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Monday 23 May 2016

Who? Lil' Ol' Me?

Not being an American, I try not to comment on US politics, I simply don't have a dog in that fight. So it seems a tad inexplicable that a certain Michael Germano should take a FB sideswipe at me in that particular context. I could be wrong, but I don't recollect posting anything about Doc Germano around the March 17 mark (though I did a piece on Living University - not being aware of the FB entry - in April). So maybe there's another Gavin R he's referring to, or maybe I should wear the reference as a badge of honour.

We all know Germano's politics are to the right of Attila the Hun. Why else post a Trump-sourced video clip of Hillary Clinton "barking like a dog"? But that's okay. Michael is entitled to be a self-opinionated boor. Kinda goes with the territory out there in LCG-land. Perhaps I should be flattered that he knows who I am. Heavens to Betsy, do you think he's a regular reader?

And yes, occasionally I feel the need to "get a life". Then I think about all the has-been know-it-alls who pontificate each Sabbath in hundreds of pulpits and realise that things are never going to be that bad. Count your blessings I say...

As for relaxing and enjoying the show, well, if I was paid what Germano is for his Living University sinecure, I guess I'd feel that way too. Must be a laugh a minute in Charlotte.

6 comments:

DennisCDiehl said...

He's jealous. YOU actually have a live and he is projecting his and all LCG lives in the bubble of being Myth-Taken about just about everything . lol. Good on ya mate!

Anonymous said...

He's just irritated that you've shown him to have debunked British Israelism which he must now support now that he's with Living.

Traitor.

Why can't he make up his mind (telling the truth would be so refreshing).

Unknown said...

If you are a moderate voter, then vote for CLUMP!

Byker Bob said...

Gavin, it seems that your name and/or our names are known and our opinions do attract attention from time to time. As an example, it was difficult this past weekend, for a while, to figure out what the heck was going on, until it was suddenly cryptically revealed that apparently, we had been in discussion with one or more of GTA's grandchildren who were proud that their grandfather and great grandfather's TWT tapes had been preserved in the Library of Congress. They must have been lurking for some time, because they seemed familiar with some of our names.

I've noticed over this past year that people whom we had believed had been largely forbidden by their splinter leaders to comment on these accountability and recovery sites have now entered the fray, and are asking questions and registering their opinions. It has made for much more interesting conversation, no doubt about it. I would just hope that commenters would pick screen names so that it could be discerned which poster had said what.

As for the elections, at least amongst Armstrongites, commentary on prophecy always peaks.

BB

Pam said...

"...we had been in discussion with one or more of GTA's grandchildren who were proud that their grandfather and great grandfather's TWT tapes had been preserved in the Library of Congress. "

Sad. I would suggest that if they do not want to hear unpleasant things about their forebears, that they not visit places where the details of the undeniable evil of their forebears is discussed. The cognitive dissonance must be horrific if they allow themselves to even entertain the fact that some, much, or almost all of what is being said might be true.

Here's a piece of irony for you... in January 1979 my husband and I were declared on our way to the Lake of Fire by the policies of their Great Grandpa, marked and disfellowshipped from the pulpit by a man ordained by authority of GG, and cut off from close to all our church friends of a decade. What was the unforgivable offense for which we were branded and condemned? Because I sent a ... radio log for their Grandpa Garner Ted Armstrong's new CGI evangelistic radio program to a friend. Period. That was it. A Spiritual Capital Offense. Deserving of Eternal Death. Because it gave evidence of disloyalty to the Government of God on Earth and His Apostle, HWA.

Yes, I imagine that it is nigh unto impossible to believe anyone could create such an insane system, and engage in such Hitlerian-style rule, allegedly in the Name of Jesus Christ.

My husband and I lost almost all our church friends over night, my child (age 7) lost almost all her church friends she'd known since birth. Because of the titanic battle between Grandpa and Great Grandpa.

I'm sorry that it's difficult to sort this out in one's mind, and so easy to just blame "others" for the evil that was done by these utterly carnal men. I wish those grandkids had honorable men for forebears. But I have no power to make that so.

I do not doubt that they have good and happy family memories about Grandpa. (I doubt they ever knew Great Grandpa.) I do not begrudge them those happy memories, and don't blame them for wanting to have pride in their family name. But I refuse to be silenced :-) from sharing my perspective and experiences and documentation about how those men and their egomania abusively affected MY life...and the lives of many thousands more over the years... just in order to maintain someone else's cherished illusions.

Byker Bob said...

There is no way we should muzzle ourselves, Pam. That wouldn't be right either.

I didn't realize who we were communicating with right up until the final apparently autobiographical comment in parentheses regarding the technical savy of the GTA grandkids. At the time I learned the age and gender of one of the posters, all I could think about was that I had mistakenly called a 15 year old girl "Bubba". I didn't feel guilty about having brought up their forebearers' sins, or having been combative over the doctrines.

Who amongst us has not in our youth gone into the great unknown, and learned some things that perhaps we wished we had not? Loss of innocence is part of life, and transition to adulthood. Possibly this encounter might even cause some of the grandkids to re-examine their cherished illusions, or at least perspectives. Also, since during the exchange Gavin did have to delete one comment and issue a warning, looks like innocence might have been lost some time ago.

Life flies. It just never occured to me that kids born around 2,001 would be 15 and participating in the blogs. These teenagers were born right about the time I was writing my first articles for the Painful Truth site. That, and New Years Eve 2,000 just seem like yesterday. We were at our city's block party, enjoying Waylon Jennings' show, cautiously wondering if terrorists really were going to knock out the power grid at midnight. They didn't!

BB