April 2008 Journal Now Out

The April 30, 2008 edition of The Journal is now out. Here is what Dixon Cartwright (its editor) reported about it:

Page 1:

o Fred Coulter finds himself disfellowshipped for the third time.

o A UCG elder and good friend of the publishers of The Journal, Ellis Stewart, gives his good-natured and sometimes humorous opinions about the recent general conference and the proposed move of UCG headquarters to Texas. He also reveals there were no question-and-answer sessions at this year’s conference. In The Journal’s opinion, the Q&As were the best part of the conference.

Page 2:

o This issue features a letter from Geoff Neilson that links Bible translators Westcott and Hort with Madame Blavatsky. The Journal always appreciates Geoff’s letters.

Page 3:

Dave Havir and Ellis Stewart opine about inheritances and reconciliation, respectively.

Dennis Diehl pushes a church member’s bill of rights.

Sue Johns gives some pertinent points on bloc voting. The Journal suspects that the member of the Queen’s Room Eight she seems to know so much about is her husband, Jim. Sue points out that, if you expect God to make your decisions for you, you need a different system.

Page 7:

Darlene Warren is back with a new column after The Journal ran some of her old columns for the previous couple of issues. She announces she’s ready to tackle the tough subjects.

Page 23:

AC and Harvard University graduate, economist, quantum physicist and metaphysist Orlin Grabbe dies.

Page 24:

A former member of the UCG’s council of elders criticizes his fellow elders, especially Aaron Dean, and then apparently wishes he hadn’t done that.

Herbert W. Armstrong had Fred Coulter (now of CBCG) put out of the old WCG decades ago. Although he is an elder in UCG, when published in The Journal, Ellis Stewart is normally critical of his church. Geoff Neilson falsely predicted that the Great Tribulation would begin on Passover in 2008 (Sep-Oct 2007 Journal Out). David Havir’s articles normally take shots against church governance (he does not believe much of what is in the article Polycarp, Herbert W. Armstrong, and Roderick C. Meredith on Church Government). Dennis Diehl is a former WCG minister who basically no longer holds to COG doctrines. The former UCG board member would be Joel Meeker–his comments were covered here before (please see UCG Having More Dissent and UCG’s Joel Meeker Apologizes).

The Journal is primarily an independent publication by and for non-Philadelphians who had a WCG background. It now contains a lot of ads, mainly by small groups who want to see their (normally somewhat heretical) messages published.

Although to see the entire issue requires a subscription, the first and last page of The Journal can be seen for free at www.thejournal.org/issues/issue127/jf043008.pdf