Recovery Innovations is a service which seeks to create opportunities and environments that empower people to recover, to succeed in accomplishing their goals and to reconnect with themselves, others and meaning and purpose in life. My son is in the program and they have set him up in his own apartment, provided him with all he needs for day to day living, while being independent and having more flexibility and freedom than he has had in a long time.
My wife and I went to a seminar last week they held in their local office and met the staff and some of those who are served by their programs. They are based in Phoenix, Arizona and serve mentally ill and disabled people around the world in places like New Zealand. Their recent history begins in 2006 when Meta Services became Recovery Innovations. We learned from the Director that they have been a presence in Pierce County for several years serving within the Regional Support network. I talked with the staff member who used to work in the County Mental Hospital when it was first privatized and then closed down. Pierce County has had special problems with the mentally ill, since mentally ill patients come from all over the State to be treated in the State Facility in Steilacoom only to be put out on the street near the hospital when their treatment ends for one reason or another.
The program that Recovery Innovation offers is for disabled people who want to live and work toward being independent. I talked with one of the young women who is something of a “success story”: Recovery Innovations provided her with the training and set her up in her own apartment (which all is done at a significantly lower price than government programs can offer); she then went to work as a volunteer at not one, but two food banks. For one of the food banks in Kent, she has to take three busses to get there and it takes several hours for her to get to and from the facility where she does quality control inspection of food that is contributed. Her job is important: As she said, some of the food is yukky. The other food bank is just blocks from where she lives. She is justifiably proud of the important and necessary work she wanted to do — but before Recovery Innovations she could not “connect the dots” to do it — and now she can.
I talked with her for awhile after the presentation to learn more about what she was doing and she told me all about her cat. She is responsible and takes care of her little kitty. We shared our experiences with cats. The director was listening in when I explained that cats have about the same attention span and short term memory as corporate managers — ten minutes. The director laughed and laughed. I explained to her that I was a corporate manager at Weyerhaeuser at one point in my career. She laughed even harder and told me that she had also been a corporate manager at one point in her career.
Recovery Innovations does more than just give people hope: They have 
practical programs and practical experience in helping people shape their lives. They work with people on a daily basis and manage to help people through the rough spots even when the going gets a little tough and challenging: They help find solutions to problems and they know their stuff as compassionate and competent people.
Contrast all of that with this posting at Banned by HWA — Philadelphia Church of God: Take Your Disabled Child To The Mall And Abandon Him – Let Someone Else Take Care Of Him:
Just when I think the depth of depravity of Armstrongism cant sink any lower, along comes more horror stories from Gerald Flurry’s cult.
PCG Told Me to Get Rid of My Mentally Handicapped Son With Cerebral Palsy:June 17, 2013
I was told by a minister in PCG to “get rid of” my mentally handicapped son (who also had cerebral palsy) or don’t return. He told me to put him in some facility, or if I couldn’t afford that, then take him somewhere that he would not know and abandon him in the mall or somewhere that people were. He said someone would find him and put him away, and that I was to turn and not look back, and just leave him there! I guess you can imagine just about what I told them!!
What helped me the most were people having the same objections and questions that I was having, wondering if these ministers in PCG 
really have the authority they say they did over us. The ministers try to make you feel you’re isolated in your thinking, that you’re the only one questioning anything. So you better get back under their submission, their rule–or suffer the consequences. (I decided to take the consequences). I am free and I am staying that way.
The ESN has been a Godsend. You have saved many people, including me and my family. We saw how others were questioning things, as we were, and realized things were just not right in there! Our feelings were right; we weren’t as crazy as others trying to pull us back in would have us think. They practice mind control there. All it takes is a few mentioning of buzz-words from them (i. e., “the Work,” “the Church,” “Mr. Flurry,” etc.) and you start to question your own common sense and your sanity. Well, not anymore.
None are so blind as those who will not see. Well, now I see! Thanks for everything. God bless you. –Former PCG member
A comment from a reader here adds to this story:
I did relate this story to the folks at Recovery Innovations. They weren’t particularly surprised: Their reaction was that this is the sort of thing that people in cults do.
The Church of God Seventh Day minister I related this story to was amazed and appalled: He shook his head and simply could not understand how a supposedly Christian minister could have such hubris. He doesn’t understand how anyone could follow advice like this. It certainly looks as if that all the leadership of the Cult of Herbert Armstrong have become so jaded, so filled with hubris, so set in a mindset of entitlement, that they believe that they are above the law and God will protect their interests no matter how wrong-headed or illegal they might be. It is embedded in the core of the lives of those who have lived with it; it’s like wearing old leather — after awhile, no don’t even notice it any more. They are totally comfortable with this sort of abuse and have been for a very long time, to such an extent that they have lost their conscience — what little of it they may have had — and given themselves over to doing evil wickedness of the sort that is extremely objectionable to the average person.
We have had similar advice from the Worldwide Church of God and United ministry concerning our son. We also ignored it.
What people in the CoHA don’t realize that the minister and leader have absolutely no skin in the game: If they give you terrible advice to perform illegal acts of child abuse, they have absolutely positively no consequences: 
You alone are going to bear this. If the gambit turns out, all the better, because you can spend more time on church activities and give more money to the cult leader.
This is so preposterous, it is beyond words and there are some questions if we pause to take this out to its logical extremes:
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If you are supposed to do this with your disabled child (ask how Robert Thiel would feel about leaving his child in the shopping mall for someone else to take care of), why can’t you do this with all your children?
- If this is successful, can you continue to use your child as a deduction on your Income Tax?
- When and where are the best circumstances to do this?
- If you leave your child in the airport between flights on the way to the Feast, can you spend second tithe for the one way flight to the terminal?
- Should you sell your daughter as specified in the Old Testament (typically Eastern Europeans will give you the best prices) and give part of the money as an offering to your own CoHA (times are tough and you need to be innovative)?
- How does this work in the light of the judgment in the Old Testament concerning kidnapping (the penalty of which is death)?
One would suppose that under such a dispensation, as long as you continue in your cult church to support it, the ends justify the means to achieve a happy, care-free, prosperous, life of egotistical narcissism for the cult leader, you are good to go. Be warned though, if you get into trouble, you must bear the consequences and your cult is not involved in any way.
Some of us will be sending letters and emails to Child Protective Services of State Governments and perhaps even engage with such media outlets as the New York Times and Fox News. We’re pretty sure, those of you who are inclined to follow this terrible advice from your cult leaders don’t have a clue and believe that nothing bad will happen to you and it all things will work together for your good. You will be free of the blessing of children and will be able to more fully engage in the selfish pursuits of your cult leader without any fear of any sort of retribution. You may even think you will completely avoid the Lake of Fire while engaging in this living lie. More power to you. And even more power to the governmental agency convicting you.
If everything works out, it may well be that your minister will be able to give you Sabbath services in prison where you are both serving out your terms. It certainly works if you go to the Federal Prison where Ronald Weinland is locked up, but that is highly unlikely, since you probably won’t be going there and you probably won’t live very long after the other inmates learn what you have done as they serve up their own brand of vigilante justice which will certainly not bode well for you.
Herbert Armstrong was a monster. Not the sort of cuddly monster like Barney or those cutesy monsters of Disney’s Pixar. No, he was the sort of monster one finds in Jurassic Park — all filled with rows of teeth as exemplified by our own version of the Jurassic Park theme song:
It’s Jurassic Park,
Don’t go after Dark,
Even if they seem to greet you,
For all the while,
They seem to smile,
They’re planning how to eat you….
Jesus said that false prophets were ravening wolves in sheep’s clothing. It’s more like it’s a Wolf (Herbert Wolf Armstrong) guarding the chicken house with the able assistance of some foxes he has on his payroll as hirelings of the worst sort: Maybe some of the chickens will survive, but we don’t much have hope for the eggs and the little chicks.
So Armstrongism is little more than Monster’s Inc.
It should be apparent that the children are at risk and that you have no reason for paying Monster’s Inc. for the privilege of putting them at risk.
Stalkers, fondlers, pedophiles, false prophet felons in prison for income tax evasion and now this: The average member seems to have all the mental power of a tranquilized gnat.
This is no Recovery Innovations: It’s Monster’s Inc.
Good Lord. I never thought of Herb’s little cult split offs as a MONSTER INC.
Perfect title. Was talking to another ex-COGer recently. Neither of us could come up with a good memory of our experiences; but we did come up with a long list of weirdos and control freaks. Herbie’s little monsters, afraid of being exposed to the light.
The lesson here is that no matter how outrageous the behavior, no matter how heinous or illegal, the Cult of Herbert Armstrong gets a free pass — no one seems to be able to do anything about them, so they continue in their bad behavior, assuming the entitlement that no matter what they do, God is supporting them.
It’s getting so bad, that everyone treats this as though it were a big joke as infotainment and nothing more — but it’s real people who are subjected to real abuse by these monsters.
We need a follow up story by P.T. editors to remind us of the mechanics of these monsters, as is applied to the faithful, to bring them to such condition that normal safety, reason, and logic are ignored.
In my view, it’s the fear of death, that is the root cause of all WCOG faithful. Fear of mortality. Fear is the root.
Bob writes: “We need a follow up story by P.T. editors to remind us of the mechanics of these monsters, as is applied to the faithful, to bring them to such condition that normal safety, reason, and logic are ignored.”
And that is why we created a new category above called “Monsters Inc”. We intend on exposing the various antics of these brutal regimes that operate in the name of God.
I’m a car guy. I like the graphics associated with this entry, because it appears that Flurry is driving a Hillman Minx as it would appear if customized by Salvador Dali. Of course we all know that Flurry just isn’t that cool. His younger brother Don was the cool one of the family!
BB
Bob,
That was an old Dodge Lancer. What year I don’t know, nor do I care. I can remember these cars and they were quality. Unlike the shit I rent from time ti time when I go on long road trips.
Amazing accounts of Armstrongism in action.
I’ve encountered families that had been almost torn apart by government social workers acting on alleged activities that seem insignificant in comparison.
And in a call to alms by Jurassic Pack, he told the retired to “un-retire themselves” and the disabled to “un-disable themselves” and get jobs. The disabled to fix themselves? What about all these “miracles” that apparently happen so frequently in the RCG? And employment? Well, perhaps if they’re lucky they could work for Dave for free.
Armstrongism – the ubiquitous exception to the rules of conduct of sane society…
‘Armstrongism – the ubiquitous exception to the rules of conduct of sane society…’
That says a lot about armstrongism. It is mental illness. And the people will continue to follow the insane in order to justify their own personal failings. When you give 30% a year to a cult, and you know they are wrong yet stick with it, that is a form of self-delusion if not insanity. Year after year they expect the gurus delusions to come true and when they don’t come true, they stick around another year thinking that NEXT year is sure to prove them right. One big failure followed by failure, year after year. This is what we call ‘losing’ in the world of wagers.
All you disgruntled, angry and bitter- please hear thisa;
All this is what happens when GRACE is misunderstood. I was baptized in this church in 1973. Some of the stories tell me the minister they were under was not even converted in the least! Good sense tells us when something hurts then do something about it such as going to the doctor- and this is why God gave us body pain to tell us when we need a doctor. Jesus even said so in Matthew 9:12. I went through this all for 20 years and I lived in Pasadena and went to the Auditorium A.M. church where Mr. Armstrong frequently was. Yes he was very strict, but the entire Grace thing was not understood.
My 14 year old daughter was stricken with a brain tumor and all the church prayed during her brain surgery. She lived but was handicapped for the rest of her life. Some of us went through hell yes, but so did Jesus for us and Grace does exist, and we are to forgive if we want to be forgiven. Right? I left that church and am still a Christian and after all that happened, I have more understanding of who God and Christ really are.
Christ is coming soon, you can tell by the sign of the times- what with the world fighting all over and the “WOKE” culture canceling out any form of belief in God. I say forget all that junk that happened and get on with “are we ready for the return of Jesus Christ” or are we only ready to argue about past things that will soon be not remembered anymore nor will they matter? Jesus will only want to know did you forgive so He can forgive you? (this applies to all of us).
I have been taught to not to speak on something you know nothing about. Indeed, I know all about WWCG so do not allow this thing to keep you out of the soon coming kingdom of God.
Pray brethren for one another and ask God for the Grace to finish this race. If you do not see the need then I am talking to the wrong people, but I do pray for you all. Thank you for listening…..