The Exit & Support Network™ received the following interesting emails concerning thoughts on WCG and Covington's stance on the WCG at a Personal Freedom Outreach Conference in October 1998. Includes David Covington's private comments to them about Worldwide Church of God.

Also read:

David Covington's Resignation Letter to Joseph W. Tkach

David Covington's Letter to Greg R. Albrecht

First Email:

To:    ESN
Date: Fri, 30 Oct 1998 21:30:19 -0700

Hi,

I think I did tell you I'd let you know about the PFO* conference and that I'd send you a copy of a letter I sent our old WCG minister when he showed up on our doorstep one night. So, I'll attach a copy of that letter, let me know if it you can open it ok. I'll send it the best way we know how. That should help.

Well, I learned a lot about myself and had a lot of questions answered from going to the conference. The workshops seemed geared to helping the ex-cultist and how to help present cultists leave the cult. There were a number of ex-cultists there as well as people who wanted to know how to help people get out of cults. That was very encouraging to us. Watchman Fellowship and Wellspring were there, Janis Hutchinson, Ron Burks and lots more. Some spoke very dogmatically saying that what cults do is evil. Also, that if we feel that people don't understand, then we're not alone. He's so right.

The plenary sessions for everyone were more geared to discerning apostasy and heretical teachings. The one on ecumenism helped me to see why evangelicals (led by Billy Graham) so quickly and easily accepted the WCG. I thought they were being duped. I think now that it has more to do with their hell-bent desire to bring all churches into one body, and to do that they have to ignore some churches' heretical and apostate teachings. In other words, the end justifies the means. The plenaries were interesting because they answered questions for me that I've had about the church I came back to after 25 years. The "church" has changed, not just in worship music and styles of worship, but in how they approach sin. Many churches have no absolutes for sin, trying not to make people feel guilty. Anyway, the conference was helpful in explaining things like this for me.

We met the Covington's and Bill and Kim Meyer from that church that split off of WCG in Ohio. It was good to meet them all. Didn't have enough time to get to know the Covington's very well, but they are very kind and gracious people. I hadn't given much thought before going to St. Louis that the ex-WCGers would all be at different stages of recovery. I saw in a couple of faces the pain and struggling that I faced a couple of years ago, which helped me to realize that I've come further than I thought. I could see anger at evangelicals in a couple of those faces, too. I remember going through that. A couple of months ago, I think I told you, we went through another siege with evangelicals and realized that it was mostly due to our personal sensitivities. Anyway, going to the plenaries showed me that a lot of that anger I once had towards evangelicals and WCG must be gone if I was able to give grace to the speakers when I disagreed with their reasoning or approach and still love them as my brothers in Christ. Can't tell you how great that feels to be shedding the old arrogant WCG culture of "always having to be right" and thinking we had all the answers for everyone else, instead of caring about people and relationships.

The WCG workshop by Covington was informative if you wanted to know what WCG was doing now. But I found it disappointing cause I was hoping for a definitive statement on whether it is still a cult. (I know myself it is, but I would have liked hearing it declared in public.) When pressed for an answer to whether it is still a cult, David hedged and wouldn't give a direct answer.¹ The audience pressed harder, wanting to know if the people in WCG were, or could be, Christians. I think a couple of ex-WCGers took offense at that, but I felt the audience was a concerned audience and were trying to get some answers (after all, they may have family in WCG.) For myself, I wanted to stand up and shout out, "yes it is a cult as long as they support the heretic and false prophet Armstrong." Later, Mrs. Joan Cetnar, widow of Bill Cetnar, whose tapes on Jehovah's Witnesses we had listened to, said to us about WCG: "The Lord will do what he wants with the organization, but what he cares about are the individuals! As long as they don't deny their false prophet, they are a false prophet organization. Why is it so easy for an ex-Jehovah's Witness or ex-Mormon to declare that their former organization was a cult, but the ex-WCGer has to do a back-pedal and go through a ton of explanations as to why he left, even after the changes?

[Update: While Greg Albrecht (WCG Media Director) glibly agreed in 2004 that Herbert W. Armstrong was a "heretic" (read it in: Called to Be Free), WCG's whitewashing of HWA has abounded since the new changes began. Read: Has WCG whitewashed Herbert W. Armstrong?]

I don't want to sound as though I'm upset with David Covington concerning the workshop. I know he is under tremendous pressure from WCG concerning even attempting to do the workshop. I understand they put tremendous pressure on PFO* as well not to do it. David's strength is spiritual healing, though, and he really wanted to do the workshop on that topic. But, he's not a cult-buster. And he's in the midst of healing, just like the rest of us. I'm sure that being in the midst of recovery made it harder on him, too. For instance, Mrs. Cetnar told me it's been 32 years out for her, and she doesn't even remember what she went through. (There's hope for us, too, huh?) But I think it would be better to do a workshop after recovery rather than in the midst of it. So, I think David did a very good job, but I would have been happier with a solid conclusion for the audience to go home with, not a "here's the facts, now you decide."

I also learned from a workshop with Janis Hutchinson, that even though I have come far, I'm still recovering. She listed many symptoms ex-cultists go through, and I found myself still on the list in a couple of places. I'm going to keep going and not give up. I don't plan to spend my life labeling myself as a victim of WCG. I hope to be able to embrace my new life fully.

From their examples, I can see that it is entirely possible to do so. Janis Hutchinson mentioned in her workshop about renouncing your past beliefs and throwing out all your old books that you hold dear from the cult . We threw out the books a while ago. Recently when our old WCG minister came by (making sure we realized he was in his official capacity), we wrote a letter to him, and from that workshop I realized that that letter was a strong renouncing of all that is WCG in our lives. That must have been why I had such peace from sending it.

Anyway, PFO* was a very good experience for us. They are having one in Chicago next year. That will be half the travel time for us. We' re already looking forward to it. I'm going to look into somehow getting a support group in this area for exiters. Our experiences are so similar to JW's that we should be able to find some ex-JW's at least. Will take time, but I'm hoping it works out. This is more like a long letter than an email. But I wanted to share as much as I could before I forgot. Take care. Write soon, I really enjoy your letters (email, too.)

Love, John and Shirley Smith [names changed]

P.S. At one plenary, one of my new friends was frustrated and angry with the speaker. She told me she felt so "beaten up " by the speaker. Actually, I didn't agree fully with the speaker either.

*NOTE: Personal Freedom Outreach (PFO) is a member of Evangelical Ministries to New Religions (EMNR), a Lausanne-covenanted organization of which Ron Enroth was a founder. EMNR has, in fact, been instrumental in mainstreaming the Mormon religion as a Christian denomination. WCG has given their approval to the Lausanne Movement, calling it a work of God. (History of Mission Spokane - as of 2-13-00, "What is God Doing?" / "What on Earth is God Doing?" by Gary Roberto.) Worldwide Church of God joined the Evangelical Ministries to New Religions in 1998. For more information, please see the following reports: 

The New Age Ties of the Apologetics Ministries

Evangelical Ministries to New Religions (EMNR)

Second Email: [All emphasis ours]

To:        ESN
Date:     Tuesday, July 28, 1998 1:24 PM
Subject: Re: recovery

We thought it [Covington's presentation on the WCG] was awful too. Even the audience was frustrated, waiting for a definitive answer - is it a cult or isn't it? Covington's presentation was all glitz and technology, reminded me of WCG's approach - technology and glitz, and side-stepping the issues and questions. I felt the long political arm of WCG in that workshop and it was verified by Covington's comment to me privately right after the workshop: "I wanted to say it was a cult, too, but I didn't want it on tape." What did he do it for if he was afraid of Tkach? He knew it would be on tape. I felt sick. I felt WCG's presence and knew they had won again! Anyway, David did stress the financial abuses of the past and some of the present, but didn't mention the spiritual abuse and manipulation, that I recall. Also, he stressed the hierarchical form of government as lending itself to abuses. He pretty much gave facts and left it up to the listener to decide if the WCG is STILL a cult. That really left me disappointed, I have to say.

I still think that the Meyers and their congregation did a courageous thing by leaving WCG, but now I wonder if by leaving it and staying together if they didn't just create another smaller cult with Tkachiology as their doctrine. By staying together they have maintained their same WCG culture, but without hierarchy. I think getting rid of that cult-culture, which I describe as "cynical, arrogant, know-it-all, and exclusivist," is very important to our recovery from abuse and our breaking ties with the cult.

The Covington's and the Myers didn't participate in many of the plenaries and made sure that we were all at the same table at the banquet. At the table, I just got the feeling of being in WCG culture, and they seemed to want to keep to themselves. I felt so sorry for them because I had a strong desire to learn from the plenaries and be exposed to as much of the conference as I could. I chalked it up at first to their being at a different stage of recovery, and maybe that is so. But afterwards, I realized they had a "them and us" attitude. They were suspicious and critical of all the information I shared with them from the plenaries and workshops. It was almost like they were there "to teach the evangelicals and fundamentalists their better way." Unfortunately, that's what the WCG attitude is: "have you seen the latest (July) Worldwide News?" Tkach feels WCGers have a better knowledge of Bible study and Old Testament and they can help the evangelicals (who he claims most don't have a good Bible understanding) with their knowledge and skills!!! It was so laughable to claim to have a better understanding of the Old Testament and Bible Study with their track record of heretical teachings and understandings!!! Anyway, there were others that had no problem labeling groups as cults. They weren't afraid! And they weren't political!!!!

When evangelicals (and cults) try to reshape people into their molds of cookie-cutter Christians, they make a terrible mistake!!!

Love,

John and Shirley Smith [names changed]

¹David Covington boldly confronted WCG in the past, but when he later had his "Ministry of Healing" website up, his Crossroads newsletter contained the words, "You will not find statements against the WCG." Whether the WCG leadership threatened Covington in some way to cause him to be less convicted than before, is not known. 

UPDATE: The last Exit & Support Network™ heard from David Covington was when he told us that he "spends most of his time in Fiji now," and "doesn't have much time for the WCG stuff anymore." As of August 2000, Covington's "Ministry of Healing" website was no longer up and we have no word as to what he is doing today. 

ESN's Open Response to WCG on the Internet (Re: David Covington's Resignation Letter. Covers WCG's deceitful, abusive tactics)

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