Tuesday, September 28, 2010

33 Years and Counting

Left to right, Harrison Ford (Han Solo), David Prowse (Darth Vader), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) 
and, in foreground, Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), Kenny Baker (R2-D2) 
and Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker).

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It's hard to believe that 33 years ago the first Star Wars came out.  A large group of us from Ambassador College in Pasadena headed off to Hollywood to see it.  Every single seat in the theater was taken.  Yet, at this same time various ministers in Pasadena were trying to discourage students from seeing the movie.  It was fiction, it was dangerous, it had demons in it.  

Kind of like the ranting that Dave Albert did from the Auditorium stage when ET came out.  He went on and on about how the movie was really about demons manifesting themselves on earth as agents of light to gullible children.  If we went to see the movie we would be allowing demons to enter our mind. Thankfully 95% of the students ignored him as they had ignored the Star Wars silliness.

The other strange thing they told us that never came true was that they said we would never be able to see the  sequels in the Star Wars series when they came out. The reason being we would be in Petra.  The world would be coming to and end by that time the sequels would be coming out.

The other movie that stirred up a stink in Pasadena was Crocodile Dundee.  They planned to show the movie in the Auditorium.  It was common knowledge that God lived in the Auditorium so swear words and sexy scenes could not be shown on the screen.   Some moron from the student government stood next to the projector and held a piece of cardboard over the lens so the picture could not be projected on stage.  There were howls of protest.  People got up and walked out.  

Armstrongism has always been afraid of the silliest things.  

Herb hated country music.  He thought it was for the uncouth and uneducated.  We always thought he hated it because GTA liked it.  

Armstrongism did not like its members being actors.  The reason being was that they were taking on fake personalities and would have to live through those characters.  It was another avenue for opening the mind up to demons.  

You could not be a policeman because you carried a gun. (Even though GTA's bodyguard carried gun with him at all times.).  

They discouraged members from being EMT's.  You were performing medical procedures that took away the persons ability to use divine healing.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Talk about flip-flopping doctrine! By the time I was growing up, Star Wars was OK, and country music was fine (ugh I can still remember all those damn square-dances), it was "rock music" and The Exorcist that were "demon-possessed" -- and people were allowed to be nurses, or do to "emergency repairs" to the temple of the body...but they weren't allowed in the military, in law enforcement, or in any position where they would have to carry a gun. And don't even contemplate being a shrink, that really was "allowing demons to enter your mind" !!

They were still preaching against ET, but they continued to hold up the Nazi kid in The Sound of Music as a fine, upstanding church member....Go figure?

Unknown said...

I'm thinking that Petra would've sucked without a little Hank Williams Jr. Maybe GTA would've smuggled some in?

Oh, I forgot, GTA was a Laodicean and wouldn't have had a ticket to Petra.

NO2HWA said...

Actually GTA might have been there,inside with the rest of us. If he was at least we would have had a good tgime!

It was Herb that was going to stay outside the walls in the Marriott that was being built for that purpose.

It's amazing how God inspired men to invent the printing press and airplanes for the express end time use of HWA.

That same reasoning applied to the hotels being built around the entrance to Petra. God was building them for his end time leaders.

Lest you think I am joking, many Armstrongites believed and taught that silliness!

Richard said...

Quite surprising about Star Wars -- since my Pastor with 30 years' experience in WCG (now in UCG) admits he's a big fan of the series.