Post-WCG Life and Theology ARCHIVES

There is a spirit that connects all fundamentalists together. It is the spirit of being a bully. This attitude is easy to find among evangelicals and Armstrongites. What these fundamentalist use to bully others is Biblical scripture. They talk about Hell, the Tribulation and the End of the Age with great energy and enthusiasm. And through fear they hope to capture and enslave the hearers. What I find to be revealing is that seldom have I ever detected a spirit of love in these declarations of present or impending diaster. I find, instead, a spirit of resentment and a desire to harm. I believe that Armstrongites view with glee the misery recounted daily by the news media. The attitude of the bully actually permeated Armstrongism. I have been around many of the leading men in the WCG who were at Big Sandy in the Seventies. The word "bully" describes them accurately. They were people who fully leveraged themselves using the hierarchical structure of command. Another phrase that comes to mind is "loveless". When interacting with these people I never got a sense that they motivated by love. While this is an extradinarily strong proof that Armstrongism is a non-Christian cult, it is also a very personal experience that does not serve well to inform everybody. You had to be there. While the mouth is the principal weapon among these people, I am not surprised that Dart would reach for a shooting iron. It is all in the same spirit. And besides, Armstrongites have advocated the exermination of Native Americans, Maoris and other indigenous peoples for years. While they would probably not lift a finger to accomplish it, the spirit of murder is still present.