Post-WCG Life and Theology ARCHIVES: December 2006

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Intelligent quote of the day: Pasedena Guy 10 Strikes Again!!!

Humans are not like animals in that we have a 'soul'. I do not believe that any stillborn or aborted fetus is going to be punished for something they did not do. Armstrongism, like many evangelicals , can't stand the fact that their 'god' may be more merciful than they give him credit for. They have a need to buy into the Calvinist mindset that all are depraved and worthless pieces of cr@p and will NEVER be able to make God love them enough to save them.I also feel that a person that has committed suicide is not punished again for his /her deed. To me God embraces them with the biggest hug they will ever get and tells them that everything is OK now. Armstrongites and evangelicals want their 'god' to stand there before the person and tell them that they are a disgusting sinner that broke one of the ten commandments and there for is @#%$ to the lake of fire for murder. What idiocy!And then to read the comment from that guy where he states that he heard Armstrogites speculating that because a child has never kept the holy days of Herbie then they are @#%$ because they have not proven themselves. More idiocy!

---Pasedena Guy 10's passionate and no nonsense rebuke of those in the extremist splinters of Armstrongism belief in the eternal destiny of the death of the unborn on the Worldwide Church of Alumni message board forum

Posted by Felix Taylor, Jr. at 3:30 PM | Permalink | Comments

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Special treat from the CBC on the Bible Belt

Little wonder that I have considered myself a post-evangelical Christian (but not beyond the gospel!) , highly critical of the religious right and extremely suspicious of American religion in general. Look at Mark Kelley's segment on yesterday's The National on CBC. You can go to Mark Kelley's Seven at http://www.cbc.ca/news/media/seven.html or better yet, click for the videos here below!

Episode 3, Dec. 19, 2006.
This week, Mark Kelley spends seven days with evangelical Christians.
Video Part I (Runs 18:18)
Video Part II (Runs 6:18)

Posted by Felix Taylor, Jr. at 10:12 PM | Permalink | Comments

Friday, December 15, 2006

Another hell-raising liberal evangelical on the rise!

Here is a thought provoking article from Jay Bakker on CNN.com, son of Jim and Tammy, whose also followed in his parents footsteps but in a very uncoventional way. His ministry is Revolution Church (www.revolutionchurch.com) and he pastors the New York City church. The article is co-written with Marc Brown and it is called "What the Hell Happened to Christianity" and you log on to http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/12/13/bakker.brown.commentary/index.html. Also, please pray for him and his mother, Tammy (Faye Messner) as she is gravely ill battling cancer at 68 lbs.

Here is also the promotion of the documentary that involves Jay called, One Punk Under God, courtesy Youtube.com.

Posted by Felix Taylor, Jr. at 10:30 PM | Permalink | Comments

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Here's a NEW one!

The Worldwide Church of God has came a long way baby! I have considered the historic WCG a very misogynistic cult back in the day, has now have been opened to the idea of ordaining WOMEN into the ministry of that particular denomination.

Here's what Anne Hannah had to say:

Well they finally have announced what is not AT ALL an unexpected decision. The Worldwide Church of God will now ordain women. Basically the seal of approval on something that has been done for quite sometime.
http://www.wcg.org/weekly/default.htm

"In short, our denominational position is that women may be ordained as elders and appointed as pastors..."

It will be interesting to see member reaction.

Folks, don't miss the video by Joe and company. :-)

When someone goes to the trouble of producing such a crafted presentation they realize what a potentially problematic and even divisive issue this could be.

I know some longtime WCGers who will be upset about this decision by their church. Ten days before Christmas Eve is not a good time to be dumping this on people.

Couldn't this have waited till AFTER Christmas huh?

What was the old Chinese curse? "May you live in interesting times." The Worldwide Church of God ALWAYS thrives on controversy. Entering the year 2007 will definately be no different.

Posted by Felix Taylor, Jr. at 9:33 PM | Permalink | Comments

Monday, December 11, 2006

The smooth Stephen Flurry makes his mark

The smooth and suave (but very dangerous!) Stephen Flurry who's daddy is Gerald of Philedelphia Church of God fame is promoting his new book Raising the Ruins another pro-HWA book (but at least he goes after Joe Jr. I'll give 'em credit for that!). He even has a

website promoting with the book with three videos of himself in an interview about the legal battle of obtaining legal rights for Mystery of the Ages (and other historic WCG literature), an excerpt of a sermon saying he was proud of his uprbringing in the historic WCG and a commercial promoting his book. For those who think we can destroy Armstrongism in 5-10 years think again. Yes, Rod's church may be going under crisis (but isn't that the story of all XCG's and c'mon, they ALL thrive on crisis) but the battle against Armstrongism is a MARATHON NOT A SPRINT! Believe you me this battle will also take decades, not a single decade. I could even see emerging a great competition between Stephen Flurry (if he becomes PG of the PCG) and David Pack (and his RCG). Couple that with biblical ignorance in Christiendom (thanks to the excesses of the modern charismatic movement and anti-intellectualism in American evangelical Christianity), the battle against Armstrongism is NOT dying, it is just warming up.

Posted by Felix Taylor, Jr. at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments

Friday, December 08, 2006

Extremely HIGHLY intelligent quotes of the day

I wish I could say I was surprised.The whole letter shows that Ponder doesn't even really know the Grace's at all. Has he even gone by for a visit? It seems doubtful.But given what a jerk he is, it's for the best.Let's just hope the Graces wake up and get out -- especially now that they're raising their grandchildren. "Our grandchildren have suffered horrific abuse and are still healing and making adjustments," he writes, and my thought was, "Well, don't give them more that they'll have to get over by introducing them to the nightmare that is Armstrongism..."

Points to Ponder:Rather than advice the victim, how about we advise the perpetrator.

1. Mr. Ponder...You are not a servant of any Jesus I know of. He that is "greatest" among you, let him be your servant." You're disqualified. It was just your job to send the material, not decide if they deserved it.

2. I know why you turned them down at a deeper level. Ministers can't stand it when there are fewer people at church. Numbers make the job feel real and declining attendance feels bad. You want the grandkids to come to church to up the numbers.

3. Your mapquest quest is insulting and controliing. It shows you didn't believe the couple from the start and EVEN if they were off by some alotted time of your reckoning, IT IS THEIR BUSINESS IF IT SEEMS TOO FAR FOR THEM TO GO...NOT YOURS.

4. Whether YOU see or don't see symptoms of cancer in people is again, NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS. People give reasons for how they feel because they feel the person who judges the worth of the reasons may not get it. How long ago they had their challenge with cancer is none of your business. If they have low energy, which is common, they have low energy. IT IS NOT YOUR BUSINESS TO JUDGE HOW WELL THEY FEEL. I suspect LCG services are not inpiring enough anyway and suck what little energy one has out of them. Frankly, the last place I would want to overcome the challenge of cancer would be in a COG. The negative, end of the world, drama ridden environment would suck the energy out a healthy person. I suspect they subconsciously don't wish to be at church and are hoping one or more of their reasons will shut you up.

5. Your anal- ysis of traffic lights and such is just that..anal.

6. "Easily" staying over for a mere $55 as you can is relative to ones income and circumstances. As a minister, you know as well as I do, a former minister, you get reimbursed for staying over in most cases or can if you insist. I suspect your gas is reimbursed to some extent or that you get mileage for your pastoral efforts. If not, I am sure it comes off your income taxes.

7. There are LOTS of better places for kids to be other than hearing about the end of the age and imminent of Jesus all the time. I'd go for the zoo.

8. "by the way, you should attend the feast with those girls also"You "should" mind your own business and not feel free to tell people what they should or should not do. This is control as now your members have to decide against or for what they "should" do according to you. I suspect not to do this would be going against what you have told them they "should" do. Don't "should" on people Mr. Ponder.

9. If these people did not attend combined services "a few years ago" that may relate to how they felt with the cancer of a "few years ago." Maybe the sermons were so predictable they didn't want to hear it. Maybe sermons on Trumpets aren't encouraging. I always had a basic rule that encouragement, given by an encourager should actually be encouraging to the one needing to be encouraged..know what I'm sayin' Vern?

10. Karma Mr. Ponder...Karma...Or as a Westerner might say, "what goes around, comes around." Mr. Grace's answers to your letter were much more gracious than you deserved. Join the human race Mr. Ponder. We are all one and the same and gentleness, compassion, understanding and taking people at their word goes a lot further than authority, so called. Give up on passing judgement on the decisions others feel they have to make. You called Doug a liar over and over and he should be disturbed at the tone. I have met dozens of ministers like this and it's a major reason why COG's don't prosper as a place where one feels safe, appreciated, respected or able to speak freely without judgement or unintended consequences.If you wish to discuss it face to face and get some mentoring in how to encourage and care for people, I'm just up the road. I did a mapquest, and you are not all that far from me.Ponder that.....

---XCG's Gary Scott and former WCG pastor Dennis Diehl rightfully, dutifully and appropriately slamming a fanatical, heartless jerk for an LCG minister and his stupid decision on a LCG couple.

Here's the website of this medievel troll's decision and the couple's response. The hell be with Carl Ponder, always.

Labels: intelligent quote of the day

Posted by Felix Taylor, Jr. at 9:48 PM | Permalink | Comments

Thursday, December 07, 2006

You think Armstrongism was a weird religion, try Mormonism!

Courtesy from Youtube.com. Be appalled. Very appalled.

Posted by Felix Taylor, Jr. at 10:01 PM | Permalink | Comments

Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Another controversial video

This video will definately ruffle the feathers of some ultra-conservative prudes and puritans alike. While I don't agree with every aspect of what is said in the video, I do believe the presenter tells a certain amount of truth that needs to be discussed and may the self-righteous wrath of the prudes and puritans be damned for once. Here is courtesy from Youtube.com, "Why Sex a Sin?"

Posted by Felix Taylor, Jr. at 11:05 PM | Permalink | Comments

Saturday, December 02, 2006

Intelligent quotes of the day from Byker Bob!

Comment #1

One thing that we don't seem to see is groups of people who really feel as if they've been screwed over by COG-7 taking to the internet to express their displeasure.From this, I believe I would conclude that they probably did not have any really detestable authoritarian leaders, running roughshod over all the brethren of COG-7. They were probably allowed to use their minds and pursue more abundant lives, without all of the threats and intimidation which were routine at WCG.Since the doctrines are pretty much the same, it would seem that HWA's basic personality is what caused all of the hatred and bitterness we sometimes associate with former members of WCG who have not as yet become very advanced in their recoveries.I really have never run across any angry ex-members of the SDA churches, either, which suggests to me that there probably weren't Hitlerian ministers in the top spots of Adventism.It would seem apparent that HWA personally was the spawn for all of the bitterness and hatred.

Comment #2

Well, that is a thought provoking question, in view of the news we occasionally see on TV or read in our newspapers. I would say this: The leadership of all the Armstrongist churches is rotten, corrupt, megalomaniacal, and evil to the core. But, the other Christian churches seem to have little patches of evil here and there, and some bad history (like the Catholics), but most of them are not what I call "institutionally rotten" Now, when I tar and feather the ACOG leaders, please understand that I believe that the vast majority of the lay members are well-intentioned, and attempting to do what they believe to be right. They've unfortunately been caught up in a horrible scam, and don't realize it.Churches having their act together? I'm not like some of the atheists (apparently like Elton John) that believe that religion is the mother of all evil, wars, oppression, etc. I've seen religion accomplish some good in people's lives that really needed some structure. I've heard a lot of good about the Universalist Unitarian Church, and also some great things about the emergent Christian movement that Big Red described to us all. I think that if you walk into any Christian church, you are going to find some sincere people, and some insincere people. Sometimes, the insincere become sincere with time. The primary way in which I judge or discern the nature of a church is whether it accomplishes predominantly good in people's lives, or more than 50% bad or evil.My grandmothers both read their Bibles in the privacy of their homes, but never went to church to my knowledge. They were known to all as good people, and taught me a number of wonderful values which I came to re-embrace after leaving WCG.

-Thoughts from good ol' Byker Bob from the WCG Alumni Message Board