New Rick Ross video talking about Churches in Ridgewood/Belleville

  • #73624

    Elaine
    Participant

    Here's another one "LIAR"

     

    #73625

    AbbaFather07
    Participant

    The one w John Powers is awful. He looks so uncomfortable and his answers are very rehearsed. Im glad there are more videos speaking out against the cog. I hope they keep coming!

    #73626

    Abhigail Delema
    Participant

    I like the way John says it is a christian group when we were thought saviour of each age they said the age of father son and holy spirt is over and now we are in the age of the bride that is god the Mother she is our saviour and god ,but all the other sects in christianty dont belive in mother why should the COG call themselves christians.They also force people to keep all worships on saturday if members dont come they go to their house and pick them up members are deprived of their sleep they are forced to keep early morning worship on feast days for weeks and days and especially on a sabbath it is like 5 worships in a day.In India they were here from the year 2000 and have not paid any tax to the Govt they are only registered in the year 2012 as a charitable trust what tax exzemtion are they  talking about they teach members and force them to give thites showing members verses give god what is god and Cesar what is Cesar  but here in India they dont pay Cesar {Govt}.John calls people for open discussion ,then putting things on the internet and spoiling their name as he claims but i have seen when i was in zion the minute a member talks against them they call him satan,judas etc and if she leaves members are thought not to talk to a member and the pastor is praying for the member who left so that their eyes rot in their socket.So many wives in zion are told to divorce their husbands if he has a drinking problem and they stop them from keeping worship.I also like the way he denies the world end story predicted by the church members were told to store food,candles drums of water etc,also frightened members to the core showing them the 2012 movie. I realy liked when John was asked weather the wmscog sued Mischel you could see the guilt n his face. In our zion i have seen all decaans missionary signing a non discloser agreement that to it is written in Korean not english because if members know they want sign.Here i have seen even if members fast in zion the children are forced to fast even with water.Even when food is served on sabaath day or feast first the elders eat then the children thats korean culture.

    #73627

    Brian Taylor
    Participant

    hmmmmm….. Well concerning the first video, I feel the need to play devil’s advocate because, in my opinion, there is a definite hole in Rick Ross’s argument.He defines a cult as 1) a group with a charismatic leader who is an object of worship and 2)uses coercive methods of persuasion to exert undue influence on members 3) leader uses it influence to exploit or abuse members

    Here is a counter argument a representative of the WMS might use: aren’t all religions centered around charismatic leaders?? Who was Jesus? Who was Mohammed? Who is the pope??? are they not charismatic leaders??? Don’t the aforementioned leaders/groups have a history of bad behavior and exploitation of followers?????? Where is the finite difference between a religion and a cult???

    How would you respond to the above

    #73628

    JohnFoutraged
    Participant

    Regarding the NBC video with M. John Power:  Please see the part at 21:07

    "We don't tell members [look?] these are locations where you should preach…We dont say who should preach or where you should preach."

    That is a BIG LIE.  Here's why!

    1. The Church of God has pre-set locations of where to preach.  The bigger Zions have maps of locations and what is in the area…(Are there malls, stores, Universities, libraries, etc…)  Even when house churches are being established they create a "preaching binder" that contains information such as population, average age groups, ethnicities, what types of locations are in the area (again malls, stores, schools, etc…).  Of course these big zions (like Ridgewood) surely have over preached in their immediate area – I have heard stories where members would need to drive 45 minutes to an hour a way for newer locations. 

    2. Actually the Church of God does say who should preach.  Newer members who want to really preach are usually told to study first so they can defend themself.  If they are really eager to go preaching they try to not to supress "the spirit"; but you can guarantee they are never left a lone – they are always with an older member.  It especially evident in house churches – the leaders even stres that the primary function of a house church is to focus on preaching.  That means when its time to preach almost everyone has to go preaching (unless newer member needs to study or they are cooking food).  I remember one brother wanting to stay back to read Father's books and even try to study.  He was told by the leader at the time that no one was going to remain in Zion – that everyone HAD to preach.  The leader also said it was weird that they wanted to stay back and not preach.  People are forced to go preaching.

    3. "We preach everywhere!" – As honorable as it is that the COG preaches to many nations – what they won't tell you is that as a member you are NOT allowed to preach to people poorer than you.  "How could you offer up to God a crippled sacrifice!" "How could you invite someone to Zion if you yourself would not bring them to your own house!" "We must preach to people of higher status than us!"…Okay okay – I myself dont have a real issue with their teaching on this – I mean would you really want to invite someone with a drug problem or a criminal to your house or Church?  I know that while preaching to some people they later revealed that they were recently released from prison…welp I never contacted them after knowing that!  However I can say that the Church of God does NOT preach everywhere – and for good reason – for safety.  But Missionary is certainly wrong by saying that they preach everywhere – the fact is, they do not preach everywhere!

     

    I also remember being in a meeting where members were rebuked for only preaching to Black people.  Admittedly these people were straight from the ghetto and wore chains and very loose pants, they really did not have good manners…But the whole Zion was rebuked!  The church leader said:

    "We can only preach to White people!  No more Black people, I dont care how good they are!  What if someone new comes to study and only sees Black people here?  They will only think this is only a Black church!  We need White people!  This is America – Mother wants to see White people in the churches".

    #73629

    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Brian Taylor wrote:

    hmmmmm….. Well concerning the first video, I feel the need to play devil's advocate because, in my opinion, there is a definite hole in Rick Ross's argument.He defines a cult as 1) a group with a charismatic leader who is an object of worship and 2)uses coercive methods of persuasion to exert undue influence on members 3) leader uses it influence to exploit or abuse members

    Here is a counter argument a representative of the WMS might use: aren't all religions centered around charismatic leaders?? Who was Jesus? Who was Mohammed? Who is the pope??? are they not charismatic leaders??? 

    1.  In a cult as defined, the "charismatic leader" is living, not dead.  All cults have living charismatic leaders.

    2.  The Roman Catholic Pope is an elected leader by the college of cardinals.  Cult leaders are never "elected".  Pope's sometimes can be viewed as "charismatic", like Pope John Paul 2, but not always (Pope Paul, Pope Benedict, etc)

    3.  Cults gain undue influence as you point out by using deliberate mentally coercive tactics in a group setting.  There are many many cults based on Christian or Mohammed teachings, or Buddhist, or whatever …. key is the undue influence, seperation from friends and family, the living "leader", coercive and abusive tactics, etc.  Cults are pretty easy to distinguish from mainline religions.  And cults are everywhere.

    #73630

    MountainMom
    Participant

    HH, I'm glad that you included that really obvious cult red flag that others don't always:  A cult's charismatic leader is usually alive.  It's so obvious, yet often left out of the description of a cult.  A lot of people want to say that all religions are cults, but it's not that simple.  

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