American Protestants were fairly enlightened until the time Armstrong came on to the scene, its all gone down hill since. Billy Graham once referred to Herbert Armstrong as "a great man of prophecy". Herbert Armstrong predicted the end of the world would come in 1972 - doesn't pay a prophet to be too specific. We jokingly refer to Armstrong's church as a "non-prophet" organization.
For me it wasn't a conversion by choice, my father joined the religion when I was very young and I was compelled to go. I did spend about 34 years in the religion, which is not unusual, most Catholics grew up in their religion too, they didn't convert to it. In 1993 I began to see the little man behind the curtain for what he was. Then me and few friends started an internet campaign to change the organization and reveal its corruption. About half the membership left it for more productive lives. Those that remained splintered into dozens of new organizations. The parent organization is now a Karl Barth Calvinist style church.
I won't go into all the scandals of the religion, if you are interested in the sordid historical facts of its founders they are available at: http://hwarmstrong.com/ on a web site run by a friend of mine. I am not bitter towards the religion, the experience was a mixed bag. I still maintain friendships with those that don't mind having a heretic for a friend. Somethings taught were very good, but the image they presented of God, was frankly a monster.
The religion was soaked with fear and because the end was always near members never put away money for their children or their retirements. Fear of God, fear of the end times, fear of even your own God given reasoning and common sense were hallmarks of the religion. Armstrong practiced a self-censoring form of mind control and had studied not only Hitler, Marx and Hegel...he says just to know how evil they were. In one letter to co-workers he admits to being an FBI informant during the McCarthy era.
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One of the lawyers on that case told me the State of California went after the wrong things. They tried to find something wrong with the books. The Church had an air tight accounting system - in fact it was state of the art - it was a real time system that gave their current cash position at any given moment (that was in 1982). It was also pass phrase encrypting on the record level. What the State of California didn't ask was what Herbert W Armstrong did with that money, and all that required was a compliant Treasury who'd sign off on it. If the State came down, he could always have plausible deniability and fire the Treasurer. Those who didn't comply did get fired. I know of two such honest men.
The rest of the comments are here: Rumor Mill News: Bobby Fischer
Poster said, "Billy Graham once referred to Herbert Armstrong as "a great man of prophecy".
ReplyDeleteMY COMMENT - I have to challenge the accuracy of that statement. I seriously doubt Billy Graham ever made such a statement. If Graham had said it, we would have heard about it from the WCG pulpits to vainly give credibility to HWA and "the end time work of God".
The only connection I ever remember made to Billy Graham in the WCG was that his wife was a Plain Truth magazine subscriber.
Herbert Armstrong, son Garner Ted Armstrong and Billy Graham were religious broadcasters who were contemporizes of one another. In general, they publicly ignored one another.
I doubt Billy Graham ever made such a statement that would give legitimacy to Herbert Armstrong.
Richard
Actually I think he did. I heard this when I was in Pasadena too. This came from someone who worked in HWA's office, so I would give it some credibility.
ReplyDeleteAfter the changes started going down a Pasadena employee married Graham's son.
And, you believed everything that came from HWA's office.
ReplyDeleteWho made the big bucks anyway? What kind of compensation did the evangelist rank guys rake in ?
ReplyDeleteActually I do belive this person. She is not a liar. She was fired buy Spanky Meredith around the time of the receivership because she would not swear allegiance to Meredith or HWA. I have read Meredith's disgusting letter to her. He is a certified liar, plain and simple.
ReplyDeleteLet's get to the basics here.
ReplyDeleteMeredith was like Himler, Goehring and Hess in the nazi hierarchy, as were Hoeh and all other so-called evangelists. I've long equated WCG and much of the rest of organized Christianity with nazism.
The original Catholic Church was patterned after the fascist impeerial government of Rome (It was Nazi, pure and simple). It was just an extension of that government intended to foster order in the empire -- everybody thinking, saying and doing the same things.
Luther rebelled against the religious "ceasar" (pope) but maintained the basic organization and approach and so did the other "reformers." The manufactured catholic canon remains to this day and every time a modern christian bows down to and professes faith in it, he is in effect recognizing and bowing down to the pope.
This is a real conundrum when viewed in the context of churches that denounce the pope as an anti-christ and false prophet. HWA about blew a fuse when a movie glorifying the pope was shown on the stage where he preached as entertainment for the congregation. Yet, he preached from a book that only existed on the authority of the popes and imperial Rome.
I used to gloss over this gross contradiction, but no more. I reject the pope and I reject his book too.
There was a man that very much wanted Harmstrong and Billy Graham to meet - of course, I'm forgetting the man's name right now. If he didn't actually get them in the same room, he did get them on the same phone call, and each gave the other a mild compliment.
ReplyDelete"Great man of prophecy"? I'm not sure, but it sounds right. THere may be an account of this in Joe Tkach's snockered by the truth book.
I guess I should qualify my challenge to the Billy Graham statement by saying if Billy Graham ever made such a statement (and, I still seriously doubt he did) it would have had to have been made post 1976. My WCG experience ended in 1976, and I went on with my life.
ReplyDeleteAll my post WCG knowledge comes from family members who stayed in the Church and then went to the splinters, or from what I have read on the internet. So, if Graham had made such a statement, I believe I would have heard about it.
Considering Herbert Armstrong publicly labeled mainstream Sunday keeping Christians as false, I just can't imagine Graham making such an endorsing statement of Herbert Armstrong publicly.
I could be wrong, but it just didn't sound right when I read it. Everything else the poster wrote was true from what I know and recall from my WCG experience.
Richard
I remember a taped sermon in which HWA described the encounter. Though to be honest I cannot remember if it was Billy Graham or some other major evangelist of the time. If I remember correctly the way he described it, HWA stated someone thought it would be a great idea to arrange a call between the two. HWA's tone of voice indicated that he didn't think much of the idea.
ReplyDeleteBut he managed to turn it to his benefit by stating that the evangelist stated HWA was doing a major work in prophecy.
He of course described some vague reply to the evangelist about his work and then went on to harangue about christians "falsely so called".
I was there in 74/75 had heard the same thing in Pasadena about Graham. It may also be in one of his books. I don't remember the source but people were atwitter that a false preacher would recognize HWA as a true prophet.
ReplyDelete