Beyond Belief

The latest issue of Beyond Today, published by the United Church of God, has been released. For a religious magazine, the cover seems incongruous, pimped as a current events magazine.

Inside:

Scott Ashley with an editorial on the Feast of Tabs.

Scott Ashley again with the lead article on "real leadership" (fitting in with the scary cover art). Alas, I'm not convinced Scott is much of an expert on this subject.

Tom Robinson stirring the pot on "The Immigration Threat."

Darris McNeely posturing as an instant expert on Brexit. Oh how exciting, Darris has it all tied in with prophecy. How unique!

Jerold Aust with a inspirational piece on "God's Greatest Miracle". Somehow he works his way from photosynthesis to the God Family.

Steve Myers on the Feast of Tabernacles.

Dear old Mario Seiglie with another festival article. Who'd have thought this was a festival issue with a cover like that!

Darris is back with a few thoughts about wise and foolish virgins in the parable.

Robin Webber on the holy spirit.

Some anonymous dude writing on "Amazing Examples of Prophecies Already Fulfilled". I wouldn't want my name on that article either.

Peter Eddington on low fuel in the gas tank. I couldn't be bothered to even skim this one, but I'll put a dollar on it being some kind of cheap metaphor.

Now brethren, do we notice anything here? Where are the articles by women? None. Not even a token women writing about something fluffy like the joy of flower arrangement for Sabbath services. Just when you thought the old fellows in the UCG were catching up with the 1980s (obviously the 2010s are way beyond them) they pull out a 100% chest-pounding old boy issue. Guys, guys, guys, time to retire. And to make it worse, still no women listed in the staff box.

Can we all say "misogynist" together?

Available online.

Beyond Today... Neanderthal Apologetics

If you were expecting a dedicated Brexit issue of Beyond Today (formerly The Good News) for July/August, you're going to be disappointed. Instead its the tired old sawhorse, evolution. It seems the lads, all keen and bushy-tailed prophecy pundits, were asleep at the wheel, or - just like the Brits - didn't see it coming in time for the mag's release. Who'd have thunked they'd drop the ball on the biggest story of the year thus far?

In fact there's an anti-science whine throughout the issue. Even editor Scott Ashley manages to take a swipe at "the futility of Darwin's theory of evolution" while pouting about the parlous state of public "bathroom" signs. He's talking about toilets of course (why a euphemism like "bathroom" is used so commonly in the US is beyond me).

Mike Kelley kicks off in earnest with Evolution: An Article of Faith. What brilliant qualifications does Mike bring to this topic - other than being an in-house hack? No, I don't know either. Mike is immediately followed by Mario Seiglie who has a track record for writing this kind of guff with Answers from a Famous ex-Atheist about God. The person he's referring to is Anthony Flew who, at a ripe old age, did indeed change his mind. That's notable mainly because it's so unusual.

Then - holy guacamole Batman! - there's an article by a female writer. Scott, are you trying to make a point here? Anyway, Kayleen Schreiber is working on her PhD in neuroscience. Other than that we don't know much about Kayleen. Where is she studying? Is she a UCG member or some kind of generic fundamentalist? Scott clearly thinks you don't need to know. If you're expecting hard science here, think again. Snippet: "God made the physical world so wonderfully complicated that we will be studying it until Jesus Christ returns!"

Just when you thought you might escape from all this creationist drivel, along comes Dan Dowd with An Evolutionary Fantasy: Useless Body Parts.

Now you can relax and let out a short sigh of relief. But not for long as the next article up is Darris McNeely's Is the Bible True? Just what do you mean "true" Darris? As expected Darris takes a broad brush to the question and ends up painting the carpet. "Proof 1", in case you're in any doubt, is "fulfilled prophecy."

Next up it's the World News and Prophecy section. Brexit? What's that? To be fair, there are a couple of dumb references to BoJo the Clown (in an piece about German Leopard tanks):

Britain's next PM?

“The European Union is pursuing a similar goal to Hitler in trying to create a powerful superstate, Boris Johnson says . . . He warns that while bureaucrats in Brussels are using ‘different methods’ from the Nazi dictator, they share the aim of unifying Europe under one ‘authority.’ . . . “The former mayor of London, who is a keen classical scholar, argues that the past 2,000 years of European history have been characterized by repeated attempts to unify Europe under a single government in order to recover the continent’s lost ‘golden age’ under the Romans” (Tim Ross, “Boris Johnson: The EU Wants a Superstate, Just as Hitler Did,” May 15, 2016).

Beyond Today lapped it up. The authors (in the original Telegraph article) also mention that the reference to Hitler is "potentially inflammatory". You think?

Back to the toilet bowl with Tom Robinson sticking his head as far down as he can with an article entitled What's Behind the Transgender Movement? (You'll be as alarmed to know as I am that "bathrooms are just the beginning".) Behind? Movement? Sorry, just my scatological sense of the bizarre.

But wait. Tucked away toward the back of the mag is an article by Milan Bizic (that doesn't sound a very British name does it?) called What Made Britain Great? I looked to see if he mentioned the East India Company or colonial adventurism... but no.

On to a cherry-picked assortment of letters, then John LaBissoniere wrenches out as much significance as he can from the daily chore of washing the dishes.

Egad! Can our eyes be deceiving us? Another article by a female writer. Janet Treadway on Visiting Widows and Widowers in their Affliction. Obviously the drought has broken, even if it's left Scott a gibbering mess in the editorial room.

Robin Webber burbles on about something or other in A Promise is a Promise, and then somebody - perhaps Robin or maybe someone who isn't high-up enough on the totem pole to merit a byline - gets to write a feature entitled How Can You Correctly Understand God's Prophecies and Promises? Quote: "One awesome proof that the Bible is divinely inspired is its perfect harmony and consistency all the way through..." Has this guy actually ever read the Bible?

TV log, back page. Collapse over a coffee and take a moment to feel thankful that this is all a nightmare from the fundamentalist past. Once you've polished off the coffee and peanut brownies, take a drive down the newsstand and pick up copies of National Geographic and New Scientist. You're going to want to flush (ahem) this stuff out of your head as quickly as possible.

Available to download now.

More United than usual

The United Church of God is enjoying a "breather" from the disruptions and discord that have characterised its development thus far. At least, that's what Vic Kubik seems to be saying in the May-June issue of United News.

"We value the current period of peace in the Church and need to constantly remind ourselves it is only in this environment we can have the growth and forward movement we all desire."

Growth, one suspects, needs more than peace in the ranks (though that certainly helps). It requires engagement with the issues that concern an up and coming generation. Forward movement requires the ditching of reactionary thinking. UCG isn't doing so well there. Beyond Today is becoming an increasingly shrill right-wing publication fixated on discredited prophetic speculation. The same might be said for the approach behind the spectacularly unproductive America: The Time Is Now! tour. No future in that.

For those who might miss the Good News moniker and logo, it has been absorbed into the UN as a section heading.

Included in this issue is an obituary for former WCG South African Regional Director Bob Fahey.

It's interesting to compare UN with its LCG opposite number, Living Church News. UN seems the more balanced of the two, containing more actual 'news' and not talking down - perhaps it's better to say talking down less - to the membership than its counterpart. It's notable that Meredith dominates LCN pages, whereas there is no real cult of personality apparent in the UCG publication. Credit where credit is due.

The PDF is available to download.

Beyond Today - Clinging to the mold

(This is the first in the current series reviewing various COG publications)

The May-June issue of Beyond Today is out. If you thought the lads in UCG were interested in breaking the mouldy old mold by rebranding their flagship magazine, you must be hugely disappointed.

BI is back (not that it ever left) with a major back cover ad for the awful booklet some of us hoped UCG was quietly trying to drop.

Misogyny reigneth again. Not even one token woman listed in the staff box. There is an article by Janet Treadway though. Just a one-page reflection on the birth of a grandchild (congratulations Janet, lovely photo). But it still seems clear the lads wouldn't be happy having a female byline accompanying a big-boy-type article (you know, prophecy, tithing...)

The rest of the issue is pretty predictable. Scott Ashley editorialises his literal reading of the magic millennium. A "final crescendo" is building. The end-times armies will gather to Jerusalem to be wiped out by the armies of heaven. Happy days!

That well-known expert on the Middle East, Darris McNeely, pontificates on why Jerusalem is so very important. Darris was involved in "the big dig" in 1971, so he's clearly a pundit without peer.

Scott Ashley is back with an imperious bit of American exceptionalism, a flag-draped article about "The Global Power Vacuum". Let me get this straight, Scott doesn't vote, belongs to a supposedly apolitical sect, and yet races around his office on a mobility scooter chanting U.S.A.! U.S.A.!? The reason is - should there be any doubt - "Bible prophecy", which Scott naturally understands in great detail. The article concludes:

America is heading down a dark and dangerous path, and so is the rest of the world. Bible prophecy reveals where this path will lead—to a terrifying conclusion where, if not for God’s direct intervention, human life would be exterminated from all the earth (Matthew 24:21-22). 

You don’t need to tread this same path. You’re offered a much different way, a far better way, revealed in the pages of this magazine and your Bible. Instead of a vacuum of purpose in your life, you can fill your life with the understanding and real power that comes only from God. 

We hope and pray that you’ll choose wisely!

Then there's a nice little ad for their BI booklet to help make it all clear.

Apparently the US is heading toward some kind of election - who would have guessed it? - so Mike Kelley has radically rewritten the old chestnut article on voting. Mike assures us that "God doesn't oppose wealth", which is comforting given all the counterindications in the New Testament about eyes of needles and suchlike. But no, be ye reassured.

Helping those in poverty is often viewed as a hallmark of liberalism. But genuine concern for the poor seeks to alleviate their plight permanently through different means—by encouraging private charity and reducing wasteful human government programs and regulations to allow economic freedom leading to wealth creation and greater prosperity for all, including the poor.

Moreover, Jesus compared himself to a wealthy man. So there! The Koch brothers must love this guy.

The Bible does make a case for a liberty-oriented economy — what we would today call true capitalism or, perhaps better put, private property and free exchange.

Really? Can't wait for that booklet.

A number of readers may share Mike's weltanschauung, but it's hardly unbiased and is arguably inappropriate for a denominational publication. It does demonstrate the ongoing narrowing of COG engagement with the wider world, and a departure from the usual call for readers to disengage from the electoral process. I'm guessing - and I may be going out on a limb here - that Mike doesn't "feel the Bern".

Steve Myers writes about the Sabbath, "a precious place in time". Indeed, he describes it as "God's Sabbath benefit plan". Apparently it's the best thing since well before sliced bread.

Scott Ashley returns - obviously, he's been earning his salary this month - with an article on the Holy Spirit. Perhaps someone can explain why COG writers capitalize Holy Spirit when they believe it is a force not a person? Briefly, in the distant past, the WCG style guide seemed to flip on this issue and, for a very short time in the 1970s, it was holy spirit. Barely time to blink and it was back to capital letters "unto this very day".

Not to be outdone, Darris McNeely grabs his violin and pays a tithing sonata. Less said the better.

Someone who doesn't want to be identified by name has contributed an article called "The Valuable Benefits and Purpose of Bible Prophecy." As we say in this part of the world, "yeah, right!" Vince Szymkowiak writes about Pentecost and there's another anonymous bit of waffle about decision making.

This thing reads more like the Philadelphia Trumpet each month.

The PDF is available to download.

(Coming up next: Discern)

Beyond Today - Issue 2

The lads at the United Church of God have just released the second issue of their relaunched flagship magazine Beyond Today.

A major theme is the UCG's position on Passover (vs. Easter); "The Biblical Alternative to Easter" and an untitled follow-on by Jerold Aust. There's a hurry-up article encouraging the waverers to get baptised ("Are You Putting Off Your Salvation?"), and Peter Eddington asks "Was Jesus Really Resurrected?" The quality of Eddington's discourse might be judged by this quote: "Some of the New Testament books were written by eyewitnesses only a couple [of] decades after the purported events. If the whole story was made up, how credible would that have been?"

Defying any speculation about UCG's abandonment of British-Israelism, Darris McNeely has a predictable rant based on American exceptionalism. He asks (rhetorically) "Will America Be Great Again?", with an accompanying plug for the BI booklet. (Any old timers out there remember GTA pontificating on how, after Korea, "America has won its last war!"?)

How's this for a jingoistically myopic introduction?

I have on my desk a copy of Andrew Roberts’ A History of the English-Speaking Peoples Since 1900. The 2008 book shows the positive impact of America and Great Britain and others in the world since the turn of the 20th century. From the defeat of communism and Nazi aggression to the invention of vaccines and new crop strains that saved millions of lives, the story is one of the most remarkable in history.

The author states at the book’s conclusion that the English-speaking nations are “the last, best hope for mankind.” He goes on to say that, according to the lessons of history, the time of dominance of these peoples will fade and other powers like China or one yet to appear will rise and exert a “global sway.” Roberts concludes with a note of prophetic inevitability in saying that when the time of the English-speaking peoples fades, “the human race will come to mourn the passing of this most decent, honest, generous, fairminded and self-sacrificing imperium” (pp. 647-648). 

Should go down well with the BI brigade. Later he states:

America and the English-speaking nations have forgotten who made them great. These nations created the greatest expansion of wealth in the history of the world. But how? Because the God of Abraham was faithful in His promise to bless that patriarch’s descendants in the modern age. Yes, America and Britain are the foremost nations among them. Sadly, we don’t know this—as Isaiah said, we “do not consider.” Because we do not know this, we have turned to false religion and moral sin.

A nation like America cannot be replicated in this world. If it could, it would’ve already happened through all the foreign aid, intervention and nation-building. There is only one America. God placed this land and its people here for a divine purpose. It has grown large and great and free because the God of heaven made a promise to a man named Abraham. God has fulfilled that promise in history, and because He has, He will fulfill the spiritual promise of the offer of eternal salvation to all peoples. 

Where are the women?

Sounds to me like BI is alive, well and pulsing through the veins in UCG.

Scooping the unintended irony award is the anonymous writer of "False Predictions: How to Separate Truth from Counterfeits." There's also heavy promotion of the "America the Time is Now" presentations which, from all reports, have been wildly unsuccessful so far.

A closing observation. When the lads at UCG are referred to as "the lads", that's pretty much the literal truth. Women staff members, writers, even copy editors? Nope. Might as well be the 1950s.

The PDF is available to download.