Here is some more info on Denis Rohan, the Worldwide Church of God member who burned down the Al-Aqsa Mosque. HWA's backpedaling is typical of the Church in the way it spin doctors every tragedy that brings in the Church. We saw that in action a few years ago when a member of Rod Meredith's cult went on a shooting spree killing several members. LCG wiped many of their sermons off their main web page that had had a negative impact on the shooter. We saw it in action when Gerald Flurry was arrested for public drunkenness, driving while in intoxicated and for attempting to bribe a Peace Officer.
From Creation Concepts
One of the two million subscribers to The Plain Truth Magazine was Denis Michael Rohan, an Australian sheep shearer. Rohan had also studied the Bible Correspondence Course that was offered by Armstrong and his World Tomorrow Radio program. After reading the editorial written by Armstrong in the June 1967 issue of The Plain Truth, Rohan believed he received some divine instructions. His idea, he thought, would hasten the coming of the Messiah.
On August 21, 1969, Rohan attempted to set fire to the Al-Aqsa mosque, on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The fire caused extensive damage, gutting the southeastern wing of the mosque. It destroyed a 1,000 year old wood and ivory minbar or pulpit, a gift of Saladin. Rohan was arrested for the arson attack on August 23, 1969.
On September 26, 1969, in a letter to his Coworkers and members of the Radio Church of God which supported The World Tomorrow program, Armstrong distanced himself from Rohan. Armstrong wrote: [5]Damage to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem after the fire on 21st of August 1969
Every effort, it seems, is being made to link us with it in a way to discredit the Work of God. The man, Rohan being held as the arsonist, the dispatches say, claims to be identified with us. This claim is TOTALLY FALSE. The first any of us at Pasadena ever heard of this man was when the press dispatches began coming over the Teletypes in our News Bureau. Checkups revealed that this man had sent in for and received a number of our Correspondence Course lessons. Last December he had sent in a subscription to The PLAIN TRUTH. But any claim to any further connection or association with us is an absolute lie.
Two million others subscribe to The PLAIN TRUTH. 100,000 others subscribe to the Correspondence Course lessons. These are sent to any and everybody who requests them, FREE. But such subscriptions do not connect us with such subscribers or any act any one of them might commit, any more than a subscription to the New York TIMES makes that newspaper responsible for any acts committed by its subscribers.On January 5, 1968, the Radio Church of God was renamed the Worldwide Church of God.
Years later, Bob Gerringer observed, “Soon after Rohan’s attempted Mosque burning Mr. HWA began saying that neither he nor anyone else in the WCG had ever proclaimed that a literal temple had to be built in Jerusalem.” [6]
Such statements by Herbert W. Armstrong can be understood only in the light of the church’s name change. Presumably, he viewed his statements made in the name of the Radio Church of God as not affecting the Worldwide Church of God.
Rohan was tried in an Israeli court, found to be insane, and hospitalized in a mental institution. On 14 May 1974, he was deported from Israel “on humanitarian grounds, for further psychiatric treatment near his family”. He was subsequently transferred to the Callan Park Hospital in Australia. He died in 1995.
Herbert W. Armstrong is remembered for his many failed predictions. [7]
17 comments:
Well, the best you could say is that Rohan deviated from the official policy of WCG, but that doesn't necessarily explain away his basic mental instability, and it doesn't exonerate the church from the possibility that their teachings may have exacerbated that mental instability. Because of the evangelistic efforts of the church, many people came seeking healing, and their core problem was not always physical. Those who found healing in WCG could be described as statistically negligible.
Back in 1975, I decided that with something so important as prophecy, HWA got one strike, and he was out. Up until the 1975 debacle, prophecy had been at the center of all of our spiritual lives, to say nothing of our day to day physical lives and relationships. The years since have proven that Armstrongism just plain does not have "the annointing", as far as prophecy is concerned. Rohan may well have gotten himself in trouble in other ways had he been exposed to false teachers other than HWA, or he may well have found healing in a Bible-based Christian church. In burning the mosque, he was actually using Mohammed's ideology and methodology against the Moslems. I suppose in retrospect, it's good that he didn't start some kind of jihad.
BB
My last year in WCG I had won the Biblical Archaeology Review essay contest which ended me up digging for a month at Megiddo. One weekend I went down , I mean up, to Jerusalem and hired a Palestinian guide to take me all over the Temple Mount. Very cool experience. Anyway, he took me into the Al Asqa Mosque and showed me around. Just me an him. Up front he went into a tirade about this jerk who tried to burn the Mosque down years 25 years ago...then it came back to me!!!!
Doh..."ummm, really, wow...how interesting, hmmmm, terrible...me? Oh I am a farmer back in the States. Wow, the Dome of the Rock...can we go see that?"
whew..that was a close call!
:)
You could have introduced yourself as part of the Ambassador Cultural Foundation that contributed towards the "Peace Park". He would probably have nailed your ass on that one too!
The Armstrong brand of mental illness. It all makes perfect sense. The mentally ill are drawn to cults like this. Everyone here has a story as to the sick puppies that believed some real insane crap.
Armstrong himself was a mental case. He actually tried to justify his religion in the end just in-case there was a god. How in the world do groups like this draw the crazies?
Denis Rohan was not a member of the Worldwide Church of God, no more than Michael Jackson or the Vatican which subscribed to the 'Plain Truth' were members of WCG.
I guess that's why ALL of YOU were drawn so deeply into WCG, because of YOUR OWN mental illness.
Makes sense.
At least we cured whatever mental illness we had by being part of the cult. You however, are still destroying your mind by remaining an Armstrongite!
JW said... "At least we cured whatever mental illness we had by being part of the cult."
Were you cured by being part of the WCG cult, JW?
Have you read much of this site? Do these people sound like they are cured from their mental illness?
All the patients in a mental ward think that the other patients are OK, too.
If you would open your eyes are read what the header says on this blog you would see that it states: "Exposing the underbelly of Armstrongism in all it's WACKY glory" you would see that this is NOT a site that is set apart to glorify or worship the name of HWA or Spanky Meredith or Six Pack Flurry or the deviate message they preach.
Armstrongism is filled with a myriad of idiots and fools running well over 500 some splinter cults. If you want your HWA tool stroked then go and play on one of the cult blogs! Here you will continue to be exposed to the stupidity of Armstrongism that masquerades as "true religion."
Sharon...I love you! :)
M.T.I can't think of anything
"he may well have found healing in a Bible-based Christian church"
This would be laughable if it weren't such a dangerous sentiment. You think there's a reason the courts decided on putting him in the care of qualified psychiatric professionals instead of sending him to church?
Spiritual malpractice certainly didn't help his condition, Casey. Hell, you know about all the horrible angst Armstrong put upon us through via sermons, articles, publications, and the broadcast. They tried to keep us on edge perpetually.
Assuming that Rohan suffered some sort of psychotic break, it is indeed possible that a more nurturing church could have either postponed this, or prevented it. Psychotic breaks are not an inevitability. And, I concur with you that secular therapy could also have been beneficial.
BB
@Bob: I agree with your assessment, but it's obviously psychology all the way down if professional psychiatry can accomplish the desired results without resorting to mumbo-jumbo about dying-rising-savior mysticism and holy books. The thing that could have helped in any religious intervention, as you said, would be the "nurturing", not the beliefs (even if the beliefs are conducive to that nurturing, it is the nurturing that does the job).
So, the point is, god-magic does not do anything, and it is dangerous to promote it as having power over health issues, since death-by-faith is at the bottom of that slippery slope.
I appreciate your point of view on this, Casey, but would hasten to add that I believe nurturing should be one of the natural fruits or by-products of true spirituality. That it was so lacking in Armstrongism contributes to the mountain of evidence that WCG and the splinters are in no way what they claimed to be.
I also realize that "nurturing" is neutral, not exclusive to any particular ideology. In any case, we agree that it is something which was sorely needed by Mr. Rohan, Terry Ratzmann, and others.
BB
Anonymous 5:55-----
Healing is a lifelong process. Over the past ten years, there have been many people on these Armstrong-related sites, forums, and blogs. These people are processing, and discussing, and in many cases searching for answers and solutions.
You will see meltdowns, you will watch people give voice to and deal with their own internal struggles, and in some cases you will get to see change and healing.
You never really know what is going on in the life of the person typing on keyboard. There are some whom we've later found out were just barely functional. You'll probably become aquainted with some successful, well-adjusted types, as well as people who are for many reasons unemployable. There are varying levels of people skills manifested on the forums as well. There are people who are good with words, but short on knowledge and vice versa. Varying levels of humility and ego. Some feel they have answers, others seek. Some want to be gurus, others simply want to observe and learn.
In other words, it's a giant gumbo, a microcosm of the human ecological system. Imperfect. It is what it is. For some it is an aquired taste, having been initially repulsive.
That being said, you are much more likely to encounter truth and healing in a healthy open forum than you would be in an organization which forces you to single-source your input of knowledge exclusively to them.
BB
Sharon,
I didn't say anything which would "glorify or worship the name of HWA or Spanky Meredith or Six Pack Flurry or the deviate message they preach."
My point is that many here talk about how mentally ill and what "myriad of idiots and fools" Armstrongites are, and yet YOU were ALL Armstrongites! So you convict yourself as mentally ill, idiots and fools, by your own statements.
You say, "If you want your HWA tool stroked then go and play on one of the cult blogs!"
Lovely, charming. Thank you ma'am.
But its the "stupidity of [rabid Anti-]Armstrongism" which one finds here, not calm and reasoned, rational arguments against some abuses that WCG leadership and its daughters commit.
But the foulness and the level of abuse here is at par with anything in the COGs.
What is odd to me is that you former Armstrongites are STILL WORSHIPING HWA! Only now as Satan rather than Elohim.
You were deceived the first time, perhaps this time also?
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