1/02/2010

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.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Mark Twain:

" The cat, having sat upon a hot stove lid, will not sit upon a hot stove lid again. But he won't sit upon a cold stove lid, either."

My issue is about the stressful experience of literally having my family being evicted because of Joe Tkach Jr's impulsive and heavy-handed (tempermantal)manner in firing of our local pastor just before he could leave his house to hand deliver me the check for that month's rent.

Yesterday at my local church (I am not longer a member of a false church, it's successor, or it's little offshoots)we had a very good sermon on forgiveness, where the pastor emphasized the old adage "To forgive is to forget".

He pointed out that God forgives and forgets our sins, therefore we should do likewise.

After the sermon, I asked my favorite associate pastor what if the person has not shown a clear pattern of changing his/her behavior, should we forget the harm done, and open ourselves up again to be harmed again. He then admitted to me that in those cases, we need not make ourselves vulnerable to such person(s), therefore we should not allow ourselves to totally forget, as much as I am not open to having my chronically abusive brother stay with me, due to my past lifetime expereinces of abuses on his part.

You see I, in agreeing with my associate pastor, pointed out to him that unlike us humans, God can afford to forget our sins, since in fact we cannot actually harm an omnipotent being.

On the other hand, do we think God has chosen to forget Satan's rebellion, and occasionaly seeks to "parole" him in order let him back into His Kingdom? In fact we must believe that God remembers Satan's bad past behavior in order to maintain His posture towards the most rebellious and harmful of His creatures, especially since He observes the Devil's continued evil behavior.

To get to my point, for the record, I do believe that I have totally forgiven Joseph Tkach Jr. for his belligerent behavior, but I have yet to feel that I would ever trust him again as long as I live.

To explain, like the pet cat who got burned, I can forgive you, the human, for carelessly leaving the burner on, but I cannot trust you to not be forgetful again. And especially if I can get fed elsewhere, why should I return?

So you see, the issue here for us, that is for me and my wife both, is a matter of trust, not a matter of forgiveness.

And frankly, there has been nothing in the obviously selfish, impulsive and immature behavior of the typical church-brat local GCI pastor here (I have chosen not to chronicle all of the behavioral reasons he has personally shown me to invalidate himself as a pastor worthy of my trust) to suggest to me that the hierarchy is yet to show me that they are suddenly less myopic and frankly less focused on their limited cadre of those few they that trust at their administrative center, with their continued apparent attitude of condescension towards the average member.

Like I said, if I am allowed to penetrate the protective barrior he has walled himself in with, and can some day bring up the issue with him directly, as we are admonished to in the scripture, then I will. But I doubt he will concede his rash behavior and sincerely apologize.

But that does not mean I will trust him with my worship time or money ever again, as obviously I have no need to.