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Thank you for Ruth Tucker's article and related sidebars concerning the Worldwide Church of God ["From the Fringe to the Fold," July 15]. Tears came to my eyes as I read what God has done. I grew up in a Sabbath-keeping, dietary-law-following, no-Christmas-or-Easter home after my dad fell under the spell of Armstrong's radio preaching in the midfifties. I can still see stacks of The Plain Truth next to his reading chair and hear that voice coming over the airwaves. In spite of the faults and heresies of the WCG, I praise God for the respect my upbringing gave me for God's Word, which eventually brought me to a knowledge of God's saving grace. This is a classic example of our need to "always pray and not give up." God is indeed a God of wonders! My only regret is that Dad didn't live to see it happen.

Pastor David W. Johnson
Calvary Baptist Church
Riverhead, NY

Ruth Tucker's article did not capture fully the turmoil many WCG members have experienced because of the move towards orthodoxy. I have been a WCG member for 27 years-all of my adult life. I am profoundly grateful that we have finally begun to understand the gospel. But I am like a government official who was acquitted of some serious charges a few years ago. A news reporter asked him for his reaction to the acquittal; he said, "Can someone tell me where to go to get my reputation back?" I am happy we have abandoned cult practices and have found Christ, but can someone tell me where to go to get my life back?

David Anderson
Los Alamos, NM

I grew up in Herbert Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God, attended its "seminary," and eventually became a pastor and writer for The Plain Truth. CT's May/June issue made reference to the workshops I facilitated on spiritual healing.

Along with Ruth Tucker, I applaud the changes in doctrine toward orthodoxy (although the WCG still observes Jewish festivals of Unleavened Bread, Atonement, and Tabernacles, rejects eternal punishment, and teaches a hybrid postmortem evangelization). However, its leadership continues to operate according to the damaging, deceptive, and cultic practices of past administrations. This fact led to my resignation in May 1996 and an open letter asking for the authoritarian abuses and financial exploitations to be addressed.

Contrary to Tucker's assertion that "a board of directors now leads the church," in actuality, the pastor general retains near-dictatorial powers, as the by-laws will confirm. But these have not been available to the membership. As in the past, local congregations still send 100 percent of their funds to the Pasadena central body but receive few services in return. And, while wcg pastors are asked to cover three and four congregations in distant cities and take pay cuts, the pastor general recently was given a raise-a fact not disclosed to the membership.

My hope and prayer is that the WCG will indeed become a healthy part of the evangelical community. However, itwill take more than the doctrinal revision Tucker describes. Meanwhile, I am thankful to see growing numbers leaving the WCG, not for offshoot groups, but for membership in healthy Christian churches where they can find healing and be fed with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

David Covington
Nashville, TN

Two things in Tucker's article were different in our experience: (1) The standard was not three tithes but basically two. We sent our first tithe to headquarters; we saved our second tithe for feasts (which were really our vacations). Once every seven years we paid a third tithe for the care of widows and orphans. (2) At least in the region we were in, no one would have been disfellowshiped for something as insignificant as having dinner with relatives for Christmas. That kind of infraction might have called for a stern, private talk from the preaching elder/pastor, but not disfellowshiping.

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September 16 1996, Vol. 40, No. 10