Chapter Five: Our New Cult and New Church……Page

CHAPTER FIVE Our New Cult and New Church

We had a houseboat that my brother and I built, and we shared the use of it for the summer. A priest was going to go along with us to help out. We asked the two Mormon men if they would like to join us this weekend, as it took a lot of planning to get this project going. They told us that they would help us out for sure. We told them that there would be a Catholic Priest there as well and that it would be so nice to bring these kids to the island for the weekend. They said that first they would check out with their elders and let us know. (This is the same priest that was so flabbergasted because Margie was taking Protestants to the mass at the Convalodge.) Margie got a phone call from them on Monday morning. They said “We are not allowed to take part in any activity that a Catholic Priest is involved in.” That ended my first encounter with the Mormon Church. It was short and sweet and their true mission was not in the helping out of the underprivileged.

We had the weekend with the kids. There were seventeen of them. It was just a great fun time for them. We had a campfire with the hot dogs and marshmallows. One of them was just so fascinated by the campfire, because he had never seen a real one in his whole life. Another child played with a flashlight all night. It was so nice to see these kids enjoy themselves. At mass one day the priest started his sermon with a dire warning to all his parishioners. There is a new movement starting within

the Catholic Church, and I am asking you to be very careful about joining into it. It was the Charismatic Movement. It finally made its way to town. I was just not too interested in it, especially when people were saying, “You have to take part in the Charismatic meetings for your spiritual development.” Margie attended a few times but just couldn’t seem to be able to burst into tongues like all the others when “the spirit would hit them” no matter how they all prayed over her with the laying on of hands. Finally, in frustration, they told her it was because she was blocking the spirit.

She told me about all this after meetings. Finally, she said to me. “You know, if the Holy Spirit was so strong as to knock Paul off his horse and change him into a Christian, how come I’m not knocked off my chair or something?” Confidentially, she said they all sounded so silly, and bursting into garble. The priest looked absolutely obscene when he did. He was sticking out his tongue and yelling nonsense. She never went back. This was about the time that a spiritual awakening was something that I looked for. I looked through all avenues of Religion and the Occult. It was constantly drawing me to something, yet unsure.

The lift truck business was growing and within a few years I had several employees. It brought me to several cities away from Cornwall, and the men were very busy doing service calls for several customers in and around Cornwall. I was growing and word got out. In a short time I became a partner in a company that was trying to get into the

equipment of industrial fork trucks and they needed my expertise. A partnership was formed and a move to Brockville was coming for us. We were able to find a new home in a nice area of Brockville. Margie was happy with everything and she did a lot of babysitting while we were there, she was good with kids and she made a little money also. We settled in the new surroundings quite well and the company was expanding rapidly. I worked hard back in those days.

In the evening at bedtime we listened to a program called the Haven of Rest. Some preacher was on every night with a beautiful message of peace. It was so soothing to listen to and the preacher had a voice just made for it. One evening we also heard on the radio the voice of Herbert W. Armstrong and the World Tomorrow. He is the one that was pushing the magazine called The Plain Truth. Herbert and his son Garner Ted had a knack for drawing people into the “True Church”. Yes, the Plain Truth was absolutely free. It was full of wonderful stories about God’s chosen people and the coming Kingdom.

The secret about religion finally was revealed to us and about the true Sabbath. They had about fifty Bible quotes as to why the Sabbath was on Saturday and why this flock was the Sabbath keepers. We were on holidays but I had to return home for something that we needed. As soon as I got in the door there was a phone call. It was from this man in Kingston. He was a minister of the World Wide Church of God and he made arrangements to come and see us the next week. Somehow I felt

that it was some kind of a miracle that the moment I got into the house the phone call came. It was like a call to God I thought. It was such a wonderful group of people and so sincere. These people were God’s Chosen people. At least this is what they said. Now I was going to be with that group come Hell or high water. This was the true Church of Jesus Christ and I, at last, was at the door. The Catholic Church had it all wrong and it was called the “Whore of Revelations”. We were told and that I was chosen by God to bring my family into this church. What a feeling it was, going to Sabbath services on Saturday.

All the others were blind and their eyes were not opened yet. Yes, they were to be pitied, especially with the wrath of God that was going to be on mankind in a few years. We swallowed it hook, line and sinker. Margie looked so nice in her mini skirt because she had the type of perfect legs that suited a short skirt. Her make up was exact and fitting for a mother of four children. I was proud of, because she was like my walking trophy. I liked to be with her especially when we went out in public.

It was our first time going to Sabbath Services on a Saturday. I had on my suit for the first time in years and the children were dressed up looking just great. We had directions to the school that was used for our services. The World Wide Church of God didn’t have buildings because God had better places for his money. We drove around the school and parked in a parking lot. We were beckoned to come into the school by

some of the church members. The Minister had just arrived as well, so we knew some of them.

There they were, the chosen flock, not a sign of lipstick or earrings. The ladies all had their skirts below their knees, gently swirling around when the turned and the men were like soldiers standing proudly like guards for Christ. Something welled up in me from within. It was a lump in my throat. My wife was tugging so hard on her mini skirt trying to get it pulled down at least a little. She was struggling with the skirt and with the idea of this so-called chosen flock of Jesus. Then I heard it; it had ripped. The miniskirt had come apart at the seam. She was so embarrassed she sat down with her purse over her knees. She was visibly shaken and quivering lips were wiped with a Kleenex to remove all that so nice lipstick that brightens up her face in such a beautiful way. We were made to feel just so welcome it got us over any embarrassment. Margie now knew the dress code for the future. God’s chosen people did not smoke cigarettes, they did not eat pork and the Bible told us so. The Bible was the written word of God and only to be translated by the ministers of this church. They were the Sheppard’s and we were the flock.

Jesus now had entered into my life again and through the door of this church. The old Jesus was just not right. The minister now went up on the stage of the school gymnasium. He called on one of the elders to begin the service with an opening prayer. It was a long one for sure and

included Abraham, Isaac and Joseph and about a dozen other well known biblical names. Finally, it ended in, “We ask all these things in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.” This was so important at that time for me, that I thought every prayer had to end like this or it was no good. Christ was the word and everything had to be filtered through Him to get to God. We were now Brethren in Christ again but the real one this time. Oh Yah?

The piano rang out a wonderful hymn, a hymn that I had never heard before and it was a beautiful song. Everything was so different with this church that I knew it was for sure the only true Church.

To have Christmas was an abomination before the Lord the minister said and it was a pagan celebration that the Great False Church had instituted. We were not to take part in anything Christmassy. Oh God, I thought how in hell am I going to get through this one. I was like a Jehovah’s Witness. Margie, as usual, came through with a good plan. We wouldn’t keep Christmas but nothing said we couldn’t go out on Boxing Day and buy the kids all their toys. This saw us through. Thank God for her wisdom I thought.

Gradually, we were removed from our families and did not realize what was happening. Anybody that puts mother or father before me will enter the fires of Hell the minister quoted the Bible. Jesus Christ did not come to bring peace on the earth; he came to set man at variance with one

another. God’s Chosen had a few problems ahead for sure. Was it worth all this big change? Were we really going to be blessed because we were tithing? Was the Bible truly the written word of God only to be understood by this church? God! Were we gullible?

My sister joined the church with her family. God is calling all His People fast now. The membership of the church was increasing because the end time was nigh. The four horsemen of the revelations were surely riding their little horses to death. The seven plagues were half started and the world was in a lot of shit. And, again I was swallowing it hook, line and sinker.

We tithed to the work of God’s chosen. We second tithed for the purpose of the feast. Yes, ten percent for God and another ten percent for the Feast of Tabernacles. Righteous I was and so was my family. We were chosen and we were going to be placed in a place of protection. We would be carried into the wilderness on silver wings, and these silver wings were on an airplane. Herbert and Garner Ted Armstrong had a Leer jet. They had to fly around the nation bringing the wonderful news of the world tomorrow to the people and this was the purpose of this beautiful airplane.

In the parking lot I parked my 1973 Ford. It looked not too bad but was rusting some. The engine had high mileage and used some oil. It was nice, or nicer, than what most of my brethren were driving. Many were

driving run down old trucks and cars that had seen better days. The minister had a new Buick Park Avenue, and justly so he said, because he had a big flock to attend and a lot of miles to cover. We were reading the labels on the loaves of bread in the supermarket. Holy shit it had lard in it I said to Margie, but she came back with a good one. It says it MAY contain lard but it might not have any in it. Oh no, I said and put it back and found one that had no lard on the list of contents. I was not going to forsake my soul and the soul of my family because of a bit of lard in the bread. Lard was pork, I told her, and we can’t eat any pork. She sighed and we went on our way.

No Christmas but Holy days. Yes, Holy days abounded and different they were. Now we celebrated the Passover, the Feast of Tabernacles, The Night to be much remembered and the Day of Atonement, just to name a few.

As I write these words today I shudder to think of how stupid I could be. I was being brainwashed by this church and didn’t even know it. I was being sucked in fast and bad. Some of the scripture was a little hard to understand so I asked the minister and he would, after a lengthy discussion, finally show me what it really meant. After all, I was not the head of a flock.

I was only a member of the flock. The girl at the piano started to play a favorite Church Hymn. “NOT MANY WISE MEN NOW ARE CALLED—

NOT MANY NOBLE BRETHERN—ONLY THE BASE THINGS OF THE WORLD –NOW WILL BE YOUR BRETHERN.” So many times I would get choked up when they played this song. There were going to be some major decisions now made in my life. It is like swimming against the current the minister said; it was hard to be a chosen member of God’s Church.

My sister came over and gave me the news. Her husband was going to lose his job she said and she was crying I thought, Oh God, this is terrible. He refused to work on Saturday and that was it. Saturday was the Sabbath and my brother in-law was strong with his beliefs. He worked for a large corporation that couldn’t give benefits to one employee and not the others.

Soon he was given a chance to transfer to Ottawa and a job that had no weekend work within the same corporation. This same thing was going to be my fate as well. I also was strong in my belief. Soon my partner’s wife found out that I was a Sabbath keeper. I used to work on Sundays to make up for the time lost on Saturday. One of our major customers complained to my business partner. I will not work on the Sabbath Day I said to him. Sunset Friday until sunset Saturday was for God and no work will be done on that day. I came in one day and found that my office was gone. I was told to either sell out or my partner was going to open up a new business and leave me with nothing. So I was forced to sell.

That day the control I had was gone. Business was about making money, and making as much as possible, was the whole idea. Anything that would hamper the accumulation of wealth was frowned upon. I was in the office and gave my notice to my business partner. He said, “Wayne, you’re walking out on a million dollars.” I was a good mechanic and he knew it and I was a hard worker, spending many, many nights working until the wee hours of the morning. My home life was rare. I was married to my job. We built up a business from scratch with all my resources now being part of the whole deal. Yes, even my toolbox with my jackknife was part of it. It had to go. My beliefs were stronger to be in that Church than to be a business partner. I now walked out the door and settled with an amount the lawyer decided on and that was final. My name was on the many lists of names that were required to build a successful business. Yes, I had been part of a major corporation’s success. Weeks before that he had placed an article on my desk that said “Tunnel Vision” and that is what I had. I was an honest man as well, and that also has no place in business.

I was never so hurt in all my life. I had only Jesus now and the church was even a little shaky for me. I was like a parasite in a tree now looking for nourishment spiritually instead of financially. I didn’t realize that the tree I had grabbed onto was a parasite to my wallet. With no job now I thought. To hell with them, I’ll start up all over again. I talked Margie into selling the house and buying an old house in the country. It had a large

shop on the property and that’s all I could see. I couldn’t see the badly slanted floors or the garbage strewn all over the place. It took three loads to the dump to clean out the house and from around the house. When we moved in Margie just stood there and cried. She was moving from a brand new house into a dump. Well, she squared her shoulders and started cleaning. I will say she backed me all the way.