Gerald Flurry: "Herbert W. Armstrong’s Gift to the Olympic Games"

Gerald Flurry and his splinter cult, the Philadelphia Church of God, have been running a series of articles using HWA's world travels as supposedly significant earth shattering events.  HWA's meetings decades ago are being trotted out as if God himself was speaking directly to these world leaders.  With numerous speeches talking about “a strong hand from someplace” what exactly does Flurry think HWA accomplished?  Did the leaders convert?  Did hundreds of thousands of citizens convert?  HWA claimed that through his speaking with the leaders he was presenting the gospel message to the leader and it was his/her responsibility to give it to the people.  That was a great way of wringing you hands from the mess of nothing ever happening.  “It’s the leaders fault no one converted to the Truth, not HWA’s.”  I don’t know how many times I heard that asinine comment from evangelists and ministers.

Gerald Flurry and his minions continues to pimp out HWA day in and day out.  His latest pimping episode is the most appalling.  Flurry claims HWA has a message for the Olympians gathered in London.

Right now the world has its mind focused on the Olympic Games,” wrote the internationally recognized unofficial ambassador for world peace to worldwide readers in the Plain Truth, July-August 1984. 

The same is true today for the 2012 Games. All eyes are focused on the host city of London. Perhaps Trumpet readers are unaware or have forgotten about former Ambassador College faculty member and renowned athletic coach Harry Sneider. As recently as last year, Mr. Sneider acknowledged Mr. Armstrong’s direct contribution to Olympic success, writing, “Back in 1967 I came to Ambassador College to study a way of life that had a major impact on my life, my marriage, my home and family as well as my work. 

“My mentor was Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong. He told me that I had a gift of working with top-notch performers in sports. In 1984 I was nominated head coach for the United States Olympic Team in Track and Field. 

“Mr. Armstrong wrote a wonderful booklet called The Seven Laws of Success. I used these laws in my coaching and training. They are very simple. They can be found in the Scriptures ….” 

Coach Sneider went on to encourage readers to study those seven laws of success.

Besides pimping HWA, Flurry is also pimping out Harry Sneider who was a former employee in the PE Department in Pasadena.  Sneider is known around the world for his training techniques that he used for Dwight Stones, 1984's track and field team and an Olympic swimmer.  Sneider is still active locally with sports training.

One reader here comments about Sneider: 

 “Fine, so Harry felt there was validity to the 7 Laws. That's fine, they're common sense. But he made the contacts with athletes, not HWA. He also had fabulous facilities at his disposal, and free reign to use them. Being in Southern California put him in touch with connected people, and the ideal weather made training in SoCal a perfect situation. Nobody really begrudged Harry his projects, but he pretty much did his own thing for years.”

After discussing Sneider, the Flurry cult jumps the high bar with this:

Yet how many athletes, spectators or viewers around the world ask the question: What does God think of these Games? You need to take the time to request The Seven Laws of Success and find out that simple formula that Harry Sneider spoke of. 

In the same Plain Truth article, Mr. Armstrong continued, “The law of God is the way of righteousness. Sin is the transgression of the law. The law of God is given us in the broadest principle and also magnified into the Ten Commandments, and even into many further specific points that are magnifications of the principles of the Ten Commandments. God expects us to apply these principles of His law to specific actions. 

“The basic law is love, outflowing toward God above all else, and secondarily, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”

 

Does Flurry and his minions actually think any Olympian is going to be asking such a question let alone writing in for a book that is so out of date that it is laughable?  I guess what Flurry and his minions are trying to say here is that when Olympians compete they are NOT loving their neighbor.  If they truly loved their neighbor they would let the other person cross the line first.

Then the craziness continues:

Twenty eight years later, Stones will serve as a commentator for nbc during this year’s London 2012 Olympic Games, and one wonders whether he recalls those seven-laws-of-success-based training sessions at Ambassador College and the indelible principles of God’s law of love expounded by the book’s author and college’s founder.

Um, what “indelible principles of God’s law and love did HWA expound?  Broken marriages?  Suicides? Untimely deaths of members because doctors were prohibited? Rampant alcoholism in the Church?  Wife swapping by ministers and employees?  I am assuming this is what Flurry and crew are really talking about.

Then the Flurry camp continues:

Trumpet founder Gerald Flurry, supported by co-workers and members of the Philadelphia Church of God, went so far as to fight a six-year court battle to preserve these seven laws, keep them in print and promote them worldwide through television and distribution over the Internet. 

Flurry fails to report that he LOST the court case and had to pay the Worldwide Church of God for the rights to all the materials that he had previously plagiarized.  Flurry wasted millions of dollars in legal fees on top of the 3 million he was forced to pay the WCG for publication rights.

In addition, he founded Herbert W. Armstrong College in Edmond, Oklahoma, featuring liberal arts education and including a balanced sports program founded on the scriptural principles of the seven laws of success as established by its namesake. 

 Add to this his continuance in the example and legacy of Mr. Armstrong by ensuring you could receive that foundational knowledge freely, as a gift without request for money, obligation or follow-up. 

I would add to this the continual worship and pimping of Herbert Armstrong by Flurry  makes him come out looking like a complete fool.  All Flurry is accomplishing is letting the world know that he has absolutely no creative ideas in the alcohol damaged brain of his.  Flurry and his minions cannot come up with anything without pimping HWA into the mix.  There is no originality anywhere  in the organization.  Flurry dresses like HWA, poses for photo’s like HWA, builds similar buildings like HWA did, uses the same names for buildings, schools and literature as HWA did.  Buys personal items of HWA and places them in prominent places for idolatrous worship. Then, to cap it all off, he names his pretend unacredited college after HWA and starts a concert series and “foundation” named after HWA.  The list could go on and on.

During these Olympic Games, request your free copy of The Seven Laws of Success to understand the keys to the eternal joy of lasting physical, spiritual, emotional and mental success. When sincerely applied, those laws truly do work to produce real and lasting success in your life! •

Any Olympian or other person that would dare to order the Seven Laws of Success would be subjecting their selves to a life of eternal unhappiness and fear, broken relationships and spiritual bankruptcy.  Emotional and mental scars would prevent any Olympian from ever competing again. 

YOU can read the crazines here: Herbert W. Armstrong’s Gift to the Olympic Games

Thought it all Flurry and his crew want us to believe that Herbert Armstrong contributed significantly to the Olympics.  When pigs fly.