My GOD Teddy let an ex-member’s comment through!!
Where’s Weinland?? That really IS a sign of the Apocalypse!!
The observant (Hah!) and non-observant alike will note, Teddy let Robert’s comment through ONLY in order for Teddy to be able to deliver an old-school ministerial smackdown, albeit with new school trinitarianism preaching.
The more things “change”, the more they stay the same…….
I notice Junior never refers to stories like THIS in his victim-blaming, half-assed “appy olly oggies”. Oh, but that’s right, it was Worldwide that did that shit, Junior’s church is bright and shiny new and NOT WORLDWIDE.
Pull the other one, Junior, it’s got fucking bells on.
If any of those tithe-sucking, cruise-taking, jet-setting fat bastards still in charge of WCG/GCI/PT/ORM’s “assets” (read, criminally misappropriated funds) had REALLY found the Jebus they’re STILL beating their poor deluded sheeples about the head with to try and convert them (best of luck with that Junior, if the local congregation here is any indication, you’re not even CLOSE), they would refer to this video BY NAME, and ADMIT that this is the way the church was — and they would apologize for THAT.
Instead of making some “Well, we TRIED,” whining little prayer pledge for dollars from the deluded.
Fuck you Junior. Talk to me when you’ve got even a scintilla of remorse for what your father and his idol put us all through.
We are the children of the church.
Given the whitewashing of Basil Wolverton’s indoctrination materials, for those who can’t stomach the thought of reading through the material again, below the cut I present 87 excerpts, from all six volumes of The Bible Story. Not quite as text-free as Mont’s little money-maker for GCI, one gets more of a sense of the context and thoroughness of the thought-reform engendered by these books, with the captions included. Something “The Wolverton Bible” conveniently left out. Possibly because it would have gotten a “hard R” rating, otherwise.
On books that were distributed to families with pre-school children.
Given the whitewashing of Basil Wolverton’s indoctrination materials, for those who can’t stomach the thought of reading through the material again, below the cut I present 87 excerpts, from all six volumes of The Bible Story. Not quite as text-free as Mont’s little money-maker for GCI, one gets more of a sense of the context and thoroughness of the thought-reform engendered by these books, with the captions included. Something “The Wolverton Bible” conveniently left out. Possibly because it would have gotten a “hard R” rating, otherwise.
On books that were distributed to families with pre-school children.
So the administrator of the Herbie Worship Archive has either been threatened by Mont or Junior’s Internet Lawyers, or s/h/it has somehow bought into the whitewashing of the church; “The Bible Story” links (which used to redirect to PDF scans of the actual books that we have all held and read, and had read to us, and that impacted the children of the church so irrevocably) all now link to Mont’s little money-maker on his father’s apocalyptic coat-tails.
Junior is probably ecstatic with this arrangement, as it means the whitewashing of the church is nearly complete. As far as Junior’s concerned, any child of the church who protests about the children’s literature we were indoctrinated with, doesn’t have a leg to stand on, because copies of those documents no longer exist, and here, SEND MONEY TO JOE INSTEAD, if you want proof of how you were brainwashed, when you were a kid.
(Would the administrator of the Herbert W. Armstrong Searchable Archive like to step forward, and assure us that none of the other materials are going to be whitewashed in a similar manner? Or at the very least, reveal if Mont and Junior sicced the legal hell-hounds on you.)
Well, well. Surprise, Junior!
Download these while you can, I don’t know how long I’m going to be able to keep them posted before the long arm of GCI retribution snakes out from Pasadena Glendora, and starts threatening me. Unlike Six-Pack Gerry, I can’t afford to put up a fight.
For a little taste of what The Bible Story contains (and if you don’t want/can’t bring yourself to wade through all six volumes of the horror), here is a A Bible Story from Judges, for public edification and childhood flashbacks. Expect another post soon, with some of the pictures and text that DIDN’T get printed, in Mont’s little money-maker for GCI.
Remember, these books were given to children as soon as they were able to read (or were read to pre-school children, by their parents), beginning in 1982-1983. So these stories were read to, or even read by (early reading was encouraged by the church), children between four and six years of age, right up until ten and eleven. By which point, we were starting to graduate out of YES, and beginning to read the “adult” church literature on our own.
Well. If the kid was “truly converted”, that is. 
For those who have been wondering what I am babbling on about with regards to “the banner/no banner” thing on Canadian HQ’s website, I have secured screen-captured evidence to demonstrate the Magical Appearing and Disappearing Name of the Little Church That Couldn’t (hide from its past, that is).
So allow me to present the changing face of the WCG/GCI Canada website. It’s not a major change, but it certainly is striking, if you know what to look for.
I repeat: Would Someone From Surrey care to comment on this constantly-appearing-then-disappearing name of the church?
If it is only a stylesheet glitch, that’s fine, I won’t make anything more of it. But I note, the appearance and disappearance of the large banner proclaiming the name of the church, with no satisfactory explanation as to why, does lead me to wonder, just what the hell, exactly, is going on over there……….
Just found this tasty little treat on the Worldwide Church of God, Canada homepage. Which, notably, no longer has a huge honking banner proclaiming that name. BUT, no reference to GCI, either, it’s simply billed as “International HQ”. Trouble in paradise Pasadena Glendora, perhaps? Sedition in Surrey? Say it ain’t so!!
But!
As the Worldwide Church of God is episcopal in its governance, the National Director also serves as national ministry leader, and reports to the denominational president for ecclesiastical matters. For example, the doctrinal positions of the denomination are established and maintained at our world headquarters, and the National Director is accountable directly to the President of the Worldwide Church of God for assuring that those doctrinal positions are upheld by the denomination in Canada. [Found here.]
Jesus fucking Christ on a goddamned popsicle stick, micro-manage much, Junior?!? (Read Stan’s article linked here. This has been ongoing for quite some time now.)
“In Soviet Canada, Church Presides Over YOU!”
Mark your calendars, people! It’s not every day you can (or likely ever will again) read a post to an ex-Church of God member’s blog that says:
Now that you’ve all picked your jaws up off the floor, kudos goes to whoever tipped their hand and passed along the internal church’s email to Spanky’s right-hand man.
“The MAIN reason that GCI made the change is that it does not want the world’s churches to consider it a cult, and the name change clearly does distance GCI from “Church of God” in the minds of almost everyone.”
You got that goddamned right, Bob.
The Worldwide Church of God has now completely divorced itself from its past.
Any church claiming it is part of “Grace Communion International” IS THE WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD. This is a CLOSED HIGH-DEMAND RELIGIOUS GROUP THAT STILL REFUSES TO PROVIDE FINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY, AND DEMANDS MONEY FROM ITS MEMBERS.
ANY CHURCH AFFILIATED WITH GRACE COMMUNION INTERNATIONAL MUST BE AVOIDED AT ALL COSTS. THEY ARE TRYING TO DIVORCE THEMSELVES FROM THEIR CULTIC PAST. WE WILL NOT LET THEM DENY OUR EXISTENCE ONE MOMENT LONGER.
Ambassador Watch and Part 2, thanks for the mention, Gavin. Also, a response to Richard Banes.
Shadows of WCG (I’m sorry you had to come out of retirement for THIS, J.) Part 2. Part 3.
A brief mention here. Not sure who the blogger is, looks like an evangelical, but no overt ties to the church.
Claude Mariottini mentions the name change, by way of Ethics Daily. There are no comment options on the Ethics Daily blog, unfortunately.
A mention of this page, and a link, on a cult-watch page here, thank you to Perry Bulwer.
And the sheeple are coming out of the woodwork in force, to defend the church everywhere I have posted. Other than a sheeple insisting the church uses an external auditor the Iron Sharpens Iron blog (for which I demanded proof, we’ll see if I get any), they’re basically hand-waving and ignoring any questions about financial accountability. Telling, that, no??
Stan Gardner’s blog also records that the church has been here before. I only hope the children being born and raised in GCI are not so blindsighted about their “communion” as we were about “god’s true church”. More than likely, children of GCI will never know they or their parents or grandparents were a part of anything else other than GCI — just like we never knew that we, our parents or our grandparents, were a part of anything else other than WCG. At least one teen commenter in the whitewashing links below, indicate that this is the case, for those still trapped on the inside.
Exit & Support Network (Warning: Fundamentalist evangelical site.)
I also registered and added a trackback link to this page on the Cult News Network.
WE ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE CHURCH.
NEVER FORGET. NEVER FORIGIVE.
I will be updating the links as they are whitewashed, and adding more links to pages/comments/blog comments that indicate the cowed membership are going along with their pontiff, Joe Tkach’s edict. (See “the letter to donors” from the first AW link.)
One ministry blog has already been whitewashed. The Surprising God Blog has not (yet). [Update: Crazy Teddy fixed that around Easter. TSGB has now been whitewashed.] One Pennsylvania congregation has been whitewashed. WCG’s vulnerable and at-risk youth recruitment propaganda has not been whitewashed (yet). [Update: As of April 22, 2009, Generations Ministry has now been whitewashed. One TN congregation has been whitewashed. Anybody speak Spanish? Looks like this congregation has been whitewashed, but I can't tell for certain. (According to an anonymous AW commenter, it's a translation of the PGR announcing the change in Spanish.) This US congregation has not been whitewashed. Montego Bay congregation (parading under a deceptive name to begin with) has been whitewashed.
A current child of the church is going along with the name change like a good little sheeple. (Thus confirming my fears that 2nd gen GCI children will never know that they were WCG, just as we in WCG never knew that we were RCG -- just like we never knew about '75 in Prophecy and the receivership scandal, they will never know about the changes, and Pope Joe I and Pope Joe II.) An older church member (definitely not a super deacon, at least not according to how he's dressed, on a business site) is participating in what looks like a viral marketing campaign to spread the church far and wide, now that it has been (or so they think) completely divorced from its past.
Another apologist blog, but read the comments. Also see this post from the same user, cheerleading for the church (my comment linking back to here, and pointing out that Junior is still authoritative and there is zero financial accountability for the church was not approved I WONDER WHY), and see Gavin's response here.
Another ministry blog has been whitewashed. This congregational page has not been whitewashed. (And they're in Pasadena, of all places!!) [Update: Looks like Junior brought them onboard. Now whitewashed.] However, the pastor of the group’s Google profile has been whitewashed. One commenter on an ex-Adventist’s blog is holding fast to the truth (sorry), good for them. Warning, it looks like the ex-Adventist in question is heavily evangelical now, and appears to be in favour of the church.
This congregation in Winnipeg is returned by a search for “Worldwide Church of God”, but notably, neither WCG nor GCI is present on its web page, and Headquarters is linked to with the text “International HQ”; presumably, since they are Sunday-keepers, this Winnipeg congregation wants to fly under everyone’s radar. (Most of the church’s congregations in Canada are still Sabbatarian.) Also, as of April 18, 2009, the Canadian HQ site is down.
Update: As of April 19, 2009, the Canadian HQ site is back. And has NOT been whitewashed. As a matter of fact, the WCG name is even bigger and bolder on the front page than it was before. The site appears to have undergone redesign for the look, but I haven’t dug down any further to see if the content has changed significantly or not. [Update: See here and here for the ongoing drama, and it now looks (as of June 12, 2009), like Junior has managed to maintain status quo. No great honking banner (again), but also oddly enough, no mention of GCI, Headquarters is simply referred to as "International HQ". Hmmmmmmmm.]
Could the whispers of a possible denominational split over the name change have some basis in fact??
Some digging reveals superficial changes, and more content. I did find this note interesting on the Statement of Beliefs page (emphasis mine):
Christian financial stewardship is the management of resources in a manner that reflects the love and generosity of God. It includes the responsibility of offering a portion of one’s financial resources to the work of the church. Donations fund the God-given mission of the church to preach the gospel and feed the flock. Such giving reflects the heart of Jesus Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us.”
Now all they have to do is provide itemized public records of “such giving”, and what exactly they do with the money once it’s been “given”. Is that really so much to ask? Yeah, it probably is.
Another US congregation is whitewashed.
Listen to Junior and Weazell prevaricate on Iron Sharpens Iron. Funny, they gave the same self-congratulatory spiel on the Bible Answer Man show, during the changes. Don’t miss the comments, a stalwart member is claiming the church uses an external auditing firm. Update: And now we have the name. Stan Gardner, are you ready to unleash the church’s financial statements to the world?? And thanks to xHWA for the support. And now we have Part 2, without comments, a move the blog administrators probably made intentionally.
They’ve sent the sanitized version of the “letter to donors” to the Religion Press Release Service. Presumably this is the same press release picked up by the Christian News Report. The press release has also been picked up here. (Comments are not available on this page either.) Dividing 42,000 members by 900 congregations, at least we can take solace in the fact that the church is much, much smaller than it used to be. On the other hand, that probably means Junior is pressing the few remaining members in, to give everything they’ve got; either that, or he’s just quietly letting the GRUMPs continue on with their legalism, and living off their continuing tithes.
Another Christian blog has picked up the press release.
The UK church has not been whitewashed (yet), [Update: Still not whitewashed, although they claim to be "in association with GCI". What does that even mean?? Which came first, the Brits or the Canadians? Neither one of those "Israelitish nations" wants to give up their heritage as "God's Chosen People", after all.] but check out the “Day by Day” scripture reading: “God Loves a Cheerful Giver”. I’ll bet Junior loves “cheerful givers” even more, eh? (Cheerful givers?? Is that what the church is calling the tithe slave these days? Really?) The church in Africa (I bet you never thought you’d read those words, huh?) has not been whitewashed. The church in Australia has not been whitewashed.
The church apparently has what appears to be some version of Imperial in the Phillipines; this, too, has been whitewashed. Disturbingly, they also have a video titled Healing. One wonders if the church overseas has “held fast” to the medical doctrines, even through the changes……
For ex-member bloggers trying to up your Google ranks and spread the truth as far as possible, please tag your posts about the name change “grace communion international” and “worldwide church of god”. This will allow tag-caching services, like Technorati, to return results that reveal the truth about the church, instead of the whitewashed truth the church wants the public to see.
Shadows of WCG
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