What Was Done to Our Character and Personality
I am angry with Herbert W. Armstrong for all the damage he did to us. We felt we were these loving Christians with the "fruit of the Spirit." Now I wonder how much of it was just loyalty to the organization--which we confused with God. How much was just blind obedience to what was told us? We were made to think, after all, that the main thing after "obedience" was "service." And that translated into "growing." We were all to be continually growing, or we would cease being a Christian.
Worldwide Church of God damaged us so much by injecting attitudes of criticism, judgmental feelings and pride. And after these things were put into us, we were blamed, corrected, and made to feel guilty if we showed them in our lives! There was no room for grace, only harshness, and even that was camouflaged with a veneer of "false love" most of the time, as it came from the ministers' mouths.
To think you were a loving, kind Christian, full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and then to face the fact that now you're not quite sure how much any of it was real, causes a terrible feeling. Certain things may have been slowly changed after HWA died, but what was done to us remains.
By D. W.
Exit & Support Network™
Index for Personal Writings About My Experience With "God's Church"