Manchester

Weird.

Freaky.

Eerie.

Not a single word.

Nary a reference.

It’s been days.

Where have the Armstrongists been?

In Manchester, 22 victims were killed and 119 injured in a vicious suicide bomber attack on the Ariana Grande concert Monday, May 22, 2017 at the O2 Arena in London. The Ariana Grande concert, “Dangerous Woman”,  given by the popular American singer played to mostly young girls. ISIS, a radical Islam group, claimed credit.

This event has been widely covered around the world, but quite significantly, just days later, there seems to be not a word about it by leaders of the sects of the Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia Nazis. There is nothing from CoGWriter, nor from David Pack, Gerald Flurry or the Living Church of God. It seemed inevitable that the Armstrongists were going to come out of the woodwork and proclaim that this is God’s punishment for United States and British Commonwealth not obeying God’s Law as a part of their ‘prophesy’ of physical Israel in the ‘Last Days’, because that is what they usually do, David Leavitt style. Now we may have missed it, but the Prophetic End Time Purveyors seem to have gone speechless. Generally, they use events like this as recruitment to their particular cult sect with an appeal to how bad the world is and how people can be saved if only they join up with the right Church of God. But not this time.

It’s probably just as well. Herbert Armstrong never predicted that the Arabs with radical Islam would have the impact they have had. No one, not Roderick Meredith, That Prophet, Gerald Flurry, David Pack, Robert Thiel or any of the gaggle of prophets, apostles and evangelists predicted the tragedy of 9/11. They have all remained totally clueless about the tragedy of Manchester. They live in a science fiction / fantasy narrative that precludes the reality of the world. They have no clue what’s going to happen and they don’t even seem to know how to process what is happening. They are failures at today’s world news and the prophecies tomorrow and always have been.

In the meantime, mankind has responded with humanity:

In the aftermath, people rallied and offered their homes to stranded victims, offered food, tea, some taxi drivers put signs in their cabs to offer free rides to people who needed them. Brave people rushed in to perform rescue whether they were on duty or not. Even homeless people pitched in to help emergency services because they were around and available. People did amazing selfless acts in the face of horror, which beings us back to Jordan Stevenson, pictured above.

Jordan Stevenson, 23, instantly tweeted out an offer to do “lifts all night” after news of the terrorist attack that killed 22 broke on Monday night.

It was retweeted thousands of times and soon Jordan got a call from a worried parent looking for two 17-year-old girls who had been to the Ariana Granda gig.

Jordan instantly headed for the M62 to collect the stranded teens.

He told the ECHO: “I was in bed watching TV on Monday night. It was around 11.30pm when I first started to hear what was going on.

“At that point I was concerned there was going to be an abundance of Scousers not able to get home.

“I sent the tweet, went to brush my teeth, then jumped in the car. At that point I just assumed I was going to get requests. About half way down the M62 I got a call from some parents asking me to go and pick up two girls.

“I gave up 4/5 hours of my time and 20 quid of petrol but it wasn’t just me lots of people that did what I did. Thousands offered up their cars and food and shelter.”

He said: “It was very, very quiet and eerie in Manchester town centre. There weren’t many cars about.

“I was quite concerned. First time I came into the centre there was a sign saying ‘Do not enter the city centre. Stay out.’

“But I was thinking about those 17-year-olds. The whole time I was in the city centre it was five minutes in, five minutes out.”

Luckily Jordan was able to find the girls and drive them home to Widnes.

Once he dropped them off he turned straight around and headed back to Manchester to collect a pair of university students.

Then he made another round trip to collect a couple in their thirties who had no way of getting home – refusing to take a penny from them in return.

But Jordan, who owns his own business, said he didn’t stop to think about his own safety, instead his only thought was helping other people.

He said: “If I’m in similar scenario I know for a fact that any of those people I helped will be there for me.

“I know these guys had little or no other option and these people may do the same for me in the future.”

In the hours the followed the attack Joe’s twitter page with comments from people praising his generosity.

While two of the people he helped thanked Jordan on the social media site.

One said: “I owe it all to (Jordan). What a hero coming to pick me up and wouldn’t even take a penny from me”, and another said “Thank you so much for your help to get us home quick and safely.”

Contrast this with the Armstrongist perspective.

Armstrongist narrative is broad and expansive. It is inclusive of global world events which focus the average Armstrongist away from home, family and friends to engage in the overload of processing a planet of billions of people. It is a mindset encompassing tragedies and disasters of overwhelming consequence. This foray into the world beyond the immediate, coupled with exploration of what the world is to become hundreds of years into the future, suppresses much of the natural feelings and emotions of people. After a time, people become inured to what they see and hear; they become jaded; they become desensitized as they are embroiled in unimaginable events beyond their scope to handle. As a consequence, Armstrongists lose their ability to actually feel compassion, lose empathy and become hardened against emotional depth. This is aggravated by the narrative that some day everything will be fixed and everything will work out. The result of this is to remove immediacy devoid of any concern for what’s happening now. It’s all abstracted while Armstrongists become detached. They no longer have the perspective than many atheists have that life is precious and we need to do as much as we can now in the world today to have care and concern for all because life is short and the opportunities we have now can slip away — not to mention the loss to future generations if we do not plan and act now. Armstrongists have become the typical Boomer to discuss the problems and then walk away because someone somewhere at some time will handle it all and they don’t have to be involved as they watch the world go to hell in a handbasket. Armstrongists become terrible people.

Was there a time in your life that you would go right in and pitch in to help these people any way you could? Didn’t you volunteer to help people move? Were you someone who visited people in nursing homes, visited the fatherless and widow in their afflictions? Did you have concern for the hungry and homeless?

Or have years of living on the margins, striving vainly to make ends meet to feed a narcissistic source needs of Herbert Armstrong, demanding high maintenance, dulled your humanity? Have you been so striving to keep all the physical rituals (and pay for them), focused on getting yourself in the Kingdom of God to be God as God is God, leave you jaded? Have you lost the natural affection for humanity you once had to a soul sucking cult? Is your integrity lost? Do you wallow in distorted perceptions warped by debunked British Israelism? Have you lost yourself in the magical narrative of death, doom, destruction, devastation and Great Tribulation?

It’s time to be honest with yourself. It’s time for a serious self-assessment. It’s time to face the truth.

So far we’ve heard and seen nothing from the Armstrongists. Perhaps we won’t. Maybe they’ve become too shrewd to do something so obvious. Even so, you know it’s there, lurking behind the scenes like toxic black mold unseen in the walls.

Either way, it’s time to contrast the standing of the Armstrongist social group in your life. Do you want to be the victim of a dead end cult, or do you want to regain your humanity to join the rest of the world?

Meanwhile, there is Manchester. Manchester is picking up the pieces. What went wrong? Why? What can be done about it. Here’s one view from Matt Christiansen: