Intelligent quote of the day
Twenty years after the death of Herbert Armstrong and the churches of God have gone to hell in a handbasket. Not only have they not solved one single problem, but they have new ones all the time.
There are plenty of mentally ill ministers in the churches of God: Some with depression, some with Bipolar Disease, a few with schizophrenia. The external evidence is that a number of them have committed suicide and 90% of all suicides are the result of mental illness. One minister gives sermons wherein he says he is depressed and then says in another place he isn’t depressed.
Mental illness is a physiologically linked trait, often with predispositions running in families. Therefore, one would expect that families of ministers who have mental illness will themselves have mental illnesses. Considering the fact that the Worldwide Church of God attracted unstable people, it is possible that Ambassador College represented the shallow end of the gene pool when it comes to mental illness.
David Pack needs to remain silent, for it is not mental illness from which he suffers, but a mental disorder: He seems to have the personality disorder of narcissism—an aspect of character which seems to afflict all the leaders of the churches of God.
Whereas, there is good reason for mental illnesses which are often treatable, there is no good reason for narcissism, for there is no physiological nor genetic components apparent in the disorder. Furthermore, while it is not illegal to be a narcissist [or even a psychopath, for that matter], it is a sin. Based on the royal law of love, narcissism is excluded because it is basically a lack of empathy and, hence, means that a person who has chosen the dark path of being an empty shell who considers himself the center of the Universe, can have no love for others.
This means, if you are a purist, that people like David Pack have absolutely no fruit of the Holy Spirit, and hence, have never repented or ever been converted.
Of course, there is another possibility: They’ve committed the unpardonable sin.
While alcoholism is not a mental illness per se, it is an affliction which seems inherent within most of the ministers of the churches of God, particularly the leaders. There is little worse than being under the domination of an alcoholic narcissist, outside of being under the domination of a practicing alcoholic psychopath. Most of us have lived wretched lives in the churches of God because of the alcoholic narcissists who lead the churches of God.
We start with Herbert Armstrong, with his Harvey’s Bristol Creme and move on to Garnter Ted Armstrong. There was David Jon Hill. There is today, Gerald Flurry. It is surprising just how many practicing alcoholics there are currently among the ministers in the churches of God.
They won’t make it into the Kingdom of God, of course, if there is one shred of credibility to Scripture. You might not believe in the Bible any longer, but you can believe in the wretched lives lived by those who are controlled by alcoholics in power. They are everywhere. Just look for people who complain about hypoglycemia. It’s not a 100% indicator that the person is in the final stages of alcoholism—the last of which is death—but, by and large, it is a very good indicator. Another good indicator is that alcohol is supposed to relax people. If you find your minister has all kinds of energy after taking a drink, look out: There’s something wrong with his liver and the alcohol is transformed by his body chemistry into toxic poisons—he is an alcoholic.
So after 20 years, none of the problems of the churches of God have been resolved and the problems they had are getting worse. The narcissists are still narcissists. The psychopaths are still psychopaths. The practicing alcoholics are still practicing alcoholics. The mentally ill in the church have had not one shred of help.
It is a sick dysfunctional environment which needs a major cleaning out. As it stands, the ministers are totally unqualified to lead anyone anywhere but perdition.
---Douglas Becker, who discusses the sad state of mental health of both ministers and members of the various Armstrongite Churches of God on Gary Scott's XCG blogsite.
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/53903
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Douglas Becker |
Wednesday, November 01, 2006