Occupy Wall Street

Let me state here that I truly hope this protest spreads and grows. It is wrong that those responsible for the global financial crisis of 2008 to escape prosecution. It is wrong that the middle class and the poor are expected to make do without to suffer for the failing of the world market. Failings caused by elites, not ordinary people who inevitably suffer during rounds of austerity. the big banks who bought toxic mortgages, which were fostered onto people who were viciously tricked into entering mortgages that they could not pay off, just as many of us were tricked into joining Armstrongism without knowing what we were getting into.

I wish the protesters well in their quest for justice. If you can help I encourage you to do so. Spread the word.

Sydney Hull Has Passed Away

Recently I looking at the stats of the blog and discovered that someone had arrived at this blog after typing in a search phrase saying that Sydney Hull had died. Intrigued I looked through issues of Living Church News and discovered on page 31 of the July-August 2011 Living Church News that he has indeed passed away.

Mr. Sydney Hull died March 13, just a few days short of 81 years. Mr. Hull was baptized in 1964 and ordained an elder in 1974. He served as an evangelist and as the LCG Regional Director in South Africa for a number of years. Mr. Hull is survived by his wife, Mrs. Dot Hull.

I am saddened to hear to hear of this. I wish to express here my sympathy to all those who mourn his passing.

[Update: I have just seen that his death was reported by LCG apologist Bob Thiel as soon as it happened. Somehow this information escaped me. I was probably too busy watching the events in Libya and Syria to notice it. I have been taking a long break from watching the saga of the COGs.]

Ten Years After 9/11

It has been ten years since since 9/11. For anyone interested I related my personal experience of 9/11 elsewhere.

It is very sad what happened to those and that their loved ones have lost them.

I feel sad that the US government, in response to 9/11, has eroded personal civil liberties in ways that are wrong. I feel particularly strongly on this issue after learning of the useless and vicious 'enhanced pat downs' that were instituted by the TSA in airports last November to coerce passengers into entering controversial full body scanners.

So often I hear people say we live in a changed world after 9/11. That is true, but this fact should be used as justification to surrender liberties to the state, letting them poke and prod in our lives in ways that would have been unjustifiable before 9/11. We also should not forget that Al Qaeda has been severely crippled, not least after the wicked mastermind himself, Osama bin Laden, was killed by US soldiers. We must not let the fear of Al Qaeda permit our government to erode our liberties.

I would like to share here the following books I have read concerning 9/11.

God @ Ground Zero by Ray Giunta and Lynda Rutledge Stephenson.

One chaplin's personal account of his experiences in Ground Zero. This book really helped me learn to be more sympathetic with those who endure traumatic experiences. An unforgettable account of those who responded to this catastrophic emergency containing moving stories of peoples caught up in this most terrible crime. It provides a glimpse into the lives of those who respond to disasters.

The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright.

An astounding and superb account of the history of Al Qaeda up to December 2001, with emphasis upon the lives of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. Essential reading for any one wanting an account of how those two men came to lead that most infamous terrorist group.

I found this book unexpectedly comforting. This was the book that made me realize clearly that Al Qaeda is actually a bizarre, small, Islamic based cult and that the vast majority of Muslims are very different from Al Qaeda. To imagine that the majority of Muslims are like Al Qaeda is like imagining every American is like the Ku Klux Klan.

Old WCG Was a Doomsday Cult, Bob Theil

Bob Theil made an article: Australian Wrong: Old Worldwide Church of God Was Not a Doomsday Cult. In response to the release of a semi-autobiographical novel written by an Australian ex-WCG member, Bob Theil insists that old WCG was not a doomsday cult.

There are a lot of misunderstandings about the old Worldwide Church of God (WCG).
But it was not a “doomsday cult.”

Those of us who were part of the old WCG and in the current Living Church of God (LCG) are not like the Jim Jones’ followers–we do not plan on drinking poisoned flavor-aid to end our lives.

This statement is very deceptive. What the old WCG under HWA did do was forbid followers from using medicine or going to doctors causing tragic and needless deaths. Herbert W. Armstrong appears to have gained this anti-medicine superstition from the Jehovah's Witnesses, in which members were also forbidden from using vaccines from 1921 till 1952. Here Bob Theil shamefully ignores this most dreadful and atrocious behavior HWA forced upon his followers and banishes it down the memory hole.

Let us now continue:

Although some are expected to die in persecutions, LCG church members mainly hope to live until the return of Jesus Christ and the establishment of His kingdom, and hope to proclaim the truths of the Bible to the world as a witness until the end (Matthew 24:14)....

As far as preaching prophecies in the Bible that show that the Anglo-descended nations will be chastised if they do not repent, yes the old WCG and current LCG taught that .... But urging repentance is not a sign of being a doomsday cult. It is a sign of trying to follow what Jesus said to do.

Bob Theil is wrong. Old WCG was a doomsday cult. HWA and his cronies constantly abused the Bible and viciously used false prophetic interpretations to sow fear of being caught within the Great Tribulation to force followers to follow the dictatorial rule of the so called ministers.

HWA taught that Jesus Christ would return in 1936, then after World War II, then in 1975, then he declared in Mystery of the Ages that He would return by 2005. (PCG removed that embarrassing false prophecy in their version, so you will not see it there.)

Those were not just speculations, as was deceptively taught after these failures, but preached as definite facts. They failed. These false prophecies prove that HWA was never a man used by God.

But these facts are simply ignored by HWA's followers, such as Bob Theil, pretending these things did not happen and deluding themselves that HWA was a man sent from God when he most certainly was not.