Overview of the August 2015 Issue of The Philadelphia Trumpet

The latest issue of PCG's recruitment magazine, The Philadelphia Trumpet (July 2015), is now out. Let us see what PCG's leaders say this time in order to get more tithe money from PCG members and co-workers.

This issue has a circulation of 295,801. Circulation is falling. Between the January 2011 issue and the April 2015 issue The Philadelphia Trumpet's circulation had always been above 300,000. (Some relevant figures may be seen in a previous post.) But now for the third time in a row it's circulation is lower than 300,000. (297,255 for the May-June 2015 issue. 297,242 for the July 2015 issue.) This is part of a continuing decline since the December 2012 issue (341,259).

Clearly all the money PCG's members and co-workers are sending to PCG has been failing to increase circulation for The Philadelphia Trumpet for about two and a half years now. Where is that money going? Is it being spent effectively?

Gerald Flurry has a personal article which exploits the memory of Steve Jobs.

Gerald Flurry has an article viciously condemning protests against police brutality as an attempt to weaken the powers of the police by African Americans. He fear mongers that this will have the effect of causing a rampant crime wave. These allegations are absurd and shows he is not paying attention to the concerns of the African American community on this very important topic. He alludes to his false, racist prophecy that soon African Americans will soon launch a wave of riots against the white majority. Supposedly this will occur in every American city at the same time. Gerald Flurry has taught this vicious and ridiculous idea since 1992. He even alludes to his teaching that President Obama is "another Antiochus" just like Tkach. What nasty nonsense this article is. This article was discussed in a previous post.

Jeremiah Jacques has an article fear mongering about illegal immigration and emotively alleging that the Federal Government has engineered the largest prison break in history by letting illegal immigrants stay in the United States. Recently PCG has been fear mongering about immigrants.

Brad MacDonald has an article venomously accusing Pope Francis of provoking war in the Holy Land by advocating the creation of a Palestinian state. He is seemingly heedless of the fact that the Oslo Peace Process has advocated this very measure since the early 1990s. This is not news. It is designed to create an induced phobia of the Pope among PCG members to keep them scared of events outside of PCG and distracted from the problems within PCG.

Jeremiah Jacques also has a little article fear mongering that Cuba will soon enter some sort of sinister alliance with the Pope.

Aaron Hudson and Anthony Chibarirwe have an article accusing the Obama Administration of "creating" a nuclear weapon armed Iran due to the current negotiations with Iran. (This article was published before the agreement was made.) They also fear monger that a nuclear armed Iran will lead to a the proliferation of nuclear weapons in the Middle East.

Dennis Leap has an article bemoaning how traditional religion is having less power within the United States. (Is he moaning that he, as a minister of PCG, has less power than he should have in his opinion?)

Jeremiah Jacques has an article demonizing Japan as fated to be a military threat against the United States. PCG has a long history of demonizing Japan despite their friendly relations with the United States since 1945. An earlier version of this article was discussed in a previous post.

Samuel Livingston has an article encouraging readers to walk for exercise.

Stephen Flurry has an article assuring the reader that God, angels and demons are real.

Worldwatch have a few little articles. One fear monger that Russia is planning to invade eastern Ukraine. One moans that Britain is cutting its defense budget. One fear mongers about the recent mass hacking against the US government. One moans about the United States no longer regarding Cuba as a sponsor of terrorism. One fear mongers about China's border dispute in the South China Sea with neighboring countries. One moans that President Obama is not supporting the State of Israel enough. One condemns the Supreme Court's ruling that the President is legally entitled to insist that Jerusalem not be listed as being a part of the State of Israel on US passports contrary to a 2002 law passed by Congress.

One little article talks about the war in Syria. In a previous post it was exposed how PCG constantly refers to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi's lackeys in Iraq and Syria (formerly known as Al Qaeda in Iraq) as "the Islamic State" thus giving those murderers and terrorists exactly what they want. This gives no heed to the fact that most of their victims are Muslims. This reprehensible and irresponsible policy is clearly still in force among PCG's writers. This little article calls those terrorists "the Islamic State" numerous times. Why give Abu Bakr al Baghdadi's lackeys what they want?

On May 21, the Islamic State captured the ancient city of Palmyra in central Syria— four days after the same terrorists seized the city of Ramadi in central Iraq. With the capture of these two cities, the Islamic State gained control of the vast region between them ... According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Islamic State now controls 38,000 square miles in Syria ... The rest is essentially a battlefield where Assad is fighting on four fronts, against the Islamic State [and other groups] ... Reports in late May indicated that Assad was temporarily fighting alongside the Islamic State in Aleppo, northern Syria. Analysts view this as Assad’s strategy to ... leave the world with only two options: a barbarous Islamic State or his own regime. (p. 30.)

That little article is accompanied with a picture. Nothing is said about where the photo specifically came from within Syria. The picture comes from Yarmouk, a Palestinian refugee camp near Damascus that in recent times has been the scene of fierce fighting. Quite likely many of those individuals in that photo are Palestinians.

Societywatch has a few little articles. One condemns Ireland legalizing same sex marriage after a referendum. One fear mongers about the drought in California. One complains that most Americans are shifting their views on various social issues away from how PCG views them. (Maybe that's your fault, PCG.)

Joel Hilliker has a little article advising people how to have a happy family life. That would be a lot easier if PCG members were not required to pay three tithes and extra offerings to PCG.

There are letters. Here is one fear mongering about racial conflicts.

Racially charged unrest is actually exploding all over the world. Just like in the days of Noah. Witness the recent Rohingya refugee crisis and the Yazidi genocide as examples. (p. 34.)

And despite the utterly terrible record of PCG predicting something bad will soon occur to the American economy here is one letter from a person who has become convinced that the American economy will soon collapse.

We are reminded that a forecast was made by Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong three decades ago of how a U.S. financial crisis would destroy the American economy and lead to a United States of Europe .... Through a series of recent articles you have prepared us with details of the American banking system, fractional reserve lending, fiat money, of shadow banking and “quantitative easing.” These articles have prepared the way for our greater understanding of this article, which requires our full attention in these end times. Truly this is one of the signs of the times. Thank you for your efforts in keeping us fully aware of our future. (p. 34.)

PCG has constantly fear mongered that the American economy will soon collapse. And somehow it never happens, even after the events of 2008. Clearly PCG does not know what is going to happen.

Robert Morley has a little article comparing present society to Pompeii. This is just fear mongering nonsense. 

And so we see that PCG has produced yet another issue that fear mongers about all these problems thus keeping PCG members distracted from the problems within PCG. This issue once again presents these events as being part of some grand pattern that only PCG's leaders can discern thus legitimizing their insistence on being paid three tithes and extra offerings.