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Sunday 4 October 2009

Purple Praise

You know you miss it, so here's your chance to get it. The purple hymnal is online in pristine PDF format. All your favorites plus your least favorites. Dwight Armstrong's greatest hits. Download it while you can.

19 comments:

PurpleHymnal said...

This is the Packatollah's version, correct? Have there been any changes? (Firefox does not want to load the PDF for me for some reason.)

The HWA Worship Archive has the real thing, from which I ganked a copy way back when I started the (now thankfully complete) Purple Hymnal project on WordPress.

I've still got a copy of the original PDF, scanned, of the '74 hymnal that I held in my hands every Saturday for just a tad under twenty years. If you don't want to increase the Herbie-worshipper's site traffic, and want a PDF copy of the PH that we ARE all familiar with email me, and let me know.

Way back when, J of Shadows, said he still had the actual hardcopy version, and that I was first on the list to get it, if he ever decided to part with it. I'm thinking I'd like to have one now, just to commemorate the year's worth of work I did on the PH site.

I still revisit the site from time to time, when I get a refrain stuck in my head, and I just can't get it out. (Gotta love that search function!) So, even if it never did help anyone beyond three or four people, at least it got it out of MY head. Mostly. Which is a good goal, albeit a selfish one, right?

Aggie

monkeyholler said...

Can't seem to get the link to work. Even www.destiny-worldwide.net by itself does not work.

Gavin said...

That's weird, I just re-checked the link and had no problems. No, not Pack's, but the original (I'd forgotten about the other link... they seem to have used the identical file.) This "RCG" is a small operation apparently run by John Allen in Costa Rica. The home webpage is on a sub-domain: http://www.destiny-worldwide.net/rcg/

monkeyholler said...

http://www.destiny-worldwide.net/rcg/ does not work with IE7, Firefox, or chrome.

Firefox says DNS lookup error, as does Chrome.

Dr. Hey said...

I had no problem with the link. I don't miss the purple hymnal. There are many "Protestant" hymns that are musically much richer and which in many cases do not contradict traditional COG doctrines in their lyrics. A number of offshoots use some of those hymns now. Just using mostly Dwight Armstrong hymns is very limiting.

        AMERICAN KABUKI said...

Gavin said...

That's weird, I just re-checked the link and had no problems. No, not Pack's, but the original (I'd forgotten about the other link... they seem to have used the identical file.) This "RCG" is a small operation apparently run by John Allen in Costa Rica. The home webpage is on a sub-domain: http://www.destiny-worldwide.net/rcg/



Oh there's a name from the past! John Mark Allen, the most odd chubby fellow I ever met. He had coke bottle bottom classes, white pasty skin to go with what is now known as a geek motif. I don't recall him being any kind of big computer person, more a person that experimented with odd jobs and technologies.

Long before he started his own church he bought one of those robo-dialer devices to sell things via the telephone. He occasionally pestered people he didn't like with that device.

The apartment complex he lived in Pasadena gave him notice that it was going condo and he'd have to vacate in a few weeks. He looked up the owners of the complex and called the secretary up and demanded she send him the deed to the apartment complex. Apparently his spokesman club voice convinced her he was someone important and the secretary politely mailed him the deed to a multi-million dollar apartment complex. It was the strangest act of social engineering hacking I've ever heard about.

When the property owners found out they no longer possessed the deed to the property, they went ballastic, threatening all kinds of law suits for fraud etc. John Mark Allen was not going to give it back, he was going to rent out the apartments.

One of the ministers got wind of it, and quickly convinced him to return the deed to its rightful owner, and that was the end of the odd little situation.

I don't think he did it maliciously, it was more a thing where he was wondering if he could do it, and succeeded. He had a flexible sense of morality when it came to business, although apparently, he was a very devout Armstrong follower. He's a hard person to define if you have never met him. He was always abreast of the latest scandals in Pasadena and seemed to have a rich set of odd contacts in various places.

How and why he started his own church I have no clue. Its an equal mystery to me why he relocated to Costa Rica.

Personally, I'd never send him any donations, but then I am way past the Armstrong thing. He's a weird guy in a lovable strange kind of way. He's like someone out of a Cohen brothers movie. You betcha!

Gavin said...

Monkeyholler:

It must be how you're holding your mouth. I'm using Firefox, and just tried it in Chrome. Go figure. However, you're not missing much. I had a listen to Allen's canned FOT service, and he spent most of the sermonette reminding whoever was silly enough to tune in to set aside those commanded holy day offerings!

Leonardo said...

John Mark Allen, now that's someone I haven't heard about in a long, long time!

He was in one of the Spokesman's Club's I was in during the mid '80's.

Yes indeed, as Bamboo_bends pointed out, he was a rather odd character, who took himself quite seriously, as I remember.

Just in case you didn't know, by the way, he made a public statement once to the effect that HE was the one who earnestly prayed to God and called a curse down upon Joe Tkach Sr. for allowing all the changes in the WCG, and Tkack ultimately died.

So apparently Allen saw this as a sign that he really had a special connection with God. Allen claimed to be some kind of special prophet or apostle or something like that. I recall him claiming that out on some website that had his personal diary posted on it, or some such thing.

Again I say, religion and mental illness make wonderful dance partners!

Anonymous said...

Has anyone ever used the Redemption Songbook which was current in the Methodist churches in the 1950s.?

Jorgheinz

redfox712 said...

ahh...John Allen. I ran across his website years ago. It was one of the few other COG websites I visited when I started exploring the COGweb in late 2000.

It was one of the first sites that had a lot of HWA writings that I found. However I soon migrated to another COG website for HWA materials.

I remember John Allen used to have a page that condemned Flurry for 'idolatry' (absolutely correct), and condemned Meredith for using juvenile slang. I'm still not entirely sure what he meant by that.

As far as I know this is the only place you can read Rader's book Against the Gates of Hell online.

There's a reason no one else has bothered to post it online. It's not a good book. It's just a totally one sided account for his own side.

And at the risk of sounding very annoying, it worked fine with me on Firefox.

        AMERICAN KABUKI said...

Leonardo said...

So apparently Allen saw this as a sign that he really had a special connection with God.


Must have been those pitchers of beer at Barneys.

I had left Pasadena before he reached this phase.

Question: What's the difference between "calling down a curse" and witchcraft? I sure don't see any do you? It speaks to one ugly intention for another human being. So much for the Carpenter's words to pray for one's enemies. Allen that's pray "for" not "against" (you know he follows this blog - he simply could not help himself not to do so. Its his nature).

Leonardo said...

You make a good point, Bamboo_bends.

However, it must be pointed out that calling down a curse from heaven on one’s enemies does indeed have biblical precedents in the Old Testament (II Kings 1:9-12 and II Kings 2:23-24, for example).

This no doubt was why two of the disciples of Jesus (James and John) wanted to call down fire from heaven, when they were not accepted in a certain Samaritan village (Luke 9:51-56).

But yes, I see your point, as Jesus strongly rebuked these two disciples for wanting to do this.

As I remember Mark Allen (that was the name I always knew him by), he seemed a bit odd, yes, but he was a rather friendly and likable fellow. When I knew him he exhibited none of the later neurosis and delusions of grandeur that he apparently later fell into.

But we are, after all, talking about fundamentalist supernaturalism here, which tends to have this effect on people of certain temperaments and backgrounds.

And talk about curses, you "ain't seen nothing" until you've heard a curse called down from Allah to descend upon the enemies of Islam - they can be downright gruesome.

Here’s an example, one called down by a Muslim upon an American author who writes books exposing the actual history and teachings of Islam:

“May Allah rip out his spine from his back and split his brain in two, and then put them both back, and then do it over and over again. Amen.”

And this is MILD compared to others I've heard pronounced upon the infidels by ardent Muslims!

If I were to cite them, I'm pretty sure Gavin would not allow them to be published here on his website!

And then there are those of my fellow bloggers here on AW who think I’m a bit hard on fundamentalist religions - but I have many perfectly good reasons to be. This is just one of them.

Baywolfe said...

Question: What's the difference between "calling down a curse" and witchcraft?

Well, if I remember my magic and witchcraft, you are calling on "evil" spirits to perform you hi-jinks as opposed to calling down the power of gawd.

So, really, it's a question of style, isn't it?

PT-Editor James said...

2012 as mentioned on cog writers site:

2012 in prophecy

Leonardo said...

Recently in a movie theater I saw some excerpts of the upcoming movie “2012” on the big screen with surround sound, and I must say the computer special effects of this film are visually astounding.

I’m sure those who are eagerly preaching end-of-the-world scenarios will love this movie, as it depicts many different scenes of mass destruction and chaos on epic scales – and this is what many apocalyptic religionists live for, right?

I recall back in the ‘80’s when the TV movie “The Day After” was shown, which depicted the results of a nuclear exchange between America and the former Soviet Union, the pastor of the Pasadena congregation I was attending at the time strongly recommended in a sermon that everybody watch it, because "such things were going to happen soon."

However, true to ALL COG prophecy schedules, here we are in 2009, still going. But I’m sure that TV movie inspired some folks to send in extra offerings to fill up the coffers, so I guess at least some purpose was accomplished!

Coco Joe said...

Purple Praise ?

After 20 plus years in Armstrongism, I think I'm all praised out.

        AMERICAN KABUKI said...

Coco Joe said...

Purple Praise ?

After 20 plus years in Armstrongism, I think I'm all praised out.


You're purple from all the praising right?

:)

Coco Joe said...

Bamboo_bends said...
"You're purple from all the praising right?"

I'll bet that Basil Wolverton could have made a good drawing from that one. :)

Purple and a lot lighter in the pocketbook !!

Paco said...

"Purple haze, all in my brain..."