Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Herman Hoeh: The Closet Buddhist





I love reading the comments on other COGlet bb's and seeing the comments people make.  So many of them seem to be such angry, bitter, grumpy people, who never utter the name of Jesus but can quote every single law of the OT.   They have the perfect answers to everything and crow about it.  UCG is wrong, COGaWA is wrong, WCG is wrong, LCG is wrong, PCG is wrong but they aren't.  It's all about end time prophecy, the 70 weeks and other irrelevant nonsense. 

In the midst of this silliness was this comment about Herman Hoeh:



I did not know Herman personally, I did have a very close mutual friend who talked to him at length just about weekly. Herman was a closet Buddhist who talked HWA into giving tens of thousands of God’s money to Buddhist Monasteries; which is why the Buddhist presence at HWAs funeral. Herman would be told by HWA to prove something was true and he would come up with some “proof”. HH was a great politician and yes man, who had simple tastes and knew how to flatter. His idea of tithing was to buy books for himself and at the end of the year donate some of them to the college. He was just one of many tares/weeds that surrounded HWA and held influence through flatteries. I would never rely on HH for either doctrine or prophecy, but he was a good source of info on what was going on in Pasadena. We are warned about tares; remember that their also outright weeds, thorns and thistles in a field. Be careful not to tolerate the outright weeds, because of instructions on dealing with tares. The key is not whether they are nice guys [that is just flatterers and politicking], the key io how zealous they are for God and his law. James


I remember sitting in the Temple above called Wat Thai here in Los Angeles.  It is the largest Thai Temple in the West.  We were sitting in front of this very same altar overflowing with offerings and flowers for Queen Sirikit when she was  a guest of HWA.  Buddhist priest were chanting and offering up prayers for the Queen.  Several of the Ambassador College students present were freaked out and thought they were prostrating themselves at the feet of dagon.  Hoeh explained everything that was going on.  By the time he was through it made sense.  But then, I have always been a heretic when it came to trying things outside the box.  It did not bother me at all to be sitting in the front of this Buddha:




Herman Hoeh did not care what WCG members thought of him in his relationship with the Thai Temple.  He spent countless hours there.

Malm is right that the Buddhist priest came out for HWA's funeral.  They were there for Tkach's and for Hoeh's funeral. They knew Hoeh as man of compassion and truthfulness, despite his 'Christian' stance.

The die hard legalists in the Church were shitting bricks over Hoeh.  Meredith and others legaltard's thought he was bringing in abominations to the church.

Hoeh was a wise, quirky man.  You never quit knew what he was thinking.  If you asked him a question you came away thinking he had answered when in actuality he had not. He instead had asked you questions and you ended up answering him.

He always wore second hand suits, drove a car that was at least 25 years old, dug through campus trash cans to collect cans and bottles, yet would give you the shirt off your back if you were in need.  No other COG minister would do that, especially Meredith and the other high and mighty Evangelists.

Unfortunately, Hoeh was the one who came up with HWA's apostle status and other quirkiness associated with the church.  His Compendium of World History  was one of the most poorly research doctrinal thesis the College had ever reproduced.  Even Hoeh said it was not accurate, but the various splinter cults use a lot of it to this day to support their racist British Israelism doctrines to this very day.

5 comments:

DennisDiehl said...

"Hoeh was a wise, quirky man. You never quit knew what he was thinking. If you asked him a question you came away thinking he had answered when in actuality he had not. He instead had asked you questions and you ended up answering him."

That's the best description of HH I have read. This is exactly how he was. Dr. Hoeh would conduct a once a week archeology class and I never knew what he was talking about. He'd start somewhere in history, usually Bronze age, and just talk. There was never any context or why this was supposed to be interesting.

Once I brought a 12,500 year old Clovis point (Ice Age) for him to see. I thought he'd be interested. I showed him the point between seminar topics, he took it, said..."That's lovely" and handed it back with no comment. That was it... I felt he did not want to address the 12,000 + year old human stuff.

If he was a closet Buddhist, I guarantee he found Buddhism comforting and refreshing. In hindsite it was obvious his behaviors in this world were much more Buddhist than Christian. Simple living, leaving a small footprint on the planet, small kindness for everyone he met and a calm demeanor...almost detached from grasping and attachment. He was no materialist for sure.

The teachings of Eckhart Tolle in The Power of Now and The New Earth are basically Buddhism for the Western mind.

It's a kinder and gentler way to be. It emphasises Being over Doing which is the Western trap. When you ask a buddhist who he is he'll probably say "myself." Ask a Westerner and they give you long list of what they have and do for a living. Of course once those things are gone, they also lose themselves and almost ceast to be.

I am sure HH was sincere when he came to WCG as a younger man. I believe he evolved quietly realizing there were more and better ways to think than is found in the Bible.


Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.
Buddha

NO2HWA said...

It really pissed off the die-hard legalists and conservatives in Pasadena that Hoeh accepted the changes in doctrine of the WCG. I think Hoeh understood later in life that Armstrongism was not based up on fact. He had already found understanding and spirituality outside the quagmire that Armstrongism had become.

He was kind and gracious to all he met. You would see the Thai people that were at the Temple and those that came to visit the campus eye's literally light up when he walked into their presence. They would crowd around him to touch him and greet him. They understood something about him that the church members did not.

Anyone who has ever suffered at the legalistic BS of Armstrongism would naturally find Buddhism comforting.

Hoeh was not a saint though. He made lives miserable for students in the early years of the college and church. But as the years progressed, particularly in the late 70's early 80's, his demeaner changed. He did become kinder during that time. That is when the Buddhists and Jean-Pierre Hallet and the Pygmies came into the picture.

Allen C. Dexter said...

Hoeh was a conundrum and an enigma. I compare him to Molotov who survived every one of Stalin's purges by his deft maneuvering. He baptized me in 1954 when I first visited the campus. We were always friends.

I can vouch for his generosity and his spurning the usual show of wealth so common to most of the others. When my wife divorced me and my youngest daughter needed things I could not supply on the child support I stuggled to pay, he often stepped in to do her kindnesses.

Therefore, I am not among those who would demonize the man. Only he knew what he really thought and what was really in his heart. If there is survival after death, I look forward to seeing him again, resuming the old friendship and asking a few questions.

Iype Oommen said...

Buddhism brings peace?. Nonsense. I am from Asia and know about it better. Only retarded Westereners who are either arrogant or with a bias against Christianity say Buddhism is good. Come and see the Buddhist lands where pure Buddhism is practised. You will see only misery unless there's any missionary foot prints.
Those self hating Americans and Europeans who speaks highly about Budhism really don't know the history either.

Anonymous said...

If you weren't a "legalist" you were a hypocrite because the church was founded on law. So what the heck were you doing there? Just hiding from the tribulation like a gutless hypocritical piece of shit, that's all.