“Trust”
Who do you trust? Do you trust your Armstrongist minister? Should you trust your Armstrongist minister?
by
Douglas Becker
Who do you trust?
Do you trust your Armstrongist minister?
Should you trust your Armstrongist minister?
The answer to the last two questions is “No!” and “No!”.
Let me tell you why.
Now it may be that your Armstrongist minister in whatever ACoG you may be attending might be totally sincere. Perhaps he is very nice. Maybe he is even helpful at times. But in the scheme of things, is that enough?
We live today in May, 2012, on the cusp of yet another meltdown of the membership of an Armstrongist Cult, as the target date of the false prophet for Christ’s returns comes at Pentecost and goes, without so much as a whimper of a hint of a whisper of the event taking place. Ronald Weinland has set up the dupes of his little cult for yet another “Great Disappointment” to rival the one of 1844. No, Jesus isn’t returning, the Great Tribulation won’t have happened, there is no Beast Power over the 10 nations of Europe and there isn’t any possible that the Two Witlesses Witnesses will die in Jerusalem after prophecying there for 3.5 years and be resurrected in 3.5 days after which Christ will take a near pass and spirit them away to heaven for the Great Bridal Shower.
But they trust him!
If we knew the answer to why, we could know a lot more about the Universe.
In business accounting, there is something called “Goodwill”. Goodwill is an accounting concept meaning the value of an entity over and above the value of its assets. The term was originally used in accounting to express the intangible but quantifiable “prudent value” of an ongoing business beyond its assets, resulting perhaps because the reputation the firm enjoyed with its clients. This is important in the sale of a business when the sale price is above and beyond the actual tangible assets of the corporation and is used in the accounting ledgers to represent the gap as a firm dollar value.
Like it or not (we don’t), the branding of Herbert Armstrong is a monetary asset advantage which trades on the principle of “Goodwill”: The religious product thus branded has earned the trust of a small cadre of consumers, not unlike that of Amazon.com (which has a much larger cadre of loyal consumers). To them, the Goodwill has been earned over the decades (for no particularly good reason, as we shall see), and anyone who trades on the trust in the religious product automagically inherits the Goodwill.
There are limits, of course.
Some of the customers are rather picky over which particular branding they select: For some it is United, others, the LCG, CoGWa, CoGBS or a whole host of alphabet soup Armstrongist communities. They become loyal to the sub brand they have selected. It’s sort of like which washing detergent a person chooses. You tend to stick with it because it works for you: Whiter, brighter, whatever. The choices aren’t, in this case, particularly rational. It is based on emotions and feelings. It is based on how the leader impresses and how you might fit in with the rest of the crowd. In extreme cases, like the PCG, RCG, CCG, PKG, it makes no sense at all: It’s just how you feel about it.
Objectively speaking, there are a lot of problems, challenges and consequences to choosing emotion over logic and it can lead to a lot of ugly results down the road. The future is not always what it seems to be, particularly in the Armstrongist Churches of God, where no one is exactly what they seem to be. Sacrificing resources for the hope of some big score at the end may feel good, but in the end, it is all a con game whose end game is that they lie to you and then take your money. It wouldn’t be so bad if they just lied to you (no matter how sincere they might be), if they didn’t take your money, but you trust them and they do take your money. In fact, in the final analysis, it is the love of money (mostly in the form of salary and retirement), along with ego-stroking narcissistic self-agrandizement, which is a root of all evil there in the ACoG groups. The hidden agenda never becomes public until it is too late for most folks.
There are three major things wrong with Armstrongism: British Israelism is a fraud and it leads to false prophecies by false prophets; church history is a provably concocted fraud (plagiarized from Ellen G. White) and the entire religion is based on rebellious heresy. No one in Armstrongism wants to look at the facts because it just doesn’t feel right to them. Besides, they are afraid of what is behind the curtain — it may show them that they have been wasting their time in fear, false hope and a sense of well-being through associating with people they think of like mind (the WCG / GCI certainly proved how wrong that concept was), achieving a level of comfort participating in what can be termed “Old Testament Christianity” under Old Covenant Laws. To think of giving up would be unthinkable.
But it gets worse.
The narcissists, sociopaths, psychopaths, many of whom came from Ambassador College, have the background to grant them credibility to gain that all-important Goodwill trust they need to prey upon duped fools. It is a world of golden opportunity which is difficult for the covetously minded idolators to resist as they plunge in to embrace the con for their own gain.
Trust.
In the case of the Preaching the Kingdom of God (PKG, also known as the “Pathetic Kook Group”), the experience they are going through is a consumate betrayal by a man plying contemptuous fraud. Ronald Weinland’s little collection of sheople will find themselves sheared, especially after going to trial for Felony Income Tax Evasion Fraud when the Great Disappointment is past. People are maxing out their credit cards, doing foolish things with their careers and their associations and choosing a path of self-destruction because it is inconceivable that God would let anything happen to them: After all, aren’t they faithful to God by following His Apostle Prophet?
It is a tragedy, of course, but it serves a useful purpose in the scheme of things. Think for a moment: Is Ronald Weinland that far from someone like Roderick Meredith who, himself, has been a false prophet for fifty years? Are any of the false prophet apostle leaders within Armstrongism really that far from what PKG portrays? They all have the same basic doctrines. Maybe they don’t say that specifically Jesus Christ is returning next Tuesday, but it is the very same spirit of deception working within them.
L. Ron Hubbard founded Scientology in the 1950s after a semi-successful career as a science fiction writer. He deliberately rebranded his alternative earth history into a religion and wrote about it in Dianetics, specifically targeting actors in Hollywood. It is pure fantastic fantasy, but people have bought into it, believing sincerely with all their being that this is it! This is the truth! When Armstrongists look at Scientology, they see a weird false religion that is so obvious that they wonder how anyone could ever be a part of it.
The answer, of course, is trust. It is that Goodwill.
Since this is so clear to the Armstrongists, perhaps it is time they stepped back and looked at themselves and their chosen religion. It too, is based on an alternative earth history which never happened and cannot happen. The future is simply not going to happen the way it was predicted by Herbert Armstrong. In fact, all of his prophecies failed in his lifetime. If you are skeptical, just ask a member of the PKG after May 27th, 2012 how well their trust worked for them. There will be reasoning and excuses even as they are proven yet again so very wrong.
All of Armstrongism is at risk because of Ronald Weinland. Even as Harold Camping did great damage to Christianity, so has Ronald Weinland done great damage to the followers of Herbert Armstrong. Furthermore, all Armstrongists should consider themselves nothing more than Sabbath keeping, Feast going Scientologists. It just isn’t going to work out. You are wasting your time. You are also wasting your money. Most of all, you are wasting your trust.
Trust.
Sometimes it is best not to just give it away: It needs to be earned.
Right on! Armstrongism is very much like Scientology, but Scientology is much more aggressive. I satisfied my curiosity by taking their first “Communications” course and saw right through their brainwashing program, so they got nowhere with me. That didn’t stop them from hounding me with mailings and phone calls for many years. I’d probably still be getting hounded if I hadn’t left Pasadena without leaving a forwarding address. That was in 1981.
Kind of like AARP isn’t it, Allen? Believe me, you never want to request their info on insurance for that free desk clock and calculator. You will get mailings for life! Today, every time I see “Free”, I wonder how much or what that’s gonna cost.
AARP = salesmen for the Hartford Ins. Co. = insurance at a higher price for older people who don’t reason so well anymore.
The world is literally full of con-men looking for a way to get into your wallet. There are people out there who want to “save” you and they don’t care how much it gonna cost YOU.
All religions are bullshit. Matthew 24:23
I enjoyed the read Doug, and while I tear out the religious aspects from any info I read, this article stands alone on it’s merit. It shows what may happen if trust is misplaced in the esoteric, and religion is in fact beyond esoteric. Jimmy Jones comes to mind as well.
These are all well reasoned essays, but to me it seems like beating a dead horse. HWA was a scammer who started a bunch of scammers. All religions must ultimately splinter and speciate. That’s how it works. To say the bible never warned us of this is to simply ignore plain writings, such as 2 Peter 2:19, among others.
Ralph, true, but it’s all about exploring the unknown:
But they trust him!
If we knew the answer to why, we could know a lot more about the Universe.
Science is all about finding out the reason for things: We want to know why the horse died! And what does the horse’s death mean for the future? What about the evolution of the bacteria in the horse? Were viruses involved? And why do kooks follow these scammers?
And if I might have a word without seeming to be a sychophant: James, you have outdone yourself on the graphics! Best yet! Amazing! On spot!
Anyway, we do this sort of thing because we are curious about how things work, and if anything, curiosity will lead to our mental evolution.
Besides, it’s just plain fun!
[And just where did the above quote come from anyway? Hitchhikers will know!]
“If we knew the answer to why, we could know a lot more about the Universe.
Science is all about finding out the reason for things: We want to know why the horse died! And what does the horse’s death mean for the future? What about the evolution of the bacteria in the horse? Were viruses involved? And why do kooks follow these scammers?”
You remind me of that statement by Paul, in which a seed is planted that produces many times tiself, but it must first die. Viruses act in this fashion. They invade the organism, cause necessary adaptation and recognition, after which an attack causes the virus to die, to all intents and purposes, but the organism has enlarged its database of defenses.
Paul pointed to the obvious(then) example of a seed being planted, but didn’t know that his analogy was better represented by the viral invasion and informing of the organism, after which an entire species might either grow into a larger, more absorbent system, or speciate into smaller systems more adaptive to specific environments.
HWA created a system of “leavening” in which the whole concept grew and expanded, “leavened”, until it absorbed all available energy, and was the n exposed by a number of ministers, probably the chief being Ernest Martin in 1974.
Martin became a kind of evolved virus that re-informed the grown organism, and caused sudden speciation and splintering from which the group as a whole never recovered. Since that time, the whole process has been one of absorbing new information, re-organizing, and trying to maintain the “DNA” which HWA presented. If the process follows one of natural patterns, there will be pockets of growth, followed by quick adaptations as new organisms splinter and adjust to new information.
What is so funny about this is that it specifically follows evolution, which HWA denied.
My contention, for the past 30 years or more, is that this is exactly what Yahweh intended, as we can see from Matthew 10″34-38, and Paul’s statements regarding deception in Romans 11, not to mention Jesus’ statement regarding parables in Matthew 13.
Shannon stated it in his information theory: the more probable a message, the less information it contains. Or, the more a message is repeated, the less information it contains. Yahweh planted a “virus” by giving us a law we can’t obey, forcing infinite speciation and redefinition. We are forced, as it were, against our will, to constantly re-learn and apply knowledge in new patterns. Pretty slick, I’d say.
Not only does this apply in information theory(see above) but we see it in Godel’s incompleteness theorem, Chaitin’s Algorithm Information theory,
and fractals, in which we see the same process re-iterating itself in smaller and larger forms. This suggests intelligence and design.
Ralph,
“Chaitin’s Algorithm Information theory,
and fractals, in which we see the same process re-iterating itself in smaller and larger forms. This suggests intelligence and design.”
Design? Perhaps yes. By a bible god, no.
“Design? Perhaps yes. By a bible god, no.”
Actually yes. However, it depends on what one thinks of when one considers a “bible god”. The parallels are easily established from Genesis to Revelation, with the first insight(for me) coming a bout the time of the tower of babel. I’m not arguing that the stories are literally true, but that they provide insights into the process of human development.
The tower of babel is nothing more than an account of humans developing organization to the point that they can think themselves independent of the environment in which they are embedded. They were going to find out what God was up to, by getting up to god.
This has been a reiteration of human tendencies since ancient time; organizing to higher and higher levels and finding ways to support those levels of organization beyond effectiveness, such as having god-kings and vast bureaucratic armies to support the war-making ability of those god-kings, with the constant and often resulting threat of destruction.
Again, the parallels are brilliantly shown in the Old testament, with israel being constantly warned not to become part of the “leaven” of other cultures. As I pointed out in another post, “leaven” is the best parallel to entropy for those ancient times that could have been used. It “informs” a loaf, causes it to expand until the loaf collapses when all energy is consumed.
Entropy works pretty much by the same standards. Since we can’t organize in one area without creating chaos in all related areas, the very attempt to organize and expand, or “leaven”, causes increasing destruction of our own environment. Israel, therefore, possessed a form of law to which they could not properly adapt. The law acted in their culture similar to a parasite that inhabits its host and produces results inconsistent with needs of the host for proper integral functioning. The law acted as a kind of viral invader in Israel’s culture that could never be fully integrated, somewhat like the energy generators at the core of all our cells.
The application of that “informed” each brain that studied it, producing continual diversity, to the degree that when jesus allegedly walked the earth, Israel was a kind of fractalized pattern of “God’s law”, tremendously diverse in its application and interpretation.
That is precisely what it was designed to do.
Add to that the story of israel’s development, wandering in the desert, with no ongoing culture to which they could adapt, but forced to “hardwire” the law into their brains, so that wherever they found themselves, the law would be their foremost process of assimilation.
I mean this in a good way, not an insulting way: Israel became a kind of cultural parasite that affected each civilizational host, “informing” it and causing fractalization to more individual levels. Recent studies in epigenetics show that a virus is a parasite that actual directs evolution of organisms and species by acting to randomly inform them at individualized levels, then spreading throughout the species, as israel, being absorbed into a culture such as Babylon, absorbed Babylon;s culture, processed it through the “DNA” of ‘God’s law”, and re-structured it into a form of legislation that accommodated the development of jewish adaptive processes.
By the time Jesus walked the earth, the Jews had absorbed the cultures of the four world empires from Babylon to Rome, and had carefully recorded massive amounts of legal guides and legislation on trade and commerce, making the jews all most indispensable in management of financial affairs for the nations (see Max DiMont’s book, “The Indestructible Jews”).
However, you will see this same fractalizing intent with jesus’ statement of Matthew 10:34-38. Jesus said his purpose was to divide, to separate individuals so that a man’s enemies would be those of his own household.
As we see from COG attempts to incorporate “God’s law”, the effect of such incorporation always results in further speciation, splintering, and more precise hair-splitting attempts to define God. That is exactly what it’s supposed to do. That’s why Paul wrote that the natural mind is enmity against God and can’t be subject to God. Quite simply, as shown by Godel and Turing, you can’t get ‘there’ from “here”, nor are you supposed to.
Trust is another one of those ethereal quantities that people tend to idealize, and conceptualize at 100%. Life has taught me that you can’t do that. In reality, trust is nearly always limited, measured in percentages, and subject to test and retest. Any time some guru attempts to motivate his subjects to overlook percentages and the testing process, he is dooming himself as a guru, and giving over his followers to mind atrophy and ultimate failure.
BB
BB, good pointds and necessary for us to learn. You remin d me of statements made by Philip Slater in “EarthWalk”. A main problem in cultural development is that the people withi n a culture begin to react to “internal circuitry” more than feedback from their environment. Faced with what they perceive as overwhelming change, they will seek to reduce “overchoice” by joining groups that limit choices and make their life simpler.
The idea of “progress’ for example. As lo ng as we imagine things are getting beter, we will not re-examine basic assumptions. That’s why religions offer pie-in-the-sky by and by when we die. If all our efforts and sa crifices are justified AFTER this life, why worry about this world now? Why n ot focus on “The World Tomorrow”?
We seek, therefore, to control our environment by joining with those who agree, and “outing” those who disagree. But as Slater writes:
“The attempt to control and master the environment thus automatically pollutes it, for it decreases that aspect of the environment that renews, refeshes, surprises, and delights us…Each act of mastery replaces a bit of the environment with a mirror, and a house of mirrors is only satisfying to very sick people”.
The more intensely the COG’ers seek to retain mastery of their faith, the more isolated and non-adaptive they must become.