There has been a lot of discussion on my personal blog (and my recently-opened personal forum) on Ronald Weinland. You might want to join the conversation there. Click here to visit the sub-board at the forum that deals specifically with Weinland.

He cites Herbert W. as a ceritifed Apostle and a true man of god. I was really buying in to it all, and even sent them a tithe of my earnings for last week, $135.oo—money I should put in the bank or take my family out to dinner.

Finding your website has been amazing valuable. Any man than claims to be a prophet and presided over such pyshological devastation of children AND adults is not a true prophet but a force of evil in a modern world.

I could follow God if I ever really met him or heard from him directly, but I really have a hard time following liars cheats and thieves.

Herbie W. was all three and now there Ronald Weiland. I’m going down to the bank right now and stop payment on my check.

I can’t believe I almost became part of what will lead to much devastation.

I’m glad you all came out of something similar and survived. I’m glad I can save my kids, spouse and friends the trouble of the same sort.

Oh My G–, thank you so much.

I had friends in The Church, but I always say we would never have been friends in the real world. Never. We had nothing in common… except The Church. Cheerleading. Volleyball. Softball. YOU dances. YOU Bible Study. Summer camp…

I love them, and still stay in touch with a few, but honestly all we have in common is a shared history.

I don’t think I was as actively “blocked” from pursuing what I wanted to do, by the WCG and Sabbath-keeping, but I can relate to your and Tim’s comments about being a loner, and never talking to “outsiders”. I still have difficulty talking to strangers. I am not a social butterfly by a long shot. WCG-related? Maybe. Hard to tell.

I do have a link to share, though:

http://www.flyingfree.zoomshare.com/1.html

Scroll down till you get to the Introduction, and read the handwritten letter that is scanned in there. At least you can be grateful that, no matter how badly you hated being blocked from achieving what you wanted, you recognized that you were being blocked, at the time. The girl in the letter certainly did not recognize what her beliefs were doing to her, and she never got the chance to.

There weren’t a lot of “true believers” among the 2nd generation of WCG members born in the church, but I was one, and I can tell you that I regret not having been one of the rebellious YOU teens who hated everything to do with the church, and the things that made us weird.

Further to Carol’s remarks, I realize there were a lot of things happening “behind the scenes” at Headquarters that a lot of us didn’t get to see, but one of the things that did directly impact the members was the sheer chaos. The stuff that was going out from Headquarters to the ministers was so contradictory and unpredictable, individual congregations varied greatly, in how they taught and applied the beliefs.

Why do you think there were so many splits, after the changes? Each church was doing its own thing, in the first place, except for the tithes they sent in to HQ “faithfully’. And the Feast offerings. And the special offerings. But that’s a rant for another day.

Steve

I don’t understand where Carol thinks your remarks were wrong. I thought you hit the nail right on the head, even though you did not know Herbie and his henchmen personally. The indelible track record will always be there on these charlatans, even if they had the power to burn all the books(and computers). I for one believe that the man SHOULD be demonized. He was a spiritual Hitler.

I was not allowed to attend any of the athletic events or dances at school or do anything that a normal teenager of my time would do, including listen to Elvis or watch “American Bandstand.” This was in the late 50’s. I was a very pretty girl but “weird.”

Your frustration is justified, but let’s put it in perspective. The greatest damage I see is that you and I and others like us were not allowed to excel in our areas of strength, something that is important as a child forms his identity. But if things had been different, you would not have likely been a national hockey player and I would not have been Albert Einstein.

Carol’s rule: it’s not what happens to you but what you do with it that counts. This doesn’t justify the wrongs, but it gives you something you can work with and, I don’t know about you, but I really don’t like feeling powerless. I had enough of that in the church.

I also want to add that having been a minister’s wife, having lived at HQ for some years, having known the personalities there intimately, including HWA, I can tell you unequivocally that there were pressures there you cannot even imagine and what you suffered in your local churches was only a taste of what those closer to the action were experiencing. I could tell you real horror stories. We were all true believers at one time or another and we all have to take responsibility for those decisions. Those of who left are much stronger than the others in my opinion, but continuing to carp about it is not strength for it really is a tiny drop in the bucket of human experience and living in the past is not beneficial to anyone. I can actually laugh about it now though the pain and shame of it is still there but far from dominating my life. I almost never think of the church and my experiences in it or what it cost me and only involve myself tangentially on this site so as to extend any encouragement I might to others who are still suffering in the throes of the paralysis such brainwashing can engender.

It was wrong. Lots of things are wrong. Lots of children who never were in this cult or any other have suffered far more than any of us. Doesn’t have to mean your life stops or that you are powerless to self-actualize and do something different with your life and in your own family. Kinda like a bad accident. We recover and life goes on. Put it in perspective and don’t let it take all your good energy (not that I’m saying that is what you are doing but it really isn’t worth any energy at all except that which it takes to purge it once and for all).

And to Tim I will say that you never knew Herbert Armstrong or any of his “henchman” personally, so I would refrain from making statements that based on your subjective interpretation but not on firsthand knowledge. I happen to know you are quite wrong and that the entire subject is much more complex and difficult than you can imagine. I don’t defend the man or what he did, but I don’t think any of us benefit by demonizing him, even if that is only in continuing to give him a power he never ought to have exercised. I accept my personal responsibility for my life, including the period of time in which I believed in the church and its teachings. Just one of life’s experiments, and could just as easily have been Scientology or some mainstream religion that is just as deceptive and inhibiting of personal growth.

Dwight was by far the best outside shooter that I had ever seen(outside of pro and college). He was an all-stater. Other “church” teams would double-team him, sometimes triple-team him, and still couldn’t stop his magic touch. He hardly ever made the practices, and the rule was that if you didn’t make the practices, you didn’t get to play much. He was the exception!

Steve