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Not-so-nice words from Ronald Kelly









"YOUR JOB IS NOT TO THINK!!!"

---Ronald Kelly, 1974

In my stay in the WCG, I really had a very "high" opinion of WCG Evangelist Ronald D. Kelly. I even admired his "Johnny Appleseed" beard which in the late 1980's he finally disposed of. I first heard him speak at the Feast of Tabernacles at Niagara in 1983 when I was 13 and met him personally when he visited my hometown of Toronto in 1987. Little I knew Ronald Kelly, had a dark side of the force lurking in him. Worldwide Church of God Almuni message board participant PasedenaGuy 10 presents a clip from an former WCG member's book about Ronald Kelly's tactics during the infamous (or famous---take your pick!) rebellion back in 1974.
---Felix Taylor, Post WCG Life and Theology

Laschek tells the story of the upheavals in the WCG during the 1974 ‘crisis’ where over 2,000 members left because of all the lies and deceit going on by the ministry.
On February 25 was the “Monday Massacre.” Garner Ted Armstrong had flown in from headquarters in Pasadena to end confusion and marshal the forces of righteousness. On the twenty-third he had delivered a blistering sermon at Sabbath services, inflaming the faithful with fresh distrust and, in some cases, hatred for the dissidents. IT was an inspired performance by a talented orator. At the end, several hundred people spontaneously leaped to their feet, cheering and waving. I had a vision of Nuremberg, 1935, and was actually frightened. I counted six of us who didn’t cheer.On the twenty-fifth, Garner Ted convened a minister’s conference at AC, and, after a forty-minute opening prayer, which saw him break into sobs, he harangued and intimidated the forty or so assembled church leaders for seven hours. Several entered the meeting with misgivings about the organization, but by the times it was over, only four still stood their ground, resisting the demand for total loyalty. They were fired from the ministry and disfellowshipped.The next day it was the student body’s turn to be purified. Kelly and an associate delivered wild-eyed diatribes calling on us to “purge out those who are not wiling to change!” Everyone knew who he meant; but of course it was the dissidents who had actually changed.) We were told there was a “morass of rebellion” and that the situation was “insane.” The Devil was attempting to divide and conquer God’s church, and the rebels were eon his side, partaking of evil. To cap it off, we were reminded, “there are things we shouldn’t even think; let alone say.”Next day the student body was assembled, and Kelly announced that twenty students had been fired from their campus jobs because they had contact with disfellowshipped persons. The kicker was that he wouldn’t release the names of those who were “terminated.” You had to guess if you were among the causalities, and, therefore, further incriminate yourself by asking for official confirmation.The next day Kelly kicked my friend Pam out of AC. She had been on the termination list and had gone to Kelly’s office to discuss her firing. She wondered why her job had been affected by a visit to a former member. Kelly replied that the salaries were paid via the donations of church members, so it was a betrayal of the brethren to use their money to pay dissidents. It would have been an appropriate moment to mention how the brethren’s money had been used top buy planes, limos, jewelry, and other extravagances for the WCG hierarchy, but Pam merely said, “I don’t think going to see a former minister should have anything to do with my job.”“Your job isn’t to think, “ Kelly replied irritably. “You aren’t paid to think.”“Oh, that’s right,” Pam countered, “Christians aren’t supposed to think.”Kelly began to shout. He yelled, “That’s enough!” He didn’t want to hear any more. He told Pam she was expelled from AC, and, right on the spot, he instructed his secretary to file the necessary papers. As Pam left his office, he slammed the door behind her.The “heretical underground” had grown cynical as the conflict in the WCG unfolded and we howled with mischievous delight when we discovered that Kelly had a bidet installed in the bathroom of his house. Some began to refer to him as “Clean Ass Kelly,” and mused that since so many true believers were “brownnosers,” Kelly’s posterior must be scrupulously maintained in a pristine condition.

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The 1974 rebellion was all about Garner Ted Armstrong being more Garner Bed Armstrong. It really is too bad that someone couldn't have thrown that in Kelly's face, only to walk out on him and slam the door.

But then, we're always being denied the vengeance we've been promised in Scripture, aren't we?

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