It still is fascinating to checkout the Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association web site and STILL see GTA preaching as if he were alive. A person has to look long and hard to find out the he is no longer alive. He has been dead since September 15, 2003.
Part of the reason the site is till up is that GTA's voice and writings are the bread and butter for Shirley, Ted's living wife and his son Mark. Everyone knows that Mark, their son, is NOT a driving force as his father was. While I am sure Mark is a pleasant guy to be around and a great family man he is not a calling card for the Intercontinental Church of God. Like most of the other COG's, it does not draw in people from the world, but exists because it is made up of old former Worldwide Church of God members who either went with him from his beginning in 1978 or church hopped. With 700 other Church of God splinter personality cults out there, all claiming they carry the true mantle of truth, the Intercontinental Church of God no longer is able to draw in members because of the Armstrong name. Even though they try mightily, undead Ted just cant bring them in any more.
Browsing the ICG web site you will find a section called Church Library. There are no books on religion, spiritually or Jesus there, but there is this:
Stoopid just about says it all!
Charity Navigator shows that Mark and Shirley draw a modest salary. I suspect the church owns everything (house, cars, etc.) so the salary is spending money. As Stanley Rader said, It's not what you own, its what you control. I doubt if the church has more than 1,000 members and they are simply living off the residue of GTA's videos, etc.
ReplyDeleteTiming is everything. If the truth about Herbert W. "who's your Daddy?" Armstrong had come out, oh, let's say in 1967 shortly after Loma's death, and before the GTA scandal broke, GTA's sins would have seemed miniscule next to his dad's. Though the outcome might have changed, bottom line is that, despite creating a unique religious "product", neither one was really quailified for the ministry.
ReplyDeleteThere is a ministry based over in Australia (Hillsong) in which the son retired his dad because of some sort of heinous sexual sins.
The Armstrongism scam is one hot mess!
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No video shrine to Garner Ted would be complete without the video of him with Suerae Robertson. I hope that one is included. His voice is golden, his hair is silver, so what's left over must be bronze.
ReplyDeleteI hate how people say stupid things like, "everyone has their 'king David' moment." Oh, you mean that "moment" when you think you can get away with egregious bullshit and still hang onto your "holy" status (superiority complex) which is rendered immutable just because you think you're god's greatest gift to humanity? No, not "everyone" has a "moment" like that. Many if not most people go their whole lives without ever having even so much as one "moment" like that. But a few people seem to have a neverending string of these "moments." It's as if they live for these "moments," even if they don't want others to know. Funny how these "moments" seem to run in families too.
How is it that some people are willing to give these guys a pass, and keep giving them a pass (and a check), even after they've passed away? GTA videos should have (and generate) zero currency by now. They should have run out of relevancy by about 1996. For how long can the Intercontinental Ballistic Church of GTA stay aloft? Why do some people keep surrendering themselves to be the ongoing fuel for this and other COG rackets which are bankrupt in every way except financially?
I believe there was an article in the 1970s entitled "In Bed With Garner Ted".
ReplyDeletePerhaps a newer 2014 version should read...
"Being DEAD with Garner Ted!"
Connie Schmidt said...
ReplyDeleteI believe there was an article in the 1970s entitled "In Bed With Garner Ted".
Perhaps a newer 2014 version should read...
"Being DEAD with Garner Ted!"
March 25, 2014 at 6:52 PM
HA! That's a good one!
Commonly known as "Necro-Evangelism"
ReplyDeletehttp://ezinearticles.com/?Necro-Evangelism-When-Dead-Men-Do-Tell-Tales&id=237021
You definitely have to be a psychopath/sociopath, narcissistic, etc, all those wonderful satanic traits if you can have no shame or remorse, or better than that, not even acknowledge stupid things you do, all the time calling yourself an evangelist and supposedly preaching the gospel on TV with quite a following, the whole time having videos of yourself naked, groping your masseuse all over the internet. A REEEEEEEAAL WEEEINER!!
ReplyDelete"His voice is golden, his hair is silver, so what's left over must be bronze."
ReplyDeleteNot sure if "bronze" or "brazen" would be the more apt description...
Finding Garner Ted on the radio in 1969 -- and finding him interesting -- was the most irresponsible thing I ever did. The first in a series of irresponsible, life-ruining steps we struggled, or struggle, to recover from.
ReplyDeleteAs long as I live, I know I can never make a worse decision than deciding to think that what he said was worthwhile, and that I'd like to know more.
His message is as dead as he is. Why, people, do you persist in thinking there's anything at all of ANY value in any of it?
"a ministry based over in Australia (Hillsong)"
ReplyDeleteThank you for mentioning Hillsong and one of the many scandals involved with Hillsong.
Hillsong is one of the worst of the worst of all Christian ministries.
Did someone say "In bed with Garner Ted"?
ReplyDeletehttp://youtu.be/UcUb9c9IWUc
Hey, it could have even been worse! I mean what if GTA had been into rohypnol?
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I thought the website looked pretty much abandoned, as if they simply lost interest in it.
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