Mark Armstrong Vilifying Refugees Again (and Multicultualism)

Mark Armstrong, leader of the Intercontinental Church of God, son of Garner Ted Armstrong and grandson of Herbert Armstrong, made another weekly update on September 30, 2016.

Let's take a look.

As is typical in his weekly updates he brings up a lot of issues all at one. It can be hard to keep track of his train of thought. Here he talks about the bombing against UN aid personnel in Syria; Syrian rebels; ISIL; xenophobic scare mongering about refugees who (he insists) are not refugees at all; and scare mongering about the American Muslim ethnic minority who already live in the United States.

The media is in full-throated dismay over civilian casualties and the reported bombing of medical relief and supply convoys.  Whether the U. S. has some role in the debacle is rather murky.  Are there supposed to be some “good guys” in the Syrian civil war?  Whatever happened to the “Syrian rebels” who were financially supported and trained?  Did they join ISIS or what?

The caliphate is still operating, both on the ground and on the Internet.  It seems that nearly every place on earth is under the constant threat of some “lone-wolf” following the murderous instructions of some obscure weird Muslim holy man.  We all realize that “refugees” have flooded Europe, thousands have recently been secreted to various locations around the United States.  But some of the most recent attacks are from Muslims whose families were taken in a decade or two ago, and they still haven't “assimilated.”  They still don't respect our laws or believe we have a right to exist.  Just like they don't think Israel has the right to exist, now nobody who fails to take up their heathen cause deserves to live.

Surprisingly in this section he links to a Mondoweiss article which says things that Mark Armstrong would not agree with.

Accepting refugees means more terrorism he seems to imply. Even though the Syrian refugees are fleeing repression and violence by the Assad regime and ISIL and the cataclysmic situation underway there these unfortunate people who saw their homeland turned into a war zone are castigated as terrorists. He clearly is aware that a cataclysmic war is underway in Syria but he seems to not pay attention to the fact that the refugee crisis is to a large extent a symptom of the Syrian conflict.

There is not the slightest shadow of a doubt that, given the advent of hundreds of thousands more “refugees,” we will see an explosion of terrorist attacks that will dominate (or terminate) the lives of the next generation. Even the utterly corrupt Director of the F.B.I. managed to say as much in recent congressional testimony. That's if time goes on and Iran or North Korea don't manage to fulfill their lunatic fantasies.

Mark Armstrong then condemns President Obama's opposition to legislation allowing the family members of 9/11 victims to sue the government of Saudi Arabia.

He also castigates various moves made by the US government as part of implementing the deal with Iran to make sure that the International Atomic Energy Agency is allowed to monitor Iran's nuclear program. He also neglects to mention that the "$400 million worth of foreign currency" he mentions was to resolve a financial dispute dating back to the time of the Shah.

In the case of the unbelievable nuclear “deal” the administration cut with Iran, the blind followers had no involvement. This is something that was done without the cooperation or even the knowledge of Congress. Sure there was a lot of outrage, but nothing was done to stop it. Only recently have details begun to spill out, like the information and photographs of pallets laden with plastic-wrapped cash in the hold of an unmarked airplane (last January), said to contain $400 million worth of foreign currency. Now we learn that there may have been much more than that. 

Now it's leaked out that the White House secretly lifted sanctions on the two major Iranian banks that had played a major role in Iran's acquisition of nuclear related material and machinery. The news just broke, even though the treasonous action was taken back at the same time the secret cash was flown into Iran and the four American hostages were released nine months ago. It's one more blinding scandal that will be investigated, denounced and ultimately brushed aside like each one before it.

He then discusses the dismissal of Alabama's chief justice, Roy Moore, over his opposition to same sex marriage. He ends his weekly update by implying that some similar strife may come upon him and his followers. He also condemns multiculturalism and abortion which were never discussed elsewhere in this weekly update. (Unless condemning the arrival of refugees is viewed as part of a condemnation against multiculturalism.)

Strangely he also seems refers to himself and his followers as "bitter clingers".

We might all take stock.  What will we be willing to risk as society collectively rejects God's Laws and seeks to punish bitter clingers?  Will we go along to get along, or will we stand for the Truth regardless of the consequences from the utterly corrupt agencies of government, or the activists that would attack and silence all voices of opposition?  We now find ourselves in a shrinking minority of a minority and will stand out like a sore thumb as the do-gooder fascists try to stamp out all who are branded with every evil accusation for simply standing for God's Word.  And that means we will never play along with “gay-marriage,” multiculturalism, “a woman's right to chose” or any of the other corrupted parlance with which they desecrate this blessed land. 

And so we see more of the same vicious rhetoric being given to his followers. Considering how there are so many other problems to deal with in the United States it is shameful that he should try to make his followers fearful of people looking for safety after their homeland was torn apart by a cataclysmic conflict that has been ongoing since 2011.

He should be thankful that he is privileged to live in a land that has not experienced a similar cataclysm like that since 1865, Otherwise he might have to go elsewhere as a refugee and be condemned as a threat.