This made me think that he must be one of the most useless COG leaders there is. I mean he had so much going for him. He was a very prominent minister within WCG, he was one of the three chosen to continue speaking in the World Tomorrow telecast after HWA's death, when UCG split from WCG he was elected the leader of UCG.
With the founding of UCG Hulme was the leader of the largest Armstrongite group in the world.
David Hulme did not have the one man rule that HWA used and abused, but he commanded more influence and power than any other Armstrongite minister.
And then he threw this away by getting into an argument with UCG elders. It was a struggle between King and Parliament. And so he left UCG, and set up his own COG, the Church of God - An International Community.
And then what?
For whatever reason Hulme and his group has been extremely tight lipped about, well, everything ever since 1998.
The Armstrongite Churches of God are a wasteland of megalomaniac despots and plunderers of peoples' tithes but at least they talk about what they are doing. A lot of what they do is quite despicable but at least they are trying to do something. Whether it is worthwhile is a different topic. (With the answer usually being no.)
But what has David Hulme done?
Nothing. Or at least nothing worth talking about. (Until now it seems. And even then we know very little.)
Clearly his decision to leave UCG must be regarded as the worst decision of his Armstrongite ministerial career. Without a robust group of like minded cohorts behind him which he had in UCG he has simply flailed in the winds, steering his ship with dull regularity, following the current without striving to reach any particular destination.
The only impact Hulme's group had on me, if one could call it that, was that I often went to Pabco's Home Page, which appears to be maintained by a follower of Hulme. But this web site is merely one lone church member's doing. Many other Armstrongites have also provided the same information.
What is David Hulme doing?
Twiddling his thumbs?
Considering how little we know about what he is doing he might as well have done so.
Silenced well sums it up:
Still obscure
Nobody cares
Not even the blogs
David Hulme is much like Earl Williams in this regard.
ReplyDeleteI thought Mr. Williams had the stuff to become a TV evangelist, after the WCG breakup of the mid-90s. If you ever heard him preach, you'd understand.
Instead, Mr. Williams now has a small Sunday-keeping congregation in Atlanta which shares a building with another group.
How interesting that in many cases (not all), breaking away from the main COG to start your own group has ended in obscurity.