A note about this webpage
Many are heralding the leaders of 1995 WCG as bold, brave
defenders of Christian truth. Many are excited over the fact that the little-known
personality cult is embracing Jesus and His New Covenant, due to the efforts of the men
Tkach, Albrecht and Feazell. (I argue elsewhere that the
truly brave souls like Earl Williams should be given the human credit for putting God
ahead of mammon, because they fearlessly preached grace more plainly than WCG preaches it,
even today; conventional wisdom says WCG would not have made their doctrinal about face if
Williams hadn't done the unexpected: he read the bible -- and believed it.)
Little did I know, however, that 1995 wasn't the first
opportunity for WCG to set its people free from Christian cultism. In fact, Armstrong and
his cohorts vilified the same truth years ago (actually calling it satanic), as many men
tried to persuade Herbert Armstrong and Garner Ted Armstrong to repent of cultic abuse,
financial corruption, and administrative oppression of sincere-but-deluded followers.
According to the following transcribed lecture, Richard Plaché
(pronounced Pluh-shay) cogently argues that WCG leadership understood the Gospel truth
about mandatory tithing (it's
not required, and it's not biblical -- contrary to what churches teach today) and the
other burdens unnecessarily laid upon the membership since the 1970s. His taped sermon
(which I received from an exWCGer in Canada -- thanks, Martina!) was the result of his
futile attempts to help the physicians heal themselves.
But this sermon wasn't the only time that people within The
Cult's ranks tried to bring truth to CAD's attention (see Jack
Kessler's 1981 letter to WCG board of directors, which was written to well-known
leaders like Joe Tkach, Harold Jackson, Rod Meredith, and many other men who should have
known better than to suppress the truth). After railroading the gospel out of Pasadena,
Armstrong dubbed the aftermath "putting the Church back on track."
Incidentally, today's WCG administration continues its mind
control tactics by labeling everything a lie that reveals WCG's history of avarice,
duplicity, and spiritual manipulation.
Try as they might to prevent it, the chickens are most definitely
coming home to roost -- no matter how many ways they try to camouflage the hen house..
Rodney O. Lain , rodneyo@macconnect.com
*Here's why I reproduced this letter: I
thought 1995 was the first time that WCG heard the Plain Truth about Jesus. This
transcribed sermon/lecture only makes people dislike HWA even more. The old man wouldn't
have known the truth if it bit him squarely on his "Anglo-Israeli" ass. In
retrospect, it seems it did -- several times... |
