This was on James Malm site this morning. You know things are bad when people are comparing Germano to Thiel! LCG watched Bob Thiel have his mental meltdown in the church before he declared him self doubly blessed and started his apostate splinter group. Now LCG members are wondering if Germano is starting to melt down also?
Many in LCG are very concerned that Germano is becoming the next Bob Thiel. He is showing signs of bitterness and rage (some have said because of the re-ordering of the LCG hierarchy) resulting in comments and behavior that is completely at odds with the tone of LCG. While so many CoGs are so very political, taking strong stances on Trump, on tax dollars spent on abortion, on Obamacare etc. with their publications causing a major headache for their congregations abroad (e.g.the UCG in Europe refusing to translate the pro-Trump drivel that came from Don Ward recently so as not to lose their entire congregations), Living Church has consistently proclaimed a higher spiritual message with global relevance with minimal focus on provincial politics. Of recent note was an article by Mark Sandor on rendering to Caesar what is Caesar’s, which made the point that once we’ve paid our taxes, it’s not for us to fret about how the govt. uses the money (for war, for Obamacare policies that allow others to have an abortion etc.) However, Germano went off on a highly political Don Ward-like pro-Trump statement that threw a lot of the Living membership, even saying that a national healthcare program would be essentially Satanic. For those in LCG abroad, it was quite a slap that their own church would say they are un-Christian because they participate in such a program. It remains quite bewildering to me, and many others, that how a country chooses to administer its health-care system can be an issue of “Christianity” (UCG-ers in Canada are always offended by the editorial in the Beyond Today magazine which implies frequently that taking tax money to pay into a shared pool for health insurance is a violation of “Thou shalt not steal” because the govt is stealing your money !! (Mike Kelley’s time-worn theme). Perhaps it is the nature and result of the current state of national politics that some of these men are becoming ‘unhinged’, but the CoGs would do well to reign them in before their members run out: one leader who can’t control his daily Twittering is more than enough!