Meredith's Words of Wisdom

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Now while I was recently rereading The Ten Commandments by my former cultmeister Roderick C. Meredith I found this quote from his booklet on pp. 58-9:

Thievery Through False Advertising

One of the great commercial sins of our age is the common practice of false advertising. The consumer is led to expect that a certain "pill," for instance, will cause him to lose weight, gain weight, increase his potency, restore his thinning hair, or whatever the case may be. And, in most cases, this statement is a direct, willful lie without any doubt. Such a practice is, in effect, stealing from the people who pay money to achieve the promised result. In many cases, the victims of these gigantic frauds are not only robbed of money, they are robbed of health, happiness and peace of mind. Many a "respectable" businessman and community leader has attained his position largely through this type of mass deception and theft!

I find this paragraph rather amusing. Because in many ways Roderick C. Meredith and those with him have utterly failed to live up to these ideals. I am not talking about personal scandals, but what he taught as a religious authority and how he 'preaches the word' (recruiting) and well known acts that occurred in churches he was associated with. Let me show you what I mean (My words are in italics):

Thievery Through False Advertising

One of the great commercial sins of our age is the common practice of false advertising. [What about the time when the Armstrongites said Christ will return in 1975 and he did not, or the time when Tomorrow's World said in 2000 that HWA predicted the fall of the Iron Curtain in the 1950s but did not tell the unsuspecting reader about 1975? Would those count as false advertising?] The consumer is led to expect that a certain "pill," [or how about a religion like Armstrongism?] for instance, will cause him to lose weight, gain weight, increase his potency, restore his thinning hair, [become an eternal God being, become magically rich by giving 'the church' a high percentage of his or her money] or whatever the case may be. And, in most cases, this statement is a direct, willful lie without any doubt. [My word, you don't you make this easy for yourself, do you?] Such a practice is, in effect, stealing from the people who pay money to achieve the promised result. [Aha! So you admit it. Misleading advertising is stealing! Would that count the time when you wrote articles calling for tithing and did not tell any unsuspecting readers (those new to Armstrongism) that they are expected to pay three tithes?] In many cases, the victims of these gigantic frauds [like Armstrongism] are not only robbed of money [like Garnet Hill], they are robbed of health [Would the stress resulting from following LCG's exclusivist teachings count? Or telling people in the past that God forbids medicine count? Note: LCG does not explicitly forbid medicine today. To bad thay did not change much else.], happiness [No more birthdays! or Christmas! or Easter! or Valentine's Day!] and peace of mind [like all the posters at Exit and Support Network and the atheist/agnostic/deist Painful Truth]. Many a "respectable" businessman and community leader has attained his position largely through this type of mass deception and theft! [Is he sure this does not count himself?]

See how he and those who are with him hopelessly failed to fulfill what he preaches?