Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Pack on Meredith in Global COG

[Update: One more quote has been added at the end of this post.]

Recently I've been reading some of Dave Pack's Authorized Biography, specifically concerning the time he was with Meredith's first splinter group, the Global Church of God (1993-9). Having been a devoted reader of LCG's materials I was fascinated to see what Pack had to say about Meredith.

Now I must make it clear. I do not trust Dave Pack. It must always be borne in mind that he runs a (cultic) 'church' that requires members to pay three tithes. (The second is required for observance of the Holy Days, especially the Feast of Tabernacles.) He is competing with literally hundreds of rival Armstrongite groups. Most of them are quite small, but all of which are descended from HWA's WCG, and so challenge Pack's legitimacy as leader of his sect.

Hence one would expect him to devote a lot of time to delegitimizing the rival groups, especially UCG and his former associations, GCG and LCG. And that is exactly what we find here.

Here we shall focus on Pack's portrayal of Meredith.

Admittedly this is sort of like quoting a post-Stalin Soviet theoretician to prove the falsity of Maoism, or like quoting Mormons to prove that Jehovah's Witnesses are heretics. But RCG happens to be one of the more prominent Armstrongite groups out there so it would be good to see what RCG members are being told about their rival, Meredith, and what Pack has to say about my former cultmeister.

Since Pack does lead a group competing with Meredith's group it is not surprising that Meredith is relentlessly portrayed in a negative light.

In this post we shall focus on Meredith and Pack's relations while they were part of the Global Church of God, the group Meredith formed in 1992 after he left WCG.

Here we go:

From Chapter 39:
Mr. Pack had continued to speak with Global’s leader (its presiding evangelist [Roderick Meredith]) by phone. He wanted to be sure he was a different man from the one of decades past. During these conversations, the man showed a much more contrite and humble attitude than had previously been seen. This was reflected by his ardent assertion that he had not sought to start his own organization. He said the idea had been forced upon him only after he was fired. In fact, he told Mr. Pack he had no intentions of starting his own group until deciding to do this after he was fired. (This will be evidenced later as having been untrue.)...
In the next anecdote Meredith is portrayed as a ungrateful man who undeservedly belittles Pack.
[This is Pack himself speaking.]“There was a very early surprise, however, in all of this. Instead of a thank-you for buying the car from my (borrowed) funds, the Global leader was disappointed that I had only brought an initial group of 38 people with me. It was absolutely stunning. I was not bringing enough human ‘booty’ right out of the gate to suit him.
Chapter 40:
[This is Pack speaking personally.]“Yet there was always the little jab that would come from the leader at the wrong time. I would get home from a trip where I had met with many and started several groups, increasing the size and income of GCG, and the presiding evangelist would be waiting to pounce because I had ‘spent too much money.’ In time I learned not to turn in some of my expenses. The ingratitude was too much to bear after the effort, so I just ate certain costs in order not to have to hear it.”
Later in this chapter Pack expresses disagreement with Meredith's understanding of the Gospel and whether Jesus is a part of it. He insists that GCG under Meredith was deviating from 'the truth'.

Chapter 42:
Meanwhile, the presiding evangelist [Meredith] continued to single out Mr. Pack behind the scenes because of his perception that there was an inordinate focus on the “younger minister.” This, coupled with the growing doctrinal and governmental issues not being resolved, left Mr. Pack increasingly uncertain.
More in the next post.

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