Pack web collapse?

The following observations come from a correspondent and have been slightly edited:

Traffic growth on the Packinator's site is now in the red. If the 30% growth ostensibly represented God Almighty's seal of approval - does the negative growth indicate that approval has been withdrawn? Here we are in the 3rd quarter of 2008 and theRCG.org is still prominently featuring Internet growth through the end of 2007! Gone are ever increasing counters depicting current downloads (AKA hits). Gone are the estimates for 2008 downloads. Gone are are any monthly or quarterly updates bragging about actual numbers being higher than estimated for the year to date. No mention is made of hard numbers because downloads fell through the floor earlier this year and the slide has continued unabated until this day.

The graphics comes from Alexa: click for a larger version. Alexa currently ranks realtruth.org around 355,000 (Quantcast 656,000). The other Pack site, thercg.org, comes in at 214,000 (Quantcast 40,000). How does this compare with, for example, ucg.org ?

Alexa: 132,000
Quantcast: 17,000

(Alexa measures worldwide exposure, Quantcast has a myopic focus on the US market.)

By either measure Big Dave is in humble pie territory. How are the mighty fallen.

Alright my fellow Philistines...

... time for some culture. Mix J.S. Bach's prelude from his violin partitia #3 with the down-home sound of the banjo and, well, see for yourself.

Journal on UCG changes

The latest issue of The Journal is on its way to subscribers, and as usual the front and back pages are available to interested persons as a free PDF download.

Recent developments in the governance of the United Church of God get detailed treatment: UCG members may find this a "not-to-be-missed" issue. There is also a report on the bizarre re-disfellowshipment of Fred Coulter by septuagenarian LCG presiding-guru Roderick C. Meredith.

Darlene Warren appears to be back in the editorial chair of the Connections section. Dennis Diehl again provides a stimulating column, this time on a church member's "bill of rights" (for another dose of Den check out Bible Roulette.) A tribute to the late J. Orlin Grabbe provides background on this colorful character.

Rod of Authority

Bare breasted lictors gather unto Rod. Rod of God. Wicked William Ferguson has uploaded prime cuts of oral Meredith to Ekklesia. Head over there now and click on the 1997 Rod of Authority Parody link at the bottom of the page... of the page... of the page.

Ahem, um...

The following is a totally fictional dialogue, inspired by the news that Ronald Weinland has put the returning Christ in a parking orbit till 2012. It's bound to be less entertaining than any real interview Ron gives.

Interviewer (I): It is our pleasure to have Ronald Weinland back with us today. Welcome Ronald.

RW: Thank you Chuck, it's great to be back.

I: Last time we spoke with you The Great Tribulation was about to begin. Did that happen?

RW: Well Chuck, it's important to understand just how must misinformation there is out there. It makes it very hard for Christ's true ministers to...

I: Yes, but you were very definite Ronald. The Great Tribulation was to begin this year, in fact back in April wasn't it?

RW: Well, we need to back up a bit here Chuck. You see...

I: And wasn't there supposed to be nuclear war within ninety days of that? Isn't that what you said?

RW: Some people may have, unfortunately, understood, ah, misunderstood it and...

I: There is also the matter of the Two Witnesses Ronald. You were one of them, right?

RW: Well, yes, in a manner of...

I: And your wife Lulu-belle was to be the other?

RW: Laura, Mrs. Weinland, is indeed, as far as we have been given to understand...

I: Have either of you have been preaching in sackcloth over in Jerusalem yet?

RW: Well, we have been to Jerusalem, and I did give a very nice sermon for our people there, and we did stay in a pretty swanky hotel before coming back to the United States.

I: But aren't the Two Witnesses supposed to stay there and finish the job?

RW: The problem here is that false religion gets in the way Chuck. It creates false expectations. As Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong said many times, first you have to unlearn...

I: But Ronald, let me quote what you said...

RW: No, no, no Chuck. The truth is that there has been a great deal of misunderstanding and deliberate misrepresentation. Satan has been very active. To put things as simply as I can, God has cleared up a lot of the details as He has continued to reveal His will to me, and I can now confidently state that Christ is indeed returning in 2012.

I: 2012?

RW: Yes, 2012.

I: Not 2008?

RW: Not 2008. That was an unfortunate misunderstanding.

I: Whose misunderstanding Ronald?

RW: I believe the church was unprepared, unready. They needed to pray and fast more.

I: So, if your church fails to pray and fast again in 2012 the date may get put back again then too?

RW: No, 2012 is definite, and I stake my reputation on it.

I: But you already staked your reputation on 2008.

RW: We're just moving forward as the Holy Spirit directs us Chuck, malicious accusations notwithstanding.

I: Ronald you said you'd quit preaching if you were wrong.

RW: I wasn't wrong Chuck. Some of the details needed clarifying, but I've been absolutely consistent all the way through.

I: There's no contradiction between 2008 and now 2012?

RW: Only among the carnally minded Chuck, and bear in mind that the scoffers are under God's curse and are being eaten alive by blood-sucking worms and tumors even as we speak.

I: Frankly Ronald, all this backtracking is giving me a headache.

RW: See!

Larry's answer

Larry finally came clean and offered his answer to the question he posed.

I have been to many other churches and my wife is a devout Catholic. The level of true ignorance in these other churches is beyond description. All of this is not coincidence.

Apart from pointing out that Larry's views seem at odds with those of WCG's leadership, who nowadays sing a song of ecumenism in an evangelical key, there's a bigger point at stake here.

True ignorance describes those who've never bothered to actually understand why other churches believe what they do.

The two-dimensional cardboard cut-out characterizations of other traditions are usually just that.

In Worldwide - at least in the Armstrong era - the members knew an awful lot about everything, and had an avalanche of booklets to prove it. That spirit still characterizes the splinters: blow-hard leaders with starry-eyed followers.

Free yourself from the delusion and you realize just how little you really know. Forget Philadelphian fantasies... this is the mark of Laodicea:

For you say, 'I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.' You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. (Rev.3:17)

Wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, naked. The status of all those who sit in their self-imposed ghettos and cast imprecations on those who live lives of integrity beyond their walls.

The problem isn't in living within a specific culture or tradition: we all do that. The problem is when you build walls instead of bridges. Larry's Laodicean views belong to the unreconstructed Armstrongism of a past generation.

Larry's question

Larry - a current WCG member - writes: Don't you think it is fascinating that there is so much passion here about the WCG?

I am amazed. I mean, really...., do you think there is this much passion in a bunch of ex-Methodists? Or ex-Episcopalians?

I doubt it.

Why do you think that is? What is it about the Worldwide Church of God and subsequent splinter groups that could stir the hearts and minds of people after so many years?

I'll bet that some of you would say...blatant hypocrisy. But you would be wrong. That's not it.

Larry raises an interesting question, though it seems a bit unfair to hint that he knows the answer but won't tell! Here is a sample of the ongoing reaction.

Response 1 (anonymous): For the same reason that abused children seek out forums to interact with others that were abused. Or someone with an illness seeks out others who might have the same illness. It's as simple as that. Don't play psychologist and make more of it than it is.
Response 2 (Richard): Larry, its probably because most of us were young, dumb, stupid, gullible and impressionable when we attended the WCG. We grew-up believing HWA was God's Apostle; believing that there is this wonderful world tomorrow coming right around the corner in 1975 as HWA told us; and believing there is a place of safety from the world's tribulation in Petra.

There is also the social aspect that we were all in this WCG cult that did not associate much with the outside world. People gave their all for "God's work" - their time, money resources and lives.

But, it all turned out to be a giant con job. We all lost our innocence with the WCG - it was all a huge lie. There is no wonderful world tomorrow, and there is no place of safety.

I really don't believe anything that comes from the WCG or its splinters and religion in general. The God of HWA and the WCG was a very cruel God.

Armstrongite ministers have cried wolf so often, that its now entertainment for me. I can't take them seriously anymore.

There is an old adage, "Lie to me once, shame on you. Lie to me twice, shame on me".

Response 3 (Corky): No, but the ex-members of the Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons and other cults far outnumber and outshine the few people who are on Ambassador Watch in protestation of their past delusions.

The reason you don't see the same thing from ex-Methodists, Baptists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians etc. is because they are real churches and not cults.

That is another sign of a cult, by the way, ex-members having their say on-line or in books accusing the cult of being a cult.

Larry's rejoiner: Richard, you make it sound like the Church ruined your life. Get a grip.

Response 4 (Bamboo Bends): Did it ever occur to you Larry that maybe, that's exactly what happened?

I don't know Richard.....but I do have a close friend who committed suicide because of the treatment he got from his pastor...

Yes, some lives were indeed ruined.

But you won't read about the casualties on the Suprising God Blog.

Most of us just carry on the best we can but we'll always carry the scars. Its when people tell us that what we experienced really wasn't that bad that we get truly annoyed. We lived through it.

FWIW, I find Richard's comment about loss of innocence particularly apt. A discussion worth pursuing?

Vision or Blind Man's Bluff?

I'm old enough to remember The Plain Truth in its heyday.

Slick, professional.

Most latter-day COG publications attempt to clone the formula. UCG's Good News is probably the most successful while LCG's Tomorrow's World is just plain ugly; even a rank amateur could improve the design with a judicious choice of fonts. But the truth - dare one say the plain truth - is that time has moved on, and so has the art of magazine design, and the slavish imitators have been left far behind the cutting edge.

There is some irony then in the fact that the most imaginative packaging of the the COG product you'll find between two covers comes from one of the most conservative groups: the Church of God, an International Community: the David Hulme sect.

Vision is without doubt the most impressive periodical from the COG stable. Produced quarterly, it's imaginative, visual, and even looks good on a coffee table.

And - almost unbelievably - the content is not too bad either. There is a veneer of learning, the intimation of competence, the suggestion of sophistication. If you didn't know better you might deduce that this was a mildly scholarly journal.

The latest issue - an anthology - reinforces that impression. But a casual reader will be left wondering: why is it so hard to get hard data on the unknown church behind the journal, and why does publisher Hulme ostentatiously wear his PhD on his sleeve? Insecure?

The more informed reader will have questions too: the carefully cultivated image and seemingly balanced journalism hardly mesh with a group that restricts outsiders from attending its services and appears to hide information from non-members.

In a catch-22 situation, Vision has marketed itself over the heads of most prospective members. Who is it trying to impress? Or, given the structural nature of the beast, who is Hulme trying to impress? Most restrictive religious sects actively avoid any dalliance with the world of scholarship.

The Plain Truth, even at the height of its influence and circulation, was an ad man's confection: a monument to form over substance. Far more effectively than the clones, Vision is The Plain Truth of the twenty-first century. Its Achilles' heel may simply be that it is addressing the wrong audience.

Ron, Paul and the Anti-Den

A few days off from blogging and the news of life behind the Herbal Curtain builds up. Here are a few swift kicks at the logs in the jam.

Weinland tries to save face. But, honestly, can't he do better than this?

This is not pleasant to have to address, as all of us have planned our lives on such timing. If the second trumpet sounds, with nuclear explosions in port cities, then everything will indeed be fully in line with what I’ve stated in the last interviews and in some sermons. But I do want to state again, I no longer believe that to be the case... If I have jumped the gun in a couple of interviews and interjected my own understanding into the timing of events, and have thereby been presumptuous, then I will repent and move forward.

If???

The bottom line is that I know I am a prophet of God and God’s minister under Jesus Christ, who is the head of the Church of God, the Body of Christ. As such, I have a job to do and I am going to do it.

Ron, time to give it up... a prophet you ain't.

Paul Kroll is retiring. One of the old guard who came over to front the new guard, Paul is a fine journalist but, you'd probably have to say, an unconvincing apologist.

Dennis Pelley, Pasadena Pastor Imperator, is also heading out the door. Dennis was a controversial figure for a while, and featured more than once on the AW news website that preceded this blog. Den is presumably off to a comfy retirement: just keep an eye out for that bad karma dude!

Addendum: Bill Ferguson has new content up on Ekklesia including the mysterious Malnet files - now there's a blast from the past!

From the Presiding Plonker

Fred Coulter gets a spanking! I'm not saying he doesn't deserve it, but it's a bit rich when the treatment comes from Mr. Exile-in-Hawaii, Spanky Meredith. You can still read the Herbal letter that put Meredith firmly in his place online... on that basis I'd suggest whatever Spanky says about Fred goes twice for Spanky.


From the Presiding Evangelist

It has come to my attention that a few of our members are meeting with ex-ministers of the Church of God who have been disfellowshipped and marked. One notable example is Fred Coulter. When Fred angrily and very disrespectfully confronted Mr. Herbert Armstrong back in 1979, God's Apostle personally disfellowshipped him. Then Mr. Armstrong immediately called me — as Director of the Ministry — and instructed me to disfellowship and mark Fred Coulter which I did at the time.

In my opinion, Mr. Coulter has continued to poach members away from those who are actually preaching the Gospel to the world and is conducting himself as an enemy of the Church. This is what he did when he opposed the servant of God who taught most of us the Truth, Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong.

Therefore, in the name of Jesus Christ, I am now instructing loyal Living Church of God members not to meet with or fellowship with Fred Coulter—a dissident who was personally disfellowshipped by God's Apostle, Herbert W. Armstrong, and publicly disfellowshipped and marked by me personally.

— Roderick C. Meredith


When Rod writes "in the name of Jesus Christ, I am now instructing..." you just have to wonder if this is the same dude who wrote the old Ten Commandments booklet. Clearly a case of taking the Lord's name in vain.