Thursday, August 23, 2012

HWA Films Preserved Forever In Library of Congress



Gerald Flurry, affectionately known as Six Pack McFlurry, is reporting on his site that Herbert Armstrong's television broadcasts from 1972 - 1986 are now preserved in the The Library of Congress Film and Television Archives. U.S. Congress Preserving Herbert W. Armstrong Video Archive

The United States Library of Congress Film and Television Archives contain all episodes of the World Tomorrow program featuring unofficial ambassador for world peace Herbert W. Armstrong, dating from 1972 through 1986.

You need to give Bob Dole the thanks for this miraculous event.

On April 4, 1977, President Jimmy Carter hosted a state dinner in honor of the Egyptian president at the White House. Sen. Bob Dole was in attendance, along with Mr. Armstrong’s youngest son, who assisted him during that time in presenting the World Tomorrow broadcast.

The dinner aided in opening doors for The World Tomorrow, featuring special interviews with Mr. Sadat and episodes highlighting challenges facing American farmers, coinciding with Mr. Dole’s service on the U.S. Senate Committee for Agriculture. 

I have to laugh that Six Pack and crew cannot mention Garner Ted's name.  Is it because GTA was a more dynamic and engaging speaker than Six Pack will ever be?

It was in 1978 during his tenure as Kansas senator that Mr. Dole made the request for the preservation of episodes of The World Tomorrow. The request was approved and ensured the cataloging by the U.S. Library of Congress of all programs dating from 1972 through to the death of its founder and presenter.  

Then as usual, Six Pack then launches into his usual tired and over worked tirade about the betrayal of Herb's legacy and how he and John Amos were picked on and fired.  Oh boo hoo!

With Mr. Armstrong’s death, in a great betrayal of trust, his successors sought to subsequently eliminate his written, spoken and otherwise documented teachings. A battle officially began on Dec. 7, 1989, with the firing of Trumpet founder Gerald Flurry and his assistant John Amos from the employ of the church established by Christ through Herbert Armstrong. Both these men were intent on preserving Herbert Armstrong’s legacy in resistance to those bent on destroying all records of Mr. Armstrong and his legacy.

Mr. Flurry and Mr. Amos’s contention revolved around the rejection of the man and message evidenced in The World Tomorrow reaching over 400 stations, the Plain Truth magazine with over 8 million subscribers, and an unofficial ambassadorial bond with global leaders, culminating in Mr. 

Then Six Pack starts boasting, ala Dave Pack Primary School of Self Promotion, on how his television program is recognized around the world as the successor to Herb's World Tomorrow broadcast.  Who recognizes that?  Certainly not the world because Six Pack's programs are not recognizable and are making no impact whatsoever.



By January 1993, with Gods Future World now renamed the Key of David television program, the first episode aired nationwide of what viewers worldwide now recognize as the heir to the World Tomorrow broadcast. Armstrong’s final and finest book, Mystery of the Ages. 
Reaching an ever broadening worldwide audience, especially via the Internet, the Key of David has established itself as the only source of the pure, unadulterated preservation of the preaching of Jesus Christ’s prophetic gospel message in the tradition of Herbert Armstrong.
The "only source?"  Even my cats laying in front of my monitor right now are laughing at that one.

Doesn't Six Pack know that Dave Pack's broadcasts have a far more important world wide reach that makes it the worlds largest and most unadulterated pure legacy to HWA's broadcasts?  Poor Six Pack, always trying to be the best and never quit getting there.  His endless imitation of "all things Herb" has led him and his cult into financial troubles with his new mini-me auditorium.  Yet the gullible sheeple still send in their money to finance Six Pack and crew's lavish lifestyles.


 

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is hilarious to me, knowing Dave Pack, that all the comments from his podcasts on Youtube have been shut off. That has to drive him nuts because the narcissistic supply cannot be fed.

M.T.Podcasts

Byker Bob said...

Well, is it "preserving Mr. Armstrong's legacy", or is it a blatant refusal to examine new information and to receive correction, iow willfull perpetuation of toxic error?

I learned many years ago, that it doesn't matter if one realizes that secret high performance parts are available through General Motors. Unless you know the part numbers, and where to find them, just knowing that they are there is useless. Also, the broad majority of the population wouldn't even be concerned about the existence of such parts. It's the same way with the Library of Congress. This is largely a meaningless bit of news that Flurry is attempting to magnify for his own purposes, as the Library of Congress is a huge graveyard, a resource perhaps one person in a million would even think to access.

BB

Allen C. Dexter said...

Very good point BB. I've never spent any time in the Library of Congress, and I doubt I ever will.

Only very serious scholars on specific quests are going to set foot in there for research. I doubt very seriously there is any longer much call for research about old Herb and his bombasticism. I'll bet that Bob Dole would have trouble recalling the brief encounter he had with him and his "yioungest son."

All politicians make such requests for constituents, especially those who have a mass communications formats open to them. It's good politics.

Anonymous said...

I checked and the comments are indeed closed on Pack's Youtube videos. I'm guessing he didn't want any voices of oposition right along side his BS.

Anonymous said...

Unless you already know that HWA existed and had a TV show you would have absolutly no interest in the videos that are in the library of congress. The only people with potentialy any interest are those who are already Armstrongites or the very few who are interested in doing research on him. I suspect that is very very very few people. Those archives are going to collect many layers of dust.

Painful Truth said...

Why would six-pack have them placed in the library of congress? Has he not been preaching that the Germans are coming, the Germans are coming?

And when invading armies come to your shore, what would you expect them to do? Burn any artifact of the American empire.

Assistant Deacon said...

Flurry's lieutenant is so intentionally dishonest, it's laughable.

"U.S. Congress Preserving Herbert W. Armstrong Video Archive" blares the headline on the Trumpet site, as if any member of Congress is even aware of it, much less cares. Earth to Gareth: They aren't, and they don't.

He makes a mountain out of a legislator's molehill recommendation that the programs to be archived in the Library of Congress, something obviously done based on a request. I could do the same thing with my kids' grade school papers if I had the right connections.

He then rambles on for several paragraphs about Dole's accomplishments, as if they had anything to do with HWA or Flurry or anybody else. Earth to Gareth: They didn't, and they don't.

And his bizarre hypothetical, in which he imagines Dole "perhaps" recalling the request, is simply pathetic. Then again, it eerily recalls the time when HWA published his imaginary interview with Mao that "might have taken place," but of course never did.

By the way, his ridiculous assertion that GTA "assisted" with the presentation of the telecst in the 70s is ridiculous. GTA was the broadcast, period. HWA was nowhere near the television studio. He was more likely off in the desert diddling around with his girlfriend while railing about the lack of morality in society.

These people are just plain ignorant. No wonder the comments about the article on the Trumpet website are just as ignorant.

The dishonesty and lack of a relationship with reality among Flurry and his crew will come back to haunt them, and ultimately undermine everything they think they're accomplishing.

Anonymous said...


"HWA Films Preserved Forever In Library of Congress "


That would be wonderful. People could look at the original things rather than Gerald Flurry's edited and changed versions.

Remember how Gerald Flurry edited Herbert W. Armstrong's last and most important book, called Mystery Of The Ages, so that he could pass himself off as a prophet while leading the church.

In fact, Gerald was so busy making up all sorts of nonsense offices, titles, and positions for himself that he did not seem to figure out until about two decades later that Herbert W. Armstrong had taught that the Church was led by an apostle, not by a prophet. Finally, about two decades late, the little runt took that title too.

Anonymous said...

"HWA Films Preserved Forever In Library of Congress "

Why not take a page from Christian revisionist "historian" David Barton's "Lies for Jesus", and just proclaim, "HWA Films Endorsed by Congress, and Preserved Forever!"?

Influential right-wing Christian nutcase Liar for Jesus David Barton has had, as a mainstay of his talks for many years, a similar lie.

(Sadly and of course, (sorry:) many people believe David Barton's lies, because he wears a big white Stetson Hat, is wrapped in an American flag, and rides a white stallion, just like Jesus.)

Norm

Retired Prof said...

Whatever others think about government expenditures, I heartily approve of the Library of Congress. Scholars still bemoan the burning of the Library at Alexandria in ancient times and the burning of monastic libraries in Britain in the medieval era.

Let us hope the Library of Congress and the British Library in London remain intact as far into the future as there are historians, literary scholars, and historical linguists who are curious about their contents.

By the way, in a sociology of religion course my daughter was assigned to write about the Armstrongist churches. She had some advantage because her grandmother was a member of one. She would have profited from hearing some of the original sermons as well.

Anonymous said...

You forgot one, Deacon:

"The Plain Truth magazine with over 8 million subscribers..."

People like Flurry and Pack like to lie with that statistic, even though they know full well there were never 8 million subscribers, or anything close to it.

What HWA claimed was 8 million in circulation, and that wasn't even true. They may have printed that many copies every month, but stacks and stacks ended up at the bottom of trash bins all over the world. That was after they were put out on "newsstands" (if half of them ever were) and nobody took them.

The things that could have been done with all that money that was wasted so HWA could make another idle boast about the scope of "the Work"! Members in need could have been helped, not to mention others in communities where they lived and worked. Church buildings could have been built. The college could have been set up with an endowment.

But no, it was more important to stroke HWA's ego and make it look like God was blessing "the Work." And now the HWA-worshippers continue the lie. It's no wonder guys like Flurry and Pack are racing to build copycat campuses, too.

What a disgusting joke.

Anonymous said...

"8 million subscribers"

Technically this was true. Up until the early '70s the subscribers had never been asked to renew their subscriptions. Until then, once a person was added to the mailing list, they got the PT until either they or their heirs asked to be taken off the list or the post office reported that they were no longer at that address and there was no forwarding address.

Naturally a mailing list that has never been purged would have a lot of uninterested subscribers so the renewal rate was abysmal. The number of copies mailed to subscribers dropped from about 8 million to under 2 million from one issue to the next.

But at one time there really were about 8 million copies mailed out. The average number of readers per copy was well below one.

Lake of Fire Church of God said...

This brings to mind the end of the Indiana Jones movie that showed this HUGE Government warehouse with boxes upon boxes for as long as the eye could see. Somewhere in a box burried deep below a bunch of other boxes one will find the HWA films preserved FOREVER! Oh jump for Joy!

Richard

Byker Bob said...

The alleged subscription rates of the magazines are another example of one of HWA's sins (lying) that his latter day followers will refuse to repent of. In fact, it becomes a mainstay in their arsenal of marketing tools, and perhaps Dave Pack's constant hyperbole provides the best example. It is an example of the many ways in which HWA's advertising background polluted and corrupted the pursuit of spiritual enlightenment.

BB

Anonymous said...

"The alleged subscription rates of the magazines are another example of one of HWA's sins (lying) that his latter day followers will refuse to repent of."

I don't get why any of Herbert Armstrong's "latter day followers" would have a need to "repent" for any of HWA's craziness.

I agree, though, that much of what is taught to(and used by) salesmen and advertising men is cheesy at best(if not downright sleazy), and exemplified by the craptastic preaching of so many mainstream Christians of today.

Norm

Anonymous said...

Listen, no big deal. Cartoons of Cruisader Rabbit and Popeye are also preserved in the Library of Congress, and I'd be willing to bet that they get more attention than HWA.

Anonymous said...

Dole was a personal friend of Ted Armstrong. Ted Armstong did not know Bob Dole instructed The Library to preserve the programs. No person within the Churches of God knew the programs were preserved. They are the only programs of any church preserved into the national archives. There are no cartoons in the archives.