Posted by Suggestion on March 20, 2005 at 10:37:53
In Reply to: Re: Some thoughts posted by Monika Kosz on March 19, 2005 at 11:12:29:
What are the deadlines for completing at different parts of your project. If it is not a problem, could you share a bit about your schedule, and what part this portion of your research plays in the overall scheme? You may be surprised to know, we actually are a helpful collection of people sometimes, and defining your objectives may help us to help you better.
Reading this post of yours where you defined your theme and objectives a little more, has been quite helpful. You mentioned some things which have not been explored enough in my opinion, that the culture of the COG is essentially American, and its world-wide phenomenon is an American export of sorts. There is nothing European about it in my opinion, and definitely nothing Eastern about it for example. Although the COG borrowed from different political ideas, culturally, it was predominantly American and did not borrow much from other cultures.
The COG's religious ideas are mostly Judaeo-Christian, and there were certain idealisms which tranlated into organizational structure. For example the early COG was divided into 12 tribes, after the 12 tribes of Israel. Later when Berg became more rabidly anti-semitic, pro Middle-East, this 12 tribe system was discarded entirely.
It could be argued that the COG could only have developed as an organisation in its early days, due to confusing ambiguities present in protestantism, and that the evangelical, charismatic movements in America left a fertile ground for the the ideas which Berg utilised to mold his followers. Have you read about the early beginnings of the COG with Fred Jordan and the Soul Clinic?
Have you read about the Berg's mother and the ministry built on her faked miracle healing story? America as we know was settled by people with ideas of practising their religion in a free and better way, away from persecution. This idea of practising Christianity a better way lingered on through the centuries. Berg's mother thrived on the showmanship and touring of the revival movement in the USA, a very American phenomenon. It was she who gave him a prophet complex, by handing him the Warning prophecy. She gave him the idea he had a starring role in the endtime, as an endtime prophet.
Most leaders in the COG were and are American, and they were the ones who carried the weight. As much as Berg pretended he wanted to diversify and spread leadership positions to other nationalities (ML#747), the "locals" were at best supervised by American or anglo overseers through, often disguised through co-leadership positions, or marriages with anglo-speakers.
When the COG spread internationally, there was never much of an exchange of values, but American values were imposed on locals. Food culture is one example. Homes had diets modelled by Berg's (often wrong) ideas on nutrition, predominantly American styled.
There were many efforts to translate Berg's writings into different languages. Spanish is probably the 2nd language most of Berg's works appear in. These translations did not result in diversifying the culture, more than acheive the neo-colonisation of new members. New members became more American, and less "local."