This time he is standing behind a lectern, just like Meredith used to in old episodes of Tomorrow's World. Thiel pretends he has the authority to preach. Actually he was never ordained. He uses an anointing by an LCG minister and pretends he was appointed by God as a Prophet.
Now onto the message:
The first few minutes are devoted to fear mongering about the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. He says they were banned until Mubarak's downfall. It is my understanding that it operated quite openly in Egypt, but it's politicians were never given a genuine chance to be elected to rule because of the authoritarian Mubarak regime.
Thiel notes they were founded to oppose secular influence caused by British colonial rule. Wait a minute, doesn't the COGs strive to prevent themselves from succumbing to secular influence? How were the Muslim Brotherhood's desire to have an independent Egypt any different from Americans rising up against British rule in the 1770s? Those men are often revered within the COGs as the founders of the United States.
Thiel makes no attempt to understand the Muslim Brotherhood from their perspective. He just wants you to be scared and give tithes to him.
He says the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt are trying to re-establish the Muslim caliphate. Thiel accepts this rhetoric at face value because it supports his argument that Muslim fundamentalists are uniting the Arab world under a future King of the South.
But should he accept this rhetoric at face value? Is it rational to do so?
He never asks himself if they are actually serious. True, they say such things, but are they implementing it? Have they decided who should be the Caliph? Have they made laws to implement this? All this talk about the Muslim Brotherhood trying to create a Caliphate seem most outlandish to me. Who would the Egyptian people accept as a Caliph? Has Egypt called for other Muslim governments to recognize President Morsi or any other Egyptian as a Caliph, or as one deserving of religious respect by all Muslims?
Recently President Morsi tried to change some laws to grant himself with wider powers. In response many protesters came out on the streets resisting this perceived return to dictatorship. How could anyone claim to be the Caliph in such a polarized and uncertain atmosphere?
Thiel never asks questions of this nature. He just accepts a few words he saw on their website to make people afraid of the Muslim Brotherhood.
It also needs to be said that Thiel does not truly let the Muslim Brotherhood speak for themselves, but instead use a few words of theirs to subtly insert his own wacky ideas about a future King of the South.
It also should be stated that many American rightists have tended to demonize the Muslim Brotherhood as some sort of conspiratorial organization that should be feared. I fear that Thiel might have let himself be influenced by such paranoid thinking.
His fear mongering comments about the Muslim Brotherhood and some Muslims' dreams of re-creating a Muslim caliphate remind me of a book I was lucky enough to read recently, The Vietnam Hearings, an account of the Fulbright hearings in early 1966. Back then much of the world was quite fearful of possible aggression from Communist powers. And one of the testifiers in these hearings talked about distinguishing between rhetoric and what one is willing to do.
They discussed how, if one took Communist rhetoric at face value, it meant that the USSR and China were striving to conquer the world. But then they noted, on the other hand, that China did not act like a government striving to conquer the world. They did invade a disputed border region with India, but the Chinese viewed this as reclaiming lost territory so even this invasion could not be assumed to be evidence of aggression.
And while talking about this one of them said that such Communist rhetoric of international solidarity with the workers, that the capitalist world will disintegrate, etc, should be viewed as simply pseudo-religious rhetoric which they at present cannot act upon, and therefore it should just be safely ignored as hot air. In olden times such rhetoric did have serious meaning but now it was simply relics of a bygone age that they did not back up with deeds.
Also closer to home, the COGs are filled to the brim with religious rhetoric that once made sense (a bit), but today just sound like obsolete nonsense. Like the COGs' claim that they are called to bear witness to the world by telling modern day Israelites that God will soon punish them for their sins by letting them be conquered by Germans and sent into exile as slaves. When only HWA did this it made sense. Today many COGs claim to be doing this but they completely fail to have any impact on the wider society. Most Americans and British people do not even know they exist. Thiel never asks himself if the Muslim Brotherhood's rhetoric should be understood in this way.
Tunisian Prime Minister views his election as like the beginning of a Caliphate. Then he mentions another Muslim wants to create a Caliphate with its Headquarters in Jerusalem. Thiel never bothers to mentions who. Was he from Hamas? Was he from some other organization?
Also why have a Caliph in Jerusalem? Traditionally the Caliphs were based in other cities, not Jerusalem.
As I said before, Thiel is not just a bad speaker, he is also very confusing.
Since at least 1967, if not earlier, Palestinian Arabs have been striving to create a Palestinian state. They have always yearned to have their capital in Jerusalem. Some of them are affiliated with religiously conservative organizations like Hamas, and naturally those people tend to express their longings for a national homeland in religious rhetoric.
At another point he mentions the Caliph and then he mentions the Mahdi. The Mahdi is completely different. He's a righteous religious figure who is said to be destined to come near the end of the age. Thiel tries to confuse his followers again.
Once again another very confusing, and very unenlightening message from this false prophet.
Also false prophet Thiel has also written a new members letter. He complains about how he has had trouble trying to upload his sermon to Youtube, and that his computer got a virus.
He has also been boasting again.
Did two radio interviews this past week. And while no further ones are currently scheduled, based upon audience estimates as provided by the radio hosts, we of the Continuing Church of God have reached more people in our first few weeks of existence than any non-GTA group that was part of the old Worldwide Church of God or the old Global Church of God.
Since our first month is still not over (and while it may be for radio, it is not for the internet), God willing, I intend to provide statistics related to our reach in the letter next week.
(Notice how he did not mention LCG.)
As I explained in an earlier post this is rhetoric Thiel feels compel to used because the impact of one's work has always been used by Armstrongites to justify their activities.
This rhetoric is a total, vicious lie. But he does not care because he wants those tithes and he wants to prove himself worthy of leadership in the eyes of his followers. He knows that some will inevitably be lured into his grasp.
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