I have never been called on for falling asleep during services, not paying attention, or passing notes. One time when a whole row of teens were being incredibly loud, the minister stopped the sermon and said if it did not stop, he would send parents back there. We go to a very lax Presbyterian church now, and our minister there would not have waited so long, nor would he have waited to send the parents back. Most people brought toys blankets and such for small children.

I was raised to always call all adults Mr. and Mrs. and still do. We all did a few decades back. Deacons and deaconesses have different personalities, some nice some not so nice. Some were friendly and others not; some humble and some not. That’s human nature and it’s everywhere.

I never heard not to go to a Dr., just the opposite. Many members felt differently and misunderstood a lot about healing, so refused medical help.

Tithing was just a given. Some people were poor some weren’t I have been poor and not, tithing had little to do with it. Although I think its odd the say in the same comment that the people were too poor to feed themselves, but they left the church upwards of $10,000 to $100,000.

I never heard any minister embarrass any family by taking up donations while mentioning their names. People in need of second tithe assistance went to Pasadena. Same with camp. Local minister had little to do with it.

I have gone to three different WCG churches and I will say this: the local minister had a lot of power. Many of them were not preaching church doctrine. Mr. Armstrong, unhappily left the day to day operations to Mr. Meridith, who trained many ministers to be overbearing dictators. I have had a total of 10 different ministers over the various churches I attended in the WCG. Only 1 was remotely like any of the ones discussed above, and he was disfellowshipped.

In short the church had problems. How ever, other that the Mormons, I have never seen any other church demand so much study and bible reading as the old WCG. So don’t say brainwashed. No one held a gun to anyone’s head to be there.

Thanks, Robert

Glad you’re happy with your life.

The boxes may appear different from site to site. Surround your quote with the “blockquote” tag:

<blockquote>Like this.</blockquote>

Which appears:

Like this.

I recommend understanding a little general HTML before getting fancy with the tags on blogs, though.

Nor me either. I had enough of that. I willingly lay my life down to my Creator because of what He willingly did for me, and respectfully submit to His gentle, loving heart. The peace that follows is indescribable - I used to think people just made that up. But it’s real. Man, is it real!

BTW, how do you get a box around the text like you do? That’s neat.

Didn’t think you’d want to touch that one, but that’s OK.

It’s not that it’s an unimportant question— it’s just irrelevant to the topic at hand.

We can grow or we can stay where we’re at.

I don’t quite agree: we can grow, or we can die. There is no “staying where we’re at.” I do agree that release and forgiveness are important, and part of the healing process. Helping people find release is a big part of what this blog is about.

Every individual has to decide for themselves who or what (if anything) to follow, respect, or worship. No authority, whether the Bible or any human is inherently worthy of respect— respect must be earned. For my own part, not only does the WCG and its related cults no longer have control over me: neither does the Bible or Christianity in general.

Didn’t think you’d want to touch that one, but that’s OK. I have seen in my own life with WCG that truth is rather important in life. When a person is lost in a jungle or in a dark room (as we all were when we realized we were “duped”), that person must find a reference point. If that reference point starts moving or is subjective, things can get quite confusing and frustrating quickly (as is clearly written about here). But that’s life. I have a responsibility for my actions. And while talk and experiences are therapeutic, there comes a time when one must grow beyond it.

A lot of the things people experienced in WCG, were done culturally. My two grandfathers, who weren’t involved with WCG, whipped my father and my uncle and by today’s standards abused them (bruises and the like). It wasn’t right, but it also wasn’t just WCG’s fault, as WCG had nothing to do with it. They also demanded respect and were quite authoritarian in nature.

No one said I was doing altar calls, nor had I planned to.

My purpose is not to return people to superstitions or mind-controlled cults (or even forums that do not allow differing thoughts, speech methods, ideas or ways of thinking). My purpose is to share that my experience is different, as everyone’s here was different. But God does love you, me and everyone in this forum. I’ve seen that clearly. Don’t let bad experiences with someone’s cult, organization, forum, business, family, religion, etc. keep you away from God.

We’ve got a choice. We can grow or we can stay where we’re at. We can search for truth or we can remain upset. Remaining upset, doctors will tell you, is not good for you. We can treat people the way they treated us, or we can release, forgive and be free. It’s amazing when we release and forgive - that person or organization or cult no longer has control over you and your life.

All the best,
Mark

That leads us to the question, “What is opinion and what is truth?”

No, we don’t need to go there to answer your basic question about what’s OK to post in the comments here.

Just remember the title of this blog: “Non-Believer Former Members of the WCG.” This is a forum for non-believers, not a pulpit for you to do altar-calls from.

I also say in my intro to this site that, “I will not approve any comments that I feel disturb the supportive atmosphere of this site.” Supportive for whom? Non-believers. Is trying to encourage non-believers to go back to the superstition they left “supportive?” Not in my opinion, and that’s the opinion that counts here.

Just keep these points in mind and I think you’ll be OK. When in doubt, feel free to e-mail me and ask.

So, I think I’m starting to understand, but I’m going to need some more help.

1) No Bible verses quoted (that’s easy enough). Got burned, don’t want to go there. Fair enough.
2) No sermons or sermonettes - not sure what you’re saying here. A little more clarity would help. You said “opinion” is “fine.” How do you distinguish between opinion and the “giving of a sermon?” It seems you are suggesting / implying that sermons contain fact or truth. Hmm. So people commenting on this website only put forth their opinions?

That leads us to the question, “What is opinion and what is truth?”

I would be interested in hearing your response to that question.

All of us were (or in some cases still are) believers. We don’t need Bible verses quoted at us— we know what it says. And some of us— including me your host— think it’s bunk. There’s plenty of places you can go on the Internet to preach. If you want to say you believe in God and you think God loves someone, then fine— that’s your opinion. But don’t start giving a sermonette: go start your own church if you like that form of discourse.

Hope this helps.