Saturday, February 27, 2016

Glynn Washington weaves his childhood in the WCG into his stories on PBS



Glynn Washington has a highly successful radio program that is known around the country.  He weaves his story of growing up in Armstrongism into many of his broadcasts.


Glynn Washington adding diversity to radio one story at a time New York Amsterdam News

"On this night, Washington opens up about his childhood in Pasadena, Calif., which was spent in the now infamous Worldwide Church of God, headed by the apocalyptic radio evangelist Herbert W. Armstrong. Many, including Washington, called the church a cult.  
I don’t know how this is possible, with the sadness and seriousness that was woven throughout the story, but laughter erupted in the room. Here is this man telling us that when he was a 9-year-old, he was going to school and telling his best friend goodbye, sleeping in shoes and trying to get right with Jesus so that he wouldn’t perish in the rapture. He was surrounded by adults who were doing the same thing. His family was almost convinced to send their lifesavings to Armstrong, then pick up and leave their home to follow this self-proclaimed prophet to a “safe place” before God’s rapture came, and we were all laughing. This is a true story, but we can laugh because it’s a part of his life that he has come to terms with. Now he is sharing it with us, so that we can take from it what we need or want."

NPR’s Great Black Hope The Atlantic


"That was 1997, when This American Life, Glass’s public-radio show, was just two years old, and people were beginning to suspect that his style of curated storytelling might be radio’s next big thing. Now Washington, a proud student of Glass’s, is the next big thing. In its first three years, Snap Judgment, Washington’s fast-paced, music-heavy, ethnically variegated take on the public-radio story hour, has spread like left-end-of-the-dial kudzu. It is on 250 stations, reaching nine of the top 10 public-radio markets, and its podcast is downloaded more than half a million times a month. And while there has long been minority talent on public radio—a realm that includes National Public Radio and other producers of non-commercial radio, like American Public Media and Public Radio International—Washington is the first African American host to swing a big cultural stick, the first who seems likely to become a public-radio superstar on the order of Glass or Garrison Keillor."

"Many NPR hosts come from NPR-ish families. Not Washington. “I grew up in a cult,” he told me. His parents were members of the Worldwide Church of God, a sect founded by Herbert W. Armstrong, an apocalyptic radio evangelist based in Pasadena. Washington got out—a story he tells with an escapee’s pride—and went on to the University of Michigan and its law school. He studied in Japan, then worked for the State Department, then ended up directing a program at the University of California at Berkeley. Some of the best Snap Judgment segments are drawn from his own life, and you get the feeling he could carry several episodes a year by himself."


14 comments:

Anonymous said...

So I'm supposed to be impressed by a former unconverted Gentile?

Chuckles said...

Anon 8:41... No one said you were supposed to be impressed, as it says, you can take from it what you need or want, if there's nothing for you then fine, but why judge before you even heard the guy. You obviously are missing the point and only want to criticize and be judgmental for whatever sour reason you have. Just because you think there's nothing for you in what this man has to offer, there obviously has been and is for a lot of others, too bad you don't get it.

Anonymous said...

"So I'm supposed to be impressed by a former unconverted Gentile?

Spoken like a true church bigot.

And, since the legends of British Israelism have been definitively proven wrong, unless you are of Jewish descent, you are most likely a "gentile" too. If you are of white European descent, you certainly are. Though I don't know why you would even want to toss around such words. Just in case you didn't know, ancient racism isn't any better than modern racism.

What you should be impressed by is this. Despite the COGs media budgets of tens of millions of dollars per year collectively to spread Herbie's racist cult "gospel," most people, even in the US, have zero awareness of Armstrongism. Literally, there's no amount of money you can pay to get people to take Herbie's product off the shelf these days. If those same people in the US ever do become aware of Armstrongism, it will be because they heard about it on NPR. Washington is singlehandedly doing a more impressive "work" than all the COGs combined, and he's not paying a cent to do it.

Unknown said...

So 8:41 are you converted? Converted from what to what. Sounds like you are self righteous and full of yourself you say he is a Gentile. Is that bad. Bet your a member of RCg PCg or LCg

Anonymous said...

I too am a gentile, but I can hardly wait for Christs return so He can send the gentiles back to their country of origin. He has the moral right to do so. Racial conflict will be a thing of the past. It will be heaven on earth. Those who don't like this, can go eat cake. A simply prayer request will confirm British-American-Israelism.

Unknown said...

8:09 how does a "simply" prayer request confirm British-American-Israeli? My cousin is half black and half white what is his country if origin?

Byker Bob said...

I've never been able to understand the line of Armstongist thinking that states that we will all have the mind of Jesus Christ in the Kingdom, but that people of various skin pigmentations must be sent back to somewhere so that there can be racial harmony! That is non sequitur, and patently ridiculous. I mean, are spirits actually going to be Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, Arabic, etc???

Only someone who plans to take their racial prejudices into the Kingdom would produce such a ridiculous doctrine. Why not just drop the supremacist posturing and all get along?

BB

Anonymous said...

9.48AM. God answers prayers. Ask Him weather it is correct. God has also supplied our minds with the ability to auto detect and correct spelling mistakes. Try using it Captain Nit picker. I am not Solomon, so I cannot answer your technical question about mix races.

Byker Bob said...

In answer to the ACOG dude who called Glynn a "gentile", maybe we should ask NPR to reward Glynn with a perq that would be educational for all. Celebrities these days are being given studies of their generics and family trees, with the results being presented on PBS. Wouldn't it be amazing if Glynn's ancestors had been of the Lemba tribe of
Africa, in whom there resides a disproportionate presence of Kohanime DNA? Then what would our bigotted friends have to say? Or, what if Glynn's geneology went back to Moses' wife? Both are real possibilities that Armstrong indoctrinees would not even consider!

BB

Anonymous said...

BB,

Not proving anything just adding some footnotes.

A lot of the 17th/18th century plantations on (what is now) the Brazilian coast were led by Jewish plantation owners. (who were expelled from spanish territories)

Remember "operation exodus" aswell, the Israeli airlift of the Falasha from Ethiopia in the 1990's.

nck

Anonymous said...

Oh I just saw your 12:01 comment!

The Stalinistic moving of the peoples was to occur in the World Tomorrow.
That is the 1000 year reign by man.

After that is the Kingdom where we were supposed to inherit the stars.

nck

Byker Bob said...

Still, racial prejudice and unrest in the millennium? Why would the only option be segregation? With spirit beings guiding and mentoring to all of the humans, there shouldn't be any racism. But, Armstrongites believe in a genetic hierarchy, where skin pigmentation dictates who is at the top of the triangle, and who is on the bottom. They seem to believe that God is the author of racism. Jesus provided several examples of defying such boundaries throughout His ministry. And it gets even stranger for CoG members because they think Jesus was the God of the Old Testament.

But, you know what? This is typical of the rest of their "start with the conclusion and then find supporting evidence" research methodology. As awful as it seems, some people just relish racism.

BB

Anonymous said...

BB 1:55,

Oh BB, don't tell me you shed a tear now and then watching that show. It would destroy my graven image of yours. I really liked the show with B. Underwood. Feeling a bit uncomfortable but still elated being amongst his dnatic kin. (who I'm sure did like some compensation by the producers performing their act for the fifth time that week :-), although I'm not in any way in doubt about that people's genuine hospitality not yet completely spoiled by our habits)

I also enjoyed the one with actress Hunt. GreatGranny living just opposite Waverly drive and alternating between Green Hotel in 1915. Coming from New York she felt compelled to change her name from Rothengarten to Roberts because of the rampant anti semitism in that time and area.

(as a side note) If greatgranny would have liked she could have visited a COG just three blocks up from Vernon in 1915. But of course such action would have resulted in a rage writing letters "how everything should have ended in 1844".

nck

Anonymous said...

Anonymous Anonymous said...So I'm supposed to be impressed by a former unconverted Gentile?

Of course not! Why do you ask?