You're Precluded

... which is, I think, a better title for Mike Feazell's little fireside chats than "You're Included." Included would mean member empowerment, a voice in church decision-making, a vote on who sits in the presidential chair. Theologically it would mean a commitment to the priesthood of all believers, and releasing the death grip the current leadership has over the organization it supposedly serves. It would mean accountability downward, to the people who make up the church, in the spirit of Jesus' example.

But, there I go again; rambling. Mike, if you're out there, the blue coffee mugs with the white logo are cool, so I guess that makes it all right after all.

And now, at last, the new Web address has been released: www.graceci.org. At the moment it just points to dowdy, grimy old wcg.org, but ultimately I guess this will be the new, clean, no-bad-associations URL.

But back to telegenic VP Mike, who has launched another monthly online chat show to supplement You're Prec... I mean You're Included. This one is entitled A Word from Our Sponsor. There's a "kewl" introductory graphicy thingy (though notice that Mike is still styled WCG VP, not GCI veep!), and then you can sit back and enjoy a full thirteen-minute Mike monologue. Oh hey, that's without even mentioning unelected, nepotism-beneficiary PG Joe's wonderful weekly Speaking of Life videos. What an awesome blessing. Outstanding!

Out for a Duck

Ronald Weinland is like a bad smell that just won't go away. Long after he bit off his own toes in a classic "foot in mouth" maneuver, he's still entertaining the easily deluded with his feint and jab sermons. We are now 37 sabbaths into the Trib (see DW's latest entry.)

The miracle is that anyone is still paying attention. Whack these folk over the bonce with a bit of four-by-two and it's unlikely it'd even register. Even so, Ronnie ain't takin' no chances. According to Jack, Ronnie is warning the tithe slaves to stay away from the wicked Web. DW gets specific: FaceBook is causing the Witless One concern. Ronnie assures the fickle faithful that there won't be any FaceBook in his magical millennium! If Ronnie can't control it, it's got to go.

It's amazing how Ronnie talks down to his followers. He rambles, digresses and wanders off topic as if under the illusion that every stray thought will come as a precious drop of living waters to the dum-dums in the pews. How could any sane person sit there and take it? What horrible life-circumstances would lead anyone to submit to a self-professed prophet who "goes out for a duck" (a reference for all those who follow the gentlemanly sport of cricket) every time he steps up to swing the prophetic bat?

Frankly, Weinland is a sideshow. The tragedy is that he makes many of the other COGlets look practically balanced in comparison. Witness the field-day Bob Thiel has in pointing out the obvious inconsistencies. With Weinland as the whipping boy, it's easy to pretend that Thiel's cult-of-choice, LCG, is pure as the newly driven snow. Weinland is a gift for blokes like Flurry and Pack: a wonderful distraction from scrutiny of their affairs.

No matter. I'm sure Ronnie is good for another year or so of feint and jab, but eventually it might pay to undergo a makeover in order to continue extracting those tithes.

Hmm. A touch of Stan Rader maybe? How 'bout this?

A Tempest blows up for PCG

This bulletin from Living Armstrongism:

I have just got an email from Tempest Sixt Car Hire.

They have assured me that the PCG magazines are being removed. PCG's publications will no longer be distributed via that particular avenue.

My thanks go to the company for choosing to act in such a decisive manner.

Well done people! We did it. My thanks go out to all those who have participated in this needed protest. Your effort is greatly appreciated. Be proud with what you have done.

This is a great lesson in the power of speaking up and getting information out where it is needed, one small step at a time.

Basil's Beauty

A Wolvertoon comes to life!

Flurry Alert

Time to quit grousing and get in behind the work! No, not that "Work," but a PCG-focused initiative being promoted on the Living Armstrongism blog. The entry there explains itself, please do click across. My own inclination would be to do a Readers' Digest on the example letter: short is often more effective; but the strategy is sound. Unless the company is owned by a PCG member, this kind of feedback has a good chance of being effective. We can all grumble and trade horror stories, but here's a chance to get in there and raise a little righteous hell.

Kudos to Redfox712

Older but wiser - QW2 follow-up

Now that the poll has closed, the results can be discussed. The original question was part of an in-depth interview situation (Wright, 1984) with forty-five "voluntary defectors" (smile, that's us too!) from the Unification Church, the Hare Krishna, and the Children of God. You might think we'd have nothing much in common with that lot, and in fact the demographics do indicate some real differences.

But the thing these folk do have in common with WCG's "voluntary defectors" is a process of disengagement that took some time to work through (they weren't "deprogrammed".) The forty-five had an additional option on the question that wasn't particularly practical on this poll: "other." The AW version had a healthy 176 responses - thanks to everyone who participated. Here's the comparison (factoring out the "other" option.)

Original response %
81% Wiser for the experience
11% Duped/Brainwashed
8% Angry
0% Indifferent
(Wright, 1984)

AW response %
66% Wiser for the experience
18% Duped/Brainwashed
12% Angry
4% Indifferent

The balance is a little different (and that's to be expected given the very different methods used) but the same pattern is clearly evident.

So most of us aren't eaten up with the root of bitterness after all. Or at least not after putting a little distance between ourselves and the experience. On the other hand, coming out from a group like this doesn't allow most of us the luxury of indifference: yes, it mattered.

Musing with James Tabor

It is - in my opinion at least - a remarkable statement. Remarkably reflective and honest. I've been critical of some of the things James Tabor has written, but this is certainly an exception. Here's the opening paragraph.

I have been thinking lately about the essential differences between Judaism and Christianity, or more properly, the kind of religion reflected in the Hebrew Bible and that of the Greek New Testament. I have long ago rejected as personal options the major contemporary manifestations of Judaism and Christianity — by that I mean the Mishnaic-Talmudic forms of the Classical Jewish faith that developed after Second Temple times, and the Orthodox Catholic versions of Christianity that developed in the West and East after Constantine. I am interested in religious and philosophical truth, but my training is that of an historian, so perhaps that is why I am drawn to the more ancient forms of these two faiths, i.e., the Hebrew faith as formulated by the Prophets and final redactors of the Hebrew Bible, and earliest Christianity as reflected in the New Testament. In considering these two “religions” or ways of thinking about God, the world and human purpose, I find that I am much more drawn to the former than the latter. Why is that so? What is it about the Hebrew Bible, even on a purely mythological level, that seems to draw me so? Conversely, what is it about early Christianity, especially the systematic interpretations of Paul or the Gospel of John, that puts me off so?

Tabor poses (but doesn't answer) some big questions. It's worth reading in it's entirety.

Is No News "Good News"?

What's up with UCG's Council of Elders? The lads have gathered in holy conclave, then dispersed to the winds. Only the first AM session of their deliberations has so far been posted on the Web, however. What burning issues came up? Patience, it seems, is a virtue.

Question of the Week - 2

"Regrets, I've had a few, but then again..."

This one is for everyone who has been a committed part of the WCG or one of its daughter churches, then had a parting of the ways.

When you think about having been a member, how do you feel?

(a) Indifferent
(b) Angry
(c) Duped/brainwashed
(d) Wiser for the experience

The actual poll is in the side bar. The question is based on one posed to a sample group of people who had left other sectarian groups. Are we any different? In a follow-up post we'll compare the two.

Blogs logged

Another evangelical dilettante offers an uninformed and facile endorsement of Joe's WCG "reformation." Stan Gardner (webmaster at Ambassador Reports) has attempted to politely point out the other side of the story, but you get the impression that the guy has his head stuck firmly up his own sandpit.

Then there's Steven Cooper. He started life as a Methodist, hooked up with our happy band of Herbalists, then inexplicably packed his bags and became a convert to Roman Catholicism. He's relating his journey in a series of blog entries. Cooper joins other former WCG members like Jared Olar and Dennis Embo (who chronicled his own return to Rome in The God That Prevailed.)

Which is as understandable as anyone else's transition to evangelicalism, agnosticism or one of the ripoff splinters, but I've yet to find a COGger who has adopted a non-rigid variety of Catholicism: the kind which emphasizes social values and activism. The WCG DNA seems programmed only for the hyper-traditionalist strain.