Children Made to Sweat in Philadelphia Youth Camp

Recently I read this terrible story about how one father in PCG was horrified at the neglectful treatment his children endured at Philadelphia Youth Camp. There have long been stories insisting that Philadelphia Youth Camp does not come up to scratch in looking after the children in its care.

Those concerned about such matters will not find any comfort in Brad MacDonald's article:

Parents, Make Your Child Sweat!

(In the context of PCG I find this title quite cringe inducing.)

In five weeks, 144 teenagers from around the world will arrive on the campus of Herbert W. Armstrong College for our annual youth camp. Our camp is designed to ensure these young people go home mentally charged and focused, their attitudes and spirits refreshed and renewed.

We also plan to send them home utterly exhausted.

For three weeks, these teens will spend their days mountain biking, canoeing and practicing archery, as well as playing basketball, water polo, soccer, softball, volleyball and flag football. They will walk, and sometimes jog, between activities, as well as to breakfast, lunch and dinner. In the evenings they will engage in other taxing activities, including a track and field event and camp dances. And if all that activity isn’t strenuous enough, much of it will occur in daytime temperatures hovering in the mid 90s.

If you’re like me, simply reading that paragraph is enough to make you sweat.

Those unaware of what PCG is like will simply assume that this is a simple exhortation for people to look after their health by embracing a physical pursuits. But knowing that PCG is an authoritarian group, in which their leaders are given far too much leeway and the fruits of authoritarianism are allowed a very free hand within it, I find these exhortations concerning.

Gerald Flurry's New Doctrine: The Psalm 83 Nations are not with the King of the South

Gerald Flurry has changed Mystery of the Ages, The Proof of the Bible and Who or What is the Prophetic Beast?

Now he has changed how prophecies concerning the future King of the South is understood among PCG members.

The future King of the South is taught among many COGs to be a great Arab-Muslim combine who will arise, help to enslave Israel (the USA, Britain, and Israel) and later somehow provoke the European Empire to conquer the Arab world in a blitzkrieg attack.

PCG teaches that Iran is the King of the South. Most other COGs are more inclined to say it will be mainly composed of Arabs. Not least because Iran is east, not south, of Israel.

Daniel 11:40 is used to support this theory.

Another Scripture often used in regard to this is Psalm 83. As I understood it this Scripture was used by the COGs to say that later the Arabs will ally with Germany (Assyria) to defeat Israel (the USA, Britain and Israel).

However Gerald Flurry has put a new twist to this interpretation. He now says that the King of the South and the Psalm 83 nations are separate and distinct, and the Psalm 83 nations hate Israel even more than the King of the South.

He has revealed this 'new light' in the article A Mysterious Prophecy (The Philadelphia Trumpet, May-June, 2011).

These peoples’ enemies want to cut them off from being a nation (they are the descendants of the ancient nation of Israel). Their enemies don’t even want the world to remember the name of Israel!

The leader of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has vowed to wipe the Jewish nation off the map. The enemies of Psalm 83 have what appears to be an even deeper hatred. They even want to obliterate the biblical name of Israel forever! ...

“For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee: The tabernacles of Edom, and the Ishmaelites; of Moab, and the Hagarenes; Gebal, and Ammon, and Amalek; the Philistines with the inhabitants of Tyre [Lebanon]; Assur [Assyria or Germany] also is joined with them: they have holpen the children of Lot. Selah” (Psalm 83:5-8). Here are the modern names of these nations, as taught at Ambassador College under Herbert W. Armstrong: Edom—Turkey; Ishmaelites—Saudi Arabia; Moab—Jordan; Hagarenes—anciently dwelt in the land known as Syria today; Gebal—Lebanon; Ammon—also Jordan. (We cannot be extremely precise in this understanding, but it gives a good general idea of where these nations are today.)...

Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Libya and Ethiopia are missing from this list. They will be allied with Iran when they are conquered by a German-led Europe (Daniel 11:42-43).

It appears Iraq, with its massive oil reserves, will be solidly in the Iranian camp. I have predicted this would happen since the early 1990s!

This Psalm 83 nations doctrine is a completely new prophetic doctrine that I have never encountered among the COGs.

As far as I can tell it is true that Gerald Flurry preached that Iraq would be allied with the King of the South BUT Gerald Flurry has never taught that the Psalm 83 nations are distinct from and unaffiliated with the King of the South (Iran) before now.

Therefore his "I have predicted this [Iraq will ally with Iran] would happen since the early 1990s!" statement must be regarded as simply a distraction obscuring the fact that Gerald Flurry has changed this doctrine.

Those of us who understand these things must make it clear that Gerald Flurry has opportunistically changed this doctrine.

Thoughts on the Incident at Jisr al-Shughour, Syria

So today I hear that Syrian state media are now claiming 12o of the Assad regime's security personnel have been killed by armed gangs.

As far as I am concerned this is a lie or extremely distorted message produced by the Assad regime. Until this is independently confirmed one way or the other I will assume it is a lie or extremely distorted. I feel it is more likely the Assad regime itself murdered them and is now blaming the protesters. That is what one local resident of Jisr al-Shughour told the BBC:

But opposition websites insisted that their protests had been peaceful, and they scorned the government's talk of armed gangs. A Jisr al-Shughour resident told BBC Arabic that the protesters did not have any weapons and blamed the authorities for Monday's deaths. "The soldiers were coming our way, then they were shot in the back by some Syrian security elements," Abu Nadir said....

Others said that members of the armed forces had changed sides and joined the protests. Some also said the town had been relatively calm until a mutiny at the security headquarters, where so many deaths were reported. "I think they executed policemen who refused to open fire on demonstrators. There was a mutiny in the security service," one told the AFP news agency.

This is an excuse for the murderous and devious Assad regime to continue their reckless murders and tortures and their frightfulness that have already claimed more than 1100 precious lives of peaceful protesters, more than the uprising in Egypt.

I have read about how dictatorships operate. I remember reading in Berlin Diary how British Prime Minister Chamberlain was impressed by the crowds welcoming him on his visit to Germany. Safire wryly commented that he did not know that those crowds are organized by the ruling party.

Already I have heard of rumors that people are paid by the Syrian dictatorship to lie and claim to see atrocities committed by alleged armed gangs that did not happen.

I will admit for a little while I thought Bashar al-Assad would murder his oppressed victims into submission and win, but recently I now feel he will fall. And it cannot come too soon.

PCG Calls Srebrenica Massacre "a Crime of Passion"

PCG has always been supportive towards Serbs in regards towards the Yugoslav Wars. This was made clear in a previous post and PCG's hack writer Richard Palmer's article, What Really Happened at Bosnia continues in this tradition.

In this article Palmer, who has written for PCG since August 2007, breathlessly cites various atrocities committed by non-Serbs against Serbs, as though all of this information is being kept hidden from you. He cites one claim from the then Yugoslav government that

Yugoslav envoy Vladimir Pavicevic claimed that 15,000 Serbs were dead in Krajina, and that this total included slain refugees and soldiers who had already surrendered (Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Aug. 14, 1995).

He completely ignores the fact that Serbian state television has just apologized for its role as a propagandist during those dark and terrible days.

In the week of his [Ratko Mladic] arrest, Serbian state television finally apologised for its role in inciting the barbaric war through misinformation, deception and propaganda thinly disguised as news.

AP reported:

Radio Television of Serbia, or RTS, said in a statement posted on its website yesterday that the station's programme was "almost constantly and heavily abused'' by Milosevic's regime with the aim of discrediting his political and ethnic opponents and spreading official propaganda.

Liberal politician Marko Karadzic described the apology as a "positive step'' but said the television's managing board did not distance itself clearly enough from the past.

"RTS's programme was an organised campaign of support to the policies of extinction and violence which we cannot view as insult or slander,'' aid Karadzic.

(Remembering War Crimes and Media Obligations, Danny Schlechter.)

Contrary to what Palmer's assumption that the world, due to perfidious German influence has been blinded to the excesses and atrocities of non-Serbs the article above cites RTS's apology as an opportunity to call for Croatian TV to apologize as well.

It's time for Croatian TV to make a similar statement: this statement clearly defines the often complicit relationship between war and media showing how TV networks promote wars in the guise of covering them.

Too many media organisations took their cues from state propagandists.

Also in my previous post I cited an article, The Devolution of Ratko Mladic by Sumantra Bose, and it freely acknowledged that many Serbs did indeed suffer during those wars.

It is not that Bosnia's Serbs did not suffer during the 1992-1995 war. Far from it. There are numerous well-documented cases of Bosnian Serb civilians being murdered, forcibly expelled from their homes and tortured in detention camps by Bosnian Muslim as well as Bosnian Croat forces, and of Bosnian Serb combatants taken prisoner being brutally mistreated and even executed.

The Bosnian Serb army led by Ratko Mladic lost 20,649 soldiers, killed in action during the war. But the overall picture is unmistakable. Bosnia's Muslims, about 45 per cent of the population, account for two-thirds of the total deaths and - most telling - a staggering 83 per cent of the civilian dead.

That is the real reason why there is so much attention upon what Serb forces did during the Yugoslav Wars. It is not because of some German conspiracy to trick you into supporting moves designed to cripple Serbia's power. No one pretends that Serbs did not suffer during these wars.

Palmer also insinuates that the stresses of waging war contributed to the massacre at Srebrenica.

It was this hatred and circle of revenge that lead to the Srebrenica massacre....The Serbs finally reacted to [Bosnian Muslim] Oric’s provocations. When they took Screbrenica far more easily than they thought they would they took their revenge on the men they found there. But, unlike Oric, they let the women and children go....The full context presents a very different picture of Srebrenica. It was not a cold-hearted Nazi-style final solution for Bosnian Muslims. Instead it was a crime of passion—still a crime, but one that was provoked by crimes on the other side.

Palmer wishes to make us sympathetic towards the murderers of Srebrenica by calling it "a crime of passion". First of all everyone loses people in a war, that is why we all hate war.

I do not feel that rounding up unarmed men to be killed in a vast logistical operation involving 8000 people deserves to be whitewashed as "a crime of passion". As far as I understand it it is illegal to arrest people and then simply kill them. To call that "a crime of passion" is obscene.

If PCG wishes to support Serbia thinking it will weaken Germany and prevent the creation of the false prophet of 1975 Herbert Armstrong's European Empire then it is their affair but to whitewash the horrendous crime at Srebrenica as "a crime of passion" is obscene and, as far as I am concerned, is not a statement people of conscience would allow themselves to say, and therefore deserves to be condemned.

PCG Puts Royal Wedding on Trumpet Cover

In the new Philadelphia Trumpet (July 2011) the editors at PCG have chosen to put a picture of Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding.

How dreadful that something so beautiful and joyous should be exploited by a cult which tears apart families with its No Contact rule towards ex-members and members of other Armstrongite groups, that inflict incalculable suffering because of its anti-medicine superstition which Herbert Armstrong plagiarized from the Jehovah Witnesses who from about 1921 till 1953 were forbidden from using vaccines, that create a dictatorial society that has inflicted terrible suffering upon thousands.

PCG's Germany-is-more-powerful-than-the-US Myth

In Gerald Flurry's article Germany Rules the Balkans he accuses Germany of having greater will to do what it wants than the US. Germany is portrayed as active. The US is portrayed as hopelessly passive and drunkenly meandering to destruction.

Germany was so determined to recognize Croatia! But why would the U.S. support such a move? At first, America did not. But that quickly changed once Germany flexed its political muscle. ... Germany forced the issue and revealed how weak America and the West really are!

If the US is really as weak as it is portrayed by Flurry then why is it that the US invaded Iraq in 2003 over Germany's opposition? Where was Germany's power in 2003?

Why is the US intervening in Libya while Germany has expressed reluctance about this decision? Where is Germany's power?

PCG has a prophetic scenario and they relentlessly push this viewpoint in every Philadelphia Trumpet magazine. Contrary facts be damned.

PCG's Support for Serbia in the Yugoslav Wars

Last Thursday I heard the news that Ratko Mladic has been captured by Serbia and will soon be extradited to the Hague.

This reminds me of PCG's stand concerning the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. PCG has long viewed the Yugoslav Wars as German imperialist bullying of a nation (Serbia) which had been the ally of the USA and Britain in both world wars. Hence PCG has long viewed Western intervention in that conflict very negatively.

This attitude may clear be seen in these articles published in 2002 Germany Rules the Balkans, which discusses the Yugoslav Wars of 1991-5 and The Kosovo Disaster which concerns the Kosovo conflict in 1999. Here Germany and the Vatican are accussed of using NATO and the USA of intervening against Serbia simply to expand Germany's power in the Balkans.

Here's a sample from the second article:

The Serbs fought on our side in two world wars, and Germany fought against us in both of those wars. How strange to see that alliance reversed today....The only real winner in 1999’s war in Yugoslavia was Germany. Time will show that America and Britain were the great losers. The Kosovo conflict made them weaker as Germany grew in power....

Germany recognized these breakaway republics and then supported them with troops and armaments. America (and almost the whole world) strongly opposed Germany’s plans in the beginning. But the U.S. weakened and then even decided to support Germany in its war to control the Balkans!

Now why is it that the West chose to intervene against Serbia then?

It is universally acknowledged that all sides in that war committed atrocities.
However it was the Serbian army which committed more atrocities than any other side. That is why Western opinion was so negative towards the Serbs.

This fact is succinctly expressed by Professor Sumantra Bose.

the overall picture is unmistakable. Bosnia's Muslims, about 45 per cent of the population [of Bosnia], account for two-thirds of the total deaths and - most telling - a staggering 83 per cent of the civilian dead.

There is thus no doubt whatsoever as to which community suffered the most in the Bosnian war, just as there is no doubt that the atrocities committed by the Bosnian Serb army and allied paramilitaries were significantly more widespread and more systematic than those perpetrated by the belligerents of the other two sides [the Croats and Bosnian Muslims].

Moreover, most of the worst atrocities of the war were perpetrated by Bosnian Serbs - the violent uprooting of tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslims from in and around the north-western Bosnian town of Prijedor in the summer of 1992, the punitive attacks on Sarajevo over more than three years, the Srebrenica killings in the summer of 1995. (The Devolution of Ratko Mladic.)

That is the real reason why Western opinion is so negative concerning the Serb armies and paramilitaries in that war.

But these painful facts are completely absent in Gerald Flurry's Germany Rules the Balkans. Assuming that Germany will become an evil European Empire the PCG leadership chose to ignore the terrible atrocities which Serbian military forces committed and opposed intervention. They chose to oppose supposed German bullying and ignore these terrible events.

As for myself I am very glad that Mladic has been arrested so that he may answer for his alleged crimes. So often I read about the Yugoslav Wars and it was dutifully mentioned that Mladic was still evading justice. It is very good that that fact has been changed and that Mladic will be held accountable for what happened then.

PCG is Blind to the Hopes of the Arab Awakening

PCG has viewed the historic protests in the Arab world very negatively. No doubt this is caused due to the Armstrongite teaching that an Islamic Caliphate will rise up and assume great power, until it provokes the European Empire into conquering it in a blitzkrieg attack. PCG are afraid that these protests will cause the Muslim world to unify into a mighty Caliphate which, according to PCG, is to be dominated by Iran. Therefore PCG are quite negative towards the protests.

I think it is very sad that these persons have chosen to view the extraordinary events in this highly pessimistic manner.

Before the revolution began I was aware that human rights protections were not the strong point of many Arab governments. Before 2011 reading about events in the Middle East was, while very interesting, was also terribly pessimistic. I was aware that torture of prisoners and detainees did not occur just in Iraq but occurred in many Arab countries. I heard about an Egyptian taxi driver suing the police for torturing him. As I read stories about the Middle East I was struck how so often I heard that prisoners are tortured.

No wonder so many of them have chosen to rise up and protest against the many injustices that the people are forced to endure at the hands of dictatorial rulers.

Contrary to what PCG teaches I feel that these protests are very good. It is great that the people of Tunisia decided they had enough of being exploited by the Ben Ali regime. From what I hear it sounds like Tunisia was a hopelessly corrupt society, with a large share of the nation's wealth being cunningly diverted to the well connected while the rest are casually left to rot. No wonder they protested.

But PCG does not care about these things. They are worried that it will lead to an Iranian dominated Caliphate.

From what I hear it sounds like Egypt was also hopelessly corrupt. Police had free license to torture detainees, or even kill people. No wonder the Egyptian people revolted.

But PCG does not care about these things. They fret that the USA 'betrayed' a friend in Hosni Mubarak. What about the over 800 people murdered by security forces to protect Mubarak's hide? Are they are not a good reason for the US to disassociate itself from his regime? Does the blood of 800 count for so little among Gerald Flurry and his close associates?

Also note how the US, Britain and France united together to oppose the murderous Gaddafi regime. I remember during the build up to the Iraq War France and Germany bluntly disagreed with the US's decision to invade Iraq. The COGs taught that this was merely the beginning of further isolation for the US, ending in national conquest. That France and Germany's opposition signaled the beginning of a hostile relationship with the EU that will end in war.

Today, the USA, Britain and France are united together in military operations against Gaddafi. This is yet another false prediction made by Armstrongites that have hopelessly failed.

PCG portrays the Egyptian revolution as an event which will cause Iran to prosper. PCG exploited Iran's support for the Egyptian revolution as a sign that we should be afraid of it. Just a few months afterward the people of Syria rise up against the notoriously despotic Baathist regime of Bashar al-Assad. Even before the revolution I knew of Syria as an austere, dictatorial society. It is ruled by a dictatorial regime dominated by the Baath Party, the same Party of which Saddam Hussein belonged to, although those two regimes hated each other despite their common origins.

Iran is closely allied with Syria. So naturally Iran opposed the Syrian uprising. How do these Syrian protests help create an Islamic Caliphate since Iran oppose them?

My heart just breaks knowing about the terrible things the Assad regime is inflicting upon its people. Especially because at first many were highly skeptical that protests would occur there. I hope that justice is done for the protesters who have lost their lives in the uprising. No wonder so many there are willing to risk everything to protest against these intolerable injustices. May the Assad regime soon fall.

I think it is an act of inexcusable ignorance for the PCG leadership to view these tremendous and historic events as simply a stepping stone in the rise to power of Iran and therefore it must be feared and opposed. It is evidence of the moral blindness of the PCG leadership and further evidence that they must not be listened to.

Tornado in Joplin, Missouri

I heard about the terrible destruction that occurred due to a tornado in Joplin, Missouri which killed about 124 people. It is very sad to know that such things have been happening.

When I heard of this I could not help but remember that this city was where Roderick C. Meredith grew up in. The land of his nativity, so to speak.

I wish all those affected by that terrible tornado the best of wishes and hope that Joplin will revive once again.

Porn Found in bin Laden's Compound

I was quite amused to learn that among the treasure trove of intelligence which US forces took from Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad was a "fairly extensive" collection of pornography.

Reuters broke the story.