Fancy your own personal slice of the Armstrong Empire, now it has disintegrated into smaller, more manageable chunks? Be in quick before Gerry flies in from Edmond to buy up the lot!
Grand Mediterranean apartment homes renovated in 2007. All units feature stainless steel appliances, washer/dryer hookups, central air conditioning and heating, hardwood flooring, wood burning fireplaces and ample basement storage. South Orange Grove Boulevard in Pasadena is one of the premier streets in southern California. And finally, memories of the Empire in its heyday - dinner with the High and Herbal One. You'll need to log into Facebook to see the source.
It was all gold and crystal, expensive wine, [chandeliers], fantastic food, including a desert that was covered in brandy and set fire (Bombe Alaska or some such...) One of the fellows mentioned how all the new students were so smart compared to many of us. HWA got quite worked up, and said that brains and talents weren't what were important. To quote him (could never forget these words), "Take Raymond McNair for example. What talents does he have?" Needless to say there was dead silence. How do you reply to that? [You're] on a loser either answer. He went on, "None, but he is loyal" and went on to stress the importance of loyalty. I'll refrain from further comment :) And apologies to any McNairs who may find this offensive. But that is what the man said.
Thanks to Bill and Gary, who forwarded these items to AW.
59 comments:
That kind of comment about any human being leaves me speechless...
I wish I had heard it when I was younger as that may have tipped me over the top to go get a better life based on what I wanted to do instead of what I thought the Deity had in store for me.
Hey, the photo on the left is my old dorm - the top floor, 380-C. I spent 2 1/2 years living there.
So many warm and wonderful memories associated with that old place!
I'd love to go back inside it again and see how it's changed.
One night back in 1977 another student and myself got hold of a slingshot, sat on a couch across the living room and fired vitamin C tablets from Trader Joe's into the fireplace of old 380-C, where they exploded in a puff of white dust against the back bricks of the fireplace to our great amusement! I'll bet if I went there today, evidence of the white tablets of ascorbic acid would still be there!!
Striking that so many strongly disagree with HWA's teachings, yet speak of him and their AC years with such fondness.
If HWA really said those things about Raymond McNair, then I think it was not only totally inappropriate for the occasion, but cruel and inaccurate as well.
HWA's comment reminds me of many political dictators throughout history who despised the very people who were most loyal to them and their ideologies.
Over the years I had many delightful and beneficial conversations with McNair, as he actually talked with the common folk and AC students - which is more than can be said for HWA, with the exception of his extravagant Senior Dinners, where I've heard he would occasionally bring out graphic photos of women performing, shall we say, certain forms of sexual expression upon men, to the accompaniment of HWA's comment to young men present, "Now what do you think about THAT?!"
Anonymous 4:52 wrote:
"Striking that so many strongly disagree with HWA's teachings, yet speak of him and their AC years with such fondness."
OK, and your point would be...?
Leonardo said... If HWA really said those things about Raymond McNair, then I think it was not only totally inappropriate for the occasion, but cruel and inaccurate as well.
--------------
HWA's comments about Raymond McNair were probably inappropriate, but hardly inaccurate. Raymond was widely regarded as a buffoon among AC faculty/staff and was infamous (among other things) for spending a good part of a faculty meeting explaining how to outline -- you must have an "A" and a "B" after a I, and so on. He was given the nickname Buffy.
HWA had it right. McNair was loyal to him and definitely had certain endearing qualities, but was rather lacking in talent. Nevertheless, I miss him.
"Striking that so many strongly disagree with HWA's teachings, yet speak of him and their AC years with such fondness."
We were kids. Reality struck later. When my age was 18 in 68, my draft number was 14. You bet I remember it fondly. I would have been more of a Vietnam basketcase than WCG one by a long shot.
I had enough trouble with the OT and the killer Biblegod much less being turned into one.
BTW, Did we realize that God murdered (for their own good no doubt) 2, 270,000+ in the OT, while mean old rotten Satan only got credited with 10 kills? (Jobs kids) and God told him it was fine?
Hmmmmmmm Who'se the God of love anyhow?
PS I lived there too for a year or so and never got a cold. They did a test and said my room had a high vitimin C index for some reason :)
What talents did HWA have? He was a salesman I suppose. He was hardly loyal to anyone but himself from what I can tell. He was not well read as he was always writing his opinions all the time. I remember him declaring dinosaurs did not reproduce because they were in satan's world and Satan can't reproduce. Sure fine...problem is I had seen a National Geographic on his lobby desk that day showing first discovered dino eggs. Empty I guess. Did any minister ever go beyond his education in "theology" and remark.."Uh no, we've misunderstood this.
Classic case. "How do we read the Bible? Answer: "Here a little, there a little, line upon line, line upon line, precept upon precept..." blah blah. Problem is that this little ditty is a mocking by God of the prophets almost the same way a child would go, "nah nah nah nah nahhhhh" It has absolutely NOTHING to do with how to read the Bible. Has anyone ever corrected the context? No.
Ted was not well educated theologically. Like HWA he was a Bible reader and put it together as we all did as one big coherent story. I never heard him question ONE thing. He was cynical and caustic in his presentations and most noticably when he had done none of the homework to really have a good opinion about it...like his ideas on why evolution could not be true.
Ted was skilled as a talker, but not a thinker or researcher. He had to always come up with the same old story no matter the research. He learned that the hard way a few times when Dad caught on. Ted stopped learning new things in the 70's and froze in time for the rest of his life..imho
From what little I knew Raymond McNair, he never found his authentic self or voice. He wasn't the only one. To question HWA was suicide and isn't that sad.
The first thing Garner Ted ever said to me was in his office where he had summonded me after yelling at "someone" during services that previous Sabbath "if you don't like it here...GET OUT!" Whoa momma! Found out monday he was talking to ME! So he asked me "Why did I hate him so much...?" Mind you , this is the First time I ever met the man and I was 18...I now know what that was all about but had no clue at the time. Disconcerting to say the least and he gave me little of his time forever more after that point in my short four year career at AC.
At any rate, everyone has their contribution to life and I find the comments made by HWA about Raymond McNair reprehensible. Think of all the comments we missed along the way!
Striking that so many strongly disagree with HWA's teachings, yet speak of him and their AC years with such fondness.
It's called "Stockholm Syndrome".
Raymond McNair did some good work here in New Zealand.
Ok,he had his moments.
But!!!
He was approachable and broke down some of those snobby artificial barriers of class that had been establised by other regimes.
Jorgheinz
Raymond McNair was a prince of a man, nothing less. That he was loyal to HWA goes without question, but that was not his final loyalty. He knew how to approach the older man with due respect, and to help him see his errors, for example, on D&R and Pentecost. To the best of his ability, which was considerable, Raymond McNair was first and foremost a servant of God.
As an administrator, rather than to intimidate a subordinate by sternly summoning him or her to his office, he more often left his ivory tower to visit the individual on his own turf. Some of his inferiors in the hierarchy would have done well to follow that example, but then they weren't cut of comparable clay, regardless of arguably superior gifts.
Raymond McNair wasn't a flashy person, but he was steady and trustworthy. HWA praised his reliability in the Autobiography. HWA mentioned to me once, that Raymond McNair had his curious ways of doing things, but that he had handled the progress and administration of AC with rare skill.
I don't doubt that Mr. Armstrong may have told some students that Mr. McNair lacked talent. He was extremely open in his conversations, and tended to say whatever was on his mind at a given moment. But that statement should be seen in the context of the moment, and of the greater reality. After all, HWA had that "talentless" gentleman on the faculties and at the top of the administrations of colleges in both Britain and America. And is it not generally agreed that actions speak louder than words?
"Raymond McNair was a prince of a man, nothing less."
....exhorts the anonymous CoG21 member....
Dennis wrote:
"I remember him [HWA] declaring dinosaurs did not reproduce because they were in satan's world and Satan can't reproduce."
I've never heard that before. I wonder how HWA explained how dinosaurs walked the face of the earth for so long a period of time if they couldn't reproduce?
Opps, there I go again, asking those silly questions! No wonder folks like Martin Luther referred to reason as a “beast,” a “whore,” and “the enemy of God.”
The problem with religious gurus who actually believe an invisible deity is inspiring their understanding is that they end up making the most ridiculous comments, which gets them into all kinds of intellectual quicksand, and then have to somehow struggle out of it without admitting they were in error. It must get pretty frustrating after awhile, but then again, very few of the gullible followers ever detect, let alone question, the nonsense. So as long as they keep sending in the cash, I guess all is well!
About HWA and GTA being uneducated – boy, that’s an understatement. But they were effective salesmen and talkers. And I think HWA did ask the right questions, the big cosmic questions. And I gained greatly from this stimulus. But time has shown his answers to be terribly flawed. Like many of the fundamentalists who blog here, he was always ready with a subjective opinion without putting in the effort to do some serious research beforehand so he could speak with some kind of legitimate knowledge.
GTA was constantly using the “If you don’t like it here, get out!” line when I was at AC too.
Jorgheinz wrote:
“He [Raymond McNair] was approachable and broke down some of those snobby artificial barriers of class that had been established by other regimes.”
Yes, I very much agree with you here, Jorg. I found McNair to always be very approachable. When I would talk with him I always got the sense that here was a truly genuine kind of guy.
No, he wasn't the brightest gent around, but I've come to see that there is often a vital difference between intelligence and character. The fictional movie character Forrest Gump, for instance, wasn't very smart, but he had some very solid traits of good character. And I'll take that over raw intellect every time. And it goes without saying that intellect AND character are the ideal.
Of course, the one who really broke down the “class barriers” was Dr. Hoeh. After all, when was the last time you ever saw a WCG evangelist standing out on a bus stop waiting for a bus, or rummaging through a dumpster (with suit sleeves pulled up to his elbows!), or cleaning a toilet?
And I very much agree with Anonymous 1:10’s perceptive comments on McNair - like RFM visiting people on their own turf to humbly speak WITH them, rather than imperiously summoning them to his office to arrogantly speak AT them.
And I can only speak from my own personal experience and perspective, but I never heard Raymond McNair give a boring sermon, never once. I always found them helpful and down to earth.
Dennis said... When my age was 18 in 68, my draft number was 14. You bet I remember it fondly. I would have been more of a Vietnam basketcase than WCG one by a long shot.
----------------------------------------
How did you know that in 1968? Did you have the gift of prophecy? The lottery wasn't done until December 1, 1969. See http://www.sss.gov/LOTTER8.HTM
HWA always had a tendency to say too much, quite like Joe Biden.
In 1977 I was part of a group of seniors who were invited to his house. This was when he was married to Ramona Martin.
A question by one of the seniors somehow got HWA onto the topic of sex.
HWA proceeded to describe how in sexual relations with Loma, he was never allowed to touch her breasts.
He then went on to tell us that Ramona was not that way and he was able to touch her breasts.
I think that was much more than we needed to hear.
Leonardo said... No, he wasn't the brightest gent around, but I've come to see that there is often a vital difference between intelligence and character. The fictional movie character Forrest Gump, for instance, wasn't very smart, but he had some very solid traits of good character. And I'll take that over raw intellect every time.
------------
Then you are in perfect agreement with the intent of HWA's remarks at the senior dinner!
How did you know that in 1968? Did you have the gift of prophecy? The lottery wasn't done until December 1, 1969. See http://www.sss.gov/LOTTER8.HTM
Now that I recall it better...thank you...I had to make a statement early in the AC game due to the fact that reasons to not go to Vietnam were running out. When the draft came along, it was obvious I would have been drafted.
I am no milatary person. I don't follow orders well, church or government it seems. That trait has saved my ass many times and leaves me with neither mental illness for killing people or telling church people dumbass stuff I didn't believe.
Sorry I didn't get the details correct. I did sumbmit my "hell no I won't go" early in my freshman year. I have no military in my family in any direction for generations.
Monkeyholler said, "In 1977 I was part of a group of seniors who were invited to his house. This was when he was married to Ramona Martin.
A question by one of the seniors somehow got HWA onto the topic of sex.
HWA proceeded to describe how in sexual relations with Loma, he was never allowed to touch her breasts.
He then went on to tell us that Ramona was not that way and he was able to touch her breasts.
MY COMMENT - Ah, the missing dimension in sex has been unveiled at last!
Richard
monkeyholler said..."He then went on to tell us that Ramona was not that way and he was able to touch her breasts.
I think that was much more than we needed to hear."
That was much more than I cared to envision.
Of course dinosaurs did not reproduce. Everybody knows that. In 230,000,000 B.C., 542,467,910 dinosaurs were created. They layed eggs but the eggs were infertile. They all lived for 165,000,000 years, at which time they all died because they forgot how to eat. It is very important to be scientifically correct if we are going to discuss this issue.
As a former lowly Titheslave, I'm angered by the largesse and high living at AC by faculty/students/senior execs like "meek" McNair & Hoeh (quietly pulling $ix-figure 'salaries').
Bet they were surprised when their judgement came fast in the early 90's. Rolling tithestrikes & walkouts that bought down the HWA/JWK empire. The revenge of the Tithebots!
Raymond McNair was the very first minister I met in Worldwide (then Radio). It was 1959 and he had been sent over to manage the British office which was then located in Leicester Square in downtown London. He told me, in essence, that I shouldn't smoke (how could he tell? I naively wondered), that I should keep the Sabbath and tithe one tenth of my then meagre income.
I lost touch with him and the Church for the next two years until we were re-introduced by a mutual friend. It was Ben Rea who encouraged me to attend the brand new Ambassador College, contrary to the highly vocal warnings of friends and relatives alike.
I attended my first FoT in a tent on the college grounds in 1961, where it rained heavily every day, and it was where I was baptized by Raymond McNair.
I graduated in 1965 and my wife and I were married by him, too. We used to joke that one day he would perform my funeral.
Raymond was not the brightest bulb in chandelier, for sure, but he was a decent person who always tried to do right. I also heard HWA refer to Raymond as "loyal but ineffective". I'm not sure he used the word "buffoon" although others did.
When Joe Tkach, Sr introduced what was known as the Refresher Program to the ministry, Raymond would sometimes appear and give a lecture, often on the subject of British-Israelism. These lectures were almost invariably the occasion of great hilarity and almost uncontrollable laughter often because words were fumbled, pages were confused, slides appeared upside down, and outrageous statements were made. He even fumbled any humour he attempted, often giving the punchline to a joke first. I remember one person having to stuff a handkerchief in his mouth and fall to the floor. These lectures did not engender respect.
Leo mentioned that he had never heard Raymond give a bad sermon. For my part, I never heard him give a good one and I heard him constantly during my time in Bricket Wood. He was paralyzingly boring and despite his outlining skills rarely made a point clear. I cannot remember a single one of his messages to this day.
And yet ... when my wife died two years ago he sent me a moving condolence message which was also typical of him. He was also dying himself.
I spoke to him shortly before he died when we reminisced about some good times and laughed more than a little.
He was a good man but, like all of us, flawed and also probably left in the wrong job for too long.
He may have been Buffy to some but he was a friend to me.
Lochinvar
"Never allowed to touch her breasts" . . . I'm trying to picture that scenario. A perv like HWA would have conquered that problem, you can bet your a** on that!
Truth was known, I bet that there was a lot more weird sexual stuff going on than we will ever know about...
By the way, talking of things Wolverton (one of the topics included in the original blog by Gavin), yesterday at work I was walking by the office cubicle of someone whom I didn’t know, and as I did I quickly glanced up and saw on his computer monitor a screensaver with, you guessed it: a black & white Basil Wolverton drawing, showing the terror-filled face of someone being left behind during Noah's flood!
I initiated a brief conversation with the guy, but after sending out a few probing comments I could tell he had no idea about Wolverton's church background, or the meaning of the illustration.
It's a small world indeed!
(I hope my three-sentence comment doesn't put too much of a mental strain on you, Anonymous 7:54!)
Anonymous 6:38 wrote:
"Then you are in perfect agreement with the intent of HWA's remarks at the senior dinner!"
Not really, Anon.
If you define talent as the ability to do something, or to perform a given task, then character traits such as patience and kindness, perhaps even loyalty, can be rightly considered talents in most contexts.
This was an important distinction I was taught at AC - you know, that wretched unaccredited place where nobody learned anything of value and totally wasted their formative years attending?
We make a mistake when we limit the definition of talent to obvious things, often motor skills, such as singing, dancing, drawing, the ability to play a violin, etc.
HWA failed to make this distinction, at least if his comment about McNair made at that get together was accurately transmitted to us.
As we are talking of things sexual now, I'm reminded of what a former WCG minister (Brian Knowles) once told me back in 1977: that in its early days the WCG instructed men that it was not permissable for a fellow to kiss his wife anywhere below her neck. Then God later inspired His Apostle to change that to her waist.
It seems that HWA's well-known sexual frustrations with regard to Loma's prudery (which he was not shy to openly talk about) inspired him to pass them onto the rest of his followers! If he wasn't getting any, then, by God, none of his gullible male followers should either!!
"I initiated a brief conversation with the guy, but after sending out a few probing comments I could tell he had no idea about Wolverton's church background, or the meaning of the illustration."
So where the hell did he get the image from Leo??
(Please tell me it wasn't "Our Own Private Apocalypse" -- that would just be totally missing the point right there.)
Purple Hymnal wrote:
"So where the hell did he get the image from Leo??"
I never did find out!
I told the co-worker that years ago I used to work with Basil's son, Monte, and mentioned AC and Pasadena, and he just smiled and looked at me in such a way that I knew he had no idea about what the picture meant, or what I was talking about. I was kind of thinking that maybe he was either a former or current church member, which would have really opened up a good conversation between us. But I had a meeting (or something) to go to so I didn't have the chance to ask him why he had such a pic on his screensaver.
I'll see if he's here today - and maybe I can ask him.
The most revealing thing about HWA's comment on McNair is that he saw no problem with employing a man with no talent, a buffon, in a high level position in the most important institute in the universe.
This gives weight to the idea that HWA knew it was all a big sham.
The Apostate Paul
Leo said... If you define talent as the ability to do something, or to perform a given task, then character traits such as patience and kindness, perhaps even loyalty, can be rightly considered talents in most contexts.
----------
Leo, although for some reason you don't seem to want to admit it, you are, in fact, essentially saying the same thing about RFM as HWA was.
Leonardo said...
"As we are talking of things sexual now, I'm reminded of what a former WCG minister (Brian Knowles) once told me back in 1977: that in its early days the WCG instructed men that it was not permissable for a fellow to kiss his wife anywhere below her neck. Then God later inspired His Apostle to change that to her waist."
Well Leonardo, The Apostle was inspired to go farther than that. Way back when, I had in my possession a complete set of answers used by the Letter Answering Dept. As I eagerly studied all those words from on high, I came across a question from some curious person who was inquiring whether oral sex was legitimate source of marital pleasure. The answer, quite a shocking revelation to me at the time, was that there was nothing in the bible to indicate that it was wrong, as long as it was done with the consent and mutual benefit of both parties in mind. To quote the Herbal High One, "Now What do you think about that?"
Recently, one of the 20 or 30 (or more) Anonymice who post on this blog was complaining about Leonardo's long posts. Well, Anonymouse, you are not without fault yourself.
There are some here, like Gavin and Dennis, who are quite open and honest about who they are and where they live. Hey Dennis, I have even looked at your place of residence and work on Google Earth. They have reached that high pinnacle of confidence where they no longer worry about what someone else thinks of them.
I can quite understand that a lot of other people have reservations about identifying themselves. Perhaps they fear being chucked out of their little piece of cogdom if they came out of the closet. Some others may have already long ago left the cults, but life might be made a little awkward if friends or relatives still on the inside were to know what they really thought. I can live with all that.
What I can't live with is the need to be "anonymous" (literally without a name). One can have a name without revealing one's identity. This blog is full of examples of creative names, but I still don't know who these people are. However, I am able to build up a mental picture of what opinions Baywolfe, PurpleHymnal, or Radio Knobs Church of God hold. That helps me to better understand the points they are making. But someone like the Anonymouse who complained about Leonardo is indistinguishable from all the other Anonymice. Perhaps they are so mentally challenged they don't have the capacity to think up a good name, but to me it is just plain cowardice. By being totally indistinguishable they never have to back up anything they say, which goes to Leonardo's point about lacking the ability to concentrate for more than a few seconds. I can't have much respect for 20 word opinions when there is no context into which I can place it.
Hey, Leonardo. Relax. No need to play with words. It is okay for you to agree with HWA in areas where he was right. HWA was right about Dom Perignon champagne, the food at Perino's in Beverly Hills, and Raymond McNair's intellect and loyalty.
Phronistes has a problem with those who wish to be anonymous yet ironically chooses to be anonymous himself.
I have chosen to be because it's allowed and, while knowing who I am adds nothing to what I write, it could skew its understanding. Are we incapable of deriving meaning from words without knowing who wrote them?
Lochinvar
Phrontistes, your comment reminds me of another story from AC days.
I think it may have been in the Principles of Living class (the basic subjects being dating and sex), which was required for all students to take, typically in their freshman year.
Some bold student inquired about oral sex, and I think it was David Antion who very innocently answered with what you had mentioned the Legal department said, and that he (Antion) thought, and these were his exact words, that it was “a matter of personal taste.” Then a split second later he thought about what he had said, and the class nervously chuckled, as the coeds turned fifty different shades of red!
You had to love the old Principles of Living class – especially as taught by Rod Meredith, when I heard that he once went off on a tirade about men and their penchant for mammary glands – “I know what all you young fellows are thinking about, it’s breasts, breasts, breasts! – and all you want to do is get down there and num, num, num!”
I heard all the females in that class fidgeted about in their seats quite nervously after that particular outburst!
Lochinvar replied:
"Phronistes has a problem with those who wish to be anonymous yet ironically chooses to be anonymous himself.
I have chosen to be because it's allowed and, while knowing who I am adds nothing to what I write, it could skew its understanding. Are we incapable of deriving meaning from words without knowing who wrote them?"
Well Lochinvar, you completely missed the point. Maybe that is my fault for not expressing it more clearly or yours for not comprehending.
The point was, and remains, that you are not without a name. You have chosen to post under the name of Lochinvar. The reasons you do that are none of my concern, but because you have a name I can form, over a period of time, an idea of how and what you think. I can comprehend your words without knowing your real name so I fail to see how the name Lochinvar would skew that understanding. I thank you for using a name because it helps me to know and understand you, even if I never know who you really are. You were listed as an example of the right way to be incognito.
It is not you, but all the other people who remain in the shadows, and make it impossible to sort out one from another. This forces the reader to have to refer to Anonymous 8:07, which is ok as far as it goes, but when the next Anonymous posts, one never knows if it is the same one as last time, or someone completely different. These individuals don't give the reader anything to latch onto, and thus congeal into an amorphous blob whose opinions change hour by hour. That is why I can't respect what they have to say.
You on the other hand, use a name. So when you make a statement or give an opinion I can place that in context and better understand what you mean. Is that too much to ask of others?
PS: For those Anonymice who don't know, you can post without revealing your identity by clicking on the "Name/URL" button. Choose a name, the more creative the better, use it consistently, and life will be made easier for your readers.
Hey, Leo, did you ever find out how your coworker came by that Wolverton screensaver?
Some of us are so well known we find it better to use our pen names lest the amalgamations of hearsay, and preconceptions from the battles we have fought with the cults override the words we have to say.
Its amazing what you can accomplish when you don't care about getting accolades for it.
There will be no collected works of Bamboo_Bends. There will be no love offerings for "the work".
Leonardo...
Maybe you'd like to have Gavin force us to fill out a form like we did in WWCG when we got baptized, giving our names, S.S. numbers, address, telephone numbers....etc?
-I. M. Anonymous
(Sorry...my post should have been titled:)
Phrontestes...
Maybe you would like to have Gavin force us to fill
out a form like we did in WWCG when we got baptized providing our names, S.S. number, address, telephone
number...etc?
I. M. Anonymous
I'm with Phrontistes on this one. Post anonymously if you need to, but at least provide a "handle" at the end so the rest of us can make better sense of your contributions.
While everybody seems to be preoccupied with the missing dimension of the Apostle Herbert’s sex life, I think people are missing the point of Gavin’s post:
• Basil’s grotesque work will outlast Herbert’s grotesque work (also known as “The Work”)
• A couple of apartments that Herbert once bought using the dumb sheep’s multiple tithe and offering money which he extorted from members under constant threat of eternal Lake of Fire damnation are now fetching $5.9 Million in a bad real estate market.
• Herbert didn’t think much of his favorite doormat Raymond McNair, and can’t even complement someone for being loyal without making it a “backhanded” complement.
Now how did we get on to the topic of Herbert playing with “big radio knobs” and “oral sex” from Gavin’s original post?
Richard
Mea culpa, Phronistes. I confess that I did miss the main point of your post mainly because I wrote it at 4.00am my time. No excuses.
I agree with your main point. A handle does enable a certain consistency.
Lochinvar
Confession:
"Dennis Diehl" is not my real name here on AW
My real name is Dennis Carlton Diehl.
Sorry for the deception. I was afraid WCG would somehow find ways for retribution for writing and perhaps even causing them some membership and financial losses
I am such a hireling. I know I should have stayed and stayed and stayed, started my own splinter or joined the faithful in some other splinter, but I was too tired.
I couldn't have stayed with WCGracie however since I have no idea what Ted Johnston is talking about 90% of the time, nor care.
I couldn't have joined a splinter because I went to school with the Apostles, Prophets and Witnesses that now run them and would giggle and scoff too much during sermons.
Sooooooo, what's a boy to do?
PurpleHymnal said...
Hey, Leo, did you ever find out how your coworker came by that Wolverton screensaver?
Purple, one of the options of the Windows Screen Saver is to display pictures in your My Pictures directory. It's called "My Pictures Slideshow" and will display any JPG or BMP in the directory.
Purple, I haven't seen the co-worker since that day I briefly chatted with him about the Wolverton drawing on his screensaver.
A lot of folks where I work are beginning to take off for the upcoming holidays, as typically about 90% of the company is gone the last two or three weeks of the year, so I'm guessing he's one of those folks.
Bamboo_bends wrote:
"Its amazing what you can accomplish when you don't care about getting accolades for it."
Bamboo, you sure have that right!
(Anonymous, I do hope this reply is short enough for you?!)
Anonymouse asks:
"Maybe you would like to have Gavin force us to fill
out a form like we did in WWCG when we got baptized providing our names, S.S. number, address, telephone
number...etc?"
This is a strawman argument. Where did you get any of that from what I wrote?
Thanks, Baywolfe, but I am not as technically incompetent as your "helpful" post insinuates; that I did not add "the Wolverton picture in his screensaver" is perhaps on me, for not being clear enough. Leo seems to have grasped the intent of the question instead of picking on its (admittedly poor) wording.
Thanks, Leo, if you ever do cross paths with the coworker and get on the subject again, I really would be interested in knowing where he got the pic from....
Mr Armstrong also called Raymond McNair a buffoon.
This was and is quite well known.
Mr. McNair was a fine gentlemen. Patient and caring.
His talents were many.It is sad that some never understood them.
Purple,
My, touchy, aren't we? I actually was not making fun of you, but trying to do some legitimate tech support.
I'm assuming he got the picture where we get most of the pictures we don't take ourselves. He stole it off the internet. Just typing "Wolverton" into Google Images came up with, literally, hundreds of images.
Oops, there I go again being tech support. I'll just back to just being sarcastic now.
"I actually was not making fun of you, but trying to do some legitimate tech support."
Which is a clear result of at least three bloggers assuming my gender is female, with the relaunch of the PH. Just gotta tell the dumb girl How Things Work, right? *sigh*
The misogyny travels deep, and is one of the tentacles of Armstrongism that really does need to be removed post-haste IMO.
Oh, by the way, that wasn't "tech support" you were providing, Baywolfe. I worked an Oracle Helldesk for a year. THAT, my friend, is freaking TECH SUPPORT.
PurpleHymnal wrote:
"The misogyny travels deep, and is one of the tentacles of Armstrongism that really does need to be removed post-haste IMO."
I very much agree with you, Purp.
And just for the record (since I honestly don't really know whether you are male or female), what real difference does it make as regards to our exchange of ideas here on AW, or anywhere else for that matter?
On a personal level, I greatly respect the depth of the female mind, which in MANY cases is considerable more perceptive than many male minds I've encountered. In general women are considerably more verbally articulate than men as well.
I work for a large telecommunications corporation, and have had many different bosses through my 11 years with the company, and without question I can state that, at least based on my experiences with the female bosses I personally have had, women often make MUCH better supervisors than men.
And this is a GUY saying this!
I'm not being politically-correct here, nor trying to win points with the ladies by sucking up to them. I’m just speaking straight from the heart. I fully realize that there are a lot of real witches out there in the work force, as well as in the world in general. I’m not denying that fact.
But I've found that, on the whole, women - with the exception of the power-hungry, corporate-climbing yet insecure woman with a chip on her shoulder the size of Mt. Rushmore, who hates the male species with a vengeance and who's always trying to prove that she's "just as good as a man" - are much better natural communicators than men are, and this can make a huge world of difference in the work place, especially a high-pressure one. At least it does to me.
I had a female boss several years ago that was very competent, as tough as nails, and yet a joy to work for - who had the strength within herself to, when she got into a situation working for an exasperating male boss over her, one day just broke down and burst into tears of frustration! And I must tell you that that entire episode endeared her to me from that point on, and we’ve been good work friends ever since. (I knew her irritation because shortly before I used to be a direct report to the guy she then reported to, and he was a self-centered, insensitive, world-class anal orifice who was a terrible communicator and assumed everybody could just read his mind in detail – which was a prerequisite for working for him because he used to change his mind every few hours or so!)
One of the reasons why the Muslim world is so incredibly backwards is because of the way they contemptuously treat and dismiss the fairer sex as being second-class citizens. And in my view any culture, religion or organization that permits such an injustice deserves what will eventually come to them, because they are foolishly dismissing 50% of a demographic that has proven absolutely indispensable to life, happiness and progress.
And another one of the many endearing qualities of women I like: they aren't afraid of stopping and asking someone for directions when they are lost in unfamiliar territory - unlike my dad, who would stubbornly keep driving around in circles in a place he didn’t know for hours rather than admit he was lost and humbly ask someone for directions!!!
There's a word you need to learn in politics. It's loyalty.
Kevin Costner - 13 Days
I think HWA, (a former advertising exec) would have been pleased to see that AC's most famous graduate would be the King of infomercials
"One of the reasons why the Church of God world is so incredibly backwards is because of the way they contemptuously treat and dismiss the fairer sex as being second-class citizens."
FIFY Leo. ;-)
Purple, I have absolutely no idea what "FIFY" means - perhaps you could enlighten me?
Does it mean "Fix It For You" or "Free Information For You"? - and if it does, then what exactly does THAT mean in this particular context?
This is why I am against these short and cryptic comments - they convey no real meaning whatsoever, and nothing to mentally bite into and respond to.
But I'm sure our recent anonymous bloggers who complain about my wordiness are happy that they don't have to spend more than 10 seconds reading your comment!!
"Purple, I have absolutely no idea what "FIFY" means - perhaps you could enlighten me?"
Fixed It For You.
OK, Purp, and what exactly would "Fix It For You" MEAN in this particular context?
I'm not too bright and need things explained to me in plain English!
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