation is like trading diamonds for marbles. Al may not have participated in the hazing and other abuse and he may even have tried to shield weaker members from its worst effects but he still accepted the organization's right to haze and abuse.

Perhaps Al mentioned this incident because it was the defining moment at which he accepted the cruel, narcissistic side of the WCG as something he could live with in return for the perceived good side. You should have walked, Al. Unfortunately, WCG was the only group many of us knew of that seemed to take religion seriously.

Hazing is not a concept which has been introduced to our thinking within the context of the Churches of God before, but it is a cogent observation of the situation. Deacons and elders thus bought into the victimization of members and became part of the problem after their own rite of initiation. Unfortunately, those of us who have passed from one CoG to another often go through a new hazing each time we relocate.

There is a solution to this [one that is actually legal and not the one we're all thinking of!]: Walk away from these, these, #@$&*$%#^! The first real step in regaining your godly self-confidence is to identify the sins, faults, flaws, foibles and outright crimes for which they should go to prison, of these utterly unrepentant selfish sinful immoral unethical scoundrels. That will cut them down to size, take them off their pedestals and put their relationship to you in perspective. Some of these people actually have military medical records online showing that they have clinical paranoid schizophrenia [and, yeah, we read the letters and they confirm the diagnosis]. Maybe the best thing is that you can forgive these people publicly and tell them how much you pity their pathetic little useless worthless stupid lives. Another is to let them starve to death by not giving them any more money. The poor we always have with us and they are certainly deserving to be poor for their incompetence and avarice--and in some cases crimes of reckless endangerment and wanton disregard deserving of a civil suit at minimum and criminal prosecution in most cases. When you realize that these people who you respected but who treated you with disdain and condescension are deserving of long prison sentences or worse and you are not, you can have a renewed confidence and vigor. These were evil people out to destroy you with benign negligence. Where it is appropriate, participating in their prosecution is quite validating. Remember that the Biblical standard in the Old Testament is that you are required to testify, so don't hide away and become an accessory after the fact.

Yes, and there is forgiveness too. You can forgive these scoundrels as soon as they have served their prison sentences and leave with a suit and $50 in their pockets. Forgiveness can be quite satisfying, particularly if you tell them to their face that you forgive them, preceded with the long laundry list of the things they have personally done to you. They are GUILTY! GUILTY! GUILTY! They are required to repent and tell you that they are sorry. Or else! Well, that's if God exists.

If you consider the Bible as a whole, it begins and ends with repentance: Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel; the prophets warning people to repent; Nineveh, the Book of Job; Christ telling people to repent of their sins; the Apostle Paul advising the same thing; James; John; and Revelation ending up telling us that if you don't repent of lying, you will not be in the Kingdom of God. Repentance is the first step in the plan of salvation, according to the Scriptures, without which there will be no Holy Spirit and explaining spiritual matters to an unrepentant leadership is as useless as explaining rainbows to earthworms. It's not entirely their fault: The goodness of God leads people to repentance. God has not granted them repentance. On the other hand, it is clear that they are not about to obey God in any way, shape or form and have their own private interpretations and definitions of what righteousness is. God would be a fool to grant them repentance because they clearly have shown that they don't want it and won't obey--just as the Pharisees who preceded them in Christ's time. In Biblical parlance, they are of their father, Satan, the Devil.

There is one final repercussion of the leadership and ministry treating everyone else as worthless. It brings out the fact that they themselves are unrepentant. If the Scriptural record is true, then they have not received the Holy Spirit and have not been converted from those terrible sinful people they told you that you were, to being the Sons of God. That makes them nothing more than upper middle manager executives in the church corporate, some of whom might have been good enough to be successful narcissistic upper middle management types in one or more of the misfortune 500. We'll never know because they plied their incompetence and avarice instead, in an environment wherein they preached things they could not possibly understand to bring people closer to a God they never knew.

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Last Updated: Thursday, March 17, 2005