“Greetings!”
My name is Darren, and I’m Catholic.
“COG” is short for “Church of God.” It’s an umbrella term for all the churches that trace their tradition directly to Herbert W. Armstrong, whose ministry began around 1934 and ended at his death in 1986. He founded the Worldwide Church of God (WCG). The church’s splinter groups include…
- Christian Biblical Church of God (CBCG)
- Church of God - A Worldwide Association (COGWA)
- Church of God International (CGI)
- Intercontinental Church of God (ICG)
- Living Church of God (LCG)
- Philadelphia Church of God (PCG)
- Restored Church of God (RCG)
- United Church of God (UCG)
- and many others.
I was born into the WCG, and then at age 19 — during the early stages of the organization’s doctrinal upheaval — I joined the Church of God International (CGI), founded by Armstrong’s son, Garner Ted Armstrong.
BREAKING BREAD WITH GARNER TED: Graduating from CGI’s two-year “Imperial Academy” at 22 years old in 1996.
Now I’m a Tradition-minded Catholic. My conversion story was published in Catholic Answers Magazine, and it can be found here on their website.
I don’t resent my upbringing in “Armstrongism” (as it is more aptly called). It was as a COG member that I desired to find and follow “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).
Yet, at the same time, I wish I had known someone in my earlier young adult years who could both
- understand COG doctrines and its culture, and
- offer reasonable and charitable critiques of it while explaining Catholicism in terms I could understand.
This blog is not intended only for those who share my background, but I do write in a way that might have helped “1992 Darren” if only I could write to him – back when he was a young, devout COGer facing the world ahead.
A BURKE BLESSING: Decades later, with my wife, receiving a blessing from Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, Wisconsin.