Ambassador Watch Suspending Publication

Gavin Rumney today announced his last posting on the Ambassador Watch blog. For more than eleven arduous years, Ambassador Watch faithfully reported on the goings-on in the WCG and spinoffs, becoming one of the most widely  bookmarked sources on the net for lively, uncensored Church of God news with insightful commentary.   Under Rumney's decade-plus talented editorship, AW deservedly wins the highest accolades. He excelled in scouting out the latest WCG news, changes and events in the COG world, with postings on today's crucial issues  done in a compelling sort of way.  AW was truly  the go-to source on the Internet for the latest goings-on in WCG-GCI and the splinters. COG ministry wolves would, no doubt, rather suppress away those kind of candid AW blog missives from their bleating flocks of blindly obedient triple-tithe sheeple. These indeed are COG issues that deserve an answer!

The AW blog initally began with a small hosted website, then moved into its own domain (AmbassadorWatch.co.nz) before being converted into blog format. The AW blog site will remain accessible only until February 1, 2009.  Rumney will be moving on to publish his other thoughtfully provocative blog called Otagosh. Nevertheless, unaccountable cult ministry wolves need not yet break out their bottles of Dom Perignon, or breathe a welcome sigh of relief.  As any new developments warrant, Rumney promises to continue to post further on COG matters. 

Rumney's Ambassador Watch will certainly be greatly missed by his many readers who enjoy reading AW on a daily basis. I, for one, am saddened to report this development and will greatly miss Ambassador Watch.

Thanks for everything you have done with AW, Gavin, and for all the help you have so selflessly and generously given of your time and talents to others. Best of luck to you on your Otagosh journey. Cheers to you, Gavin!

Appointed 'Godfather' Joseph Tkach Jr. Is Not A Crook?

Appointed Joe Tkach Jr. runs his WCG-GCI so-called denomination like it's a family owned, private business enterprise. Very privately owned.

Tkach is the sole authority (The Godfather, if you will) of the Church association and the California Church business corporation HWA founded. It's 2010, and Tkach is still the sole, supreme controlling legal and spiritual authority in the Church. Chapter and verse in his Church Bylaws prove it. Even Feazell has to kiss his ring to keep his job.

A press release dated May 7, 1997 on the wcg.org website says, "The Worldwide Church of God joins 48 other denominational members in the fellowship of the National Association of Evangelicals, including Reformed, Pentecostal, Free Church, Holiness, and various other traditions."

So why can't honest "Godfather" Joe Jr. open up his family's books, and show us our money? It's all about family, right Joe?

Purple Hymnal has more here on the ECFA. Tell Joe right to his face to drop the pretense of financial accountability to the Church, open the books, join the ECFA and follow the rules, or be shamefully forced to resign his lifetime sinecure.

COG Living Off Three Tithes

The cost of real, abundant living as advertised (see photo, left) in the Church of God, indeed can be very high.

As the cost of the COG pyramid weighs down heavily on the bottom ranks, the COG government's effect on the families of the lowly membership can be very harsh. Nevertheless, to pay for that government ministry, the three tithes law is stringently enforced as the ministry's primary source of church income and member control. Even a small drop in wages for the lowest-paid co-workers will be seen in reduced cash donations coming in through the mails.

The current economic downturn has, undoubtedly, put many in dire financial straights. Payrolls have not generally kept pace with the real cost of living. Even the minimum wage is dropping. As one example, Colorado's minimum wage will drop in 2010 - the first decrease in any state's minimum wage since the federal minimum was adopted in 1938!

About 4 percent of the state's 1.2 million hourly workers earned minimum wage in 2008.

Colorado's wage is falling 3 cents an hour, from $7.28 to the federal level of $7.25. That's because Colorado is one of 10 states that tie the state minimum wage to inflation. As the cost of living goes up annually, the law is to protect low-wage workers from falling further behind in real income.

On the other hand, Colorado's provision also allows wage declines, and the state's consumer price index fell 0.6 percent last year, so the minimum wage is going down.

The lower consumer price index, attributed to lower fuel prices, would have forced the wage down 4 cents an hour. No state can go below the federal minimum of $7.25.

Thirteen other states and the District of Columbia will keep a minimum wage higher than the federal minimum, according to the U.S. Labor Department. Alaska, where the cost of living is relatively high, will join them when its minimum wage rises this year 50 cents to $7.75.

Other states such as UCG's Ohio have adjustable minimum wages. Under today's rather austere economic conditions, can the ministerial executives in Milford really justify giving themselves yet another pay raise?

Also adjusting the minimum wage are Arizona, Florida, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington. But the minimum wage isn't expected to drop in any other state next year. Most states that tie the wage to inflation make no provision for lowering the amount, so the minimum wage stays flat if the cost of living falls.

The 3-cent difference would amount to about $62 a year for someone who works 40 hours a week and doesn't take time off for the holy days. Notably, the decline won't affect tipped workers, such as waiters, who already have a base salary below $7.25 an hour.

In other states with adjustable wages, the cost of living hasn't dropped, or the wage is already at the federal minimum.

In Florida, for example, a declining consumer price index would drop the wage 4 cents to $7.21. But that's less than the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, so paychecks won't change for Florida's lowest-paid workers at the fall festivals or Feast of Tabernacles.

Given the current economic meltdown and record high unemployment rates, COG members may begin to believe it's darn near impossible to send in three tithes to the wealthy ministry class, while maintaining a decent standard of living. Thinking, how can anyone survive safely and have real, abundant living on three tithes, before taxes?

United V. COG-AwA: War Update

Brent Tarleton: What do we care if we *were* expelled from college, Scarlett? The war is gonna start any day now, so we'd have left college anyhow. 
Stuart Tarleton: Oh, isn't it exciting, Scarlett? You know those fool Yanks may actually *want* a war? 
Brent Tarleton: We'll show 'em! 
Scarlett: Fiddle-dee-dee. War, war, war; this war talk's spoiling all the fun at every party this spring. I get so bored I could scream. Besides... there isn't going to be any war. 
Brent Tarleton: Not going to be any war? 
Stuart Tarleton: Why, honey, of course there's gonna be a war. 
Scarlett: If either of you boys says "war" just once again, I'll go in the house and slam the door. 
Brent Tarleton: But Scarlett... 
Stuart Tarleton: Don't you *want* us to have a war? 
Scarlett:  Well... but remember, I warned you. 

This is the latest map of terminations and departures in the war as of December 31, 2010. The blue pins represent pastors still associated with UCG. The red pins represent pastors that have resigned from UCG. The yellow pins represent elders that have resigned from UCG.

The listing below is from the second page listing elder resignations. Each yellow pin on the map can represent several elders resigning from that specific location on the map. You'll have to click on the live map yellow pin to list the elders for that pin.

	Gadsden, AL Tom Kirkpatrick
	Donald Erickson Elder, Minneapolis, MN
	John Pentlin Elder, Kansas City, KS
	Greg Swartz Elder, Columbia, MO
	Don Shaw Elder, Roanoke, VA
	Charles Haughee Elder, Tampa Bay, FL
	Bob Peoples Elder, Austin, TX
	John Richard Seiver Elder, Houston South, TX
	Frank Pierce Elder, Houston South, TX
	David McCarble Elder, Houston South, TX
	Phillip Sandilands Elder, Dallas, TX
	Bernard Hongerloot Elder, Cincinnati, OH
	George Evans Elder, Cincinnati, OH
	David Evans Elder, Cincinnati, OH
	Cecil Maranville Elder, Phoenix, AZ
	Neil Hart Elder, Salt Lake City, UT
	Michael Machin Elder, Orlando, FL
	William Kubon Elder, Ocala, FL
	James W. Hudson Elder, Oklahoma City, OK
	Steve Villaescusa Elder, Raleigh, NC
	Larry Lambert Elder, Charlotte, NC
	Jack Willoughby Elder, Bentonville, AR
	King Finley Elder, Allentown, PA
	Thomas Seltzer Elder, York, PA
	Steve Ferenchiak Elder, North Carolina
	Arnold Burns Elder, North Carolina
	Tom Diaz Elder, Laurel, MS
	Flavious Adkins Elder, St Louis, MO
	Tim McTiernan Elder, St. Petersburg, FL
	Alton Head Elder, Fort Worth, TX
	Dick King Elder, Northern California
	Glenn Harmon Elder, Portland, OR
	Fred Davidson Elder, Ocala, FL
	Dan Anderson Elder, Phoeniz, AZ
	Mark Hampton Elder, New Hampshire, Mass
	Alan Pachinger Elder, Cleveland, OH
	Martin Cole Elder, MA, NH
	Leroy Neff Elder, Big Sandy, TX
	Dempsey B. Bruton III Elder, Williamsburg, VA
	Melton McNeely Elder, East Texas
	Don Thomas Elder, Mobile, AL
	Harold Rhodes Geneva, AL
	Geneva, AL Pensacola, FL
	John Lusk Elder, Dallas, TX
	Ed Jacobs Elder, Stockton, CA
	Ed Oliver Elder, Salem, OR
	Harold Rhodes Mobile, AL
	Ralph Levy Elder, Cincinnati, OH