Cult botch?

Cult watch groups are a bit like Contrary Mary: when they're good they're okay but when they're bad they're worse than useless. The least credible cult watch groups are those that hide behind a nifty URL but provide no information about the sponsors - individual or corporate. Those dudes could have variable competence or a wacky agenda, who's to know?

Consider this entry at www.cults.co.nz.

Worldwide Church of God (New Zealand). Under investigation. We have been informed that the Worldwide Church of God in New Zealand is turning away from the teaching of Joseph Tkach and is returning to Armstrongism. See Worldwide Church of God (United States) for more information about the WCoG's reformation away from Armstrong's false teachings.

Uh? Well, that's a surprise. But does this information have credibility? Who or what is cults.co.nz anyway? The person responsible is Ian Mander, but in our eagerness to contact him AW ran up against a minor problem: no email address. Ian seems to be well regarded among his peers, and has got himself some publicity with his views on a group called "Gentle Wind." There is supposed to be a contact form but - wouldn't you know it - "the feedback form/survey is offline at present."

My advice to Ian (apart from fixing the contact thing) is to simply pick up the phone and give Rex Morgan a ring. Rex is a decent fellow and has a reputation for being an honest bloke. I'd be very surprised if he was leading any charge back into the herbal fog-bank.

Oh yeah, it took years to get around to it but - behold - WCG-NZ finally has a web presence. Congrat's Rex, but ya gotta do something with that church news page...

Joe Jr. - The leopard's spots remain

Every now and then I fall into the trap of imagining the Tkach WCG isn't all that bad compared to the hairier splinters. Big mistake. Great Helmsman Joe isn't in the same league of outré as Flurry, Pack, Meredith et al., but surely that makes his apparent death grip on the organization all the more unacceptable.

Case in point, the laughable (and downright cultic) by-laws of the WCG, available on Stan's blog: read 'em and weep!

Then there's the strange case of the Canadian WCG being brought to heel earlier this year. Again, Stan is the man with the details.

WCG is not any kind of mainstream evangelical denomination, not as long as it avoids accountability by hiding behind a caricature of "episcopal" governance.

Nor as long as Joseph Tkach Jr. sits unchallenged and unchallengeable on the throne of his father, Joe I, and validates his "episcopal" authority through Herbert W. Armstrong.

Unelected, unaccountable, without a mandate. Why is he still there?

The very first editorial appearing on the old Missing Dimension/AW website was on this very issue. The years have gone by, promises have been made and forgotten. Nothing appears to have changed. Wasn't it Kruschev who said: "Promises are like pie crusts, made to be broken"?

Joe Tkach, shame on you!

The Surprising Ted Johnston

Having just listed The Surprising God blog among the top five I'd prefer to avoid, I was sent back there today to check out the following remarkable statement by Ted Johnston.

...the idea of universal reconciliation, which is a key aspect of WCG's Christ-centered, Trinitarian Theology.

OK, I'm surprised.

It's not that the chief honchos in the Tkach group - Mike Feazell take a bow - haven't dropped enough hints, but when did universal reconciliation become more than a favored speculation?

And while we're at it, what is WCG's position now on the form of Universal Reconciliation preached by the late Ernest Martin back in the 1970s? You can check out Ernie's views on this subject here.

Universal Reconciliation is a teaching that goes a very long way back in Christian history, at least as far as Origen. Eventually (and I'm paraphrasing here) all sentient life - human and angelic - will be received back into God's loving embrace - maybe even Satan and his minions. Wikipedia has a useful discussion of the issue.

It's enough to send traditional, humorless, bile-driven Calvinists into a frenzy, though a few obscurantist fringe thinkers of that ilk (like Barth) seemed to have taken it seriously.

The Armstrong-era WCG also toyed with the idea.

Don't get me wrong... I quite like the idea of universal reconciliation. If you're going to proclaim a gospel of grace, and don't want to transform God into a double-predestination monster, then it makes a good deal of sense. Any aggravation it causes fundamentalists is an added bonus!

But, when did it gravitate to the heart of WCG dogma: "a key aspect of WCG's Christ-centered, Trinitarian Theology"?

Or has Ted got it all wrong?

What might Joe Tkach's buddies in the NAE make of this? After all, as the Wiki article states: Evangelicals and related Christian denominations have published extensively against universalism in recent decades, defending the doctrine of perpetual Hell.

Clarification please!

Growing Up WCG

This guy - a former second generation member - tells it like many of us feel, especially on the vexed question of reconnecting with another stream of Christian tradition, and coming to terms with the conflicted feelings that endure.



Thanks to Shadows of WCG who gave it first exposure.

Part 2 is here - also worth watching.

Why does Joe have a dog in this fight?

WCG makes the news by sticking its hooter into the inter-Episcopal dispute.

The United Methodist Church and a handful of other religious bodies have rallied to the side of Virginia's Episcopal Diocese as it seeks to reclaim millions of dollars worth of property from breakaway congregations in court.

The U.S.-based Methodists, as well as two African branches and the Worldwide Church of God, joined the Episcopal Church this week in challenging the constitutionality of a Civil War-era Virginia law on which the case likely hinges.

What interests does WCG have here?


Update: Stan has some further detail and links over at his excellent AR blog

Russell Duke's Fertilizer Business

So much trivia, so little time.

For example, Grace Communion Seminary. How did that slip past me?

There's a link on the WCG home page, and another to the unmemorable ACCM. Apparently they aren't the same thing... or are they? And does anyone care?

Competition for Living University? Russell dukes it out with Michael Germano (warning - violent content, do not click.) Is Dr. G still on board? I'm not sure...

Now if "Grace" only offered a BTh I would gladly transfer so I don't have to write a 3000 word essay on the authorship of the Pastoral letters before the end of the month!

A little observation to finish with regarding the word seminary.

It was the Lutheran pietists who coined the term (another essay, don't ask!): "a term whose root means a hothouse for tender plants - to be nourished ostensibly by the loads of 'fertilizer' dumped on them by their professors!" (Carter Lindberg, in an address at Lutheran Theological Seminary)

So yeah, good name!

WCG reaches back to its real roots

It should come as no surprise that the ministry of Tkach's WCG is currently having a sweaty, torrid affair with Karl Barth and the Torrance brothers. WCG's roots reach back beyond the Church of God (Seventh Day) and the Seventh Day Baptists. Not to some imaginary unbroken lineage of sabbatarian True Believers anchored in the first century, but to the pestiferous Puritans. Herman Hoeh and Dugger & Dodd had it grievously wrong. Forget Peter Waldo, the WCG's great granddaddy was a highly confused Calvinist in the Church of England.

If that sounds a bit far fetched consider this, almost all Anglo-Protestant denominations and sects have been victims of the Puritan meme: Baptists, Brethren, Adventists, Mormons, Methodists, Quakers, Presbyterians, Congregationalists and Episcopalians. You have to retreat to Catholic, Orthodox or Lutheran theology to escape the worst of its overpowering influence.

Which is why WCG once had such drawing power. Strict sabbatarianism, for example, only makes sense in the context of deformed Reformed theology.

The Puritans also raised speculation on The End Times to an art form and railed against Christmas. Sound familiar? The godly non-conformists would have loved the Bible Hymnal, preferring to sing only the psalms. (In fact Dwight Armstrong raided the Calvinist cupboard in putting his hymns together.)

Of course, in subsequent centuries the Puritan imperative has gone forth to multiply and mutate, partly thanks to those tenacious Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth Rock. Surface details may differ dramatically among their descendants, but the same Calvinist DNA underlies the astonishing variety.

Even Arminius sprang forth from the Calvinist matrix.

WCG has abandoned only its fictional roots. It's an idea worth exploring, and to set the ball in motion here's a link to From Sunday to Sabbath: The Puritan Origins of Modern Seventh-day Sabbatarianism by Ralph Orr, available at wcg.org.

Obituary for two?

The man who became the world's best known co-worker in the WCG has died aged 64; but according to the New York Times it wasn't just Bobby Fischer that passed into the great beyond.

. . . (Fischer) tithed the Worldwide Church of God, a fringe church he had become involved with beginning in the early 1960’s. The church, now defunct, followed Hebrew dietary laws and Sabbath proscriptions and believed in the imminent return of Jesus Christ. For a time, Mr. Fischer lived in Pasadena, Calif., the church’s home base, or nearby Los Angeles, where he was said to spend his time replaying chess games and reading Nazi literature. There were reports that he was destitute, though the state of Mr. Fischer’s finances was never very clear.

A fringe church... now defunct? Well, fringe certainly, but still very much with us. And as someone else notes, surely he tithed to WCG. "Tithing WCG" sounds as though he took a 10% commission from church coffers (a nice trick if you could pull it off.)

Apparently someone (it may have been Mark Kellner) set them straight, and the online edition has been edited thusly:

At the same time, he tithed to the Worldwide Church of God, a fringe church he had become involved with beginning in the early 1960s. The church followed Hebrew dietary laws and Sabbath proscriptions and believed in the imminent return of Jesus Christ. For a time, Mr. Fischer lived in Pasadena, Calif., the church’s home base, or nearby Los Angeles, where he was said to spend his time replaying chess games and reading Nazi literature. There were reports that he was destitute, though the state of Mr. Fischer’s finances was never very clear.

So it seems WCG has been de-defuncted. That must be a relief for the lads in Glendora, though the way the article is written still gives the impression that church members keep a copy of Mein Kampf beside their Bibles.

Addendum: Pasadena Star News columnist Larry Wilson now leaps into the act with an article that tries to clarify Fischer's WCG connection. Here's an excerpt:
I know that some Pasadenans don't like to hear it, because the concerts in the auditorium of Ambassador College on the church's fancy West Pasadena campus were so fine and high-culture and whatnot. But it was all a charade - the Armstrongs didn't give a damn about culture. They just wanted what had been known as the Radio Church of God to be accepted in what they thought of as their snooty new hometown. But growing up around the church in Pasadena, with its neurotically manicured dichondra lawns - weeding labor courtesy of the automatons in white shirts and dark ties or little twinsets who pretended to be college students - the place always gave me the Stepford creeps.

Ouch! But Wilson doesn't do his credibility any favors by sloppy research, for example he names Herb's son Gardner Ted.

The 34 500

Bill Lussenheide draws attention to the current membership statistics of the WCG in a recent posting in the comments section. The full account is contained in the latest issue of Together, and it makes interesting reading.

Membership figures seems to be based on attendance rather than those baptized, and even then the results are incredibly modest. There are, according to Randy Dick, 10,873 faithful folk left in the US. The next highest figure comes the Philippines (6225) then, from north of the border 4476 confused Canuks.

Next on the national hit parade come the Ockers (a.k.a. Australians) with a membership of 1438.

The Democratic Republic of Congo - where presumably limited flow of information, illiteracy and poor access to the Internet work in the church's favor - chalks up 900 followers.

Poor old Britannia manages to scrape a membership of only 871, while New Zealand comes well down the list with 183.

The total membership worldwide is now calculated at 34,500 (though elsewhere on their website they still claim 42,000) - and that appears to mean regular attendees. In short, the WCG is rotting from the inside out. And that despite desperate infusions of neo-Calvinist nonsense in the form of Karl Barth and Presbyterianism's terrible twosome, the brothers Torrance.

Those with get up and go have, well, got up and gone.

That doesn't mean WCG is about to fold: lots of income to be gleaned from the estates of the deceased; certainly enough to keep Joe and Co. in clover for life.

But in case anyone hadn't realized it, WCG is effectively dead on its feet anyway.

The Reich Stuff

I've been putting off some promised comments about Dr John Buchner's PhD thesis (University of Western Sydney) for far too long. Some time ago John kindly sent me a copy of The Worldwide Church of God: A study of its transformation in terms of K. Helmut Reich’s theory of Relational and Contextual Reasoning. As the title indicates this is a dense dissertation.

John, a former WCG member who later found a spiritual home among the conservative Anglicans of Sydney, attempts to apply the yardstick of cognitive psychology (as fashioned by Reich) to headquarters employees of the Worldwide Church of God. He draws on Reich's classification system to determine how well these insiders deal with that hoary old conundrum, the trinity. Initially willing to co-operate at a corporate level (i.e. Joe Tkach), the response from individual HQ personnel to the questionnaires was apparently less than enthusiastic, which is understandable as the whole project must have seemed both personally threatening and highly judgmental. I'm not well known for my empathy with church officials, but can certainly understand why some quickly became less than co-operative; it's probably a wonder that someone didn't inform Dr Buchner exactly where he could shove his questionnaire.

Is the end product a worthwhile contribution to the arcane field of WCG studies? Well, I guess that depends both on your perspective and your interests. I've had to wade through some pretty impenetrable stuff in my own theological studies, but I can honestly say that for me this thesis came close to setting a new benchmark.

That said, the thesis is carefully, if not clearly, argued. This is an area in which I have zero expertise, so any comments either positive or negative should be taken with a truck-load of salt. Two observations from the cheap seats:

1. Dr Buchner's work seems to make a number of faith-based assumptions, most obviously on the trinity doctrine.

2. Reich himself, whose work under-girds the thesis, seems to be a fringe figure in his own field. The man seems to be a polymath, studying physics and electrical engineering, working as a particle physicist, writing on religious education and cognitive development, and holding an honorary doctorate in theology. But, as Buchner concedes, "Reich’s work to date has been incorporated in few psychology textbooks." (p. 46)

To do justice to John's work would require a lengthy review, not a single blog entry - or even a series. Here however, for those so motivated, are links to PDF copies of the various sections.

Detailed Chapter Contents, Abstract

Ch. 1 Introduction to the WCG and the Cognitive Conversion of Its Leaders

Ch. 2 Literature review of Helmut Reich’s theory of Relational and Contextual Reasoning

Ch. 3. Relational and Contextual Reasoning related to Christology and the Christian Doctrine of the Trinity

Ch. 4 - Method: the qualitative application of Relational and Contextual Reasoning to the case study

Ch. 5 - Results of Study 1: A review of opposing interpretations of the Trinity as a cognitive construct, and transition from rejection to acceptance of the doctrine, in search of an explanation consistent with Relational and Contextual Reasoning

Ch. 6 - Results of Study 2: Analysis of responses to a survey of Worldwide Church of God leaders in regard to their understanding of the Trinity, in terms of Relational and Contextual Reasoning

Ch. 7 Discussion and Conclusion

References and Bibliography

Appendices A-E

TIME archives sorry tale

TIME magazine's religion section chronicled the major tribulations of the WCG during the 1970s. In a pre-Internet age it was one of the few ways members and co-workers could keep up with the play: the church itself could only be relied on for spin. Those articles are now archived online, available again for any who care to search them out.

May 1972: Garner Ted Armstrong, Where Are You? (I vividly remember this one!)
June 1972: Garner Ted Returns
March 1974: Trouble in the Empire
June 1978: Strong-Arming Garner Ted
Jan 1979: Propheteering?
Feb 1981: When Mammon serves God (the WCG features in the second half of the article)

Relive a little history, and then breathe easier knowing that today the Empire is as shattered as Humpty Dumpty.

Doh!

The Simpsons Movie is out, and a new cultural high water mark has been reached that far surpasses Dovstoyesky's modest pot-boilers. To celebrate the movie's release, Pastor Generalissimo Joe Tkach, unelected "president-for life" of the WCG, has produced what is obviously a tribute to Homer Simpson. Read the following (source) in a Bart or Homer voice and you'll see what I mean.

* * * *
SPECIAL LEGAL NOTICE to all U.S. and International Pastors, Mission Directors and National Directors

As most of you know, the Worldwide Church of God, USA ("WCG") and Plain Truth Ministries Worldwide ("PTM") became totally separate and distinct legal entities, effective January 1, 2006, in a friendly disassociation approved by, among others, the Board of Directors and the Advisory Council of Elders. Subsequently, on August 4, 2006, the WCG transferred to PTM all its right, title, and interest to the United States Trademark "The Plain Truth" (the "Trademark").

WCG has no rights to the Trademark (subject to an exception that WCG may mention the magazine in reciting the WCG history, but no one should rely upon this exception without first discussing it with the Legal Department).

So as to be clear, in the present case the Trademark is a title – i.e. the words "The Plain Truth." When I refer to "the Trademark," I mean this title or its legal equivalent, the title "Plain Truth."

Since WCG no longer owns the United States Trademark, WCG is directing that all entities under the legal control of WCG (defined below) discontinue all present mentions of the Trademark in any U.S. media and refrain from any future use or mention of the Trademark in the United States. Precisely what this means is explained more below.

Entities under the legal control of the WCG include, for example, but are not limited to, all American churches and any international National Church or any local congregation of a National Church which operates in its country (a) under the registration of the WCG, California Corp. or the WCG D.C. Corp., or (b) where the legal link to the WCG is such that the international National Church or its congregations are subordinate to the WCG in that it must obey the operational directives of the WCG.

The WCG requests, and strongly advises, any entity related ecclesiastically to the WCG, even though it not be legally controlled by WCG (defined below), to also discontinue any present mention of the Trademark in the United States and refrain from future mention. Although the WCG would not incur liability for any infringement by an entity not legally controlled by it, the entity in question may still incur liability for itself if it infringes on the Trademark.

Entities affiliated ecclesiastically but not controlled legally by the WCG would be those that are recognized by the WCG as part of the denomination, but which would not be legally bound under the terms of its own charter, statutes, articles, bylaws, or the laws of its country, to obey directives of the WCG in this matter.

Discontinuation of present use and refraining from future use means to not mention or display the Trademark in any media, including, without limitation, print, radio, television, and the internet which circulates in the United States, or which originates on a web site that is hosted in the United States. This means, for example, that we are directing that no newsletter, magazine, broadcast, and no web pages of WCG or local web pages of any of its American local congregations, and no web pages hosted by the WCG directly or indirectly (even though the web page may be that of a non-controlled affiliate) may mention the Trademark (unless, of course, you have the written permission of Plain Truth Ministries Worldwide, which it may or may not grant). For example, a controlled entity may not in the United States advertise a magazine which carries the Trademark, may not show its picture, and may not link to the Plain Truth Ministries Worldwide website without its written permission.

We are directing that the Trademark not be infringed here in the United States because it is a registered United States Trademark. At least two other international magazines, one from England and one from Malaysia, each use the same words as the Trademark in their title, and, presumably own the words they use as their own trademark in their own country, and perhaps in other places outside their country also (although not in the United States). These entities may continue to use their own trademark in their own areas. They may wish to check with their own legal counsel for further clarification.

Nonetheless, no controlled entity of the WCG may show pictures of, advertise, nor mention the magazine with the American trademark, nor mention or advertise the two other international magazines with the same words of the Trademark, in any media it produces and originates or circulates in the United States. For example, the WCG publication Together may not advertise either of the other two magazines (published in England and Malaysia) which use the same words as the Trademark, even though the other two magazines own their own trademarks in their own countries.

The WCG wishes to stress that this directive is to ensure that the WCG, nor any of its controlled entities, inadvertently infringe upon the Trademark. This directive does not indicate any ill-will between the WCG and PTM. No such ill will exists. The dictates of the United States trademark laws require the foregoing restrictions on use. Now that PTM owns the Trademark, it is a fact that it may lose its rights in the Trademark if it allows others to use the Trademark improperly. If the circumstances were reversed, PTM would be required to issue the same directive, and would do so.

I want to stress that our policy here is slightly more restrictive than the law requires, and that the WCG is not, by adopting this strict policy, agreeing to abide by a stricter standard than the law requires, nor is it waiving any rights of any kind it may have in the matter. Although it is possible that, under some very special circumstances, a mention of the Trademark may be allowable because such mention fits within a legally recognizable permitted fair or informational use with or without a disclaimer, or because such a mention is historic, such mentions would be rare and to avoid inadvertent infringements our internal policy is that no mentions of any kind may be made without advance permission from the Legal Department.

Finally, we understand that this issue is complex and the requirements of the law sometimes appear counterintuitive and contrary even to the Trademark owner's own interests. Therefore, we invite anyone who needs clarification of any kind to contact the Legal Department by email at Legal.office@wcg.org. We prefer the questions be in writing so that we may clearly understand the situation and reply in writing as well.

* * * *

So could this have something to do with the bizarre anti-church gospel being preached by Joe's former best-buddy and Plain Truth "owner-operator" Greg ("religion is bad") Albrecht? Is Joe embarrassed over Greg? Is Greg embarrassed over Joe? Do they still exchange Xmas cards? Is Joe still on the PTM board? Does anyone with living brain cells find this directive convincing? Is Greg still a minister of WCG, or even a member? If he isn't, how come he gets away with calling himself "pastor"? Will either Greg or Joe have a hernia if AW links to PTM?

And most importantly, is there a donut in the house?

STP rises again

The first time I asked someone what STP stood for I was told - with a straight face - "Stop Teenage Pregnancy." I was about 15, and the inquiry was about a motor oil sticker.

STP, as in the ill-fated Systematic Theology Project, was yet to rise - and fall. It might have been an uninspiring document, but had the potential to lead the WCG out of the cultic wilderness where doctrine was set by an old man's whim and a host of hooey was blathered from a thousand pulpits each Sabbath by Rod Meredith clones "winging it."

And now it's back again - or something very much like it. Toddle over to wcg.org and check the PDF document out for yourself.

The name is different, and Bob Kuhn has been replaced by Larry, Curly and Moe (a.k.a. the two Mikes and Joe Jr.), but Thirty Five Doctrines of the Worldwide Church of God is - all 174 tedious pages of it - the 2007 equivalent of 1978's unloved loose-leaf compendium.

Exactly who 35D is written for is unclear, the church is stressing that there's "nothing new." Maybe the intended audience is the wider evangelical community, another arrow in their PR quiver. Unlike the 1978 original, there's nothing here to move the church forward, and the section on church leadership ("our episcopal structure") is pathetically deficient.

If history was to repeat itself, 35D would be in circulation only briefly before the effluent hit the fan and the church tottered on the brink of disaster, drowning in scandal.

Ah, the good old days. We can but hope...

WCG's best ministers

Over at the WCG Alumni Forum they're debating which ministers were WCG's worst. Some of the names to feature include Waterhouse, Pack, Flurry, Tkach I, Tkach II, Spanky and Herb.

That's too easy. I think there may be a more profitable question we might grapple with. Who were the best ministers?

Of course, there were no perfect ministers. But decent, fallible men working in difficult circumstances with a genuine interest in those they were supposed to serve? Had to be a few.

So let's put the negativity to one side this one time and ask for a show of hands. Whose ministry did you appreciate, and why? What anecdotes can be told that show a compassionate face, a human dimension, despite all the angst and agro that went on. Which ministers bucked the trend and refused to put on the jack-boots, gave valuable advice or showed an occasional capacity for genuine kindness or humility?

One plea. Let's not turn this thread into an "oh no, you've gotta be kidding about old X. He was a complete stinker to me..." game. Just this once let's play nice. I realise this could be a very, very short discussion. But who knows...

Meanwhile back in Holy Mother Church

A couple of items in the Nov/Dec issue of Together (the downsized WN) caught the sharp eyes of AW readers.

Ron Kelly, despite retirement, is the Big Enchilada (Group Tour Coordinator) for this year's Festival Cruises and Tours - the un-FOT aFlOaT. Pray for calm seas brethren, though for a truly Biblical experience wouldn't a reenactment of Acts 27:41 be fun!

And AW's most famous correspondent from pre-blog days, DP, notes that WCG has lost its "last founding member," Mrs Bobby Fisher. "Mr. Armstrong baptized Bobby while she was in her early teens, and she often spent time with the Armstrongs in their Eugene home. She said it was her responsibility to help spreading sawdust on the floor at the front of each meeting room or tent so people responding to the altar call would have a place to kneel. She said that in the early years, Mr. Armstrong would never preach without giving people a chance to come forward and make a commitment."

Yup, ol' Brother Herb dragged 'em up the sawdust trail in the early days. Somebody tell Gerry.

WCG loses 86 to 2

According to a posting on the JLF board, 86 Tkach congregations have disappeared since 1999. Eighty six. Two have been formed in that time. Net loss: 84.

Yes, the Lord sure has blessed the WCG, as Oral Roberts used to say, "real good." Or was that someone else?

And the credit goes to Joe and the team out in Glendora. Take a bow guys. Now Mike, no need to hide at the back. I think we all feel a praise chorus coming on!

Okay, so the JLF writer (Anne) has a proven track record, and featured several times as a guest writer on the old AW. She's going to have the details available in the near future. And, as Anne points out, these figures don't "cover the human loss and what condition the remaining congregations are in."

But 86... that's congregations, brethren! Disbanded, gone, kaput! In seven years. And that's just in the USA!

[Drag out calculator: 86 divided by 7, um, where's that = key?] That's twelve congregations down the gurgler per annum! One every month.

Twelve? Seven years? Quick, someone contact Willie Dankenbring and crack open the Book of Daniel: prophecy marches on!

No, okay, just kidding.

Now remind me again, Joe is still Pastor General and President because...

And Joe sod pottage

On December 13 Pastor Generalissimo Joseph Tkach wrote:

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
The Worldwide Church of God has now completed the doctrinal study on the topic of ordaining women to the office of elder. As an introduction to the completed study, we have prepared a video presentation, which you can access by clicking on this link: www.wcg.org/women.htm The final chapter of the study is attached to this e-mail update, and will appear in the new issue of Together, which will be mailed today.

Which in most churches would be good news, proof that the community of believers was moving ahead into the twentieth century, and might eventually meet up with the rest of us in the twenty-first.

Yes, I'm definitely of the view that the priesthood of all believers means ALL believers, not half the believers. No exceptions. The trouble with the splits and splinters is that most have absolutely no concept of the priesthood of all believers: it's too dangerous to promote in a rigid, totalitarian sect. Even WCG fudges the issue by using the watered-down substitute “ministry of all believers.” Priesthood means responsibility, and that responsibility is on each and every one of us, not a ministerial elite.

Regardless, within the next fifty years I'd predict that there'll be a woman in the office of Archbishop of Canterbury and women ordained to the Catholic priesthood. The sexism that has been institutionalised in the historic Christian denominations can't survive any more than the tolerance of slavery survived the nineteenth century.

So here comes the Tkach church to climb on board the bandwagon. But wait just a minute...

Why would any decent, sensitive, self-respecting woman want to buy into the WCG concept of leadership? Leadership without accountability. Leadership without representation. Leadership that preens and postures as “Episcopal” when it's no such thing.

We know why so many blokes wanted to be ordained. Status. Not many cared for the genuinely pastoral side of ministry, few pursued theological enquiry beyond the stale crumbs offered at Ambassador College. But to stand above the common herd on a stage, strutting behind a lectern and having the sheep hang on every word; that can be quite a trip.

The new, downsized WCG may be a little different, but last I heard Joe Jr. hadn't tendered his resignation and announced a new policy where the church (the people or the local congregations) could choose its own president. Joe is President for Life, a bit like Robert Mugabe.

Last I heard the church's board was still largely a rubber stamp body made up of appointees. No prizes for guessing who appoints them.

And now women are eligible to be inducted into the old boys club? I suppose a few will be tempted to snuggle up to the offer. Maybe that'll be a good thing in the longer term. A year or so ago AW suggested that Sheila Graham would make a great church president, and most readers agreed! But the compromises needed will be, one suspects, more than most Christian women could stomach. Accepting the baubles of office in such circumstances is a bit like Esau selling his birthright for a bowl of pottage.

Meantime, just watch the last remaining conservative, middle aged, tithe paying blokes balk at the prospect of having to listen to a woman preach!

Death watch

It seems incredible now, but the Worldwide Church of God was once, in the not-so-distant past, a vital religious movement with a growing membership, distinctive customs which intrigued outsiders, a massive media ministry, a small university operation and an intellectually vibrant dissident tradition snapping at its heels.

The early 1990s was in some ways "the best of times." The church had survived the death of its founder, and even prospered. Ambassador College in Big Sandy had finally been accredited and emerged as AU. A past generation of troublemakers were receding in the consciousness of the brethren: Garner Ted, Ernie Martin, Ken Westby et al. The only hint of disquiet came from the blazing guns of John Trechak's Ambassador Report, a continual irritant, but determinedly ignored.

Then all hell broke loose and the WCG exploded.

In 2006 the dust has largely settled and the ruins are exposed for all to see. The harvest fields are a wasteland. In place of an impressive, monolithic, money-rich empire are a thousand feuding, ineffectual warlords, each turned inward and focused on the squatter in the neighbouring paddock. A gaggle of pathetic imitators try to raise the flag here and there, but their best efforts to defy fate seem futile. The hand of God seems to have dashed the proud dreams and deceits of Herbert Armstrong and his myrmidons* to the ground.

For a while it made a rivetting soap opera. Who would split from whom? What would happen when leader X died? What nonsense would evangelist Y next declare "new truth" as he chased the declining tithe dollars?

The fire has died out. Only the ashes remain. The machinations of Rod Meredith, the Flurrys, Mark Armstrong, David Pack and others are a pathetic caricature of times past. The splinter sects have no credibility even among their peers, let alone the general public. The decline is terminal. Even the mothership has downsized and moved to Glendora where its Pastor General (salary undisclosed) can't even manage to effect a simple name change.

From the halcyon days when John Trechak battled the Armstrong Empire, through the comedy of errors and unparalleled incompetence that followed Armstrong's death, we have finally arrived at the End Times of Armstrongism. The Plain Truth once proclaimed that, in the Great Tribulation, the unfortunate non-members would practice cannibalism to survive. That was partly right: today, in a ironic parody, the various schisms feed on each other.

Welcome to the death watch.




*myrmidons: a favourite term used by John Trechak to describe the besuited army of yes-men that fed off the tithes. The New Penguin English Dictionary defines myrmidon as "a subordinate who carries out orders unquestioningly."

The Apostolic Chair

This was the first editorial I wrote for the former AW website. It's been updated slightly for the blog, but essentially it dates to 2001. Sadly, five years downstream, it still seems just as relevant.

Americans elect their president every four years, and wisely limit any one incumbent to two terms. The same cautious approach is evident in the constitution of many churches. A church, like a nation, should not become the personal fiefdom of any individual, no matter how sincere or gifted they might be. Yet Pastor General Joe Tkach was appointed, not elected. Moreover he's already served a lengthy term as spiritual leader of the Worldwide Church of God, and apparently has "life tenure". Doesn't that sound more like a fringe cult than an evangelical denomination?

Almost all churches, including related movements like the Church of God (Seventh Day) and the United Church of God, have systems in place that hold their leaders accountable in some way to the membership. Church presidents serve a limited term. Not so the WCG. Joe Jr. (he apparently likes to be addressed as Doctor Tkach) holds the very same title and office that Herbert W. Armstrong held. And while Joe is happy to trash any number of church traditions and doctrines from the past, he shows no enthusiasm for seeking endorsement for his position as the church's top dog. No General Conference exists to provide a counterbalance to the Pastor General's authority. The power of the ministry has been shown to be severely limited: stand up to Joe and Co. and you're likely to become a "pastor without portfolio".

The traditional argument that the Pastor General is accountable solely to Christ won't wash. The theology on which that particular bit of self-deception was based has long since been swept away in the flood waters of change. Has Joe heard about "the priesthood of all believers"? His friends in the wider evangelical community certainly have. In practice, "accountable to Christ" means not accountable at all.

But it gets worse. Legally it appears that the Worldwide Church of God is still "privately owned", and Pastor General Tkach is "sole proprietor". Caught off guard in a radio interview some years ago (on the Larry Mantle "Airtalk" show), he was asked what would stop him from just taking the money and leaving. The only reply he could come up with was that his family would stop him.

While Tkach might deny that he "owns" the church, with the current legal structure of the organization the reality seems to be that he can hire and fire all board members at his personal discretion with absolutely no reason given. That's in writing. He can do whatever he wants with the corporation as long as it complies with government rules for a non-profit organization.

That things don't have to be this way was demonstrated some time ago by an independent Church of God congregation in Tulsa. The Journal, May 2001, reported the ordination of new pastor Ray Kurr. These Sabbatarian Christians have decided to bring the terminology of ministry into line with the service-oriented function originally intended.

Ray Kurr commented "I showed that a pastor does not get between members and Jesus Christ." The article continues "In other church groups... a pastor had to grant permission for the general membership to do many things. 'As a pastor I have no intentions to behave in such an oppressive manner. If the Holy Spirit is moving you to benefit other churches with special music or take a group of friends of the congregation to help at the local shelter, just do it.'"

Joe might regard the members of this local splinter group as "legalists" due to some of their doctrinal beliefs. Yet these people seem to have a fuller grasp of the freedom of the gospel than the top leadership in Glendora demonstrate. Here's what one member posted on a news board:

The ministers have their marching orders and you will see more and more of this coming up soon... the subject of "days" [to worship on] seems to show the most clearly how things are being done...

We were given the right [for local churches] to choose the days ourselves. No real restrictions were placed on us and I felt Wow! this is a real empowering of the people. Well, it hasn't turned out that way. The clear motive now is a complete move from our past traditions to mainstream ones. The people may have chosen to keep the older ones but the ministry are to move us along. So there really wasn't a choice after all.

This is not empowering the people... The level of control on the WCG members is not unlike the Roman Catholics or even the Mormons for that matter.

Empowering the people is a scary thing. It means that you will not be able to control everything the way you would like. But maybe what this produces is something wonderful for the people.

Here's what Michael Feazell said back in 1996 - a full decade ago - speaking to a conference of regional pastors.

"The church needs to be a priesthood of believers... It needs to be doing ministry. Everybody in the church has a stake in that--whether it's women, men, teens or children."

Stakeholders must have a voice. They are not powerless, passive observers.

The simple truth may well be that Joe doesn't trust the church he presumably serves. He won't risk relaxing the reins lest people come up with ideas he doesn't endorse. Perhaps Joe considers himself indispensable. Perhaps he's a control freak. Could it be that he is unwilling to lose his comfortable sinecure?

Pastor General Joe has been chief shepherd of his dwindling flock for far longer than is decent without, at the very least, endorsement from the membership. How long will he remain on his pontifical throne? Even the pope is elected by a college of cardinals! Will he be Pastor General for life - a religious version of Fidel Castro?

Michael Feazell wrote in the July 2001 Worldwide News:

"If your church is a spiritual detriment to you, then you should consider finding another one... When the leader of a church indicates that he is God’s unique messenger or special representative in comparison with other Christian ministers... then you have another example of a church that is spiritually detrimental to its members."

Wise words. But what about churches where the leaders have safely elevated themselves beyond the influence of the members? A church, for example, that permits only token involvement of it's members in governance at either local or denominational level? How can Feazell justify the office of Pastor General and the hierarchical structure of the church in light of his own statement?

Tkach is on record as saying: "This fellowship has always been Episcopal, which is hierarchical..." Perhaps so, though a case can be made that in the early years it preserved a more congregational structure. But even if true, this fellowship had always been Sabbatarian too, but that wasn't allowed to stand in the way of change. And if an "Episcopal" model is to be used, there would need to be a long hard look at the parliamentary procedures actually used by the groups like the Episcopal Church; procedures which do indeed involve representative bodies of lay members at all levels. The Worldwide Church of God is out on a limb when it claims "episcopacy" as some kind of precedent for leadership by a clique or self appointed oligarchy. It is no such thing.

Joe has been single-minded in his efforts to inveigle his way into the evangelical mainstream. But despite cuddling up to evangelical leaders, his leadership style arguably has more in common with Louis Farrakhan than Billy Graham.

They used to say in Pasadena that the only thing that would topple Herbert Armstrong from his throne would be the Second Coming.

Apparently some things don't change.

Pastor Stephen - Pod Preacher

In 1996 240 odd people (some odder than others no doubt) attended the WCG services in Fairfield, California. Then the winds of change blew. There was a newly redefined, repackaged Gospel. The old ways were a barrier to evangelism.

Fairfield had apparently been a reasonably vibrant congregation up till then, as WCG churches go. Now the sky would surely be the limit.

Today they muster around 20 on an average week.

I'm indebted to Bob Thiel for drawing attention to a local newspaper article featuring the Fairfield congregation and its pollyannaish pastor, Stephen Smith. Stephen is not discouraged by his dwindling, aging flock. Stephen is not distressed by the disappearance of some 220 people to God alone knows where - splinters, sects and secular alternatives. In the spirit of the Monty Python song, Stephen tries to "always look on the bright side of life."

...as his church's membership ages and the congregation dwindles in numbers, attracting newcomers by offering podcasts and downloadable videos of sermons is becoming more key to the church's survival, he said.

"Otherwise you just grow old and die," Smith said.

Technology has been a way to reach more people, as the church's membership dropped over the years, Smith said.

About a decade ago, about 240 regularly attended the Fairfield church, he said. Then, the church changed its doctrine to no longer require members to limit activities on the Sabbath, from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.

Membership dropped. Today, it's about 20, Smith said.

Will podcasts save the Fairfield church? Probably not. Is it just a vain chasing after the wind, Ecclesiastes style? Indubitably.

And if you had a group of only 20 regulars, might there be a more appropriate way of conducting a meeting than having a bloke in a jacket and tie standing up the front and dramatically waving his arms around? Perish the thought!

For a somewhat different perspective on what's up in Fairfield, you can click over to Richard Burnett's blog. Or visit the Fairfield WCG website at http://www.worldwidechurchofgod.com (which Richard also manages) - I'm sure he'd appreciate the traffic.