Monday, September 15, 2014

United Church of God and It's Culture of Division

Double click to enlarge
Keep in mind that this list is from 1997 and that
 there are hundreds more splinter personalty groups that have emerged since then.




From a reader here:



Clicked through on Dixon's site to the old articles under the "In Transition" section -- the forerunner of The Journal. There's an article posted from the August 1995 issue that is an interview with David Hulme. He was president of the new UCG at the time:


If you scroll down you'll find this interesting quote:

"We'll only break up into arguing factions if God's Spirit is not present."

Wow. Guess that's one quote the UCG/COGWA groups would rather not recall.

By that standard, it's quite an indictment that UCG has, indeed, broken up into many arguing factions over the years.

It's remarkable: For years, we always heard the question asked, "Why so many denominations?" A look at the history of Christianity shows that church group after church group divided and went their separate ways because of various differences of opinion. But we in Armstrongism were quick to condemn that as evidence that these were groups of men, not of God.

Now, 20 years after the WCG's breakup, splits and breakaways are accepted. "As long as we keep the Sabbath and Holy Days," people say, ignoring the reality that careful observance of those things has not, historically, produced peace. It's reminiscent of the late '70s, when HWA loved to proclaim how there was finally real peace and harmony at headquarters, even while the people who worked there knew better.

One could say that Hulme set the stage for the UCG's splits when he was quoted in the article as saying that United's significantly different form of government was better suited for modern times and was a departure from HWA's form of government, which was more suited to a "military structure" of the mid-20th Century. It's also ironic that he talks about listening to people, something UCG and its offshoots haven't really been prone to do.

"We'll only break up into arguing factions if God's Spirit is not present." I wonder what he/they would say today?

12 comments:

Sweetblood777 said...

210What he will say today.

Did I really say that? My, I can't recall ever saying that. If I did, then maybe I was going through a phase or something.

Oh you know what, if I did say that, then I must have been quoting another and forgot to give their name.

Did someone really say that?

Anonymous said...

"As long as we keep the Sabbath and Holy Days," people say, ignoring the reality that careful observance of those things has not, historically, produced peace.

It has produced Pharisees.

Lots and lots of Pharisees.

Anonymous said...

"We'll only break up into arguing factions if God's Spirit is not present."

Now there's a nugget.

I've always thought that the name "United" was perhaps the most ironic out of all the COG monikers. Could they have come up with anything less appropriate? Or was deceit the intended purpose?

Could we use this as a dipstick, or thermometer, to take the "spiritual temperature" of various xian sects? I think most would have a hard time refuting it, though I wouldn't put it past Vic Kubik to get that creative. Any honest person knows that where there's continual fighting, squabbling, and negotiations between "leaders" is continually breaking down into "this church isn't big enough for the two of us," or even just dirty, immoral, unethical politics, that something is wrong. And UCG earns high marks across the board, as do all the COGs of any significant size.

But if we were to use it, it surely tells that if we're looking for anything of value, we're unlikely to find it there. The spirituality, philosophy, and values of the COGs lead to lots of unpleasantness. If spiritual temperature were physical temperature, we could use Armstrongism as one big freezer.

Ed said...

Religions are inventions of men. Not one of the religions in existence today is of God. that is why they brake into factions. human institutions tend to do that.

Anonymous said...

Davey has made a career out of saying one thing then doing whatever he wanted. One week he was a major PR player of WCG changing it's ways, then the next he did a flip-flop. That should have been a warning sign, but then again he wasn't the only one and no one seemed to care.

Homer said...

One surely doesn’t propose anything contrary to traditional teaching in UCG and I would suppose in any other splinter group. Nine years ago while still attending UCG yet searching for better understanding I gave a sermonette which included a major point concerning one of the things I was learning. During the sermon the “preacher” said the following. (paraphrased)

‘There has been a long standing humorous saying in the Church of God. That saying is, “How to get ahead in God’s Church.” It is okay to stick one’s neck out to a point. But if one sticks his neck out too far, he will get his head chopped off. But all is well. That person can grow a new head. That is how one gets “a head” in God’s Church.’

Afterward a friend came to me and said, “I’m sorry you got your head chopped off today.” My reply was, “He missed.” I was never called upon to give a sermonette or lead song service again. Later, I was discussing this situation with a young man who was being groomed for “leadership.” I told him I would never grow a “United” head. He said nothing and walked away. He has since moved on to COGWA. It seems he didn’t grow a “United” head either.

I have since moved from the city where I attended UCG and no longer attend any of man’s religious services.

Byker Bob said...

So long as there are no successful splinters floating around, (there were none in the 1950s-1960s) a somewhat charismatic person with a very bad temper can maintain unity. Nobody in any of the splinters has anywhere near the sheer explosive charisma and articulateness that HWA exuded. Since people have now seen that one can start a splinter and not go insane, not get arrested, and not die of a horrible disease or car accident, people realize that the explosive one had no backup. Look at all of the life threatening events that the anger-amateurs of today prophesy against their rivals. These carry the same accuracy rate as the rest of their prophecies----0% fulfillment.

BB

Anonymous said...

No question that without God's Spirit there will not be peace and unity. There has been one truth about humans from the beginning. Human nature breeds conflict. Adam and Eve didn't get along with their Creator. Cain killed Able, etc. My wife helps maintain a Jane Austin blog. It's a break off of another Jane Austin blog and now it has it's own splinter group leaving. What's new?

Anonymous said...

No, no, it's because they're nuts.

Anonymous said...


"We'll only break up into arguing factions if God's Spirit is not present."


Well, it looks like God's Spirit is NOT present, and you're breaking up, you're breaking up, you're breaking up.

Anonymous said...


"United Church of God and It's Culture of Division"

"We'll only break up into arguing factions if God's Spirit is not present."


It looks like the lack of God's Spirit in the UCG was not causing it to break up fast enough, so people with malicious, lying spirits were brought in to try to hasten the breaking up process.

old EXPCG hag said...

All these men such as Gerald (Hitler) Flurry, only want your money (WELFARE) so he and his can have their Kingdom of god now! That's all it's about. If is was REALLY about THE TRUTH they would be teaching and keeping Christ's commands as to how to treat your fellow man in order to have some sort of peace. Instead they keep Hitlers commands and all that gets you is discord, dissension, hatred, AND SUICIDE!