Trust No Man
By Bill FairchildHerbert W. Armstrong, also known as Herbie the Pervie, and all his ministerial minions quoted the Bible all the time to ram Gawd's plain truth down our throats and, in so doing, to rape our minds. One of their favorite verses was from a psalm that said "Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help." We were taught that this was one of the very few verses in the whole Bible that did not actually literally mean what it said. What God really meant in this verse, of course, was that we should not trust any human who was not a member of Gawd's true church. And the higher the rank held by the church member, the more we could trust him. That was because God was giving his holy spirit to us in the church, and HWA, the top dog big kahuna chief apostle mainest main man, had more of God's holy spirit than anybody else on earth. And certainly no human being who is being led by God's holy spirit would ever lie, cheat, steal, rape, plunder, get drunk and vomit, lust, connive, or seduce or deceive anyone.
What the psalm really should have said was "Put not your trust in princes, unless he is a prince of the church, nor in the son of man, unless he is a minister." We were also told that we should be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. This meant not to trust people (being wise as serpents) but if we were ever offended or sinned against grievously we should just take it like a man, be "Christian" and charitable, meek, patient, forgiving, and let Jesus and/or God solve the problem. When somebody breaks your jaw with his fist, you are supposed to turn the other cheek. Don't give any thought to fighting back, defending yourself, suing him for damages, charging him with assault and battery, calling the police, or shooting him. If someone steals your home through financial and legal trickery, Oh, well, it was God's will. God was testing your faith, compassion, and mercy. If you were a converted Christian in Uganda in the 1970s and your president, Idi Amin Dada, invited you over to his home for dinner, you would unhesitatingly obey. You would want to honor your human leader. Then you might find that he would kill and eat you for dinner. Yes, he did that. And you would just have to get over it, because God was trying your faith. After all, God rules over everything and sets up over nations the basest of men as it pleases Him. So while Idi Amin was hacking off your arm to eat you could rejoice that you were pleasing God by submitting to every ordinance of man.
Of course, being wise as serpents also did not apply to our ministry, since they were only interested in helping us achieve salvation. We could trust them. This sage advice from Jesus about serpents and doves really should have been translated "Be ye wise as serpents in dealing with non-members, and as trusting as doves in dealing with members, especially ministers."
We took all this in, internalized it, prayed and agonized over it, and got with the program. We were told that we were such dumb sheep that we couldn't even trust our own human reasoning. We had to go stand in line for 30 minutes after weekly Sabbath services to ask the local pastor what color car we should buy, how to keep from masturbating, will it be all right with God if I only give 95% of my money to his work this year instead of my normal 96%, and on and on. These ministers were the only people we could trust to make sound decisions for us.
We trusted our ministry, and we trusted the top ministers at Headquarters. We trusted them with our tithes and offerings. We trusted them with teaching us right things.
Then the poisonous serpents in charge fucked us over. They hosed us big-time. They took us to the cleaners. They lied, cheated, stole, raped, plundered, got drunk, vomited, lusted, connived, seduced and deceived everyone they could. They feathered their nests while stealing the crumbs that fell off their rich tables. We didn't even have crumbs to eat. Trusting, believing members went bankrupt, lost jobs, lost careers, gave up college educations, gave up needed medical procedures, went without life insurance, and made other major life decisions based on totally erroneous premises. We trusted God to make things work out right even if we were making terrible mistakes. Why did we do that? Because our human leaders, who told us they were led by God's holy spirit, our leaders in whom was no guile, in whom we could trust, in whom there was help, told us that God would do that. God would never let Mr. Harmstrong make a mistake so great that it would hurt the work. God would intervene, answer our prayers, blah blah blah. (Excuse me while I go vomit for a while.)
Then when it all came crashing down, many became so disillusioned and depressed that they committed suicide. I still think the worst thing the high and mighty bastards in Pasadena did to us was that they put so much fear of God in us that there was never anyone with enough balls to go out there and shoot one of those sons of bitches between the eyes. They stole all our money, and they also stole our manhood. I mean, if you've decided to blow yourself away, why not take as many of them out with you as possible? It happens all the time to those pagan, non-members out there in Satan's filthy, evil world. Fortunately, I am not so depressed any more to give serious thought to doing such a thing myself. I have too many financial and family obligations to fulfill. But I have always wondered why somebody else didn't go shoot that goddamned perverted bastard Herbvert or his filthy son Gagging Stud.
Then the most evil thing possible happened. We found out that God had lied, too. These lying bastard human ministers told us that it was just as plain as day in God's Word, the holy Bible, that God would do all these things, answer our prayers, intervene, lead us all with his holy spirit, etc. And we had proved the Bible was his inspired word. Well, not only did our human minister leaders hose us, but so did God. God never did make anything work out right. We were left on our own. The baby is outside the house, lying on the cold ground, hungry and crying, thrown out with the bathwater.
The BIG mistake we all made was that we assumed that
(a) there is a real God that cares about us and will do things out of the ordinary to help us if we ask,
Now to my main point.
We were told that God would lead his true believers through his holy spirit, and that spirit would help us filthy evil pagan humans to learn how to control ourselves, to be kind to others, to do things that humans don't normally do like care about others, be patient with others, etc. It's all there in 1 Cor. 13 and the verses that about the works of the flesh vs. the fruits of the spirit. Well, it turns out that that was all a huge crock of shit, because
If our human leaders who were supposed to be led by God's holy spirit of love turned out this badly, how evil and corrupt do you think our non-church human leaders are? I'm talking about our chiefs of police, mayors, governors, Congressional representatives, Senators, judges, FBI, CIA, BATF, NSA, DEA, presidents, attorney general, ambassadors, colonels, generals, prime ministers, cardinals and popes?
Back in 1887 a wise Englishman, Lord Acton, wrote "power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." When we allow any human to be a leader, we are giving him power. The natural result of this will be that he becomes corrupted, or at least is sorely tempted. The longer he has that power, and the more power he is given, the worse will be the temptation to give in to the corrupting nature of power.
Assume you are the president of the most powerful nation in history. What keeps you from becoming corrupt? God's holy spirit? I don't think so. What if you are a sworn officer of the government, you have been given police power, you are able to arrest people, shoot people under certain circumstances, interrogate prisoners, etc. What keeps you from going too far? We are constantly hearing cases of alleged police brutality in the news. Our leaders and peace-keepers are only human.
Now go back in time about 215 years. Imagine that you are one of the 50 wealthiest and most powerful white men in all 13 of the newly independent and separate nations that used to be British colonies, and you are helping to write or vote on the foundational law (Constitution) of a brand new country to be formed out of all 13 separate countries. You can try to put anything you want into that document. Your wealth and power have already been corrupting you insidiously for probably 20 years. Will you selflessly write words that will allow all others to do things that will detract from your wealth and power, or will you want words to be ratified that you and your lawyers can twist and wrest in order to keep your huge private wealth intact, but yet APPEAR to the powerless and uneducated masses to be in their interest as well? George Washington was wise and humble enough to turn down a genuine offer to become the first king of the new nation, but he was undoubtedly corrupted by the fact that he was the single wealthiest person in all of North America at the time (he owned more land than anyone else). Jefferson also owned large amounts of land. He used to be my hero, until I reread Lord Acton's words and applied them to our Founding Fathers. The men who put the Constitution together were well educated and wealthy, many had lawyering experience, they were not selfless fools, and they had just kicked England's ass, so they were probably feeling pretty self-assured.
How many legislators today have the same corrupting pressures on them, influencing them as they write laws that will bind or tax an entire nation? Do they care about the people that voted for them and trusted in them, or do they care about the wealthy special interests who provided most of the money for their campaign? Very few in Washington, D.C. ever manage to remain pure.
Humans naturally seem to need to believe in something greater and better than themselves. We long for a hero figure, a role model. We want so desperately to believe in a human leader, and, if not in a leader, then at least in the greatness and perfect morality of our own country. Read what Nietzsche wrote in "Thus Spake Zarathustra" about the state-idol. Everything that a state (a nation) says is a lie. Everything that a state has was stolen from someone.
Trust no man. Trust no minister. Trust no human being, not even the revered memory of our national, mythical figures, men like Christopher Columbus, Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Mason, Hamilton, or Lincoln. They were also lying, scheming, grasping, thieving, lusting, and duplicitous. They had power, and they were corrupted by it.
They were human.
And so are you.
And so am I.
Maybe not yet corrupt, but definitely corruptible.
Bill Fairchild Douglas, Mass.
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