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Velvet has ratcheted up the Great Leap Backward with a 'testimony' of sorts in the latest issue of The Journal.
In the same issue you'll find extensive coverage of developments in the United Church of God since departure of the hard-liners.
The front and back pages are, as usual, available for free download.
...often angry...
ReplyDeleteYeah I'm willing to own that. I would like to make it clear that I was angry towards the hypocrisy I saw (and continue to see) amongst ex-members of the Church and even current members of GCI.
I, never, at any point was angry with God. (Not even with the god of this world, as the professing Christians accused me of being.) I am praying for strength to bear with the fruits of the spirit the things that anger me, though. I am by no means succeeding completely, or instantly!
"Great Leap Backward"
Hm, well, to you it might be. (And if you had the same revelation, it might very well be a step backward, for you.) For me, it has had nothing but positive benefits, in my life. Not that anyone on here can really tell: There's only so much of a person that you really glean on the Internet.
...the departure of the hardliners.
I have it from the horse's mouth they don't keep the dietary laws. Dunno how "hardliner" they really are, if they've given that up. Just my $0.02.
Velvet, I read what I could of the Journal article you wrote. Please forgive me if I am confused re: the path you have taken.
ReplyDeleteUnless I got the jist wrong, I understand that you, after believing what Herbert Armstrong taught, took a turn into atheism, and then a turn back into believing what Herbert Armstrong taught. Am I getting that right?
Your article is titled, "Atheism can serve as a helpful step along the way", but what I perceive is a step away from what Herbert Armstrong taught, leading to a step back to what Herbert Armstrong taught. I'm wondering if you either see your previous views of what Herbert Armstrong taught as being faulty, or if you now feel you have a better understanding of what Herbert's truth is, compared to what he or you previously professed.
Or are you saying you took an "atheist digression" from what Herbert Armstrong taught, which you came to realize you were wrong about, and helped you get back to pretty much the same faith you once had about what Mr. Armstrong taught?
I always suspected PH was a woman. She is a babe.
ReplyDeleteThe "infamous"? Purple Hymnal blog...
The core basis of the Religion of Herbert Armstrong has been refuted successfully. There is no basis for British Israelism and the Armstrongist history of the church has been disproved.
ReplyDeleteWhile it may be possible that out of the mountain of scrap there may be one small infitisimal grain of truth, like Scientology, it's not worth the dig to go find it.
I always had a bit of skepticism that Aggie/Purple was really an atheist. I really was not that surprised when she went back to Armstrongism.
ReplyDelete"I understand that you, after believing what Herbert Armstrong taught, took a turn into atheism, and then a turn back into believing what Herbert Armstrong taught. Am I getting that right?"
ReplyDeleteThe article was edited a bit, and I didn't get into the full details of what happened. Basically, I was born and raised in the Church, and then the changes hit, and my family fell away. My parents pretty much dropped everything they ever believed, like a hot potato, and I was left with questions. A lot of questions.
At that point, I settled on agnosticism, and remained fairly agnostic (with a pantheistic/Deistic bent) until 2007. When I joined Jeff Miller's discussion board, "Shadows of WCG." He claimed it was "open to all viewpoints/paths" but, in reality, whenever I posted something that didn't fall in line with Baptist theology (Jeff deliberately concealed the fact that he was/is the minister of two Baptist congregations), he would send me harassing and intimidating private messages, saying what I said (mostly the same things I said on Ambassador Watch, and here, over the years) was "offensive to Christians and Christianity."
After almost a year of this abusive treatment, and Jeff's unspoken contention that the only two valid choices were atheism or professing Christianity, I chose atheism. Definitely the better choice.
In January of this year, Jeff blocked my IP address from accessing his blog, Shadows of WCG, specifically so that he and a group of professing Christians could carry on a conversation about me, the evil, misguided atheist, who only had to be healed by their false Jesus, and I wouldn't be so "angry" -- because my IP was blocked, this conversation was carried on behind my back. I only found this out, by accessing the site through an open proxy. I was angry at that, you better believe! As a result, I then tagged two posts on the old Purple Hymnal website with "I know who J [as Jeff called himself] really is." Here's the thing. I didn't know who Jeff Miller was, I didn't even know he was Russell's brother!
Russell overreacted. He even posted on Facebook about me! Friends of mine (true friends, thank you) sent me copies of the Facebook postings, and copies of both of their blog posts to me, because every time I accessed the site with an open proxy, the demon possessing Russell became even more incensed.
Jeff then, at the end of the whole affair, went on to admit that he is a Baptist minister of two Baptist congregations. Even though he always derided "Christian social clubs" and said "you don't have to belong to them."
After dealing with this over the course of a very bad weekend, God made me realize that neither of the options Jeff Miller presented were viable --- and both were/are justifiably poisonous.
Larry,
ReplyDeleteDon't be disgusting.
Can I also ask why you added my last name to the post, Gavin? I don't recall seeing it there, before.
ReplyDelete