Armstrongites love to say they follow everything that HWA taught yet they ignore so much. Why do they continue to ignore HWA's only "prophetic" words he ever spoke?
"We ought to be ASHAMED of the pitiful, puny, weak, feeble work that has split up and divided brethren, reached but so very FEW with the message, with almost no real conversions! All this, while leaders desiring power to RULE send out misleading, exaggerated, deceiving statements designed to convince tithe-payers that 'the work is progressing.' What a mockery! What a tragedy! What a pity!
Herbert W. Armstrong, "Did Christ Reorganize the Church?" Good News, April 1939
a prophet could not have spoken truer words!
ReplyDeleteLOL @ Donna, you misspelled "profit"
ReplyDeleteThanks No2, an excellent quote to go in my most recent article. Should be an awesome conclusion!
And here we are.
ReplyDeleteHerbert Armstrong spawned the whole thing.
I love it!
ReplyDeleteThe Armstrongs, all the evangelist rank mininisters of the old RCG/WCG, and people like Flurry and Dave Pack never envisioned 40 years ago of the powerful communications network of the internet - which could hold them accountable for their words and actions 40 or more years later.
How could the Information Age have been predicted in 1960s Worldwide Church of God which operated on a prophetic timetable of a 1972 German attack on America, and a 1975 return date of Jesus Christ?
In fact, if the Armstrongs were divinely inspired in their prophetic understanding, why didn't the Armstrongs or anyone associated with 1960s Worldwide Church of God predict the development of the internet and the Information Age?
Richard
To me this would indicate that, early on, HWA was sincere and recognized the reality of power, religion and the one man show.
ReplyDeleteLater, when he himself was caught up in it all, he either consciously decided to go along for the ride as the rewards were too big to deny, (It was the depression and religion can make bigger bucks when people are exhaused and frightened,) or subconsciously went into denial and learned "the eye that sees cannot see itself.'
All the secrets and masks that accumulate over time probably kept him in place by others who knew.
It just seems everything works this way. The Penn State scandals are what people in power do. Now it spreads and we see it is a common perk of power. Penn state pedophile scandal is probably a network that spreads everywhere.
The Franklin/Boys Town story is not uncommon. It's what people do.
To me, it's all connected to the fear of death and annhilation. This one recognition that only we, as conscious sentinent beings have, make us do what we want to do before we can no longer do it.
I have counselor friends who spent time counseling in Nursing Homes and had to quit doing it. They all say all they ever heard was regrets and I wish I had done this or that or had that relationship or took that trip. It gets to them and they go out endeavor not to have a life of regrets, which of course is unending and one can do and have it all and still have a boatload of them.
I love it! They come out with their nutty pronouncements and it's displayed in all its stupidity worldwide in hours. It won't disuade the truly fanatical, but it has a profound effect on those who still have a smattering of reasoning power left.
ReplyDeleteDennis wrote;
ReplyDelete"I have counselor friends who spent time counseling in Nursing Homes and had to quit doing it. They all say all they ever heard was regrets and I wish I had done this or that or had that relationship or took that trip."
Bingo - a fate I actively work to avoid.
Glenn Parker
Yes, Dennis, the fear of death enters into so much of what we see. Those regrets you speak of affect us all. I have mine, and I'm sure you have yours.
ReplyDeleteSo soon old and so late smart is a slogan I often think about. If we could just have the gravity and wisdom that comes with age a little earlier, what a big difference it might make. Then again, who knows how much better we'd do some things? Another saying is that there is no fool like and old fool.
Largely trying to compensate for the 15-20 years I spent in Armstrongism in my early years, and missing out on so many things which were good, but somehow ruled as bad or evil, I had done just about everything I ever wanted to do in life by the time I reached age 50.
ReplyDeleteThe main regrets I have concern the harmful programming I received in WCG, and the negative effects it has had in my life even as I tried to attain realistic programming. It's good to finally be ahead of the curve, but, what a deep process it all ended up being!
I think that if Herbie were to come back to life at this point in time, he'd do what he always did. Rant, rave, foam at the mouth, and shake those hog jowls, and the sheer impact of such a display would unite a lot of these splinters. However, for some, the cat is out of the bag. Certain despots have already learned how good it is to be king, and they would no longer be willing to kowtow to HWA. Basically, I think Gamaliel's job is pretty much done at this point. Herb's delusions have been experienced in the first person by some, and there is no turning back.
BB
Nope, splinters will not reunite even if one (Herb) returned from the dead. Each narcissist has his own turf to protect and more narcissists are in the wings itching for the opportunity to build their little empire at the expense of some already existing empire.
ReplyDeleteIt's similar to the collapse of the USSR and many other great empires. Once the process starts, it's virtually impossible to stem the tide.