Spanky: worse than a murderer/molester

“causing church division is worse than murder or child molestation”
Roderick "Spanky" Meredith

Dear old Spanky. In depositions to the Scarborough case, the Presiding Evangelist (semi-retired) of the Living Church of God came out with the above wee gem (read Elizabeth Scarborough's account in full over at Gary's blog.)

Mrs Scarborough is restrained in her comment: "Ironic since he’s formed two churches through division himself ..."

Yes Spanky, tell us again how you simply had to cause division by incorporating the Global Church of God? How you actively encouraged WCG members to join up and transfer their tithes. How did that work? Did the angel Moroni appear to you perhaps? Where's the authorization for such a radical departure from your own "loyalty" teaching over long decades? And who placed you, other than you yourself - the self-crowned pretender - in charge?

To restate the problem, how did the necessary transfer of power, legitimacy, authority and tithes come about to make your inflated claims even slightly credible?

It all happened in your head.

How convenient.

Then again, when concerned office holders in your new GCG church - the one you thought should be your personal fiefdom - sought to reign your ego in and establish some much needed checks and balances, what did you do?

Cause division. Ruin reputations. Cause financial loss for many good, decent people. All because you were obsessed with your own delusions of entitlement and authority.

In fact, you scuppered the ship and established another more compliant entity to serve your needs, the Living Church of God, and stacked it with spineless yes-men. To hell with the collateral damage.

Spanky, your middle name could be "division".

God didn't raise up the Global Church of God - you did. You did it by deliberately, strategically, preying on confused and vulnerable brethren. You could have, if your conscience (do you have one of those Spanky?) so required fallen in with an already existing group like the UCG. But no, you were far too important to play second fiddle to anybody else.

God didn't raise up the Living Church of God - you did to satiate your own ego and sense of self importance and destiny as the "leading minister". Division? You're a past master.

And that makes you - according to none other than you yourself - worse than a murderer or child molester.

In this case I'm not going to argue with you.

(Last) Days of Our Lives

Gary has been providing his usual excellent coverage of events in LCG, including the preliminaries to the upcoming Scarborough lawsuit which officially kicks off on July 11. This summary from the pro-COG COG News.

Gerald Weston and his wife plan to move into their new home in Charlotte, North Carolina, on July 15, ready for him to take over the daily administration of the church on Monday the 18th.

Over 200 subpoenas have been issued to LCG members (including ministers) for their depositions by the attorney acting for Patrick and Elizabeth Scarborough, who are suing Rod Meredith and Rod McNair personally, and as officials of the Living Church of God, for Defamation of Character and ‘Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress’.

Lucky Gerry. And interesting timing. Has Gerry been handed a poisoned chalice?

Odds & Ends

Rush hour in Ngatea

UCG Down Under: Victor Kubik has returned to the States after a trip to Australia and New Zealand. The New Zealand leg of the presidential visit was firmly focused on what remains of the church in this country following the late 2010 defection of ministers Jeff Caudle, Art Verschoor and Andre van Belkum. Holding down the fort now is Daniel Porteous. The visitors eschewed the sulphurous delights of Rotovegas (Rotorua) and the high life in Queenstown, choosing instead to "tiki-tour" around Auckland before carpooling on Saturday to a blip on the map called Ngatea, chosen because the location is equally inconvenient for members from both Auckland and the Tron (Hamilton) to travel to. The attendance was about forty.

LCG suit: Gary's site has published a letter from Patrick and Elizabeth Scarborough announcing that they have taken down their GoFundMe page because of "untrue statements which have been made to paint us in a negative light". They add.

I would also like to take this opportunity to let people know that we had our lawyer write Mr. Meredith and Rod McNair a letter last summer stating that we had no desire to take this matter to court. We beseeched them to contact us within 7 business days to schedule a meeting to talk things out but they let the deadline come and go. We have made it clear that we do not desire to be reinstated as LCG members but that we just wanted to walk in peace, have our names cleared, and be able to openly love our few remaining LCG friends without them risking getting in trouble themselves.

Scarborough Crowdfunding

Patrick Scarborough has opened a page on GoFundMe to help raise funds for the upcoming action with LCG and its legal team.

They have hired a powerful and expensive law firm to fight us. While they have a huge pool of tithe-payer funded cash to pay their legal fees, we do not. We have opened this GoFundMe account in hopes that people will help us fight for justice.  All money raised will go to pay our legal fees. If any should remain, we will donate it to St. Jude's Research Center. Please help if you can. We are most grateful for any assistance! The WCG and the LCG have left many hurt, broken, bullied and abused members in their wake.  Most felt they were defenseless and did nothing. We seek justice both for ourselves and for the many others whose lives have been negatively impacted by these organizations.

Click on the link above or here if you'd like to help out.

(HT to Gary who's been following developments closely.)

Gary's scoop on Scarborough lawsuit

From the court document

News on the Banned by HWA blog of a potentially embarrassing lawsuit that the Living Church of God (LCG) has been keeping under wraps. Longstanding members Patrick and Elizabeth Scarborough of Charlotte, NC are alleging intentional infliction of emotional distress.

According to an informant on Gary's site, both Presiding Evangelist Roderick Meredith and Rod McNair are also being sued individually for defamation of character. Similar charges against the late Bob League have apparently been dismissed.

Gary's informant notes: "The lawsuit was initiated in September of 2015 and they have already gone to court once. It looked like LCG tried to get everything dismissed but was mostly unsuccessful."

Gary's take on the situation is available here. Proceedings are set down for July 11.