Friday, February 26, 2016

From the First to the Last: The Destruction of the Church


This is the very first building that the church bought in Pasadena that held the offices and classrooms for the fledgling college.  This was the old Ambassador library building.  This was also the very first building to be demolished on the property.  It occurred at Feast time in 2012.

Then we move to 2016 and the demolition of the Hall of Administration.  This was the seat of the power that controlled the church and established doctrines.  It was also the seat of those that abused the members so terribly.  It's fitting that this is the last building to be demolished.  From the first to the last.  Its a fitting epitaph of the state of the Church of God today leading into Passover season.  
A pile of wrecked debris, unsalvageable.










15 comments:

Anonymous said...

That second to last picture is all the abused kids in the church giving HWA the finger.

Byker Bob said...

5:50 ~ Amen, brother! Let's drink a toast to the survivors!

BB

Anonymous said...

Seems wasteful to destroy buildings, some of which are not that old. I guess the price of land is so outrageously high due to overpopulation that destroying buildings actually pays off in the perverse capitalist accounting system.

Anonymous said...

So much for The Work...

Ronco

Anonymous said...

11.53 PM Yours was, and probably still is the common attitude in the churches. That is, there are no rights, and ownership is determined why what is 'fair' or 'reasonable.' But since people can't agree on what is fair or reasonable, government must decide and enforce their judgement. Hence the Rhinoceros Ministry of Herbie that barges into the personal and intimate ares of members lives. You can hang on to your rhinoceros ministers, and I'II stick with my rights respecting trade thingy.

Cheers TradingGuy

Unknown said...

Looks like "ground zero" after the B29 Enola Gay dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

Byker Bob said...

Yes, Connie, a victory for democracy!

BB

Lake of Fire Church of God said...

Thank you for sharing the destruction of all of our once collective hopes and dreams - the Wonderful World of Tomorrow was suppose to be like God's Pasadena Headquarters and God's Ambassador College.

It reminds me of the old Joan Baez song, "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down". Applied to Worldwide Church of God and Ambassador College, "It was the night they drove old Armstrong's empire down, and all the people were singing...."

Richard

Monnie said...

I wish I'd been there to see the Armstrong Crime Family Headquarters building demolished. So much havoc was wreaked on so very many lives from that locus of evil.

Anonymous said...

Did 11:53 really say "the perverse capitalist accounting system?"

Earth to 11:53: The place has new owners. They are, like you, entitled to do what they want with their property. What's perverse about that? It's just a building.

I, like thousands of others, attended college there, went to church there, and worked there, and I feel zero sense of loss or melancholy over the demise of the Armstrong campus. They made their own beds, managed to persuade a number of us to lie in them for a while, and then reaped the consequences. Who cares? It's long over.

Anonymous said...

"11.53 PM Yours was, and probably still is the common attitude in the churches. That is, there are no rights, and ownership is determined why what is 'fair' or 'reasonable.' But since people can't agree on what is fair or reasonable, government must decide and enforce their judgement. Hence the Rhinoceros Ministry of Herbie that barges into the personal and intimate ares of members lives. You can hang on to your rhinoceros ministers, and I'II stick with my rights respecting trade thingy.
"

Wow man, you read into a simple comment a whole pile of things that I did not say. Were you on drugs when you wrote that? I didn't say anything about rights, ownership, fairness, government, Herbie, Rhinos, barging into people's lives, or any of the other things you think that I think. You are nuts.

Anonymous said...

5:19 PM: The trade guy is like a man with a hammer; to him everything looks like a nail.

Anonymous said...

The Destruction of The Church?...ummm, no.

just a few buildings being torn down...they would eventually be destroyed anyway.

The Church lives on.

Anonymous said...

Hi everyone, I've gone back to the former Pasadena Campus twice since graduating: once in 2011 & for the 2015 reunion. But both times I revisited our former campus, I just LOVED it. Seeing the campus again, meeting other alumni and former members, was great. Lots of good memories. As Bob Hope would sing "thanks for the memories".

And this last time, for the 2015 reunion, being inside our former student center and dining there, was a very special treat.

I can't change the evils, corruption, and abuses of the Armstrong's and those intimately complicit with the Armstrong's. And, I can't do it over, either. Believe me, I WOULD do it over and differently if I could...

So would hundreds, perhaps thousands, who suffered from much harder lessons than I ever did. They suffered much more abuse, and trauma, sexually, financially, emotionally, etc. etc. etc. I understand their lessons were worse, much worse, for them than for me. For them it's more like a never ending nightmare and PTSD.

Religion, power, money, etc. corrupts. The Armstrong's are famously now, no exception to corruption and instead a "fine" example, of such. And, so are the many others who surrounded the Armstrong's and carried out their dogmas, rantings, and abuses, (and some of their own, LOL)!

If there is a legacy it's probably plural because, besides, corruption and abuse, ruined lives, and who knows what the hell else, the Armstrong's succeeded in training dozens or more, Armstrong Wanna-a-be's. So, the Armstrong's now "live on" in the form of these gifted, talented, delusional, individuals, trained at Ambassador College, who have taken up the Armstrong torch and proclaim, as the Armstrong's did, that they now are the "true church" etc.

Still, for me, as Bob Hope always sang "Thanks for the memories".
Thanks too, for some life long friendships that I enjoy to this very day.

And it goes without saying...thanks for the lessons!


But, yup, I loved going back on our old campus...

I'd say the Armstrong's and their cronies, did more harm, by far, than good. And whatever good they inspired, they made sure they got all of it they could, because that kind of stuff isn't good for all the sheeples. LOL.

Anonymous said...

By the way that "Church" does not "live on"....Tkach made sure it morphed into something else dramatically different than what HWA set up. And I bet he's been rolling over in his grave ever since. Probably ranting and raving too. Lot's of similar splinter churches "live on" by those Armstrong had trained and can do, or are willing to do, nothing else.