I was a member of the World Wide Church of God from age 12 or 13 until age 29. It has taken me over 10 years to unlearn everything that was taught to me in that church. It is listed in the Book of Cults.

is this the group that put out "The Plain Truth" magazine? H. Armstrong's group?
If so, i was talking to a counsellor a while ago, and he mentioned to me that there was one branch of this group which apparently has become orthodox in its beliefs/structure recently.

Yes, the WWCG has generated many splinter groups. HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG is the founder.

Does anyone have information regarding Worldwide Church of God operating out of the Flint MI area?

Is this a splinter group adverse to the H. Armstrong teachings or are they in the mainstream of his former group?

Lots of information can be found on this site dedicated to telling the Painful Truth.
[www.hwarmstrong.com]

Regarding the World Wide Church of God, my dad raised me in this church and I am just now finding out it is a cult. It use to be called the Radio Church of God. I remember going to Ambassador College in Pasadena, California. They also had other schools and believed in capital punishment in the classroom. It was a nightmare just to hear about the kids that had to pull their britches down in front of the whole class and be punished with a wide heavy paddle. I have always received the Plain Truth Magazine, as a matter of fact I have The World Tomorrow Magazine on my desk at the moment and they are requesting me to renew my membership. So I decided, after my father died, to look into this church more closely to see if I learned anything good from them. For the dozens of years I went to this church as a child and an adult, it was strange that they always look to the old testament to back up the new testament. Basically they believe in legalism. Everything is either legal or not legal. So now I need to recover from this cult and I need to relearn everything all over again, because the world wide church of god may not be the best thing to get into. Being raised in that church was not my fault. Now that I'm aware it is a cult I can and will need help understanding the real truth. Most all of the literature they send you is free. Members give 10% of their gross income and then blow another 10% each year at a feast of tabernacles. All of the old testament laws are observed including passover, days of unleavened bread, pentecost, etc. There was also another 10% of a person's income given to widows and orphans, so that makes a total of 30% gross income you are required to give to the church (10% is saved by you in a savings account to waste in the 1 week during the feast). Plus there were holy day offerings and it seemed like every time you turn around you were giving to one offering or another. I am surprised we had enough to eat. It's no wonder we were poor. My poor dad somehow managed to buy me a bicycle and a clarinet, I don't know how he did it. My mom is still alive but will not speak to me. It's possible she is affected too by the negative effects of being in that church. We went to church on Saturday as this was believed to be the 7th day, the only sabbath they observed. Herbert W. Armstrong....I think he died and his son Garner Ted Armstrong took over, and now one of the main guys is Roderick C. Merideth. They begin hooking people in with radio and television stations all over the world, and with the magazine being so colorful with the latest news stories and with everything being "free", you become interested. After all, it is 95% truth until you get so far into it you don't see the other 5% lie, with false predictions of the end of the world, advice to escape destruction of the world and it just goes on and on and on. The preachers go to school to become professional speakers learning how to capture the audience although I remember falling asleep. Of course I was beaten all the time for no reason, usually for a bad attitude if I had any questions and I was required to take notes in church and these notes would be tested for accuracy. My whole family has disowned me because I have gone out on my own in search of some answers to the real truth, not the "painful" truth. Those beatings really hurt, especially the times when I was tied to the peach tree out in the backyard.
Now that I think about it one of the main negative effects this church has had on my life is that living by the letter of the law all those dozens of years, I take everything literally. I could give you many examples of how I have been devestated with servere trauma trying to live my life as if everything was either legal or not legal, looking at everything in a literal sense. Now I am trying to use more common sense living in the real world. Not everything is black and white like they teach. It probably does not do any good to remember things that have happened and turned out wrong in my life just because I really did not understand how to think right. And yet I am willing to share with others what I have been through so that if anyone else is having similar problems relating to others you can know that you are not alone. Let's hope we can heal.

Mark