Is This What All the Fuss Was About?
In June of 2009, Ron Weinland spoke at Moses Znaimer’s IdeaCity. As one of the presenters, Ron was invited to stay for the several-day event and even planned to attend a luncheon hosted by Znaimer on the sabbath after the event. But a following presenter so offended our most formidable prophet that — as Whisper explained in a comment on the last post:
But nothing can stop the chosen one with his shield and armor of God. Like the times when Ron went on radio talk-shows and…. oh ya he does not attempt such any more. Well he was able to take a very dangerous trip to Canada and… oh ya he bravely ran away from that encounter with a terribly powerful comedian. Well then, he uses his awesome Witness powers to… ah… hmmmm, I guess not.
Ron fled the conference, and later wrote a letter to Moses Znaimer alluding to a curse on him.
I found a YouTube video of most of the presentation by the offender, Rick Miller. This was the presentation as repackaged for a half-hour show on Canadian television. At 2:10 into the video as Rick get up to speak, looks like the Two Witnesses were sitting in the audience together a couple of rows back.
In my opinion, Rick Miller’s message seemed to be more critical of those who took over the Jesus story and made it their own. Perhaps Ron was really offended that Rick got the standing ovation he thought he was entitled to.
We have a variety of readers here. What’s your opinion of Rick Miller’s presentation?
Tags: ideaCity
Rick is available on YouTube but Ron is not? Tells you something about who the 2 presenters material was accepted. It would be a treat to be able to see & hear Rons presentation at Idea City, but dark comedy is sometimes lost…
Old Rick got a positive audience interaction, clapping hands, shouted lines, laughs. What did Ron get I wonder? Crickets? Blank Faces? Silence? Was that not a singular perfect point in time to present forward from the very God Ron proposes to expound a miracle? A wondrous act that is beyond man kinds ability to show to these very influential men and women in the audience that Ron is God’s Spokesman and thereby show God? But to all accounts I have heard Ron spoke his spiel and walked away. No flamboyant message, no charisma, just a off-kilter dialog and then silence. Is this what the God of all wants his one and only Prophet of Doomsday to do? Personally I was drawn closer to God through Ricks presentation as I smiled, I laughed, and found fun in Ricks presentation. Ron = Doom, Rick = Fun.
Is this a hard choice to make? Am I typing to fast for anyone?
Go figure?
Rick was professing freedom of thinking – rational thinking. That is something that Ron-god doesn’t promote.
I don’t think Ron could handle the truth of what Rick was saying. Maybe it hit home too hard – showing himself for who he truly is. I thought Rick’s presentation was well done. Like Whisper, I wonder why Ron’s presentation isn’t on YouTube. Scared?
Moses Znaimer did repackage Ron’s presentation for a TV show in Canada awhile back just as he did Rick Miller’s. I believe I mentioned it in a blog post at the time. For whatever reason, he did not have it uploaded to YouTube.
I think Ron was just looking for an excuse to leave the premises. I think he realized he was brought in for entertainment just like this guy Rick was.
I wish we could be entertained by Ron’s presentation. Maybe it will be on YouTube in the future.
I went on line and looked up IdeaCity 2009. It is billed as a collection of some of the greatest minds and legendary parties. How in the world did Ron get invited in the first place? Better yet, why did he go. I looked at the speakers line-up and Ron is billed as an Armageddon Forecaster, not a minister or a man of God. Rick was funny and engaging, I can only imagine how exciting and inspirational Ronnies talk was. Finding a reason to leave was about the only way he could escape without having to actually talk to these great minds and answer questions. He would have to say, no I really don’t believe all this stuff, I just want the money!!!
He is not just after the money God has also told him to crusade against all the evil people who miss the bin when they throw their paper ,all the evil people on facebook and all those evil sunbathers ,smokers ,drinkers and those who watch tv on a saturday ! I am surprised he has not come up with his new 10 commandments .
The sooner his sheeple realise he is just a fraudster,the sooner he can get on with his luxury retirement and they can get on with their lives and out of their depression.
“looks like the Two Witnesses were sitting in the audience together a couple of rows back”
Yeah i saw them…laura seemed a bit on edge with her hands clasped together. Ricks presentation is very similar to others i have heard and read…i think it was good that others see things from a differetn perspective. I have always been disturbed though by the bible’s obsession with sacrifice…i mean why does jesus need to die…surely it would be easier and more kind to just “forgive” instead of lettin someone be tortured and executed…it makes no logical sense…i mean really…..why the need for someone to die?…yes i know the saying that he “had to die for our sins to become the sacrificial lamb” etc etc etc….but why?…its a simple question to a very twisted illogical answer….when a human forives, we don’t need a human to be killed to do so or an animal for that matter…so whats up with all this obsession with blood and death?
Just incase anyone was wondering…yes i would like an answer if a christian has one.
My mistake laura did not have both hands clasped together…sorry…i mistook her tage id necklace (whatever it is) as her other arm lol….as it is only a split second she is shown
I didn’t find Rick’s presentation entertaining – I realize he was satirizing various “religious mouthpieces” – The projections of his voice &
mannerisms reminded me of the Jimmy Swaggart types who get all worked up & thus attempt to “work up” their listeners – for me it was
a turn off –
One of the huge ‘red flags’ for me listening to Ronnie a few years back, was the way he would get worked up & go into a rant –
his voice would get louder & he would sound angrier – that was a turn off for me as well –
I had difficulty reconciling Rick’s description of the physio-pathological events of crucifixion with comedy – I didn’t find any amusement in
that description of torture at all –
What I did find interesting was how easily the people in Rick’s audience were ‘caught up’ with Rick’s excitement in the clapping and the arm
waving – just like what I have seen on TV @ the envangelical & pentecostal church services –
I did have a laugh at the end of the performance – I think someone got up to leave & the remainder of the people thought it was a standing
ovation, so they all started to stand up & applaud – That is my twisted sense of humour for ya -
“I had difficulty reconciling Rick’s description of the physio-pathological events of crucifixion with comedy – I didn’t find any amusement in
that description of torture at all”
To be honest, I didn’t find it funny either. But then I don’t think it was meant to be funny. Although it was part of a comedy routine delivered by a comedian, it was meant to be serious. I consider his routine to be a tragicomedy. That concept is beyond Ron’s understanding.
I, too, didn’t think it was meant to be funny. I think he was illustrating “outside the box”, so to speak. I can understand why Ron wasn’t receptive to his way of illustration because it was waaaay outside of Weinland’s box. I bet he thought Rick was demon possessed. I wouldn’t be surprised.
And not casting aspersions on Debbie for her point of view. She has her own history and associations. There are certain songs which make me sad because I associate them with difficult times in my life even though they’re not sad songs.
Steve, the short answer to your question “Why did someone have to die” is that God will not tolerate sin. It is a bit like if a child comes up and stabs your child in the stomach with a knife you wouldn’t accept it if the child said “sorry” and the parent just went, “Oh, he’s sorry. We forgive him.” That kind of response without consequences shows a tacit acceptance of the bad behaviour. Now it may seem trite or illogical to suggest that the consequences for the sum of humanity’s bad behaviour can be transferred to a single act of sacrifice by ANOTHER person who did NOTHING wrong. But the point is that the sacrifice is only accepted as covering the person’s sin if the individual sinner repents and seeks to have that sacrifice cover them. What Jesus Christ went through then becomes personal for that individual.
You also have to consider the fundamental question of why “sin” can even exist when God is perfect and created everything. The extension to the answer to that philosophical question does lead to an answer to how Jesus Christ’s sacrifice was necessary.
It is hard to explain it in such brief terms, but I don’t want to preach on Mike’s blog.
Didn’t care for Rick’s presentation at all. Clearly there’s an audience for it, but that wouldn’t include me; I couldn’t bring myself to watch more than a few minutes, even for the purpose of commenting on it.
Ron will never do well at these kinds of events because he’s not talking to people who were followers of Herbert Armstrong or who read his books and believe he’s a prophet. Not only that, but judging by the inclusion of Rick’s act, Moses must have been looking to amuse people – although I’m betting Ron didn’t get as many laughs as Rick did. I doubt that whatever beliefs anyone had upon arrival changed because of either Ron’s preaching or Rick’s jokes. It’s a good thing they put Ron on before Rick; the audience was probably snoring…
Mike wrote:
“And not casting aspersions on Debbie for her point of view. She has her own history and associations.”
No worries, Mike – no offense taken –
Ron probably left for fear of being made fun of and part of Rick’s act, as some comics often use audience members for a quick joke.
Thanks shortfriction i appreciate your time/effort to answer me. I actually found your explanation quite unique (in a good way) than the others i have heard from people who don’t even bother to try to understand what it is they believe.
Seems that Ron’s god is a blood-thirsty and vengeful god. You screw up, he needs a pound of flesh from someone. But then he designed you to inevitably screw up, compounded with sending screw-up prophets like Ron to give you warnings. The penalty for ignoring Ron is a horrible physical death. And the penalty is eternal spiritual death for pointing out how screwed-up Ron is.
Totally makes sense.
Ron does not know God. Ron is a thief and a robber.
I SHOULD SAY Ron doesn’t know God. He has absolutely NO idea who God is or what He’s about! Ron is in it for Ron. I do believe that he believes wholeheartedly his own lies (at least he APPEARS and SOUNDS like he believes his own lies), and he appears very passionate about what he “believes”, and one of these days he’s going to find out that it’s all going to come back on him and he’s going to be looking like a durn fool and a real jackass (I’m being kind). I think he already looks like a durn fool and a jackass to everybody outside the kingdom of Armstrong. Well, we don’t have all that long to wait will May 27, 2012. We only have 4 more months left of 2010. Unbelievable.
BTW, it was a beautiful day today. Everybody around here has plenty to eat. We still have plants growing, the trees are still thriving. I can’t get over my neighbor’s apple tree. It is so loaded the branches are touching the ground. Heh.
27/05/2012 won’t be the final nail in the coffin for Weinland. He will keep on going. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_Prophecy_Fails and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance
I think that Weinland will have switched to a new timeline by January of 2012. That is unless he somehow spiritualizes the takeover of the US by the beast power. And he might be able to do that, Flavor Aid is quite potent.
Greetings.
Jeff, I deleted the rest of your post. No altar calls on my blog (and off-topic besides), thank you very much.
Mike (DDTFA)
and deleted most of another post, except saved this part
I’m not advocating for weinland in any way, actually I briefly followed them and ran away because of the spirit of hate and conceit.
Jeff let’s hear more about your Weinland experience, without so much preaching. Mike
Steve, I want to comment on your question about why Jesus Christ had to die such a brutal death. The penalty for the wages of sin of death. This is why people were not able to be saved before the sacrifice of Jesus Christ because there was nothing that could remove that death penalty, and so continual sinners just had to die. I imagine that God also wanted mankind to witness what mankind does, not only to His prophets and apostles, but to God’s first begotten Son whom is the pinnacle of everything. There needed to be a witness of how brutal and evil mankind is, and no, not every human-being participated, but it showed the kind of attitude and spirit this World has, and even shows that spirit of Satan as the god reigning over this World. God sacrificed Jesus Christ so that our sins could be forgiven so that they could dwell in us and us dwell in them, but IF and only IF we would swallow our pride enough to repent of our old ways and walk in their ways, in God’s ways. Jesus Christ bears our death penalty, not because he did anything wrong, but because it shows the sacrifice that God and Jesus Christ were willing to make, that he would go even so far as death in order to keep God’s ways unto death. The World had to be witness to how evil mankind is when living the ways that are contrary to God’s ways, some being worse than others, but all sinning, and none of it leads to peace.