Tuesday, September 5, 2017

Oh, How the Mighty Armstrongite WCG Have Fallen

(Plain Truth, June 1971, p. 49, PDF p. 51.)
Critical of Hearing-Aid Remarks 
"We are writing to take exception to the statement which appeared in your March, 1971 issue of The PLAIN TRUTH, in which you claimed that hundreds and thousands of elderly are sold hearing aids which do not work. 
"The plain truth of the matter is that a Public Health survey has shown that 93% of hearing-aid wearers are satisfied with their hearing aids. Dealers who are members of the National Hearing Aid Society subscribe to the Society's Code of Ethics, and are conscientious in their care of the hard of hearing. If a hearing aid gives unsatisfactory service or 'does not work,' the purchaser should certainly see his dealer, who will, in most cases, make every effort to determine the cause of unsatisfactory service and provide the necessary assistance to the purchaser. 
"The greatest problem of the hard of hearing is to accept the need for a hearing aid and to seek help for a hearing loss. You have done the hard of hearing a great disservice by discouraging them from seeking the help which will provide them with a normal life in the world of sound." 
[Name,]
Detroit, Michigan 
The purpose of our statement was to alert the elderly to beware of deceptive dealings and con artists — not to intimidate reputable dealers. Printing your letter should help dispel any misconceptions. Thank you.
(Update: September 8: Imagine if something like this happened today with any of the COGs. If any of them passed on information that a profession would view as disadvantageous to themselves would they bother to send them a letter such as this?)

7 comments:

  1. When was the objection written?
    Why would you print something this old?

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    1. Why would you object to historical materials which demonstrate that a religious movement has been defective (some might say rotten) at any possible check point from its inception forward? Potential victims need to be warned!

      BB

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    2. Perhaps this individual awaits for the day that "God's Church" will be put back on track!

      Usually when a train derails it is scrapped and sold as junk. Perhaps our friend is the junk-man?

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    3. To prove Solomon's observation, Nothing new under the sun.
      Or to quote the Tkatches, and the Gauleiter in The Sound of Music, Nothing has changed!

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  2. Excellent expose from the past that shows people what this ball of shit known as the WCG put into peoples minds.

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  3. What really amazes me is that there has been a pattern in Armstrongism in which the leaders have seized on all possible resources from a 2,000 year history to trash the Roman Catholic Church and its Protestant daughters. To anybody's standard of fairness, turnabout would seem to be fair play. Yet, here we have someone who apparently does not believe that it is important that such an attacker would make exaggerated, fear mongering and blatantly untrue statements about an industry dedicated to helping those who suffer diminished use of one of the vital senses.

    Honestly, Billabob? Armstrongism has never dedicated itself to looking out for the best interests of its members. This goes much deeper than just hearing aids. People have died being observant to this church's teachings on health care, and not just a few.
    Those who enter must discard the Bill of Rights, and check their minds at the door. If you ever meet a member of Armstrongism, in most cases, you can forget about having an honest conversation with them. You'll find yourself "talking to" church programming, and wondering what the heck happened to that person's real personality and mind.

    I can guarantee you that if a WCG member in 1971, had mentioned to one of the other brethren in services that he had had difficulty hearing the sermon and was considering getting hearing aids, the magazine article about them not working would have been quoted as the official church policy. That's also the sort of thing that kept the brethren cooking in Aluminum cookware, rather than the more expensive stainless. How many cases of Alzheimers' has this caused? We'll probably never know.

    Are these really the sorts of people whom you feel conscience-bound to defend?

    BB

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  4. When I saw this letter I could not help but think, Would such a thing happen today? If any of the COGs were to repeat information that made a profession look bad would that profession feel duty bound to respond with a letter of complaint? But today the COGs seem to be so small and compartmentalized in their own market niches that such a profession would probably not even notice much less respond with a protesting letter.

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