When I was a member of Philadelphia Church of God, I was involved in discussions where (mostly men) said, "When our forefathers came over here to the United States, they should have totally wiped out all the Indians!" A couple of members mentioned hearing that the African Americans "should've been shipped back to Africa after slavery was ended." To me these kinds of attitudes are appalling. I would either find myself arguing with people over these issues, or else having to walk away. I don't know how many times I've heard about the men not being able to wait until Christ returned so that they could "bash people's head's for not obeying" and "break people's legs if they didn't bow down to Christ." 

Looking back, I remember how the men and women would split up for discussions. There was some mingling between the sexes, but it eventually ended up with two groups of about a dozen men and women each. The women talked about things like, what will it be like in the place of safety? discussions about our kids, gardening, and such. The men would talk about "ruling" with Christ and forcing people to obey. There was much talk among all of them about how "evil," "stupid" and "deceived" the "Laodiceans" (those in WCG and offshoots) were. Even though in the PCG literature, Flurry "claims" to love the Laodiceans, he's always predicting how half of them will die forever and they will all go through the Great Tribulation. He claims he's the ONLY way to Christ/God--all other WCG splinters are Laodicean and therefore God is not working with them or through them.

There are several very nice people I've met at PCG and, if they're still there, I really feel sorry for them. Their individuality is totally being crushed. Articles about how women "should" dress were being posted on church bulletin boards for months at a time. Makeup was forbidden. Flurry is trying to keep everything in a time warp, just the way it was when Herbert Armstrong (his idol) was still alive, only in some cases, he's going back to Armstrong's original thinking/teachings. Healing and the attitude about medicine and doctors being the prime example. Stephen Flurry gave a sermon a year or so ago, about how all our time should be devoted to God and the church/church activities and prayer. We should pray three times a day (but not at night for some strange reason)1, get up early for Bible study, and I guess somehow we are supposed to give our family minutes of our day here and there for typical family routines. I can't help but think God must be shaking his head and thinking, "You still don't get it, do you"!?"

They mock any talk of "love" in their church, yet Christ and John spoke of love quite often. PCG likes to focus on all the negative things it can--hate, killings and crushings. I hope more people will wise up before this group totally destroys their family and life!

By Marcia
December 2002

Read more on Herbert Armstrong's racist activities

Footnote by ESN:

1 Ministers in WCG were known to say, "God doesn't hear sleepy-time prayers." This is undoubtedly the reason PCG ministers tell members not to pray at night. Read the writing: Praying in the WCG, which tells about this.

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