Comments on Ambassador Watch: Bwana Bob vs Daktari Dave

Redfox asks if the people in Tanzania don't ha...

2016-06-23T08:40:09.049+12:00

Redfox asks if the people in Tanzania don't have enough problems already? Are you suggesting that teaching them the basic of the Bible and helping them move away from their their "traditional beliefs", their superstitions, etc. is adding to their problems? In Tanzania, albinos are hunted down and butchered. Their body parts are sold to witch doctors. Albinos are thought to be ghosts who do not feel pain. Moving them away from these beliefs to conservative Bible teachings (not Armstrongism) is a move in the right direction. Helping protect them from the prosperity preachers and their false teachings, is a move in the right direction. Helping them to think critically, like Bereans of Acts 17:11 is a move in the right direction.

I agree with Steve D. There is little economic v...

2016-06-15T02:31:36.913+12:00

I agree with Steve D. There is little economic value for Armstrongite involvement in Africa but much publicity value. Building a global image is important to the laughably tiny and localized Armstrongite organizations. You know the words: worldwide, international, global, etc. It is kind of like finding a small country airport with a dirt runway scraped out of a wheat field referring to itself as Podunk International.

There are several known problems with Africa for Armstrongites:

1. The levels of poverty in Africa are beyond the imagination of the average American. I had a buddy who worked in the letter answering department in Pasadena back in the Seventies. He showed me letters where Africans would write to Pasadena and ask for, in one case, a tractor. He stated that the African probably saw a picture of a tractor in a PT and simply wrote to ask for it. For them, America was a Disneyland of wealth there for the asking. Associating yourself with Americans puts the African closer to the wealth.

2. He also stated that offering a free subscription to the PT to these people was a useless gesture. Every impoverished African would sign up for the PT and Pasadena could dump its entire printing run into the African continent without recruiting a single tither.

3. Rod Matthews years ago stated that many African converts to Armstrongism were not really converts as we would define a convert. While they attended services on Saturday morning, they continued pagan tribal practices at other times. So reports of surging membership in Africa had to be taken with a grain of salt.

Minimalist your remark is offensive and wrong rega...

2016-06-14T20:21:54.642+12:00

Minimalist your remark is offensive and wrong regarding hwa.

The Western World (2nd world) as you call it in Cold War terms, has greatly benefitted from return without investment in Africa. Only now is it getting nervous now China does indeed invest heavily and is getting a huge return on investment.

hwa as an agent of the western (american world) visited countries that needed to be in "our bloc" during the cold war. Look up the travel logs of the GII in old worldwide news and compare that log with american foreign (asian, african) policy during the cold war.

So the ROI for maintaining contacts with these decolonised, former part of the british empire, now to be under the umbrella of the rising american empire countries was huge.

The return for wcg alone was ok also. People in western countries would give higher margins to the church since the "worldwide " aspect legitimated the worldwide aspirations (world tomorrow) of the church.

The same goes for some of the more affluent parts of the church. Even "the Work" in the 7th , 8th, 9th wealthiest countries of the world was actually sponsored by the Canadian Branch of the WCG during hwa's time.

nck

The splinters will end up spending more money than...

2016-06-14T02:35:01.348+12:00

The splinters will end up spending more money than they get [in Africa]

Exactly, no Return-on-Investment in the Third World. HWA knew this.

As if those people in Tanzania didn't have eno...

2016-06-13T19:40:58.489+12:00

As if those people in Tanzania didn't have enough problems already.

I teach Methodists in Tanzania each year for about...

2016-06-13T04:44:57.092+12:00

I teach Methodists in Tanzania each year for about two weeks. These people have no money for the splinter groups. All they can gain is the "bragging rights" that the work is growing and is more global. Being a "msungu" (white person,in Swahili), they all think that I am wealthy and ask for things from me. The splinters will end up spending more money than they get from any Tanzanian church. Perhaps a month after a visit from Pastor Bob Thiel, the same people might be gathering for a photo op from some other church leader.

I could purchase/bribe/own all of "Bob's ...

2016-06-13T03:33:13.088+12:00

I could purchase/bribe/own all of "Bob's Flock" for a one time check of $5000 to Africa.

Wait til the "Nigerian Church" catches o...

2016-06-13T01:51:11.874+12:00

Wait til the "Nigerian Church" catches on to what makes Bob feel good about his giant and only true church work.

I wonder if the American Bwanas truly "get&qu...

2016-06-12T11:04:21.544+12:00

I wonder if the American Bwanas truly "get" the plight and humanity of the Tanzanian people, and can adequately minister to them. These folks are not just some sort of validating trophy to make a pitiful ACOG look more grandiose than it really is, there are real lives in play here, real people with real needs. The Armstrong movement does not have a very impressive or encouraging track record in administering to such needs. This is the big time, the point at which the rubber meets the road. I hope that Thiel does not let them down, although I confess that I am afraid to even watch.

BB