Ever since I "officially" left PCG not
too long ago
(my attendance steadily declined five years
before that), I have truly felt liberated. I no
longer belong to any church, preferring
instead to walk in the Spirit of God and to
practice genuine love, peace and understanding.
Those who claim to be the "righteous ministers of
God" in PCG were abusive towards others and
also towards me in a couple
instances. A regional minister
refused to anoint me for a certain type of
pneumonia (valley fever) because I had put
my trust in medical intervention and in antibiotics. (Unfortunately, the antibiotics were
useless in fighting a virulent fungal infection,
but we didn't know that at the time.) It took me
over a year to recover from the devastating
effects of valley fever. I pointed out to a
younger minister the example of the woman who
touched the robe of Jesus and was instantly
healed even though she had sought medical
treatment for years without success. Jesus didn't
judge her and neither should his ministers. The
regional minister also blasted me in front of the
congregation on a holy day for worshipping the God
of Ekron (god of medicine
1) instead of Yahweh Rapha
(God of healing). This same minister who blasted
me allowed, perhaps even coerced, his own son into
refusing medical treatment for Addison's
disease.
2 His son died two
to three years ago at about the age of 25, a
beautiful humble young man who was abused by his
own father. When I made an inquiry to PCG
headquarters about how this regional director had
treated me, he
denied everything I said. And, of
course, no further action was ever taken.
I know of at least one local member who suffered
a major stroke when he threw away his high blood
pressure meds to put his faith in God for his
healing. Now he's a paraplegic in a wheelchair,
which has placed an unnecessary burden on his own
family to care for him. I also stopped taking meds
for my high blood pressure and suffered minor
kidney damage. To continue to refuse treatment
would have only caused further damage to my
health. I did not want to become a burden on my
family so out of love for them I started taking
my meds again.
One thing that bothered me terribly was the way
the founder of this church
called
himself "That Prophet." He continually
referred to many ancient (and obscure)
prophecies of the Bible to claim that he was the
fulfillment of those scriptures. He believed in
"duality" in a big way (as did HWA). He even
likened himself to a prophet in the O.T. whose
wife died so that he was then free to do a
greater work for God.
3 "That Prophet" then
suggested that perhaps his own wife might need
to die, as a fulfillment of that same Scripture.
Not long after he gave that sermon, whether this
is simply a coincidence or not, his wife
suffered a major heart attack and a stroke and
was confined to a wheelchair without the power
of speech. She died not long afterwards.
4
The last straw came when "That Prophet" did away
with the sermon transcripts for the deaf brethren
and the sermon tapes for the shut-ins. As a
deaf-blind person, I depended on those sermon
transcripts to get my spiritual nourishment. I
wondered why he was so worried about others
infiltrating his church and why he felt he needed
to eliminate any incriminating evidence if he had
the truth. Why would anyone want to "hide" the
truth?
5 Even
regular members
could no longer borrow sermon
tapes from the library and take them home to
listen to. To me, this was a sign of his growing
paranoia and a tactic designed to instill fear in
his congregation so that he could gain more
control over them.
When I notified a different minister (the
son-in-law of "That Prophet"
6) that
I was leaving PCG, he used the most disgusting
words to depict how violently sick it made him. He
started out by telling me, "When I started to read
your message, I just wanted to vomit..." and I'll
leave it there because what he said was absolutely
revolting. I could never believe that such words
could come out of the mouth of a minister whom I
had always trusted. His words proved just how foul
he was. There was no talk about love, support,
encouragement, regrets, well wishes, etc. It was
as if he wanted to spew me out of his mouth along
with his own vomit. I knew that wasn't "love"
talking. I felt sorry for him, his family, and the
PCG congregation, some of whom were my very
dearest friends.
It was much harder for my hubby to leave PCG.
He agonized over leaving the church that he loved
and believed in and supported for over 32 years
(first WCG, second PCG). I knew that if I left
PCG, I would be shunned. I just didn't know how he
was going to handle the pressure of me not being
in this church (which I now freely call a
"
cult"). He took the matter to God in prayer
and knew deep within his heart that some things
weren't right, such as when the ministers refused
to anoint me. He also did some online research and
found information that incriminated both
Worldwide Church of
God and
PCG. And leave the PCG he did, thank God! Since
then, he has come a long ways in his spiritual
growth and understanding. Our marriage is as
strong as it ever was and we are as close as we
ever were. I feel truly blessed!
May God have mercy on the trusting people in
PCG. I hope they will see the evil
that has pervaded PCG.
By Loretta
October 4, 2006
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