UCG’s Unrepresentative Public Goals

Mar 122012

Cults lie. That’s just a common trait exhibited by many isolationist religious groups. Sometimes the lie is told to intentionally mask a truth about the organization for PR purposes. Other times it’s bred of delusion and misunderstanding of its own nature. In some cases, lies are meant to be extremely vague for the sake obfuscation.

This sort of public-facing presentation is common in the corporate world where mission and vision statements are chop full of worthless buzzwords. They’re somewhat common among religious institutions too, but at the very least, they tend to be more representative of what the organization does … More

A Relevant Message From Jon Stewart

Feb 152012

Here’s a relevant message from Jon Stewart about religious persecution in America, which relates to prior posts.

Speak the Truth

… More

COGWA Gets a School

Jan 092012

In a December 29, 2011 letter from Jim Franks to his shiny new COGWA cult, he announced the formation of a Bible school, another Ambassador clone continuing the tradition of miseducation, fraud and indoctrination recurrent throughout the COG.

Like UCG’s Ambassador Bible Center, COGWA’s new Foundation Institute, Center for Biblical Education will be an unaccredited diploma mill with the same lack of administrative oversight or chaperoning of its young students.

The school is slated to open by August. Like ABC, it will run on tuition, have no campus and be located at the church’s home office without offering students any … More

Happy New Year!

Dec 312011

As the shift to 2012 sweeps across datelines, Silenced would like to wish you all a Happy New Year! This next year has some interesting projects in store, including the release of videos and other media, some investigative exposés and much more in the way of member stories and information spreading operations.

Growing up, it was interesting to watch the gradual acceptance of New Year’s Eve among the youth in the COG. Prior to adolescence, the holiday was banned as a pagan festival and ignored because it wasn’t part of “God’s calendar.” Later in life though, more and more younger members … More

Stuff Fundies Like

Dec 292011

Thanks to Banned by HWA! for alerting us to an awesome website, Stuff Fundies Like. Some of it is tragic because it’s so true, and the rest is just hilarious and dead-on. It features reports, stories, funny lists and videos related to Christian fundamentalist churches throughout the country. It effectively illustrates that the COG is neither special or rare in its extremist, apocalyptic beliefs and that they’re just one of many examples of American Christian Fundamentalism at work.

While Darrell, the site’s admin, mostly focuses in fundie Baptist churches, there’s a lot on the blog that pertains to the … More

Merry Hanuramakwanzmas!

Dec 242011

And a very Happy Festivus, for the rest of us.

It’s the holiday season, meaning it’s time for every COG cult to whine in chorus about how December 25 is not Jesus Christ’s birthday. They proudly pronounce this fact as if Herbert W. Armstrong was the first to realize it and they are the only churches to preach it to the world.

Certainly, there are plenty of misinformed Christians out there who believe that Christmas is actually Jesus Christ’s birthday, but these are fewer and further between all the time, mostly due to the 21st century’s prolific spread of information … More

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