Watching PCG's Program, Charleston, S.C.—How to Solve Race Relations

Let us now take a look at PCG's The Key of David episode, "Charleston, S.C.—How to Solve Race Relations", presented by Gerald Flurry. It is dated July 11, 2015. This telecast and a transcript of it can seen on their website.

Let us see what Gerald Flurry has to say.

In this telecast Gerald Flurry focuses on how relatives of those murdered in Charleston said to him that they forgave him following Jesus' example. Gerald Flurry praised this act and then complains that it was forgotten and ignored in media coverage that, he says, subsequently focused on controversy regarding the Confederate flag. It is insinuated that not focusing on the victims' statements of forgiveness is a sign that race relations will soon fall apart.

This alludes to Gerald Flurry's false prophecy of "race war" that African Americans are fated to soon launch a wave of mob violence against the white majority throughout all the cities of the United States. This is an idea he has taught since 1992. (He seems to think this will happen everywhere all at once.) Of course Flurry and Co. will have to wait a long time for that to happen since it will never happen.

Flurry condemns the murderer as a psychopath. It never seems to occur to Flurry to refer to him as a terrorist. In this program there is no discussion about how the murderer was influenced by white supremacists who were fixated on black on white violence. There is no attempt to explain these ideologies of white supremacy that incited the murderer to kill those nine innocent persons.

Flurry uses the victims' forgiveness to condemn the riots in Ferguson and Baltimore. 

So let me talk to you a little bit about the REAL SOLUTION to race issues, and I will just ask this question: Why did Charleston, South Carolina not become a Ferguson or a Baltimore? Now, that’s a CRITICAL question for us to deal with. Why didn’t the same thing happen THERE that happened in those other cities? (Transcript, p. 1.) 

 While it is perfectly proper to condemn riots in order to discourage such things happening it is not acknowledged that this wave of protests against police brutality is a peaceful movement. By only focusing on the victims' forgiveness on the one hand and those riots on the other Flurry is ignoring the peaceful nature of the protest movement among African Americans by not talking about peaceful protesters seriously.

While the victims' forgiveness is praised the riots in Ferguson and Baltimore are condemned. But there is no acknowledgement in this program that the riots in Ferguson and Baltimore were the unfortunate exceptions of this current wave of protests against police brutality.

Ever since this wave of protests began following the shooting to death of Trayvon Martin in 2012 these protests have been peaceful. With rare exceptions these are peaceful protests. This most pertinent fact is simply ignored and willfully forgotten.

See, a beautiful attitude of making peace, doing everything you can to make peace, not war! Not riots! But PEACE! That’s what this is ALL about. (Transcript, p. 3.)

There is nothing wrong with condemning acts of rioting and violence. But we need to view things in their proper perspective rather than just nurturing an exaggerated fear that some sort of riot might happen when such a thing is extremely unlikely in any given place.

By ignoring the peaceful nature of the wider protest movement against police brutality Flurry makes it appear as though riots by African Americans are just around the corner and could occur at any moment. This is a highly skewed view of the situation.

It is insinuated that this protest movement weakens the national cohesion of the United States. It is even alleged that other nations such as Germany, Russia, China and Iran could view this protest movement as a sign of America's weakness and encourage them to attack America.

But let me give you just a warning that you won’t ever hear much about, and you almost never hear it I think, and that is, if you have problems with in, all kinds of problems within, race riots, race problems, anarchy, chaos and all that, it just makes you very vulnerable to these powerful nations outside, other nations of the world. Just consider. Russia and China and radical Islam are just gobbling up the territory of their neighbors EVEN AS I SPEAK! Do you think they wouldn’t attack America if we were weak and divided and hating each other and tearing each other apart? Do you think they wouldn’t? I tell you, history CRIES ALOUD that they absolutely would. And Winston Churchill said, look, the history of man is the history of war! We’ve ALREADY had two world wars. Do you think people wouldn’t love to destroy a superpower? That is, many people? Well, we need to learn a lesson, and we need to learn it quickly! (Transcript, p. 6.)

This idea is utterly absurd and ridiculous. Protests against police brutality accompanied with the most unfortunate yet rather rare incidents of rioting are not going to somehow lead to America's conquest at the hands of Germany.

And so the program ends on that absurdly fearful note.

What viewers of this program who do not know PCG well will not know is that PCG has consistently condemned the wave of protests against police brutality ever since it started following the shooting to death of Trayvon Matin in 2012.

Here is how one PCG writer portrayed Trayvon Martin, a sixteen year old minor who got shot to death while peacefully walking home.

In Florida v. Zimmerman, there was no shortage of evidence shining light on what Dr. King would have called “the content of Trayvon Martin’s character”: A text message record showed that the 17-year-old picked fights often and wanted a rematch with a certain opponent because he “hadn’t bled enough” the first time Trayvon overpowered him; a Facebook post showed Trayvon’s half-brother acknowledging his fighting expertise and asking Trayvon to teach him how to brawl; another Facebook post showed that Trayvon used an illegal codeine-based drug known to cause paranoia and panic attacks; school records showed that he had been suspended for possession of illegal drugs; a search of his backpack produced a burglary tool and some stolen property.

Zimmerman’s attorneys wanted this evidence presented to jurors because it could help determine questions relevant to the case about Martin’s character—primarily if it was possible that he was the aggressor in the fatal confrontation. But Prosecutor John Guy said jurors shouldn’t be presented with it because, “It would mislead the jury and be prejudicial.” The judge agreed and the jurors were not allowed to know about Trayvon’s history of violence and lawbreaking. (Jeremiah Jacques, Has Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream Come True?, September 1, 2013.)

Here is how one PCG writer presented Michael Brown, an eighteen year old man who was going to go to College. He was also belittled and condemned like Trayvon Martin. Amazingly mourning over Michael Brown's violent death by shooting is belittled as simply complaining he was unable to go to College.

Is it any wonder then that protesters in Ferguson overlook Michael Brown’s marijuana use, aggressive behavior and disobedience to law enforcement officials, and instead focus only on how he was denied a chance to go to a technical college? (Anthony Chibarirwe, Ferguson Is Only the Beginning if Loretta Lynch Replaces Eric Holder, December 4, 2014.)

One PCG writer called Michael Brown a "thug" while reciting what critics of President Obama were saying concerning a recent violent death in San Francisco.

They [critics of President Obama] say, Well, you remember the case with Michael Brown, this thug from Ferguson who attacked a police officer, charged at him and was killed. The President was very quick to reach out to his family. (Robert Morley, Trumpet Hour, July 17, 2015 broadcast, 47 minutes.)

Following the pool party incident in McKinney one PCG writer called some of those African Americans there "thugs".

There's a pool party for a graduation. The community has a community center with a pool. There's about a hundred kids in attendance. And then one of the ... somebody there posted on social media that there's a pool party. And outsiders start arriving at this pool. They're not allowed in because they're from outside the community. It's against the community rules to have more than two guests from outside of the community. That will not ... That's not going to stop these thugs who came into the community. They start climbing over the fence. They start picking fights. Fights break out in there. They assault two security guards. A mother and her daughter are attacked. Chaos starts breaking up. Property's being damaged. (Robert Morley, Trumpet Daily, June 15, 2015, 38 minutes.) 

Another matter that will not be clear to viewers of this program unfamiliar with PCG is that PCG condemns interracial marriage as sinful. PCG teaches that African Americans, including those who were murdered in such a terrible act of terrorism in Charleston, are not to marry whites.

Gerald Flurry himself promoted this doctrine that has imposed so much pain and suffering upon African Americans over the years as exposed in a previous post.

Some of the nation’s princes reported to Ezra that the people were racially intermarrying with the nations around them. Moses had recorded that God forbade interracial marriage (Deuteronomy 7:1-3). Ezra was devastated that this sin was being committed in Judah. He immediately began a fast because this sin threatened to destroy the fledgling nation. But what depressed Ezra the most about this sin was that some priests, Levites and princes were leading the people into this catastrophic rebellion. God’s own ministers were the chief sinners. (Gerald Flurry and Dennis Leap, Exra and Nehemiah: Building God's Temple, 1997, Chapter 5, p. 45.) 

Additional evidence of PCG's racist condemnation of interracial marriage may be seen in the late Ron Fraser's booklet, South Africa in Prophecy, as seen in a previous post. Ron Fraser was very prominent within PCG. When one reads this booklet it is clear that PCG's leadership sympathized with the now fallen apartheid regime.

An honoured guest of many of this world’s leaders, including South Africa’s, throughout his lifetime, God’s end-time Elijah, Herbert W. Armstrong, was used by Christ to restore God’s truth to His Church (Matt. 17:11). Mr. Armstrong wrote very strongly about these verses. He said, “The Bible speaks of three worlds: the ‘world that then was, overflowed by the Flood’; ‘this present evil world’; and ‘the world to come.’ At the close of that world, they were eating and drinking, and ‘marrying and giving in marriage’ (Matt. 24:38). Result? Destruction—the punishment for sin!” (Plain Truth, Oct. 1963, p. 26). Mr. Armstrong then asked, “What was the sin?” He continues in the same article: “Now go back to Genesis 6. Notice, these men looked lustfully at women, ‘and they took them wives of all which they chose’ (v. 2)—and as a result, the very next words: ‘And the Eternal said, My spirit shall not always strive with man.…’ He was going to destroy them in punishment! Yes, in punishment for taking wrong wives—wives which they chose, contrary to God’s decrees and laws!

“God had decreed that the races should not intermarry, and pollute the blood stream! But Negro men were choosing white wives and white men choosing yellow wives—just as many are doing today! They did not marry wives as God chose and directed—but ‘of all which they chose.’

“The antediluvians were trying to integrate! They, like we today, had a racial problem. They tried to solve it by integration. They were going to do away with God’s varieties—His different, distinct races.”...

[Ron Fraser then comments later on.] Such anti-God themes [including allowing interracial marriage which was previously banned under apartheid] are a precursor to confusion, division and strife! South Africa will reap the curses of correction imposed by an all-wise, all-loving Father who created mankind and set the racial bounds over which He commanded Israel not to cross! (Ron Fraser, South Africa in Prophecy, 1997, Chapter 3, pp. 22-23.)

So Flurry praises the victims' forgiveness but he views those same people as unworthy of marrying whites.

Flurry praises the victims' forgiveness but for about twenty-three years now he has been spreading this vicious doctrine that African Americans are soon fated to launch a wave of riots against the white majority in the in the United States.

Flurry praises the victims' forgiveness yet those who work for him belittle African Americans who had been shot to death as criminals and violent persons.

With ideas like that swirling around in the heads of PCG's leadership it should be clear that these persons have no business telling others how to manage the various tensions and issues regarding race relations. They need to be educated by others concerning this important topic, not telling the rest of us what to do about this important issue.