Dear lord, Mike Feazell has conned Douglas Campbell into
an interview for Grace Communion International (formerly the Worldwide Church of God.) Jason Goroncy - who seems relentlessly impressed by the ongoing Feazell Follies - draws attention to the video
on his blog.
What can you say about Campbell? Well, he has a
fantastic accent... He writes big, dense books... and even Mike seems a bit out of his depth (and frankly bored) this time. If you're not into this kind of thing you'll probably not want to invest thirty non-refundable minutes of your life this way.
Campbell sounds at times like a fundamentalist: "this person God," "demonic forces." Clearly he's not, the man is merely Reformed. The most exciting moment in the half hour for me was when Campbell actually lifted up and drank from the "You're Included" coffee mug. Hey, I thought it was just a prop!
Earlier I did a potted review of Campbell's doorstop
The Deliverance of God.
Gavin, what's your beef with Grace Communion International?
ReplyDeleteI'm a former member (long time ago, long story). These guys - including Mike - have a back story, and it's not a particularly attractive one. To this day, for example, CGI/WCG is run by an unelected president-for-life (Tkach), appointed by his father, who was appointed by Herbert W. Armstrong. No, probably best not to get me started...
ReplyDeletePrimarily I don't object to the theology - but I do object to the "Claytons" reformation which has left much of the cultic, unaccountable structure intact.
Sounds like a good topic for discussion over a beer some time.
ReplyDeleteYou're on.
ReplyDeleteI'm no fan of Grace Communion International predecessors Herbert W. Armstrong and Garner Ted Armstrong. The Armstrongs are guilty of many transgressions. But one thing Herbert Armstrong and son Garner Ted can never be accused of - and that is boring people to death in a 30 minute radio or TV program.
ReplyDeleteTo their credit, The Armstrongs knew how to work the media of radio and television. The Weasel taped 30 minutes of absolute boring dribble that translates into nothing. He's a far cry from the pioneers who built the WCG/CGI business.
My advice to readers, don't invest the 30 minutes as there is no return on your investment - or even of your investment.
Richard
Douglas Campbell's texts for his fall semester class at Duke Divinity:
ReplyDeleteNEWTEST 117B: English Exegesis of Romans : Campbell, Douglas
Supplemental Texts
Romans; Brendan Byrne; 978-0-8146-5969-4; $34.95
The Quest for Paul's Gospel; Campbell, Douglas A. et al.; 978-0-567-08292-3; $55.00
The Deliverance of God: An Apocalyptic Rereading of Justification in Paul; Campbell,
Douglas A. et al.; 978-0-8028-3126-2; $60.00
Interpretation of this complex theology [mythology] must be left to experts who are paid $xxx,xxx salaries.
ReplyDeleteImported antipodian wordsmith is paid $xxx,xxx to serve up mythologocal Pauline mumbo Jumbo to Southern United States Christ -myth devotees.
Some say the USA is technically bankrupt. Well, not yet: There's still enough money to pay Campbell and Weasel six figure salaries. These will be the next to lose their jobs in the Great Depression II.
I don't want to steal Purple Hymnal's thunder in case they decide to comment but the gist of the beef is this.
ReplyDeleteChanges in the church let to many people becoming disillusioned and leaving the church. All the tithe money paid to the WWCG much of which went to buy fine houses, College campuses, Auditoriums, fixtures, etc., was never accounted for once the items were sold by the present day GCI.
Well, "never accounted for" except to go into the coffers of Joseph Tkack Jr. Who has no inclination or apparently, legal obligation, to disclose how much money and what it's being used for.
Some former members (not I) feel they are owed some of this money as it was never used for the actual intention, i.e. "The Work", and not to keep a bunch of fat cats in the lap of luxury.
I look at the money I paid in tithes and offerings, as tuition in "the way things really are in this world" school of reality and critical thinking.
But that's just me.
"It is an evangelical necessity to find some solution to this basic problem, because simply to deny it is to deliver Paul up to his detractors, and to concede at the outset that Paul's gospel is a creature of contradiction"
ReplyDeleteWhat is the contradiction Campbell finds?
Where to start, with Grace Communion International? How about WordPress, for instance?
ReplyDelete"I don't want to steal Purple Hymnal's thunder in case they decide to comment but the gist of the beef is this."
ReplyDeleteNo thunder stolen, Baywolfe's comment is Purple Hymnal-approved! :-D
Also! Why is Weazell wearing a suit jacket? When he was proselytizing to the Mormons, he was decidedly more dressed-down.
ReplyDeleteSigns and portents of an oncoming "back to our roots" movement in Gawd's Troo Church?
Here we see the evolution of GCI continuing with a wise emphasis on the ethereal Pauline Christ and avoidance of the problematic 'historical' Jesus of the synoptic gospels.
ReplyDelete"wise emphasis on the ethereal Christ"? Really? Really?! Has someone not been reading their own "denomination's" Statement of Beliefs lately?? Or what about cueball Teddy Johnston's blog, where he continually waxes incoherent about "the totally divine totally human Jesus Christ"?
ReplyDeleteWhich doesn't touch on the vast majority of actual baptized attenders of the church, who consider themselves "God's righteous under much persecution", who continue to "hold fast to the truth once delivered", and the trinitarian-spouting pastards just look the other way....
I say again, wherefore this "transformation" by truth? Because, from where I'm sitting, the two-tiered information structure is even worse under Grace Communion International's dictatorial regime, then it ever was, in the Worldwide Church of God!
As with any public university, there is a lot of state subsidization - paying for this ahistorical mythicism.
ReplyDeleteAs Vridar said:
"They are fanning popular prejudice instead of advancing intellectually honest enlightenment — very often milking the public purse to do so, too."
"wise emphasis on the ethereal Christ"? Really?"
ReplyDeleteYes, for business reasons. The GCI leaders do not of course believe this stuff.
"Yes, for business reasons. The GCI leaders do not of course believe this stuff."
ReplyDeleteOh, good, we're in agreement then. By the way, do you have that from the horse's mouth, or in other damning evidence that proves this? It would be one more nail in Gracie's coffin, for their "transformed by (false) truth" schtick. Email me, if you do. (Click on the blue underlined word "email", or you can copy and paste my address, purplehymnal@gmail.com into your email software of choice.)
Thanks, "Christ Cult." We may not agree theologically, but I think we can both agree that, from both sides of the fence, Junior and his little cargo cult needs to be eliminated totally, for the good of both believers AND non-believers, yes?