There was a great piece in the in the Pasadena Star News recently by Larry Wilson. The article is about Bobby Fischer and a new play about his wacky life. The interesting thing to me is the first few comments.
Pasadena has been home to the emergence of several wacko men who achieved greatness with their far out beliefs. L Ron Hubbard and Scientology, Jack Parsons of JPL and his descent into demonism and the dark arts, G G Green and his patent medicines and more. Add to that mix Herbert Armstrong and his empire and Bobby Fischers descent into madness through his affiliation with Armstrongism.
He starts the article off with this quote:
WHAT is it with Pasadena and wacko visionary celebrities of the oddest stripe?
Maybe not so much now - although several lurk.
But, in the `40s and `50s, L. Ron Hubbard when he was still a mere science fiction writer and JPL co-founder and dark arts practitioner Jack Parsons; in the pioneer era huckster geniuses such as Colonel G.G. Green - patent medicines - and "Professor" Thaddeus Lowe, the Civil War aeronaut who made millions in hydrogen and lost it all on the failed alpine resort at Mt. Lowe.
All three of the above lived on South Orange Grove Boulevard. So did a later wacko - or just off of it, at least. Chess genius and if anything deeper wacko Bobby Fischer moved to Pasadena in the 1980s because of a truly weird affiliation with the Worldwide Church of God, center of Herbert W. Armstrong's empire at the magnificent Ambassador College campus on the boulevard and just east of it.
Bobby Fishers association with Armstrongism is legendary. It made the news in Pasadena for many years. All the books currently out talk about how Armstrong and the Church exploited him for the publicity, then kept encouraging as he descended into madness.
Wilson continues:
Fischer was one of those creepiest of the creepy unfortunates in this world - a massively anti-Semitic Jew. So he latched on to the WCG as a port in his personal storm, when he'd achieved his lifetime goal of a world chess championship and then after a time declined to defend his title as he went more and more insane.Fischer found several compatriots that were anti-Jewish in Armstrongism. There has always been that undercurrent of antisemitism present in the Church. Many try to deny it, but it was there. Some of the men in LCG and UCG were the men who were passing around The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and other anti-Semitic books.
One would think that a church would not be involved in this stuff, would be setting the example on what it means to be people of faith and morality, but that has never been the case with us. It's been one news story after another. Adulterous leaders, fornicating Elders, rapists, murderers, thieves, preachers of aberrant doctrine and more. The list could go on for many more paragraphs. Armstrongism has left a sad trail of destruction it's wake. So much for being agents of the Kingdom of God! Like many others, I have to say "No Thanks!"
Read the entire article here: Larry Wilson: Bobby Fischer makes it back to Pasadena
3 comments:
When my parents first dragged us into WCG, we became aware that our new beliefs had much in common with Judaism. In fact, my parents had to correct me in the early years, because since nobody had ever heard of a church with such a ridiculous name as "Radio Church of God", I would sometimes just cut to the chase and tell people I was Jewish. Boy, did that ever provoke a thunderstorm!
During our second or third F/T in Tejas, and this would probably be around 1960, HWA passed a comment during a sermon that he had never met a converted Jew. And, there was no mistake about his including Jews who were WCG members in this category. He apparently believed that the Jewish mind was genetically set up to resist conversion. Obviously, this was prior to his daliance with Stan Rader and Bob Kuhn.
During the 1960s, at least at AC-Pasadena, being a Judeophile was the accepted norm! In fact, students anxiously researched their own ancestries trying to find the least little smattering of gefilte fish in the woodpile. Jews who had not grown up going to temple, and had been raised as gentiles, were looked up to eagerly, anticipating formidable logic skills and natural business acumen. This actually, when you think of it, was blatant racial stereotyping, if not overt racism.
HWA almost came unglued, gushing over Israel's performance in the 6 day war! It was as if he considered it a vicarious victory, since the Armstrongs preached that America had won its last war.
HWA/WCG had a very odd worldview involving both Israel and Germany. There was definitely a very intense love-hate relationship going on! They gushed over Franz Josef Strauss, too!
BB
It's not unlike COG people in the U.S. being staunchly conservative, Republican all the way (even if voting was/is WRONG!), and now unable or unwilling to see that the country is changing. Any time a group blithely assumes that the status quo will remain, they're in for a rude awakening sooner or later.
HWA's view of the world came from the 1800s and early 1900s. The U.S. wasn't that far rermoved from slavery when he was born. Racial prejudice was common, and even permitted by law, during most of his life. The "rising up" of any race other than whites was cause for concern, and it was reflected in his beliefs and writings.
That game is over, and with it his stereotypes and faulty assumptions.
Very true Assistant Deacon. Also, my parents who met at AC told me years ago that the college originally did not accept black students. Then, when the civil rights bill was passed, in the mid 60's, the were kinda forced to accept some black students, BUT...not unless they were married. Dating was only for white people. And no chances would be taken that interracial dating might occur. Especially not questionable black men with our virtuous white women. Must protect the womenfolk now. Miscegenation is not a part of our culture and heritage. And can't have any colored people in the color guard.
I can't imagine being one of the first black students in any type of school in the 60's. What a surreal experience that must have been. How you gonna learn anything when you're balanced between the Feds who mandate your presence there and the fact that every single person there doesn't want you there? So, yeah, no matter what, there would have been a lot of problems for black students entering all-white schools for the first time, and dating is going to be just one of them.
But anyway, was HWA a racist? Probably not any more than anyone else who was raised in Des Moines, Iowa around the turn of the 20th century. Which is to say, heck yeah.
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