Non-Believer Former Members of the Worldwide Church of God

Canada

My parents were “called” into the WWCG the early seventies and I was born into it in the mid-70s. My mom’s brothers and sisters, mom and dad, were all upstanding church members. As a kid, I thought we had quite a good extended-family environment. They are all divorced now except the one who attends the UnitedCG.

My grandma died in the 70s — fairly young and without the interference of doctors, lest the family illustrate their lack of faith.

I was trained on a blanket so I could sit quietly during church. If we made too much noise, the deacon would remind my mom to keep us underfoot. We were spanked on the bare buttocks with a piece of wood or wooden spoon for disobeying orders or being disrespectful. I was so afraid of the stick that I used to lie or hide the stick, then wait for the inevitable spanking after it re-appeared. The best hiding spot was in the oven — they never found it that time. The method of spanking was taught from the pulpit: never with the bare hand, never in anger (yeah, right), always with love. As we were crying with a sore butt, we would be hugged and told something like “I did that because I love you.” I think the method was from a church-sanctioned book “Dare to Discipline” by James Dobson. Good way to drive your kids away.

The elementary music teacher put me in the closet so I wouldn’t have to sing Christmas carols. Shining lights unto the world. We were all singled-out and picked on.

We attended the Feast of Tabernacles in Penticton BC - which I loved because of the dances, restaurants, friends and money to spend we had saved from tithes. I was in the choir, I attended Spokesman’s club for a year before I left for college (not AC [Ambassador College] — I went to a real college and found Darwin & his friends.) I went to YES camps in the summer, learned and colored my YES lessons, played volleyball and went to track and field meets with the YOU, Sunday YOU studies in the minister’s basement, took notes during church services, and fasted and gave money when I was supposed to. I watched the telecast and set up PT stands with my dad. I got my tax receipt at the end of the year, and I took my spankings. Good church boy.

One sabbath at age 17 I asked the minister “If god made the sun, moon and stars on day 4, where did the light and dark come from on day 1?” It was an honest question. He told me emphatically that they never taught us a literal interpretation of the genesis creation, but that it was an account of what things might have looked to a casual observer as the firmament was gradually cleared after Satan’s rebellion. I swear that creation story was literally presented in YES lessons and the Bible Story books! The deacons and wanna-be-deacons that were crowded at the front to ass-kiss stared me down as I retreated. I think I was black-listed on that day. Maybe even in my file at HQ.

My dad liked to tell the story of the day he quit smoking. He threw the pack of cigarettes on the street and walked away, then after changing his mind and returning, found that god had sent a car to run over the offending material. He was raised a French Catholic and his entire family is Catholic to this day. His father cried at his wedding because he believed that a Catholic who marries outside of the church is lost to hell. The church’s anti-Catholic teachings caused him to shun his family. He lost jobs over the years because of the holidays and Sabbath. We were poor and I remember the minister writing him a cheque to pay the rent and buy food — I guess this was third-tithe money. I think he wrote the cheques in front of the whole family to shame my dad, since we were called into the room for the show. Other members in better standing (wanna-be-deacons) would also take their shots at him (for example at a spokesman’s club meeting or in front of the family to make him look dumb.) Once the minister made a derogatory French joke at our supper table about frogs.

Dad had a lot of trouble with the doctrinal changes in the early-mid 90s – he saw the church falling apart and his family falling apart. He thought he had led a righteous life. He followed the church’s laws, studied the bible, and ruled his family the way he was told. Why would God forsake him?

My dad spent the last week of his life staying at a local elder’s house for “counseling,” then, he went to church and the minister drove him home. Then he committed suicide in his bedroom. This happened VERY soon after Tkach announced that he didn’t have to keep old covenant laws including the sabbath and holy days, tithes, and unclean meats. My family still doesn’t talk about the role the church played in his suicide.

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