Even when PCG's Gary Rethford writes an article telling PCG lay members to rejoice in the (Armstrongite) Feast of Tabernacles he writes this bizarrely cruel passage fantacizing about what will supposedly soon occur in the Great Tribulation.
Looming just ahead of us is a time in which this earth and all humanity will suffer the most excruciating, gut-wrenching horror ever endured. Remember that Christ said it would be a time in which all humanity would be mercilessly destroyed unless supernaturally stopped! (Matt. 24). Only a fraction of all the people on earth will survive this coming holocaust. ...
This rejoicing spoken of in the Psalms is of a people who have been spared. Consider the plight of these individuals: They have been starved, lived with the pain of loved ones perishing, perhaps witnessed the raping of their own precious daughters, the murder of their defenseless babies—treated like cattle by a beast power who considered them sub-human. Most, if not all of them, might have begged for death because they just could not stand to see, or endure, that existence; and now, the Kingdom of God has arrived, and THEY REJOICE! (Gary Rethford, Rejoice at the Feast!, published 1998, posted October 11, 2016.)It really shows how fixated on death and destruction this group is when one of their leaders should talk about such ghastly things while telling PCG lay members to rejoice at the yearly, eight day conference that often takes place far from home.
Did the people reading that article in 1998 expect for things to still remain as they are eighteen years later?
The Feast of Tabernacles described in the Bible gave instructions on how to observe that festival at home. It is a beautiful and joyous festival that is celebrated at home, not in some site far from home decided by the leadership of an Armstrongite group as is the case in the COGs. The Jews build sukkot on their property to remember the wandering of the Israelites. It does not disrupt the children's education in the way that the Armstrongite feast does.
But HWA exploited this joyous Jewish festival and appropriated it for his own syncretic religion. Having his followers celebrate it at home with family and friends did not advance his interests. He probably had little understanding of this Feast. So he ordered his followers to assemble at a place he chose for an eight day indoctrination session and yearly conference.
Many churches hold a yearly conference. Usually they are only held over a weekend over two or three days. But HWA had his yearly conference last for eight days.
It is terrible how HWA twisted a beautiful and joyous Jewish festival into a burdensome, eight day indoctrination session that bears little resemblance to the festival described in the Bible.
It's not just in their recruitment literature. They carry the death, destruction, devastation to the Feast replete with doomsday messages.
ReplyDeleteThe first day of one Feast, the minister gave the opening message about a young woman in the church working at Ambassador College who committed suicide. Right in the middle he admitted that he didn't know why she committed suicide. That was a show stopper for me. I had words with him afterward and told him I did not appreciate the negativity, particularly to kick off a supposedly 'joyous' feast. He just stood there with his arms folded, not accepting one word I said.
The last feast I attended, the minister gave an excruciating doomsday sermon right at mid feast. I even wrote in my notebook 'DOOMSDAY!'. Ah, the wonder gore, the tremendous rivers of blood, the awesome nuclear devastation! Good times! Best feast ever! It's a wonder the people didn't have a psychotic break and begin chronic clinical depression.
Negativity has dropped like a pall upon the ACoGs. I remember well back when United had the Good News covering the Columbine School shooting for months at a time. A mental health professional told me he was feeling depressed. I told him to stop reading the Good News. He told me later it helped.
But then... but then... we had a message at the feast about the Columbine School shooting talking about someone there having been splattered with the blood of one of the victims.
I think we should stop looking at this from a limited viewpoint as only in recruitment literature.
I think rather we should look at this as Armstrongism being a threat to mental health.
I am inclined to agree with you. The attitudes embedded in their recruitment writings no doubt affect their lives in trying to conform to what they are taught.
ReplyDeleteAlso the link has been corrected.