Bwana Bob vs Daktari Dave

Bob lands one on Dave

It's a "rumble in the jungle", Church of God style. Bwana Bob Thiel seems to be taking over a major COG franchise in Tanzania, the operation formerly run by Daktari David Hulme. Not that we're going to learn that from Dave, who is about as forthcoming on his mini-me operation as the government of North Korea. The news comes via Prophet Bob's latest "letter to the brethren".

Bob's "pastor" in that part of the world is Evans Ochieng. Here's how Evans reports developments.

I noticed that so many people were in church of God in Tanzania. But due to poor management and relax made the congregations in Tanzania to die. The people who were in United and international community churches of God were so many in Tanzania. But poor management killed them. Before I met Andrew and his group, I met with Samson who was in United Church of God. This man was very happy to meet with me. When I introduced myself to him and and introduce the continuing church of God and the work we are doing, the man was so pleased. I gave him our magazines and statement of belief. I also explain to him why we know that continuing church of God is the only church where the truth is at this time. With prophesies, true salvation, repentance and ordained feasts. The work was so big in Tanzania that forced me to promise them another visit in July. So many people turned to join CCOG. It made me happy because of late, I wanted to pull off from Tanzania. What I noticed is that, pulling out wasn’t God’s plan. Satan was trying to block ways. But he is defeated. Martin was very happy when he met new people who are long-term members of God’s church. We were doing visitation to every member’s home. Every person whom we got his or her calling, we visit. The work was very good and made some steps a head.

After that we sat down and talk about the feast of tabernacles. How it can be organized this year. We noticed that people who will attend the feast of tabernacles this year in Tanzania will be many. We also noticed that to hire hotel for all those people will be very expensive. So Martin offered a land where we can put semi-permanent rooms to help those in Tanzania this year during the feast of tabernacles. I recommended their suggestions and when I was there I gave funds to start bringing sand. To make them it needs USD 2500. I hope this will help them and will make them steady. When I will be going back in July, I will also go and baptize 2 ladies who wanted baptism but I told Martin to continue teaching them the importance of baptism.

Bob adds:

‘Martin’ above is Martin Wanga.  He first contacted me in 2013. The ‘international community’ is a reference to the Church of God, an International Community (COGaIC)... That group initially had a relatively large presence in Africa, but many of COGaIC’s top US leaders left it a couple of years ago, and that affected their operations in Africa.

Hulme seems to have neglected Africa over a long period of time. Now that Dave's dreams have turned to custard, Africa has apparently dropped even further down the priority list. Developing local leadership and providing them with the skills to build and educate their congregations is a pretty basic imperative. It seems that, in the end, the COG-AIC members were desperate enough to jump into the arms of Evans and his Great White Prophet in California with not much thought or research. That's not as easy in Tanzania as it is in the developed West, but Dave certainly hasn't made it easier either. Out of the frying pan, into the fire.

And does Bwana Bob really expect the newly rebranded Hulmites will be his till the Second Coming? The sociological factors indicate otherwise. People who struggle to get ahead in Tanzania have a whole lot of reasons for attaching themselves to a blowhard American sect, and they're not the same reasons as recruits in the Anglo world. You can bet Prophet Bob hasn't factored that in. How can two guys who both boast PhDs be so clueless?

So it's a fail all round. It's also a bit pathetic and tragic.

The obvious question now is - just how many people remain with the once ambitious Hulme? We know the British and American churches have been hit hard, and now the African brethren appear to be sailing away from Dave across Lake Victoria and into the sunset.

Too bad they're heading off after Bob.

(HT to Gary)

Swallowing a large dead rat

Photoshopped image of former NZ Labour Party leader

I'm not sure whether the expression means much outside New Zealand, but here politicians occasionally speak of having to swallow a dead rat. Basically, it means that in the cause of political expediency (i.e. getting elected) some policies have to be embraced that those in power would rather consign to the trash bin.

British-Israelism is the dead rat that many COG insiders have decided must be swallowed. A significant number of both ministers and lay members in the less fanatical sects long ago realised that BI is just plain wrong. They'd like to see it go, but the resulting furore would be hugely damaging and divisive.

Witness David Hulme's group. Dave, a man with intellectual pretensions, reportedly tried to excise BI. The result? His micro-COG hit the rocks.

Witness a certain administrator at LCG's Living University. One day he's debunking BI, next moment there's a job offer with status and lots of moolah on offer - an easy path to a super-comfy retirement. Suddenly BI is back on the menu, a dead rat served with a garnish of parsley. His response? Pass the condiments.

The real issue, however, is that the COGs have taught BI for so long and with such uncompromising devotion that they've painted themselves into a corner. It's seen as a core belief. You have to suspect that "de-emphasis" has been suggested as a strategy more than once around the council table, but the stupider pastors won't have a bar of it. The dead rat stays!

You can't really blame the good folk in the pews either. They've been conditioned to resist "liberalism" (whatever they think that means) and shun Laodicean tendencies on pain of losing their salvation. Moreover, they've been browbeaten into thinking that the ministry knows best.

There are lots of people - a disproportionate number of them in positions of responsibility - who are fully aware that BI is horribly wrong. And yes, there are names here we'd all recognize. The effort to get rid of it is not worth the hassle, though. BI is wedded to a misplaced confidence that the movement has the inside track on understanding prophecy.

Which it doesn't.

If BI goes, the game - so, it is feared - is up.

So pass the dead rat. Perhaps it'll be more palatable with a nice jus and a side salad.

Vision - the COG Edsel?

There's a quote from Stephen Elliot, one of the Hulmerous ministers who jumped ship in 2013, quoted on the anonymous COG News site.

The final print edition

"Our membership has declined, not grown. After 15 years and an estimated expense for Vision of $3+ million dollars for salaries, advertising, publishing, design, shipping, PR, video, travel and whatever, there has been no fruit from Vision or the Vision website. The only new members, other than children of members, have come because of a personal relationship with a member - not because of Vision."

Hulme's COGAIC looks more and more like the COG equivalent of an Edsel as time goes by. UCG was probably lucky when Dave slammed the car door and drove off into the sunset. The difference between Vision and Edsel? Ford only kept the thing for three years; Hulme kept throwing tithe money into the furnace for sixteen.

In what may be an attempt to airbrush the embarrassment of dumping their flagship publication, COGAIC has removed all PDF links to past issues. All you'll find now is a curated selection of articles from each back issue.

Occluded Vision

Hulme

It seems to be official. The Hulmerous publication Vision - the pet project of David Hulme - is no more. At least in print form.

The latest issue, Winter 2016, is available, but only online as a collection of web articles.

Even then, with no further postage and printing costs, Dave pleads poverty: "Our quarterly online journal Vision is free of charge, but resources are limited."

Oh dear, how sad, never mind.

Money is tight brethren and costs need to be slashed. How many people do you think have been bumped off the payroll?

Weirdly, there isn't as much as a PDF magazine facsimile, or a flipping book version - the sort of thing COGWA do with their bimonthly Discern publication. Apparently it's all too hard.

Perhaps Dave, a onetime World Tomorrow presenter and founding president of the United Church of God (which he subsequently abandoned) has taken a drop in salary to go with the new austerity drive? That seems unlikely.

So is there a future for Hulme's secretive COGAIC? We know that a lot of its ministerial talent has, like rats, jumped ship. How its membership is holding up in the wake of all that trauma is hard to tell, COGAIC was never famous for its transparency. It is hard to imagine that the Hulmerous brethren will be elated by the media retrenchment, though.

Sixteen years after its launch Vision has been gutted and another ambitious COG splinter seems headed for the rocks.

Odds and Ends

LCG on trial. At the time this post went up, the GoFundMe page for the upcoming Scarborough suit had reached only $125 with just 4 donors over the last 8 days. The somewhat optimistic goal is 15k.

Magazine miscellany. Church of God periodicals, especially the minnows, seem to be in an increasingly parlous state; three examples.

CGI's Prevail has long enjoyed a beneath-the-carpets profile. While it has a very nice logo, it just seems to be a random collection of web articles, which means - in my book at least - that it's not actually a magazine. (Update: reading some of the comments it appears even people close to CGI are confused. Has it been discontinued? Was there a print edition late last year? Perhaps even the webmaster is confused...) You can, however, check it out for yourself here.

Meanwhile, David Hulme's quarterly journal Vision seems to be missing in action. It's now Spring up in the Northern Hemisphere and the last issue to see the light was Fall (Autumn) 2015. Vision was (is?) one of the least derivative periodicals in the COG stable, at least in terms of design and layout. Not so much a minnow as a beached whale, this is (was) a major periodical. Does this indicate troubles in paradise? Dave, tell us it ain't true.

Church of God Outreach Ministries (CGOM) is, according to a certain gentleman based in Arroyo Grande, ditching hard copies of its bi-monthly magazine (more a newsletter, really) New Horizons. It will now only be available online. Or maybe not. The latest issue still isn't - as this post goes up -  available on their website, nor anything for January/February. Perhaps energy levels are just running really low in Tulsa.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch. The sidebar here on AW has been reorganized, simplified and new links added over the last two weeks. The last several issues of The Journal can now be accessed directly, and just under that there's a new link to WCG stories that have appeared over the years in the LA Times.

hulme size

Fall 2008 report written by David Hulme

What I’d like to give you today is a progress report that will explain what we’ve been doing in the Church and the Work over the last year or so…

In some parts of the world you will find that there are a lot of people coming into the Church. You find quite a multiplying going on in Africa at the moment. you don’t find it very much in the UK, but it’s not true of everywhere in the UK. You don’t find it everywhere in the US…

What has been happening in the Church? In the US and Canada we have 1150 people in regular attendance and we have 53 churches. If you do your maths you realize that a lot of these churches are rather small…

At the Feast last year we had about 1300 people in attendance. Let’s go to other parts of the world. In Australia we have 68 people and six churches. In the Philippines we have 156 people and seven churches. In addition we have 11 members in six countries, remote areas all around Southeast Asia who are looked after by Australia. Last year we had 77 people at the Feast in Bright, in Australia, and 132 in Iloilo, in the Philippines.

In Africa we have an interesting situation. We have English and French speaking brethren there numbering 700! So they are a sizable portion of our total numbers. They are scattered through 38 congregations. A recent report I saw has congregations in places that even I was not aware we had people! So there are some small groups forming in countries where hitherto we have not had anybody.

In the UK we have about 300 people in 14 congregations. The Feast there is one of our larger ones, about 320 there last year. In Germany we have two congregations and 20 people. We have people of the German language background in Switzerland as well. We have France and Switzerland represented in the French language: 21 people in two congregations. In Scandinavia we have about 10 people, mostly in Denmark and Norway and Sweden, I believe. (Hulme D. Feast of Tabernacles 2008 Progress Report. Church of God, an International Community)

More on the Meakin matter

The buzz, according to a report received by AW, is that John Meakin and "honest, compassionate and effective leader" David Hulme (see below) had a "difference of opinion" over how the tithe money was being spent. Vision, it seems, is a thirsty beast, and there are those in COG-AIC who apparently believe that the dosh spent on the magazine might be better used in other ways: surely a deja vous moment, given the issues surrounding Hulme's departure from the UCG presidency.

Did Meakin walk out or was he pushed? That isn't clear, but rumor has it that John was spoiled for choice, being offered positions at both LCG and UCG.

Given the glowing professional endorsements of David Hulme on Naymz, I'm actually surprised that John could as much as raise his eyes to the Great One's shining presence. A sampling:

David is a highly intelligent individual, who is both creative and highly literate. Peter Nathan.

David seeks to know, live by and disseminate truth. He is an honest, compassionate and effective leader as a result of years of experience and practice of ethical and moral standards. Dr F Paul Roberts.

Knowing David Hulme has enhanced my life. Tom Fitzpatrick.

Dr. Hulme is a gentleman of highest integrity and moral standards. Bill Hendricks.

David is exceptionally capable and a keenly perceptive expert in International Relations. I ... have watched him always take the high road. His fair-minded approach and balanced outlook shines through whenever he speaks or writes. John Prohs.

David is the most intelligent and yet balanced person I know personally. A delight to be with him. You can trust him in anything. Winfried Fritz.

He is one of the most ethical, honest, and intelligent people I have ever known. Don Mitchum.

David Hulme is a scholar of the highest integrity... Gina Stepp.
Dear Lord, this man is almost perfect! One might note however that an endorsement from John Meakin is conspicuously absent from the hagiography. One might also note that something seems to be missing from the potted bio.

David Hulme holds a doctorate in International Relations from the University of Southern California with an emphasis on the Middle East. He has also studied theology, psychology and philosophy. He is the author of "Identity, Ideology and the Jerusalem Question" (Palgrave 2006) and a contributor to "What Makes Us Human?" by Charles Pasternak (ed) (Oneworld 2007). David Hulme is publisher of the quarterly journal, Vision, president of Vision Media Productions and chairman of Vision.org Foundation. In the Fall 2008 semester, he is lecturing in Middle East Politics at the University of Southern California.

What? No direct reference to his position as leader of an obscure schismatic sect? An oversight surely!

Meakin on the move

WCG, UCG, COG-AIC and now LCG. Over in Dear Old Blighty the much uprooted John Meakin has done it again; he's the latest elder to cross the tracks into Spanky's domain. Given John's current high profile at Vision, wouldn't you love to know the damage control measures David Hulme will lay on? Here's the report from Friday's Weekly Update.

Mr. Rod King reports: Recently we reported that Mr. and Mrs. Syd Hull had returned to the Living Church of God in South Africa. We are also happy to report that Mr. John Meakin has joined us. Mr. Meakin is a minister of thirty-three years’ experience in the United Kingdom and will be serving as Area Pastor in the south of England, including London. He has experience in editorial work and we look forward to receiving his help in this area.

There can't be too many flavor options left to John now... And given that the Titanic is the subject of several of John's fine articles (here's a particularly apt example) you have to wonder at his eagerness to leap aboard a rust bucket adrift among the icebergs. Quick John, paddle away while you can!

Meanwhile, the Lord's Anointed may be sidelined, but he's not going to let anyone forget who's the Big Cheese.

It is very encouraging to report that Mr. Meredith is doing much better after the mild stroke he experienced last weekend. He spent two days in the hospital undergoing some tests, but was released on Monday. He is now at home and has started daily rehabilitation exercises. We at Headquarters (Mr. Ames, Mr. Apartian, Mr. Crockett and I) had a 30-minute phone meeting with him on Tuesday and again today, Thursday. His voice is clear and his mind is sharp. He is diligently working through his rehabilitation program and is looking to God for strength and healing.

Stripped of the reassuring "hospital bulletin" tone, it would seem Rod's stroke wasn't so mild after all.

Vision or Blind Man's Bluff?

I'm old enough to remember The Plain Truth in its heyday.

Slick, professional.

Most latter-day COG publications attempt to clone the formula. UCG's Good News is probably the most successful while LCG's Tomorrow's World is just plain ugly; even a rank amateur could improve the design with a judicious choice of fonts. But the truth - dare one say the plain truth - is that time has moved on, and so has the art of magazine design, and the slavish imitators have been left far behind the cutting edge.

There is some irony then in the fact that the most imaginative packaging of the the COG product you'll find between two covers comes from one of the most conservative groups: the Church of God, an International Community: the David Hulme sect.

Vision is without doubt the most impressive periodical from the COG stable. Produced quarterly, it's imaginative, visual, and even looks good on a coffee table.

And - almost unbelievably - the content is not too bad either. There is a veneer of learning, the intimation of competence, the suggestion of sophistication. If you didn't know better you might deduce that this was a mildly scholarly journal.

The latest issue - an anthology - reinforces that impression. But a casual reader will be left wondering: why is it so hard to get hard data on the unknown church behind the journal, and why does publisher Hulme ostentatiously wear his PhD on his sleeve? Insecure?

The more informed reader will have questions too: the carefully cultivated image and seemingly balanced journalism hardly mesh with a group that restricts outsiders from attending its services and appears to hide information from non-members.

In a catch-22 situation, Vision has marketed itself over the heads of most prospective members. Who is it trying to impress? Or, given the structural nature of the beast, who is Hulme trying to impress? Most restrictive religious sects actively avoid any dalliance with the world of scholarship.

The Plain Truth, even at the height of its influence and circulation, was an ad man's confection: a monument to form over substance. Far more effectively than the clones, Vision is The Plain Truth of the twenty-first century. Its Achilles' heel may simply be that it is addressing the wrong audience.

Have camera - will schmooze

The Hulme sect - COG-AIC - is one of the few splinters to demonstrate scholarly interests, largely thanks to the personality (some might say the pretensions) of The Glorious Leader. In any case, Vision cameras and microphones were there at the November ASOR conference (American Schools of Oriental Research) in San Diego.

Whether Lawrence Stager, Eric Cline or James Strange had any idea exactly who was asking the questions is unknown, but archaeologists seldom pass up a chance to talk about their work, so probably not. Regardless of that issue, all three provided brief interviews for Vision, and all three are worth viewing if you have an interest in history and the Bible. Last year I posted a couple of brief items about Cline's book (which debunks Ten Tribes theories such as BI) here and here. Interesting that COG-AIC didn't quiz the professor about that part of his work.

The videos are available on Peter Nathan's First Followers blog.

On the subject of COG-AIC (Church of God - An International Community) David Hulme has contributed a chapter to a volume called What Makes Us Human? According to the blurb: " In What Makes Us Human? some of the world's most brilliant thinkers offer their answers to this perennial puzzle..."

Uhhhhh...

Bloggin' with Peter Nathan

Peter Nathan was once the regional director for the WCG in New Zealand, sandwiched between Bob Morton and Raymond McNair. Our paths never crossed as I left the church shortly before the great man took up the helm. These days he continues in the ministry of the Hulme sect, COG-AIC.

You've got to hand it to Hulme, he produces a spiffy magazine by COG standards, and rubs shoulders with an impressive cross section of scholars. Peter Nathan follows in his steps with a blog - part of the sect's official Vision site - called First Followers. For a fringe Adventist group with decidedly unorthodox leanings, these guys seem to have built up a surprising degree of credibility. First Followers has begun to appear on lists of scholarly blogs. If nothing else, this WCG/UCG splinter has a talent for convincing PR. (Needless to say, though, there's no facility for Peter Nathan's readers to post comments.)

The problem is that, despite the appearance of articulate views and informed opinions, COG-AIC is, to put it as charitably as possible, right up there with Appalachian snake handlers and Polygamist Mormons in the estimation of much of the theological establishment. Impartial academics they are not.

David Hulme and Clive James

Lord have mercy; David Hulme has written a book. It has the riveting title: “Identity, Ideology and the Future of Jerusalem.”

Not a book about the Bible or church history, which you might expect, but a $65 (£40.00) 260 page tome on the contemporary Middle East.

Oh, well done David! How many people in his mini-sect will be able to afford a copy? And will anyone outside his forgettable fellowship even be bothered?

Yes, this is David Hulme the COG-AIC sect leader, reputedly one of the most secretive, exclusivist Church of God splinters. The David Hulme who was once something of a poster-boy for the Tkach reforms. The David Hulme who was dumped as founding president of the UCG.

The blurb doesn’t give much away: “Exploring the lives of fourteen key Palestinian and Jewish leaders, this fascinating study examines the roles of identity and ideology in the search for a resolution to the final-status issue of Jerusalem.”

I’m not sure why David thinks he’s qualified to pontificate on this issue. I’m not sure why the sect is promoting his book for him on their Vision website. Does David think this is “preaching the gospel”?

Palgrave Macmillan, an academic publisher, describes the book on their website: “Using the clinical method of (recalled personal history) to examine the crucial place that Jerusalem has occupied in the identity and ideology core of fourteen key Palestinian and Jewish/Israeli leaders in the more-than-100-year Arab-Zionist impasse, this fascinating study explores the roles of identity and ideology in preventing or promoting a resolution between Israel and the Palestinians on the final-status issue of Jerusalem.”

Sounds like a real page-turner. Too bad Dave didn’t use the clinical method in question to examine the shattered lives of people a little closer at hand, the followers of Herbert Armstrong. Now there's a subject where Dave has unchallenged expertise.

It’ll be interesting to see how the Hulme book is reviewed (if it is reviewed.) Will it live up to its PR, or just fade into obscurity, another expensive “think big”, ego-driven, tithe-funded white elephant?

Of course, we all hope Dave's book will sell quadzillions of copies. To that end a little blessing from Clive James is called for. Enjoy!

Tunnel Vision

I once wrote that Vision, the flagship magazine of David Hulme’s group, was the best of the bunch. Wrong. It’s merely the most pretentious.

That realization was brought home after reading the Vision review of James Tabor’s The Jesus Dynasty. Sect heavyweights Hulme and Peter Nathan (former WCG Regional Director for New Zealand) collaborated on a lengthy pasting of Tabor’s book. Fair enough, if the criticism is valid. But is it?

They begin by lumping Dynasty together with The Last Week by Jesus Seminar scholars Crossan and Borg. Why? These are very different books. The Last Week gets the briefer treatment, and Crossan and Borg are chided for (wait for it!) not adopting the Wednesday crucifixion theory! Hulme and Nathan are then reduced to citing antiquated sources (Torrey, 1907; Pearson, 1939; Bullinger, 1922) to make Herbert Armstrong’s adopted reconstruction look credible (it’s noticeable that they don’t cite Hoeh.) The trouble is that the theory is a curiosity that has never gained acceptance, probably for very good reasons. If Hulme thinks this is the crux of a relevant discussion of The Last Week then he obviously needs to reread the book.

Tabor is the next for the chop, but here the Pasadena-based duo has to be careful. Tabor has previously been interviewed in Vision, and in their Paul television promotional, as a scholarly authority. What to do? The strategy they adopt is to both slap him around and then pat him on the head with an air of condescension.

The criticism: Tabor “doesn’t examine every side of an issue”, miracles “have no place in Tabor’s approach to history”, he believes that Paul and James were “antithetical” to each other; he believes “the Gospels were not written by eyewitnesses”, he adopts a Thursday crucifixion reconstruction, and he suggests Jesus didn’t use matzos at the Last Supper. Then, in a final sideswipe, they accuse the unfortunate Dr. Tabor of being a “neo-Ebionite.”

Ouch.

While some have expressed keen reservations about the approach Dr. Tabor takes in The Jesus Dynasty, Vision’s rather facile objections miss those issues entirely.

If anyone deserves to be labeled “neo-Ebionite” it’s church leaders like Hulme. The Ebionites were the Jewish Christians of the first century. Mind you, Hulme isn’t a very good Ebionite because he tries to hold together the Old Testament elements alongside Protestant assumptions. Neither fish nor fowl, there’s a built in contradiction at the heart of this posture which just doesn’t work (witness the disintegration of the WCG.)

There are strong reasons why the Gospels can’t be regarded as eyewitness documents – and they’re spelled out in any college level textbook on the subject. Putting aside the speculative side of Tabor’s book, in this matter he’s only telling it like it is – honestly.

Miracles have no part to play in an academic approach to history. That doesn’t mean they can’t happen, or that there are no fairies at the bottom of Hulme’s garden, it just means that if you’re writing history you can’t excuse a weak argument with special pleading.

And if Hulme and Nathan aren’t aware of the broad consensus on the tension between the Jerusalem Church and the Pauline mission, well, they’re not nearly as well read as they make out.

A final observation: the story of the early church is a bit like a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle with 900 pieces missing. The actual hard data is surprisingly thin, and any reconstruction – Tabor’s, Crossan’s or Hulme’s – must be speculative to some extent. Some reconstructions are more probable than others, but if you had to put them on a scale of most to least likely, the traditional Armstrong version would drop right off the improbability end with a solid clunk.

If The Jesus Dynasty has rattled a few COG cages then that’s no bad thing.


Addendum: You can hear James Tabor speaking about his book on Tulsa Public Radio.