Herbert Armstrong was the master of self-deception. Not only that, but he trained us all to be adept at self-deception. And self-deception is exactly why people stay with the Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia.
Watch this TEDx Event Presentation by Dr. Cortney S. Warren in her talk, “Honest Lies: The Psychology of Self-Deception”:
At the core, we lie to ourselves because we don’t have enough psychological strength to admit the truth and deal with the consequences that will follow. That said, understanding our self-deception is the most effective way to live a fulfilling life. For when we admit what we really are, we have the opportunity to change.
There are core strategies which we use to practice self-deception:
Denial: Refusing to believe something is true, even though it is;
Rationalization: Creating a reason to excuse ourselves;
Projection: Taking an undesirable aspect of ourselves and ascribing it to someone else;
Cognitive Distortions: Irrational ways in which we think;
Polarizing Thinking: Thinking in extremes;
Emotional Reasoning: Thinking that our feelings accurately reflect reality;
Overgeneralization: Taking a single negative event as an infinite spiral of defeat.
From an existential perspective, we deceive ourselves to avoid the ‘Givens’ of life, the fundamental realities of “being human” that we must face:
Death — we’re all going to die;
Ultimate Aloneness — we were born as a single person housed in a solitary physical body;
Meaninglessness — our lives are inherently meaningless unless we give them meaning;
Freedom — we are responsible for ourselves because we have the freedom of choice.
To avoid these realities, we frequently lie to ourselves:
Deferring responsibility for choices;
Believing in ‘specialness’ so that there is a unique protection from harm;
Compromising to meet cultural norms.
Self-deception leads to massive amounts of pain and regret. To avoid being honest, we frequently make choices with harmful consequences to ourselves and others — we may use drugs, alcohol, eat, shop, gamble, steal, lie, leave people or pass our emotional baggage down to those we love the most. Or, we may choose not to change even when we are miserable or causing profound harm to those around us. Looking back at life with regret is incredibly painful, because you can’t change your choices in the past.
When we don’t take full responsibility for who we are, we hurt ourselves and everyone around us.
The way to change is:
self-awareness — become observers of ourselves;
examine the contribution to the conflict in our lives;
admit to insecurity and confront the choice.
Not changing when confronted with the truth is a choice. Although we cannot control the many circumstances we encounter in life, we are responsible for our reactions to all of them.
Confronting our self-deception is a lifelong journey. We change and the world offers us new opportunities to understand ourselves. There is always more to learn.
It is now time for those who embrace the Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia to be honest with themselves.
Isolation
Here are just a few of the truths Armstrongists need to face:
Herbert Armstrong was not an apostle;
Herbert Armstrong was a false prophet;
Herbert Armstrong committed incest with his daughter for ten years at the beginning of his ministry and, therefore,
Herbert Armstrong was not actually converted, and,
Herbert Armstrong was never qualified to be a minister;
Herbert Armstrong is dead;
Herbert Armstrong knowingly allowed his son, Garner Ted Armstrong, to be second in command as the top evangelist, even though GTA was an adulterer, alcoholic boozer and a gambler;
There is no place of safety and there never will be (and Petra is an absolutely terrible place to try to survive);
British Israelism, as the key to prophecy, has been thoroughly debunked and no prophecy based on it will come true… ever — it’s extra Biblical;
The True History of The True Church was nothing of the kind, plagiarized from Ellen G. White and thoroughly, provably wrong, particularly about Waldensians supposedly keeping the Sabbath and Holydays (they considered themselves to be good Catholics);
The leaders of the major sects of the Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia have proved themselves inept and to be false prophets;
Jesus isn’t returning in your life time;
There may be tribulation, but the Great Tribulation won’t happen in your life time;
The Bible commands “from such turn away”;
There is no such thing as a Christian narcissist;
Armstrongism is a religion of physical rituals, not of spiritual content;
If you are an alcoholic, you must stop drinking or you will not just die badly, you may seriously injure and kill others;
If you are diabetic, you cannot drink alcohol;
If you are diabetic, you need to manage your condition because it’s not just going to ‘go away’;
Anointing for your chronic diseases will not make them go away;
There is not and never was any such thing as ‘second tithe’;
If you are a farmer and you try to keep the seventh year land Sabbath, you will either go broke, have to borrow money or lose your land because you simply won’t get double income in your sixth year because, just like the Feasts, the land Sabbath was given only to ancient Israelites in the land of Israel — the land ‘the Lord gaveth thee’ — under the Old Covenant only — a physical covenant for a physical people devoid of the Holy Spirit given promises of physical prosperity only;
The United States and British Commonwealth are not lost tribes of Israel, and, more importantly, none of the doom, devastation, destruction is going to occur because of their supposed sins against an ancient religion which was never given to them;
Your ministers are in it for the money and the ego trip — they are totally selfish and don’t really care about you;
Your ministers and leaders know nothing of morals and ethics;
Your ministers are terrible at counseling;
Your ministers are liars;
Your ministers don’t actually know how the Bible was put together, or if they do, they are lying about it;
You still can’t put new wine in old wineskins, even though that’s what Armstrongism is all about;
You don’t really know what other members of your sect really believe, even though you think you’ve known them for decades;
There is no loyalty — you can incur someone’s wrath and be disfellowshipped at any time;
Your family isn’t really safe;
You are wasting your money;
You are wasting your time;
You don’t really believe in science, you believe in magic;
By allowing someone else to define right and wrong for you, you’ve become a sociopath with a flexible adapted conscience;
No one is exactly what they seem;
It’s all quite insane.
Once you get through and eliminate these lies of your self-deception, you will still have a long way to go.
The only way to be free of your self-delusion is to stop feeding it by severing contact with those in the cult who are holding your mind hostage.
Herbert Armstrong established an empire which could only end in the stagnation of fetid rotten pockets of stale sluggishness where even revenue flow is stagnant. The stench of stagnation with entropy drifted everywhere among the Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia sects in 2014 and trends indicate that 2015 will continue the stagnation. No one should expect the return of the Laodocean rich and increased in goods in need of nothing prosperity of the 1970s Worldwide Church of God because it is never coming back. Frankly, it may well be that 2015 may not even be as good as 2014 was and 2014 just wasn’t all that good.
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.” As a result, “depth” is something no one has ever achieved. Armstrongism’s idea about “going deeper” is to double-down on strategies that have proven to lead only to failure, and to go around in an old, familiar circles yet one more time.
How “deep” or “exhaustive” has any COG minister or member’s attempt to understand the bible or live like Jesus ever been? Armstrongists keep on using words like “deeper” or “more exhaustive,” but the fact is, these now-trite sayings are incoherent. Either something is exhaustive, or it is not. It is not possible to do a job “more exhaustively.” All this means is, “We were wrong about saying we did it ‘exhaustively’ last time (like every other time) and we’ll probably be wrong this time too. The reason why they can’t even come up to “the world’s” standards is because, for all their talk about “mooring” they’re completely unmoored from reality. Everything they say is without any objective referent to anchor it. The only thing that’s possible is more pie-in-the-sky talk and meaningless platitudes. They’ve never been serious before and they’re not about to get serious now.
The trouble is, when one really does make the personal decision to “get serious,” it winds up in that person realizing that he needs to leave Armstrongism behind, because the COGs, in and of themselves are an imposition to “getting serious.” Acceptance of the tenets of Armstrongism bind you with shallowness and stagnation. They make the abandonment of seriousness incumbent upon the believer. Instead, they divert any “seriousness” they might have had into useless old testament rituals like “deleavening” their homes. Ritualized “progress” takes the place of any actual “progress.” The only thing ministerial types like Robin Webber have ever been “serious” about is coming up with that extra 5 inches.
Armstrongist Leader Ponders 2015 Business Strategy
Perhaps we can expect statements of the state of the Work by the various cult leaders again this year. It may be that David Pack will issue Pastor General Yearly Letter again this January as he did last year with glowing reports of explosive growth for the Restored Church of God, but in reality the operative word here should be ‘implosion’. It looks like he’s been buying more property without sufficient resources to pay for it and that Steuben Crystal at the office looks like it will collect dust. Meanwhile, Davey will keep his member abuse program going in high gear, but that’s hardly an effort which will create an enthusiastic energy for his compound.
David Hulme learned something about tampering with British Israelism last year and it is very likely he will not recoup his losses.
The Future of Roderick Meredith
The Living Church of God continues to have a name that it is Living, but it’s in the stagnant doldrums and the only possible excitement in 2015 could be the death of Roderick Meredith. There would be a great deal of frenetic activity temporarily, overriding the stagnation, but if it were to occur, the ultimate result would be even more stagnation from entropy, with possible help from a major split or two.
Robert Thiel has been off to a slow start and it does look like it’s going to decline from there: Expect stagnation.
PCG British Campus
Gerald Flurry keeps making noises about how good things are going at the Philadelphia Church of God, but a word of advice: When your outgo exceeds your income, your upkeep will be your downfall. Flurry has been spending money he doesn’t have and has bought a new campus in England which may well have as many as 8 students and it may well be the British may require diversity classes. Brad MacDonald will be moving in to be headmaster of a glorified high school called ‘college’ or ‘university’. It’s too bad he couldn’t get Bricket Wood and this is certainly not the same level of culture being represented, but it made him feel better to buy it and after all that’s said and done, raising the dopamine levels in a geriatric Armstrongist leader is what’s important here. It’s tempest in a teapot time and the water in the teapot has stagnated.
Ronald Weinland continues his prison term, so the PKG can’t expect much progress — it’s stagnation squared, while Weinland issues doltish daft decrees from his cell. He will continue to do so, and the troops in the trenches will continue to get the manure falling from heaven.
James Malm will continue to more or less accurately portray the faults and evils of his compatriot competitors without ever looking in the mirror.
The United Church of God, an International Association will have all things continue as they have from the beginning… of 2014. They have noted that their average congregation size is 20 to 30 people (that’s an average — some are hundreds and some could fit in a phone booth). That is not cause for optimism, because there is a bottom line. In the stagnation, there really isn’t much new blood and ministers continue to retire. In this long slide of entropy toward irrelevance, the average rank-and-file member will have less in the way of personal ministerial contact, not that has ever been a priority in the Armstrongist churches, but it will get ever worse… slowly. Changing the name of the flagship magazine from The Good Newsto Beyond Todaycan do nothing but lend itself to stagnation. It was about time to change, though, since the UCG hasn’t really come up with much good news, although… there may not be much beyond today for them — eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you could retire. It’s truly unfortunate that The Originals have passed from the administration, taking their expertise and vision with them, so in the interest of helping out the Council of Elders, we highly suggest this book for their support:
Church Cult Corporate for Dummies
Hope it helps. The members have received the very last Good News they will ever get from United.
If the UCG is having challenges, one can only suspect that it will be worse for the clowns at the Church of God Worldwide Association. Everybody is aging out on the average from senior to geriatric in Armstrongism and the CoGWA certainly isn’t going to be exempt from stagnation. The dream of establishing a college or university just isn’t in the cards and they likely overestimated the possible prosperity on the way out of United. There are not a few people wondering why they are in CoGWA at this point, because, except for the name on the door, you really can’t tell much difference from the UCG. Their flagship magazine is One Accord. Ha, ha, ha! That’s really funny when you consider they split with the UCG. One Accord. Is that all they have left of their transportation fleet?
The House of Yahweh with Yisrael Hawkins isn’t going anywhere. It is likely that HoY will be featured again as an expose on Dr. Phil and legal problems will continue, but at a low level, befitting the state of stagnation into which it has fallen.
The Church of God in Truth with James Russell? He said himself that “we haven’t learned anything new in 40 years”. He does claim that because the other Churches of God don’t keep the Feast Days at the right time, they will be those described in Revelation 3:9, “Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie; behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.” Yes, friends, all the other Armstrongists are the synagogue of Satan saying they are Jews but are not, will suffer in the Millennium while CoGIT members will be God as God is God, lording it over everybody else. With this ‘holier than thou’ attitude, there is no chance that there’s going to be much change: Expect stagnation. If there is an afterlife, someone is in for a BIG surprise! You should all get their flagship magazine, Prove All Things. It’s worth it for the misprints in every issue. For example, a favorite is “Herbert Armstrong Pasture General”. Replete with manure? Watch where you step? They have something every issue. It’s hilarious! They should Proof Read All Things.
And there are the Rittenbaughs of the Church of the Great God fame. Oh, maybe you’ve not heard of them? Perhaps fame is too strong a word? Let’s just say that they are of the same conservative ilk as the rest of the Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia, except no one much notices them or their flagship magazine, Forerunner Magazine. If you didn’t know better, you’d think it had something to do with Toyota. Prognosticate that they will see stagnation in 2015? It’s a little late for that. Try obscurity instead. We wonder what happened to their minister who raped 16 teenage girls and 8 of their mothers? Still preaching or not with them? Who cares? This sect doesn’t even rise to the level of apathy and will continue that way through 2015. The founder was a welder at U.S. Steel for 16 years. It’s like Johnathan and Martha Kent at their Smallville farm setting ecommerce up from their farmhouse living room to market organic produce to the Luthorcorp employees cafeteria, except in this case, there’s not really much of a product and not much of a market.
We’d mention Mark Armstrong and the Intercontinental Church of God, but if you look at their website, you’d swear that Garner Ted Armstrong was still alive, so what’s the point?
Dixon Cartwright will continue reporting about the Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia in The Journal as a journalistic exercise in irrelevance in the modern world for those addicted to the preposterous idea that it’s all one big happy family of specialized believers when he knows very well it is nothing of the kind, with some of the weirdest ideas ever being promulgated in the ads while some of the real news is being covered up: It’s an impressive effort to ‘report’ on the stagnation where everything is presented in such a positive light when the underlying core is utter garbage, much of which is generated with people who have severe mental disorders. It wouldn’t be half as bad if he didn’t know better and didn’t pretend everything is OK. It’s called enabling; Dixon Cartwright is a enabler. He has The Touch: He can make the daft seem respectable; just don’t think about it too long.
In all of this, Herbert Armstrong will continue to remain very dead all the way through 2015.
The Worldwide Church of God transformed itself into Grace Communion International in 2009. Originally, Joseph Tkach, Senior ‘inherited’ (hostile takeover) from Herbert Armstrong when Herbert Armstrong died in 2006. After Joseph Tkach, Senior died, his son, (Dr.?) Jo(seph)[e] Tkach (,Junior) finished taking the WCG into pseudo mainstream Christianity replete with Christmas, Easter and the Trinity which was much less mainstream than it may have appeared — retaining the autocratic nature of the ‘leadership’ but projecting a more benign ‘liberal’ religion. It became stagnant long ago as masses of people left either for the more traditional cult Armstrongism or became atheists and agnostics. Congregations shrank significantly to pathetic little groups, some of which kept Sunday, others keeping Saturday still and still others kept both Saturday and Sunday. Feasts were slowly but surely eradicated, but not before the Feast of Tabernacles was kept in August so it was more convenient to get time off work and school children (the few that attended) wouldn’t have to miss any school. The ‘headquarters’ was sold to provide riches for the few at the top and the ‘administration’ moved to Financial Street in a nearby city. To tell the truth, there’s so much stagnation that those still left would be better off in local mainstream Christian churches with the people, doctrines and facilities and sever their connections with GCI once and for all. GCI has become totally irrelevant and those with the beliefs espoused by the GCI would be better served by going elsewhere. It seems unlikely that 2015 will change much for them.
Unfortunately, stagnation cuts both ways. There was a time not too long ago that those of us working to expose the sects of the Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia had an impact. Expect that to slow in 2015. Herbert Armstrong originally created the Pavlovian response by getting members conditioned to respond to prophecies of death, doom, destruction, devastation, deviancy (in the world) so whenever they heard or saw news reports, particularly those which engaged British Israelism in their heads, it invoked belief, strengthening their faith in the prognostications. Of course, Herbert applied a layer of snow on top of the toxic dump to make it attractive by plying his wiles to create visions of a brave new world of prosperity where the members were to become God as God is God: Ring the bell and the salivation began.
Typical congregation meeting in living room
Rex Sexton of the UCG wrote in a church bulletin that church members were like dogs being trained by the Master, Jesus Christ. He has something there: Doggie members have two basic rules for their control — keep them on a short leash and don’t let them bark. It is useful to let them out free to romp in a dog park once a year to socialize at the so-called “Feast of Tabernacles”, and if you’re with the right trainers, you might even get out to play at the so-called ‘Winter Social’ which is really the Winter Solstice Social. There will be fun exercises and special doggie treats — for the ‘good dogs’. The one thing every mutt fears is the minister calling them ‘bad dog!”. That will bring about howling. No, the leaders must be careful in their regimen. Every dog has his day. And being in the Restored Church of God gives new meaning to ‘running with the Pack’. Dogs. They’re all dogs. Care must be taken not to mention Revelation 22:15.
The spit-offs have continued to ring the bell and the salivation continues, but the dogs are old and can’t do a much as service animals any more. For one thing, because of the decline in membership and the fact that the seniors are becoming geriatric, the bell has to be rung ever so more loudly for a response. The pooches are finding it harder and harder to hear and even more difficult to get around.
On the other hand, the old dogs aren’t getting up and roaming any more. Youth is gone and so is the spry. The Armstrongist Churches of God are beginning to realize that they have to let the dogs lie because their get up and go has gotten up and gone. This means that members don’t become strays much any longer. They lost their curiosity (and a lot of other things). They aren’t that swift on the uptake any more and the cultists have a captive audience in their little dog pounds. One would hope that the leaders — the hounds of hell — would be bitten by their mother when they return home to the kennel.
The implication of this is clear: Disorganizations, such as the PKG with Ronald Weinland, have had most of those who are going to leave, leave. The rest just stay and stay, no matter how little sense it makes, and continue to wait until Weinland rings the bell again from Terre Haut, Indiana.
The COGS attract narcissists who lust for power and glory so the COGS are where they flock to. And then when they start seeing the real evil that Weinland and Flurry and all the other maggots do they use their intelligence to explain it away as if it is GOD’s Will or a righteous way to behave. They love the idea of a hierarchy, a place where they can treat everyone like they are already GODS because they are now in a highly ranked system. The Gospel of Christ and Heaven are not enough for a COG member. They want more. Power! Riches! Planets! GOD at THEIR right hand side!
The COG members that stay in these fake churches LOVE thinking they are better than everyone, and to leave the PKG or PCG or whatever is to lose their justification for bullying, lying, theft, misogyny, and all the other things they love to inflict on others to feel like they are GODS.
COG leaders are merciless, greedy, arrogant narcissists who reward their followers with the chance to share in this greed and lust and brutality – in the abuse of others (in the name of God) as long as these aspiring anti-Christs keep the tithes coming to the lead anti-Christ! And once you invent a reasonable story in your head to justify what you know DEEP DOWN is wrong, you get intelligent people acting unwise (evil). It is so easy to see that the Fruits of the Spirit in these COG leaders are CLEARLY Satanic, you MUST fool yourself in order to think they are godly!
Wolf Minister
It’s easier if you remember that dogs are the descendants of wolves. It’s a dog eat dog society — a result of bad breeding.
Stagnation has set in, in a big way and the dogs of war don’t much give as much as a woof any more — and it looks like that’s the way it’s going to stay in 2015: It’s all going to the dogs. The ACoGs should buy new deck chairs for the Titanic so they can constantly rearrange them — if only they could afford them!
2015: Stagnation — one implication is that a mediocre equilibrium of evil will be achieved by the Armstrongist leaders who will continue to act like 9 year old schoolyard psychopath alcoholic boozing bullies extorting lunch money so they can have prime rib with Dom and those who they have robbed will continue to dig in the trash bin to find something — anything — to eat. The glass ceiling between the elite and the Proles will become thicker and more opaque than ever, ever more impenetrable to the peasants as the Oriental Potentate and his henchmen continue their oppression upon the helpless who they see as social misfits who the elite have made that way.
There may (or may not) be more ministers / elders who are convicted of pedophilia in 2015.
It will be OK: The mediocrity will not bother you as long as you remain clueless.
Do we really have to say it? Stagnation means that the old guard will remain because you can’t teach old dogs new tricksor science, for that matter.
Just watch where you step.
Lost, Confused, Unsure, Unclear, Perplexed
Grow in grace and knowledge?
Not likely.
Because they all stopped accepting correction a very long time ago.
2013 should win some sort of weirdness award, particularly because of the Cult of Herbert Armstrong. Prophet Thiel began accepting tithe money. Ronald Weinland finally went to Federal Prison for Income Tax Evasion on or near Groundhog’s Day (we’re thinking it parallels the movie where he keeps reliving the same day in prison over and over again until he gets some prophecy or other right). E. W. King and Apostle Malm made more stupid statements. Apostle Malm also held his very first Feast of Tabernacles (if you could call it that, maybe it should be called “Cult Bible Camp”) in Oregon.
Speaking of Oregon, we had projected the likelihood of more splinters in 2013 and sure enough another nano splinter sprang into existence, this time from a former UCG Deacon of questionable competence and aptitude, one Larry Hardison, who formed the Church of God Northwest Brethren on his Ekklekonx (the spell checker has just committed suicide) WordPress forum so that he could sponsor the Feast of Tabernacles in Bend, Oregon at the Phoenix Inn Suites with a top attendance of 48 with an average of 28. People had to come from all over the world to even make up that many. It’s not clear how many traded off with UCG in Redmond. We’ve heard his sermons in the past and would rather listen to paint dry. No doubt 2014 will be a banner year for them because there just not enough alternatives around with UCG, CoGWA, Pacific Church of God, Living Church of God, Heritage House Ministries-Love for Israel, Christian Biblical Church of God and you do know, the Feast for Church of God in Peace and Truth, Intercontinental Church of God, Continuing Church of God and Guardian Ministries is too far away and the Seventh Day Church of God is both too Biblical and focused on Jesus to be a viable alternative.
As we projected last year, Jesus didn’t return in 2013 and, in fact, the Great Tribulation didn’t begin… again. It was a great shock and surprise that all of the Armstrongist Churches of God did not all combine all into one under David Pack August 31st, 2013 and that three of the leaders of the major ACoGs didn’t die by the day before that. It seems that David Pack of the Restored Church of God there in Wadsworth, Ohio has been again proven to be a false prophet. It’s too bad too, for we had so much hope for a little extra drama, but all we got was paint drying on the new buildings he’s put up in his little Gulag. He does, however, look like an utter fool.
UCG again couldn’t figure out the purpose of their church. Dennis Luker announced that he would not seek a second term as President and we wondered why, since he had done so very well in his first term (that might be a slight exaggeration) — yes, we wondered until he died of prostate cancer before he could retire. Victor Kubic promises that he will carry on Luker’s vision and we sure hope that it has something to do with eliminating alcoholism from the ACoGs and not more stalking. What United has finally figured out is that it is not growing larger as a church… it is growing, but growing smaller. Entropy rocks!
The Pope resigned and the Catholics appointed a new one, apparently with more ‘life’ and competency, neither of which has much to do with the Armstrong Mafia.
We learned from Neville Stevens that demons are employing flying saucers to roam around the earth. We thought Satan had the power of the air, but, frankly, Harry Potter seems more sensible.
G. Sbarcea, based in Berowara Heights, NSW, Australia claims that Sons of Dracula Violated My Mother and Killed Her! Perhaps we’ve said too much already about this.
William Koeneke, an 86 year old deacon from Church of the Eternal God Minister, was convicted of four counts child molestation for indecent assault on young boys more than 20 years ago.
Gerald Flurry with his misnamed Philadelphia Church of God continued to be spectacularly irrelevant this year except as a place holder, save for the advice of his ministry that disabled children be left in shopping malls and further reports of a teen or two being turned out on the street (quite literally) to fend for themselves with the subsequent pain and suffering sucking in more innocents.
Speaking of the PCG, the DSM-V came out this year with a new view of mental disorders. Many of the descriptions fit the leaders of the sects of Armstrongism, particularly the PCG. In a turnabout, Ron Frasier of the PCG came out to mock the DSM-V, whereupon, the critics of the PCG came out to mock Ron Frasier and the PCG. It’s symmetric.
Glenn Beck did a segment on British Israelism. Apparently, he hasn’t seen our proof that it is a fraud.
Roderick Meredith is one more stroke closer to passing beyond the veil of the Living Church of God, at which time it might not be Living much longer. These things, though, are calculated in half-lifes apparently. It could be another decade or more. Or, if luck is with us, 2014 will be the proverbial “it” for him.
Attendees of the CoGWA are somewhat disturbed for no particular reason except it might be something Biblical that a full time minister who is divorced and remarried is, well, full time. We guess it’s because he gives good sermons. Perhaps it could be time that CoG members might possibly consider that they may be in a cult — if that’s not too difficult concept for them to grasp. Maybe, too, CoGWA members should consider the Legionnaire’s Disease at the Feast of Tabernacles in Florida this past year as a sign from God that He hates their Feasts. Some people can be pretty dense about these things. It also appears and rumor has it that after the death of Dennis Luker, members of CoGWA are tacitly returning to United. This seems to be yet another case of a patient getting a blood transfusion from one arm to the other and losing most of it in the process.
The demolition of the old remnants of Ambassador College continued apace this year with the campus hardly being recognizable as the one that Jesus was to return to in 1975 for sure at the latest.
Reports of Ysrael Hawkins, founder of the House of Yaweh, exposed on Dr. Phil again this year (at least in reruns), shows that it is a merciless abusive cult, not that will diminish business one whit and neither will it bring down the House.
Dr. David V. Barrett came out with his seminal work, The Fragmentation of a Sect: Schism in the Wordwide Church of God which gave us some good ideas why there are over 700+ (some have estimated as high as 1,200) of subspecies of the Cult of Herbert Armstrong. Our favorite quote was from Richard Rittenbaugh of the Church of the Great God who made the astonishing claim that Herbert Armstrong wasn’t a false prophet because he was a false apostle. Well, that’s not exactly what he said, but that’s the gist of it, which leads us onward to what’s ahead for 2014 after such an appalling major fail of 2013.
David Hulme, with his Church of God, an International Community (COGIC), thought to be the fifth (5th) largest of the Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia sects, seems to be having trouble with his troupes: Apparently, he has rejected the notion of British Israelism which has annoyed some in his CoGIC (although that probably isn’t the real source of unrest and his arrogant self-centered hubris along with his happy-go-lucky profligate spending with no apparent restraint, controls and oversight might be). This has led to his disfellowshipping (is that even a word, spell check doesn’t seem to think so) members for daring to have differing doctrinal opinions or criticisms of cult leadership. Apparently, Brian Orchard, a longtime and well-liked minister formerly with UCG, was among those who “resigned.” Also, COGIC treasurer Steven Andrews has apparently left the group, taking members with him, intending to start a new splinter group — this is ironic since Steven Andrews was the early on treasurer who supported David Hulme during the days his UCG Presidency came to an end, mostly because of his profligate spending, bankrupting United — and Steven had been a staunch advocate early on in the 1990s. Others that have been booted or left the cult are Peter Nathan, Cliff Veal (UK/Germany), Bob Rodzaj (Phoenix, New Mexico). Revenue is falling, falling, but David Hulme is isolated in his ivory tower, apparently confident that he is God’s chosen one to carry out the Work and will be provided for no matter how senseless, stupid or foolish his spending habits are — going forward with the divine right of kings with no thought to the consequences of unwise stewardship. It will be more difficult than ever in a disintegrating sect without Steven Andrews to manage the already constrained resources, but we’re pretty sure that David Hulme won’t care a whit until he has to face the absolutes of reality when they strike and the well is completely dry in the ACoG drought.
Troy Fitzgerald, a son of a Worldwide Church of God, came out as gay this year and published a book, Cults and Closets: Coming out of Chaos, in 2013. The Secular Safe House website has this to say about his background:
Troy Fitzgerald was raised in a religious cult — the Worldwide Church of God (aka Armstrongism) — as the son of a pastor and is now a secular humanist. He came out as gay later in life after being married to a woman and starting a family, having been in denial of his sexuality due to his religious indoctrination. He and his ex-wife, who was raised in the same cult and is now also a secular humanist, remain close friends and partners in raising their family. He wrote a book about his coming out, Cults and Closets: Coming Out of Chaos, and publishes a blog at CultsandClosets.com.
As a result of publishing his book and getting more connected with the struggles of others with similar backgrounds, he became very passionate about providing a voice, support, and safe refuge for others coming out of religion, cults and as LGBT. His professional background includes business analysis, website and film production, technical/web project management, and small business management. He is the proud father of three sons and lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Troy is just one of many fleeing the oppression of the Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia, seeking peace from the world of chaos from the lies of Herbert Armstrong. His efforts to help others to provide a refuge for those coming out of religion, cults or as LGBTQ is admirable. His effort may be the first of its kind.
And many of the Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia sects had their Winter Family Weekend in 2013, amazingly coincidentally coordinated with the Christmas and New Year’s celebrations of the pagan world of the wickedness of the Gentiles, which we are assured are completely different as they are completely godly without any hint of any pagan parallels. The Weekends will include eating, drinking, feasting, games, social gatherings, dances — absolutely, positively, completely different from the secular worldly pursuits, often held within the same facilities famous for their Christmas and New Year’s celebrations. Yep. We’re convinced. No hypocrisy to see here. Move along….
One thing quite disappointing in 2013 was absolutely no more mention of demons entering the world by a Stargate under the ocean. We’re bummed.
Our friend(s) over at Silenced.co once and for all (again) completely, totally, absolutely destroyed the foundations of British Israelism, proving once again that Herbert Armstrong’s failed key to prophecy, making him a dead false prophet, are based on a foundation of sand. You may read the many proofs and witnesses:
A Foundation of Sand: Part I — correlation does not imply causation
A Foundation of Sand: Part II — Ancient Israel’s future wrongly mapped to today
A Foundation of Sand: Part III — The Lost Ten Tribes Were Never Lost
A Foundation of Sand: Part IV — Israelites did not become Western European Barbarians
A Foundation of Sand: Part V — Linguistics
A Foundation of Sand: Part VI — Chronology
A Foundation of Sand: Part VII — An Issue of Questionable Scholarship
A Foundation of Sand: Part VIII — Genetic Evidence: BI’s Kryptonite
A Foundation of Sand: Part IX — The Crumbling Castle (the key to prophecy to the Bible and prophecy was neither)
Now we know why Ambassador College was located at Big Sandy: A sly reference to the entropy to follow based on the foundation of British Israelism.
We were pretty much on spot with our projections for 2013 last year, which leads us to a fairly high confidence that even though there continue to be surprises in the world of stupidity, we can have a fair amount of certainty about the future of 2014 — mostly the things that won’t happen.
We’re pretty sure that as a trend, Jesus will continue not to return and the Great Tribulation will not begin yet again. We can’t be absolutely sure, but if some group or other has a Place of Safety, it won’t really be and anyone foolish enough to wend their way into the wilderness may find themselves in dire straights as in “Jonestown” or if not Jonestown, certainly Looney Tunes.
The developing trends of 2013 may well find their way and amplify along the way for 2014.
1) Continued addiction of the membership (not to mention the leadership) on British Israelism: They have to have it — it’s a drug of choice, to assure that the doom and devastation will fulfill their lusts of idolatry and hubris to validate their “rightness” in their belief that they will be winners if only they follow the right cult leader into a wonderful world where they finally have some power!
2) The Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia will continue to do and say really stupid things!
3) The Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia will issue lame excuses when the stupid things they predict again do not come to pass!
4) The Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia will absolutely take no responsibility for the consequences of their actions!
5) The Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia will cover up their silly mistakes and continue to pretend they did not say or do the stupid things they really did!
6) The Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia will make no apologies for the stupid things they say and do!
7) The devastation, gloom and doom of the entropy causing apathy will continue its single arrow of time, marching the cult sects into inevitable irrelevance.
8) The high energy promises of Herbert Armstrong in the 1970s for prosperity and wealth in our time (and not just to wait for the future) would be available to all the loyal members as blessings from God will be continue to be ignored by the Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia, because they are too far gone to believe and try to sell such nonsense — thus dooming them to the useless dust bin of irrelevance to a society moving onward without them.
9) The Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia will continue to lose the youth, their future, because, let’s face it, British Israelism with its self-sacrifice for the good of the Empire is just not that much fun and the next generation doesn’t see any future in it for them.
10) Diehard cult members will cling to Armstrongism doggedly no matter what — it doesn’t matter if their leader is a proven an insane lying false prophet psychopath convicted felon in prison, darn it all, sticking with him proves our loyalty to God and by Jiminy we’re going to inherit the Kingdom come hell or high water even if liars and whoremongers won’t inherit the Kingdom of God: We’re crazy nuts and we’re absolutely sure of the delusions we believe.
These are the trends that have been developing in 2013 and it sure looks as if they are going to continue into 2014. We’re also pretty sure that what’s ahead is even more crazy outrageousness that none of the cult Mafia leadership is going to acknowledge and they won’t even bother with excuses any more, just like David Pack with his predictions for August 31st, 2013 — it came, it passed, it failed and he doesn’t even bother with excuses. As the ACoGs progress through 2014, that’s what we see ahead.
Other trends are developing as well, particularly for those of opposing this outrageous nonsense. It’s utter rubbish. We’re not going to stop exposing it at every turn. The ACoGs will continue to try to ignore us, but the forces of nature (entropy), God and whatever openings we can find will continue to erode this oppressive stupid wrong cult throughout the next year and beyond.
For 2014, the opening gambit is BritishIsraelism.com: We love the British, just not British Israelism.
Herbert Armstrong was not an apostle;
2013 should win some sort of weirdness award, particularly because of the Cult of Herbert Armstrong. Prophet Thiel began accepting tithe money. Ronald Weinland finally went to Federal Prison for Income Tax Evasion on or near Groundhog’s Day (we’re thinking it parallels the movie where he keeps reliving the same day in prison over and over again until he gets some prophecy or other right). E. W. King and Apostle Malm made more stupid statements. Apostle Malm also held his very first Feast of Tabernacles (if you could call it that, maybe it should be called “Cult Bible Camp”) in Oregon.