PCG's Hypocritical Defence of Democracy Against Liberals and Germans

Recently PCG's website has highlighted a 2010 article by Joel Hilliker insinuating that American liberals are pining for dictatorship. He cites Thomas Friedman and Rosie O'Donnell to make this accusation.

Western liberals say America’s system is broken and the government needs more power. Guess who agrees.

Strange trend: Liberals in America pining for authoritarianism.

What's strange is that a man who is in a group that regularly insists on having its members submit themselves to one man rule would defend democracy in such a way. How is PCG not a dictatorship itself? It has one man rule. Members kicked out are disfellowshipped and shunned by PCG members. This is often reported to be so. How is that not a dictatorship?

How many readers of this article will know that PCG regularly insists on practicing one man rule?

Just one denunciation of democracy by PCG's leader, Gerald Flurry, may be seen in this previous post. The following is from Gerald Flurry's 2014 book The Former Prophets. That book appears to have been partly edited by Joel Hilliker.

Ancient Democracy

The overarching point of the book of Judges is repeated for emphasis: “In those days there was no king in Israel: EVERY MAN DID THAT WHICH WAS RIGHT IN HIS OWN EYES” (Judges 21:25). GOD INSPIRED THAT STATEMENT TO BE REPEATED OVER AND OVER. He concludes the book with it.

This was the kind of “government” Israel descended into after Joshua died. After a certain point, nobody really cared what the leaders were doing. Everyone just did his own thing. Sound familiar?

Remember, THIS IS A BOOK OF PROPHECY. You can find Israel on Earth today by understanding this verse! What nations are passionately into democracy? America, Britain, the Jewish state and most of the democracies in northwestern Europe.

This is exactly the state of affairs in the modern nations of Israel! Everybody wants to do it their own way—whatever is right in their own eyes. THAT IS PROPHECY FOR RIGHT NOW IN THE NATIONS OF ISRAEL! People talk so much about freedom—but the freedom they cherish is really just the freedom to wreck their lives! They are plagued by wretched sins; they hate law and government. Who can lead these people into anything constructive or profitable?

This history vividly shows the terrible results of that kind of lawlessness. When God’s government isn’t in place, when His law is being ignored—when everyone is doing whatever is right in his own eyes—you have miserable anarchy.

These modern nations of biblical Israel are about to become the bloodiest nations ever because they reject God’s rule! EVERYBODY TODAY WANTS TO DO WHAT IS RIGHT IN HIS OWN EYES. THE BOOK OF JUDGES PROPHESIES THE TERRIFYING OUTCOME OF SUCH A DEMOCRACY!

This is always the fate of Israel without a strong Moses or Joshua to lead the people to God. Satan knows how to exploit the many weaknesses of a democracy to bring it down.

Even though democracy is probably the best government man has created, it is always destined to fail. (Gerald Flurry, The Former Prophets: How to Become a King, Chapter 3, pp. 51-52.)

But Hilliker is not finished yet. He then insinuates that "German elites" are plotting to impose some sort of authoritarian regime upon Europe.

Guess who’s listening—and agreeing? German elites. ...

They sound a lot like Thomas Friedman: Democracy has them frustrated, for several reasons. Its inertia. Its sluggishness. Its susceptibility to corruption by special interest groups. ...

It’s one thing to hear a self-impressed reporter making an eyebrow-raising talking point on a Sunday morning news program. It’s quite another to get a glimpse, via a prestigious German-language policy journal, at what German industrialists and foreign-policy specialists are whispering “out of earshot of the public.” Particularly given German and European history, which has been a repetitious cycle of weak and failed administrations giving way to the rule of dictators. And the fact that Germany now languishes under a weak and failed administration. 

Recently I read this fascinating book analyzing racism, namely Racism: A Critical Analysis by Mike Cole. I don't necessarily agree everything in that book but one thought that struck me was that he noted that there are different kinds of racism. There is color coded racism such as that directed against Native Americans, African Americans, Chinese, Japanese, etc. And there is also non-color coded racism such as that directed against Jews, Russians, Eastern Europeans, etc.

PCG's demonization of Germans and fear mongering of "German elites" in this article seem to be a form of non-color coded racism against Germans.

Hilliker states that throughout history elites have viewed the common people with contempt and disdain.

Now in response—no surprise—we see intellectuals criticizing the notion that the only legitimate government is a popularly elected government. This is hardly a new criticism: Throughout history the elite have tended to sneer at the idea that government should be entrusted to the stupid and mediocre masses.

So Hilliker condemns "the elite" for looking at the common people with contempt. But how is that any different from PCG's condemnation of any move away from "one-man rule"?

When Roderick Meredith started up the Global Church of God in 1992 and quickly became the largest COG splinter group Gerald Flurry responded to that by writing a booklet that insisted that only one man rule was permissible within the true church, namely PCG.

Regardless of whether PCG's leaders feel contempt to the lay members or not advocating for one man rule inherently renders the members powerless and leave them vulnerable to exploitation. Those rendered powerless are easy prey for any who wish to exploit the situation.

Also PCG has no "popularly elected government" for themselves. They have one man rule under Gerald Flurry. It is asserted by PCG that God's favor is on PCG alone and that Malachi's Message (which is widely believed to have been plagiarized) is proof of this divine favor.

Hilliker then asserts that Germans are predisposed to authoritarian rule

Well, it would be unknown—that is, without the testimony of history. Germany’s present period of democracy is a historical anomaly. Germans—and not just the elites—have always preferred a strongman government. Democracy has always been imposed from outside. And it has always collapsed and been subsumed by a reversion to totalitarianism.

So Hilliker is not just vilifying German elites he is vilifying Germans as a whole as yearning for dictatorship. How is it not racist to single out an entire people in such a way?

We must be careful to assign responsibility correctly. We need to view people as they are instead of imposing simple stereotypes upon them.

Never mind that West Germany have consistently had a democratic government for about 70 years by now. Ignore all that this article asks of us. Just believe that Germans want "a strongman government" like Hitler even after 70 years. That is what this article asks of the reader.

How the Nazi regime established itself in Germany and later plunged the world into genocide and catastrophe is a complicated topic that is too vast for this post. But it was not just because "Germans ... have always preferred a strongman government." That is very misleading and simplistic. If they did actual research on this topic instead of being blinded by their dogmas and HWA's scare mongering against Germans they would know that.

We must be careful to distinguish between the guilty and the innocent. 

As the Trumpet has repeatedly written, biblical prophecy is clear that Germany will rise one last time, in our day, to draw the world into global war—under the robust leadership of a strongman. That private yearning for “a flirt with dictatorship” is about to become very public; and as Revelation 17:1-2 show, those elites will get more than a flirt with it.

PCG does not promote "biblical prophecy". It is PCG's prophecy, an offshoot of HWA's prophecies. And those prophecies have constantly failed as will this one. PCG are but false prophets.