Dagon's Temple - Flurry's Folly

Flurry's Auditorium in Edmond

I try not to link to stories like this these days, it doesn't help the blood pressure. But for some folk the latest news about Gerry "Six-pack" Flurry and his designer sect, the Philadelphia Church of God (PCG), will at least serve to keep their contempt fresh.

The short version is that Flurry has blown twenty-million dollars to complete a monument in Edmond, OK; a near clone of the Worldwide Church of God's Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena CA. (since sold to Harvest Rock church). Flurry's church is itself something of a clone, slavishly aping the teachings of the Worldwide Church of God as they were presented under the leadership of Herbert W. Armstrong.

No expense has apparently been spared as Flurry imports high-brow acts to grace his stage. These include the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the Vienna Boys Choir, the Russian National Ballet Theatre and the Eroica Trio. Is he trying to buy credibility? That's certainly the view of his critics.

Armstrong's Auditorium in Pasadena

The PCG has a reputation for weirdness. This is a high-demand sect that exercises strict control over its members, including imposing "no contact" rules with family members outside the group, particularly those in other sub-sects of Armstrongism. The dropout rate - along with the human cost - is, unsurprisingly, reported as high. The sect is believed to have only a few thousand tithe-paying members, which makes the lavish headquarters in Edmond even more remarkable.

Local Oklahoma media have been largely uncritical of the presence of the PCG, presumably because Flurry keeps throwing shiny baubles at the community. The $20,000,000 obscenity in Edmond is provided, as former member Sarah Luther notes, "on the backs of church members, who have been warned to give extra special and generous offerings if they want to please God."

Read it and weep.