"Only the Trumpet ... Proclaims the Cause for the Problems of This World"

This paragraph is from an article by PCG's Gary Rethford, written in 2001, which discusses the problem of starving children around the world and then boasts that only the Philadelphia Trumpet magazine reveals the cause behind this problem while charities that feed and cloth them are belittled as only treating the symptoms.

There are organizations dedicated to the feeding and saving of children. We do not fault their efforts. They have purpose and determination. But at best, they can only partially treat the effect. Only the Trumpet magazine proclaims the cause for the problems of this world: disobedience to God’s law! There is room for more laborers in this mighty cause.

Just imagine. PCG members are told by their leaders, like Gary Rethford, that only PCG's leadership reveals the cause for world problems like starving children. PCG members are made to believe, in an elitist way, that they and they alone are the only ones who can truly help people in this manner. Believing things like this it is no wonder that so many PCG members fanatically believe that they are duty bound not just to Armstrongism's God but also to all of humanity to remain in PCG. This is despite the PCG's leadership's orders to shun "Laodiceans" and their other draconian requirements.

What non-COG readers will not know is that within PCG "disobedience to God's law" translates in practice as: do whatever PCG ministers tell you to do. Some of the things PCG minsters will order new members to do include shunning WCG members and ex-WCG who have not joined PCG even if they are close family members or friends (PCG leaders like Stephen Flurry are exempt from this rule), pay three tithes and extra offerings, abstain from birthdays, Christmas, Easter, Halloween and St. Valentine's Day. There are many other issues as well but these serve well enough to make manifest the authoritarian character of PCG.