Here is one of a collection of articles written by Anne Hanna critiquing WCG Pastor General Joe Tkach Jr.'s aggressive campaign in rooting out the Jewish roots of Christianity in his denomination. This appeared in the other version of Gavin Rumney's Ambassador Watch which is now defunct but this is article and others relating to this topic is now here FOREVER at Post-WCG Life and Theology. Enjoy!
---Felix Taylor, Jr.
A letter from someone who used to be on the "front line".
The latest Personal from Joseph Tkach raises the question of whether we can expect to see another vicious round of worship wars and expulsions
Dear Anne,
I would like to comment on Dr. Tkach’s July Personal entitled “Something Worth Thinking About…” As a former lay minister of the WCG I am not surprised that Dr. Tkach has come to a point where he at last openly advocates:
“But when we want to make the gospel attractive to a Gentile society, we need to eliminate customs that confuse the gospel with the old covenant law.” WN, July 2003, Personal Something Worth Thinking About...
The premise of the article is its subtitle “Peace At Any Price?” which tries to present Tkach as having done all he can do to make a reasonable peace with his opponents within the WCG. Is this premise true? In actuality it is patently false. The truth is that far from being a peace maker Tkach is actually the source of conflict in the WCG.
As an example the pastor of my old congregation has already started to push again for the elimination of the days much to the consternation of the members not to mention himself. He is afraid that this latest push that he feels he now has to make, will destabilize the finances in his local area.
The tragedy is that after 5 years of worship wars this congregation had reached a peace when after multiple surveys the pastor said he would abide by the last survey. Unfortunately from his perspective the congregation once again chose to keep Saturday, the festivals and Christmas.
If Tkach had wanted peace then he would have followed what he himself called a Spirit-led decision when in July 1998 he said that congregations could choose their customs of worship. There was even a significant worship survey in November 1998 that showed that of 15,440 members some 86% wanted to keep the festivals while only 14% wanted them gone and only 22% were against adding a Christmas/birth of Christ celebration. This survey gives a strong indication that the WCG membership of 1998 was relatively content and accepting of worship diversity.
Consider that in a totalitarian cult such as the WCG it was unheard of for the Pastor General to so graciously let the membership choose when and how they wished to worship. Indeed the very idea that a democratic/congregationalist approach would be allowed in this matter spoke well to the future of the WCG.
Why didn’t the Pastor General just legislate an elimination of the days since he had the power to enforce his personal preferences? Dr. Tkach had a very good reason for saying that the congregations should choose their worship which he re-stated in 1999:
“What would happen if we abolished all Saturday services and the annual festivals? We would be compromising the very principles of the gospel, of salvation by grace through faith in Christ, upon which we stand.” WN, March 1999 Personal "Straddling Days".
The reason for the choice was that if Tkach denied them their right to choose then he would be denying all that Christ represents. What is even more interesting about the 1999 Personal is its tone, that the WCG was now embroiled in worship wars. What happened from July 1998 to March 1999 that undermined worship tolerance?
What happened was that the Pastor General misled the members and ministers. He was personally opposed to the WCG traditional worship customs. Yet at the same time he realized that to openly legislate a change would deny as he said the “very principles of the gospel”.
The ministers knew since at least July 1998 that their Pastor General wanted the traditional worship customs of the WCG eliminated as quickly as possible (re: Regional Pastor Alan Barr sermon on July 11, 1998 in Kennesaw, GA in which he shared a detailed summary of the ministerial conference). So at the same time that the Pastor General was telling the congregations that they could choose their worship, he was telling the ministers to make the congregations change.
It was this deliberate duplicity that put the ministers on a collision course with the members. This would lead to the on-going cycle of worship wars, new legalism, loss of peace and the resultant division as well as consequent loss of membership not to mention continued financial instability.
What is also interesting is how the cultic dynamic of absolute power has affected the current Pastor General just as it did Armstrong. Armstrong was able to rationalize his actions even though it created cognitive dissonance because there was no one to hold him accountable.
As we have seen Dr. Tkach recognises that openly legislating a change of custom in order to force the membership to change strikes at the very heart of the gospel. Yet, Dr. Tkach has rationalized that using the ministers to force the congregations to change is somehow acceptable. What is worse, openly denying the very principles of the gospel or accepting them but doing all one can to subvert them?
By subversion I refer to that practice of using the totalitarian system to prejudice the choice by any means possible such as exclusion of contrary evidence, proof-texting, misleading propaganda, bribery/threat of key influencers, denigration of and expulsion of opponents. All of which I have witnessed personally which is why I now attend a mainstream evangelical denomination.
A few examples that have been made public are Ron Stoddart’s confession of being paid to discourage WCG traditions and WCG administrative policy of only “loyal” ministers being assured of having a pension. The festivals are repeatedly positioned as being unsuitable because of their Jewishness instead of appreciating how Christ is represented in them. Even the use of “Jewish” by Tkach’s administration to stigmatize WCG traditions has an appearance of the evil of Christian anti-Semitism.
I believe that Dr. Tkach’s approach endangers the future of the WCG, as well as the members’ spiritual and emotional well being. Under Dr. Tkach’s leadership the members of the WCG have been “discouraged” to the point that there are at least 40,000 and perhaps many more by this date, who no longer attend any church. His administration has effectively turned them off of organized Christianity. His policies have as in this Personal sown a legalism that demands adherence to his personal worship preferences in order to show that a member is a good Christian promoting the gospel.
My heart breaks for the members and the ministers of the WCG including Dr. Tkach. They had and perhaps still have such potential to be a valuable part of the body of Christ.
The WCG would be well advised to take an approach similar to how the new Archbishop of Boston is approaching the crises of spiritual and sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic churches of Boston. Archbishop O’Malley has publicly confessed the sins of his church in that matter. He has acknowledged as well as validated the church’s critics. He seeks to make restitution even though he realizes that no restitution can undo the harm done, and he has enlisted all levels of the church in an effort to repair the church that the church’s leadership has harmed. The Archbishop is on record as saying that the church will step up to do the moral thing and not just the legal thing. O’Malley is intent on repairing his church.
In contrast Dr. Tkach would rather ignore valid concerns and evidence from his critics. He has denied them a voice let alone a place in repairing the WCG. He has offered no worthy apology, or validation of those who have been harmed and marginalized in their church home for which they sacrificed so much. Instead he continues to seek to “eliminate” their customs which as he must know means “eliminating” them. Tkach is not repairing his church but inflicting more needless conflict.
What did the members do to deserve this treatment? They extended tolerance if not out right welcome to adding Christmas and Easter to their traditional liturgy. They believed Tkach when he said they could choose. Lastly, they rejoice before God because of how they see Christ in all of their traditions.
Dr. Tkach implies that he is following the example of Paul by rebuking and eliminating those he accuses of refusing to accept freedom in Christ. In this the Pastor General is once more misrepresenting the evidence, the situation, the scriptures as well as the apostle Paul. Paul was a builder and repairer of churches. His pastoral policy is repeatedly mentioned in Romans 14, 15, as well as I Corinthians such as in 9:13 where Paul would rather not eat meat ever again should it cause his brother to fall. Paul stands in stark opposition to Pastor General Dr. Joseph Tkach where it comes to pastoral policy.
Dr. Tkach’s Personal is setting the WCG against the very principles of the gospel.
Something worth thinking about…
