I was suspended from the PCG in December because
I read "dissident" emails from a PCG minister's wife and her
sister
who were disfellowshipped. I discussed this with two members
also and questioned what had gone on in India and Sri Lanka1
in
the PCG. The two women were unjustly disfellowshipped because
they tried for years to expose wrongs that were done by the
regional director (RD) (I call them regional DESTROYERS) when
he brought 842 new members into the church at one time in
India. The leader of this group misspent church funds, lied,
extorted money from other churches and committed many
other wrongs (much like what the PCG itself does and is
doing).
The point is this woman and her sister's cries about the
abuses went unanswered and unresolved for three years.
When the wife of the minister finally wrote to the
so-called
prophet (Gerald Flurry)
about all the wrongs, and did so very humbly and was even
reluctant to do so (for fear that she was violating
God's
"government"
by going over her husband and the RD, the false prophet (hereafter
known as "FP")
said
he would look into it and get back to her.
A meeting was arranged between the minister, his wife, the RD
and FP
in Edmond, Oklahoma. But the RD somehow convinced the FP to cancel
the meeting. The FP turned the matter back over to the RD,
the one
who was responsible for allowing all the wrongs to take place
and
told the RD words to the effect, "I don't care if we have a
work in India
or not..." The woman had supplied over 60 pages of
documentation
proving her allegations against the leader of the 842
Indians. When she
wrote the letter to the FP she included all of this
information.
The FP turned this back to the RD, who in short order began to
disfellowship, one by one, those who had tried to bring to
light
the wrongs that were happening.
The minister, at the urging of his daughter, who had moved to the
United States for her education and previously worked for the church in
the church office in Sri Lanka, came to the United States to see the FP,
without anyone, not the FP or the RD, knowing that he was
coming
from half way around the world.
The daughter, through the United States' RD (Craig
Winters) where she lived,
set up a meeting for August 24, 2005. Only the daughter and the
minister from Sri Lanka knew that the minister from Sri Lanka
was coming to the meeting.
When he came, Winters gave the two a tour of HQ and then
took
them to meet with the FP. After the obligatory greetings and
the
like, the minister began to explain what had happened in India.
The FP contradicted things that the minister brought to his
attention,
asked the minister why he had not yet DIVORCED his wife, as he
had advised through the RD, and after several back and forth
exchanges,
which I will not go into full detail here, told him he was not
fit to
be a minister or to be in the church. He raised his voice,
never once
opening the Bible to show the minister where he was wrong, and
basically told him in no uncertain terms to get out of his
office!
The way I became involved is that I got an email from the
minister's
wife who had been disfellowshipped in December 2004.
(The FP's wife had the last stroke that eventually lead to
her death2
a day or so after the minister's wife was disfellowshipped.)
The subject line read: "Craig Winters Witnessed the
Disfellowshipment
of Mr.
Wickramasinghe."
Since Craig Winters was my regional destroyer at that time, I was
curious.
But because of the church policy on reading dissident
literature,3
I did not read the email. I only opened it to see from whom
it had come. It was just signed "The Assembly."4
[see footnote for the name of this group and further info]
I received this email sometime in September, I think, but did
not
open it until returning from the Feast of Tabernacles in
Greenville, South Carolina in October. Initially, I tried to refute everything that TA4
was saying. They would answer back, saying, look at this
literature,
look at that article, etc. The more I tried to prove them
wrong, the more
it became apparent that they were right and that something was
wrong in PCG.
I began talking to my wife and stepson, both also PCG
members,
about what I was seeing and that something was wrong in PCG.
Neither wanted to listen and eventually, my stepson became
so "concerned" he wanted me to arrange a "counseling" session
with Craig Winters. To pacify him, I called the local
minister
and he said he would arrange the meeting. CW (Craig
Winters) was in the area
at the time, but he was in Washington, D.C. It was a Thursday and the next day I spoke to
one of the members, a "leading" man in the congregation, about
what I saw was happening in India. At first, he seemed to be
interested but as the conversation (phone, Friday night) went
on, it was apparent that he was going to tote the party line,
obey the government, don't get caught up in "dissident"
literature,
be careful, etc.
Our local minister was to be visiting another local
congregation
on the Sabbath, so I was going to conduct services. (I was a
deacon in PCG.) The man to whom I spoke on Friday night
called me at 7:30 A.M., asking me if I was okay to conduct
services,
what with our conversation the previous night. I said, yes, I
would
be okay, there were only two short announcements and that I was
not going to speak with anyone else. That was not good enough
for him. He called one of the ministers. I received a call
from
CW at 8:30 A.M., as I was about to leave for services. He
said, "I know that you want to have a counseling session. Sorry I didn't
get back to you sooner." (Bear in mind that I had only requested
the session on the previous Thursday.) He also said, "I am
going
to ask you to not attend services today." The conversation
continued
with me asking him questions that I had about some of FP's
literature, questions from the Bible, none of which he could
answer. He said he would have to look at these issues.
A counseling session was arranged for the following Thursday.
I asked my wife to come along, even though she was reluctant
to
go (and as she told me later), she thought I had gone off the
deep
end about these church issues.
To conclude what has already become too long a story, at the
meeting
I could see that they would not listen to what I had to say
about
what was going on and what had gone on in India, and they
misapplied
the Scriptures. So I chose to back off, rather than be
confrontational.
I asked if they were going to suspend me. (There were two
other ministers--and Mrs. Winters who recorded everything that was said on
a laptop computer--present at the meeting, even though I had
only
requested to meet with CW.)
They asked me if I had spoken to anyone else. I said, yes,
one other
man. "Oh!" one of them said. "This is more serious than we
thought."
(At first I think that they were going to let me come back to
services
the next Sabbath.) When they heard this, CW said I would have
to
be suspended for four weeks.
I knew deep down that something was terribly wrong but I
agreed
to follow CW's directive to pray, fast, get closer to God,
study
the literature closer, and ask God to remove all the "wrong"
things that had been placed in my mind. I agreed but there
was much doubt in my mind.
For a few days, I stayed away from the so called "dissident"
emails, studied the Bible, even fasted once and studied
FP's writings.
After a few days and KNOWING that something was wrong in
PCG, I again looked at more new emails from TA.4
I again began to warn my family and it got to the point
after a few weeks that my stepson went to the local minister
to complain about me. He approached my wife, who told him
that I was "hammering" them pretty hard.
CW called me a few days later. I did not want to talk with
him
as I really did not want to go back to PCG and it was almost
the end of the four-week suspension period. So when I saw
the number was from Edmond on my cell phone, I did not answer
it. At the time, I did not know that my stepson and wife
had
spoken to the local minister the previous Sabbath.
I checked the message on voice mail. He asked that I call him
at home that night. I chose to wait to call the next day
as I really did not want to talk with him, nor did I want to
go back. I just thought that he was calling me to counsel a
bit before allowing me to return.
I called him back the next day and after about one hour on the
phone, he said he would have to disfellowship me. He never
adequately explained the reason for the disfellowshipping of
the
brethren in Sri Lanka and even later must have told someone
in the church at HQ that I had DEMANDED that the church
publicly
apologize for the wrongs done in Sri Lanka and India. Of
course,
I never demanded any such thing but suggested that if the
church
did something wrong, or if an elder did something wrong, that
there ought to be a public acknowledgement and correction,
as the Bible instructs about what to do if an elder is found
to have done something wrong. But I NEVER demanded an
apology.
Bottom line, my wife continued to attend but I continued to
try to reach her and after four weeks of prayer, study, preaching
to her and our GREAT GOD our FATHER and JESUS CHRIST
intervening, she began to see and stopped attending.
Since that time, we have quietly been seeking out the truth at
home, finding out more and more about the lies,
contradictions,
unbiblical statements, deceit and works of darkness
going on in Edmond, all led by the FP who exalts himself
to heaven and even takes upon himself titles that belong only
to GOD the FATHER and/or JESUS CHRIST.
One problem that has happened because of this fake minister is
that both my stepson and my stepdaughter still attend the PCG.
Our son moved out of our home a few months ago over
this church "situation." Neither will have any contact with
either
of us according to the dictates of the dictator in Oklahoma.
I have been sending warning emails to brethren still in PCG
for
whom I have email addresses.
The people in Edmond and around the world must be warned about
the tactics of this mind control CULT, the Philadelphia
"CULT
of Gerry"
as Mike so aptly described it.
I realize only God can set these people free from this
deception and the workings of this false prophet, antichrist,
and perhaps
even
demon-possessed man. But I believe it is important to warn in
whatever way we can.
One more thing. When my wife was still attending, Craig Winters,
at some point, either in person or on the telephone, told my
wife, "You know, Jim is NOT PLEASED to dwell with you..."
This man tried to plant the seed of separation and divorce
in my wife's mind.
FP told our daughter, who is a full time student in the
college (Armstrong College)
and works in the editorial department, "Your mother
has to get out of there..." He was obviously referring to getting
out of our home, or away from me, no doubt planting
the seed of separation and divorce in her mind, just like
his regional destroyer tried to do.
Our daughter was obviously still talking to her mother at the
time as my wife was still attending when our daughter
told us what FP said to her.
To my knowledge, my wife has not been disfellowshipped and
marked as I have been.Hebrews 1, verse 1-2 tells us to WHOM we must look in these last
days. May we all rely on God, and not some puny man, to
lead and teach us.
Thanks so much for your website and the work
you are doing to expose the false apostle (Herbert W.
Armstrong) and the false
prophet (Gerald Ray Flurry). May God be with you.
In Christian love,
By James M. Kazimir
September 1, 2006
Read other articles by Jim:
Does Gerald Flurry
Misquote and Fail to Understand the Scriptures?
Ask Yourself These Questions About
Malachi's Message
Selling the "Truth" (Stephen
Flurry's book, Raising the Ruins)
Footnotes by ESN:
1 See May 2005 letter to
ESN: "Alex Harrison Has
Done a Lot of Damage in India."
2
Emails
concerning Barbara Flurry's death in September 2004.
3 Read:
Dissident
Literature (Why
does Gerald Flurry not want you to read any literature on the internet without the
PCG stamp of approval?)
4 This splinter of PCG
calls themselves Gentile Assembly. While this group (formed by Neela
Wickramasinghe and her husband) started out with sincere efforts in
exposing a number of things concerning
Gerald Flurry and PCG, they feel God is now working
through them. They still hold to Herbert Armstrong's doctrines as "God's truth,"
and give their own, very strange,
interpretation of prophecies. Neela and her sister both feel they are the
"two witnesses of Revelation 11." Unless exiters realize that WCG was never
"God's true Church," and that HWA was not who he said he was,
many will continue
to be deceived. Read this
part of our transcription concerning exiting a deceptive, exploitive
group, which can help exiters
to understand more about these groups, what their goals are, how
propaganda works, etc. Also read: Is PCG now the Laodicean church?
Questioning Herbert W. Armstrong (was he who he said
he was?)
Is PCG now the
Laodicean church?
Articles
For Those Who Were Emotionally and Spiritually Abused
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& Testimonies by Those Impacted by PCG
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