Revisiting Stagnation 8 years later. How did we do?
After 80 years of Armstrongism, you would think they would have gotten somewhere. Instead, Armstrongism is predicated upon stagnation, constantly reinventing wheels, and misguided attempts to “really get serious this time.”
Here it is… 2023, and the stagnation is worse than ever. James Russell has died. Who knows how many other leaders have died. Roderick Meredith died in 2017. Wayne Bedwell is no more. Dennis Luker had already died in 2013.
If you were to take a look at the UCG Board today, would you recognize any of them, if you had been with them when they were formed? The 20 something young ministers of that time are retired or are retiring. Some have already died. One of them is retiring this year, but ‘he will be around’. They were originally formed with a great retirement package that has matured well. It seems that was their main goal from the beginning.
The Armstrongist Churches have slowly slid into irretrievable irrelevance to be barely existing ghosts of the past. The UCG January-February 2023 “Beyond Today” cover is “The Biblical Identity of Britain’s Royal Family”. You can’t make this stuff up. British Israelism? Really? United continues to pretend the Painful Truth doesn’t exist.
Meanwhile — and you would think this would be a prime opportunity — the News of Today (and we really mean today, since EVERY SINGLE DAY brings shocking surprises) really could be another prophecy platform for the Wonderful News Tomorrow! Instead, they all desperately hold on to the thoroughly disproved remnants of the past replete with spectacularly failed prophecies. It’s unbelievable.
Along with all this is the total lack of awareness of any sort of ethics or moral standards. The ACoG minsters continue to commit perjury in court to preserve their image (and to oppress the poor and downtrodden). They have absolutely no concept of ethics — except that the ends justify the means, of course. Except they don’t. Because they have no ethical awareness, they continue to promote prescriptive rules because, well, it looks safer than actually standing up against adversity in the interest of integrity.
They haven’t just become stagnant; they’ve become irrelevant.