There is a new blog up that is filled with wonderful insights of a woman who grew up in the church.
From the time that I have been able to talk, I have had to explain about the doctrine and beliefs that Herbert Armstrong both concocted and plagiarized to create The Worldwide Church of God and the effect that it has had on millions of people all over the world.
Honestly, I'm sick to death of it.
But in the same way that someone with a very noticeable scar or missing limb must continue tell the story of their ordeal when they meet someone new who can't help but ask, so I am still explaining the false doctrines and sharing stories of rampant abuse, fraud, and neglect with people who are curious about the cult.
As much as I hate it and wish I could just "get past it somehow," I can't.
This is my baseline.
Coming to accept that truth was a difficult road to travel because I kept telling myself that there was some way I could "normalize" myself.
I so desperately wanted that to be possible, but you can't change the way that you were raised. The best you can hope for is to adapt and overcome. Our experiences make up our foundations and it's up to us to reinforce them with better building materials as we go along. But the original elements of the foundation will always be there, because you can't unbuild the house while you're living in it.
I was born into a cult and raised by a devotee of Herbert W Armstrong. Consequently, their teachings and beliefs are my default settings even if I no longer believe in, nor even approve of them in any way. Much like the Outlook Mail or Groove Music Player that you can't delete from Windows 10, so are the idiosyncrasies of the people who observe The Days Of Unleavened Bread, and know the the hymn"Blessed and Happy Is the Man" better than they know they know the song "Jingle Bells".
When Herbert Armstrong started his "Radio Church of God" back in 1933 he was a frustrated 41 year old "Ad Man" who couldn't stand the fact that his job consisted entirely of upselling the value of something he couldn't afford or someone in a better position than himself.
I think that is one of the main reasons he failed to make a profitable go of the advertising business and thus was forced to turn to the life of a con man trapped in his own con for the rest of his days. He could never conjure anything more important in his mind than his own ego and insatiable lust for "the finer things in life."
Herbert may not have had a brilliant intellect, but he did learn what the internet would come to call the, "one weird trick" of being successful.
Even if you aren't great yourself, you can still rise above your peers as long as you can hide, or even destroy their potential.
So, how did he manage to do that?
The first step was to take away the idea of hope for the future of society. Because without a future, what use is potential?
In the late 1920s, while studying for his Nonexistent Pretend Theology degree at the Not Even A Recognized School of Any Kind, Portland Public library, Herbert Armstrong discovered a profound power that resides in the biblical narrative.
SOMETHING VERY BAD IS GOING TO HAPPEN AND PEOPLE ARE GOING TO SUFFER LIKE THEY NEVER HAVE BEFORE OR EVER WILL AGAIN.
Further down her posting is this gem of truth:We don't know when it will happen, but probably sometime sooner rather than later, so y'all best get your shoes on and be ready to flee whenever you hear the trumpets.
Herbert probably realized that the more strongly someone believed that The End Times were close at hand, the less they would care about preparing for their future financial security or reputation in the community.
A man who believes that Christ will return to Earth within the next 3 years has no motivation to spend 8 years getting a PhD. A family who thinks they will be going to a "place of safety" before the end of the decade, has no motivation to pay off a mortgage or save for a new car.
And why should someone not give most of their money to help "God's Apostle" spread the true gospel today? After all, in a few years all material possessions will all be worthless anyway, right?
I'm pretty sure that the ramifications of promoting this line of thinking never really crossed his mind.
But let me ask you this...
What does the constant reinforcement of the idea that Satan is about to take over the entire world and we are already surrounded by demons who are trying to separate us from our salvation do to your mental health?Ripley invites your thoughts on what he has written. See his blog here that also has other entries mentioning Armstrongism: "What Did He Do That Was So Wrong?" (Part One)
35 comments:
Those of us who have left the cult first try to act as if we were never in it. However, we find that's an exercise in futility. We'll always be in a state of recovery.
Ripley is spot on about robbing us of our potential. He asked why prepare for the future when you only have 3 to 5 years left. It hurts to know that I pushed Herbert’s agenda. I taught tithing thinking it was financing the “work of God”. It angers me to now realize Herbert was living the lifestyle of a king while the members were living in poverty. Once my mind was cleared of the fog Herbert created, I studied the subject of tithing. If you have not studied tithing go read it for yourself, it was given by land owners for the people. It was for the Levite’s, the poor, the widow and orphans. It was food products placed in the storehouse to be used by those in need. Those administrators were not to keep the best for themselves, ie fine china, silver or gold tableware, rare wines, Cognac etc. I could go on but most know the story already.
Joe jr also did a masterful job of squandering all the assets left to him.
I was dumber than so many of you. I didn’t walk away till 1995, at age 51
Jim-AZ
"... his Nonexistent Pretend Theology degree at the Not Even A Recognized School of Any Kind ... "
Great minds rapidly grow beyond the mediocre stuff produced for the masses in mass education. They are able to think for themselves and see beyond it. It's a system of propaganda, group-think, and conformity.
But Herbert never even got to the stage of mass education at the college level. He was less than mediocre as an intellectual.
Was this a co-worker writing? Someone raised in a household where an abusive parent watched the telecast, perhaps?
HWA didn't teach that Satan is "about to take over" the world. HWA taught that Satan has already taken over the whole world, and that he will be in charge until Christ replaces him as King of the world. I feel sorry for this man and his terrible childhood, but it appears to have nothing to do with the craziness that HWA actually taught.
Manicheism.
Nck
1:26 -
You're right. We have to accept the fact that reality is what it is. It's called "Radical Acceptance". I will share my education on this fascinating coping mechanism in time here on this blog. We may always be in a state of recovery but get this little nugget of goodness here:
Pain is inevitable (unavoidable); suffering is optional.
There's an old saying. "The kids who earn 'A's in college go on to work for the kids who earn 'C's in college. The kids who earn 'B's in college go on to work for the government."
This was even true at AC. HWA and his ministers had a deep distrust of academically smart people. They preferred what they called the "balanced" students who studied, but didn't study too hard, and who did athletics, but weren't muscle-bound, and who were socially active but not hard partiers.
At AC, if you had an A+ GPA you were destined to be a minor bureaucrat somewhere in the Pasadena apparatus. Of course, you got that A+ by faithfully regurgitating what your ministers told you. If you actually used your academic intelligence, you would likely get expelled.
In marketing, there is nearly always the axioms of "limited time offer" and "life will be unbearable without this".
End of the world scenario is a common go to, like ideas of Climate Change killing everyone, or that the Dems or the Reps will destroy everything if they are elected. Im not debating the issues here, just that there must always be some kind of URGENCY to a message in order to motivate people to act and "ACT NOW".
Armstrong used the 3 to 5 year thing for 50 years! I think he understood that no one is going to sign up for a 50 year stint under all of the overbearing demands that the cult required. It needed some immediacy as the proverbial carrot to get people stirred up to join.
You also need some drama, including internal drama and a good enemy to hate , in order to move the masses and to unite them behind you. Napoleon, Stalin, Mao, Hitler and others all gave their followers all of these things in various doses to maintain power. Armstrong created lots of good enemies, THE World, GTA, "The dissidents", "The Liberals", "The intellectuals", ad nauseam.
Once you stop living your own dreams, and your own actualization of self that God has given us all, and sublimate this to a greater ego , such as a cult leader, you are now living a vicarious life, and are subject to all kinds of crazy direction.
Beware of cultic marketing in EVERYTHING! .... politics, nationalism, religion, businesses, for it is found in virtually all human endeavors.
Tonto, back in 1995 I sat in a folding metal chair at a Global Church of God Sabbath service, and listened to Rod Meredith give an impassioned sermon. I wrote down the list of things he said would happen in the next "5 to 10" years. By 2006 I had the proof I needed that God wasn't inspiring Meredith's words. I left the Living Church of God with a clear conscience, and was shocked that so many were staying who had heard exactly the same things I heard.
You know what it left me after 40 years? It left me with NO dreams, no aspirations. I learned to live for the tribulation, for the kingdom and everything else was the means to get there. Even now, after leaving over 15 years ago, I feel cheated that I never had anything tangible to look forward to.
2:21pm, he was smarter than you, he got your money.
2:23 Ripley is a woman.
Of course the ramifications of Herbs ongoing 'time is short' message crossed his mind.
It must have since he would have at times heard the outcrys of his many victims. But being a bastard, he would have shrugged this off with the expression "collateral damage." Meaning, the utilitarian "the greatest good for the greatest number." It's the line of reasoning used by Hitler, Stalin and Mao to murder millions.
2:23 said "until Christ replaces him as King of the world"
world??? I thought they implied 'universe.'
4:39
"cultic marketing in EVERYTHING!"
indeed. Can see it everywhere now.
Just recently learned what 'love-bombing' is, and now see it as a cult-learned methodology, in many 'human endeavors.'
Kudos to the blogger for speaking up, and this website for shedding more light.
Am only recently understanding the life-long affect of my time in the cult, even having left it long ago.
Entering the church in the early 80's., there was no "constant idea that Satan was going to take the whole world over. There was however a big emphases on looking to and for the 10 nation European juggernaut that would initiate the last days of prophecy.
We as a family had no worries and everyone that I conversed with had no worries about anything related to prophecy because we were taught that we were going to the PLACE OF SAFETY.
We as well never taught the children to fear anything coming because it was more about our responsibilities of living a Christian life.
I think the constant fear mongering was more localized especially for those who had ministers who were addicted to prophecy sermon after prophecy sermon.
Read the books by Robert Cialdini - "Influence: the psychology of Persuasion" and "Pre-suasion" - he shows what to watch out for, and to recognize when we are falling for these tricks.
I see some of the same WCG marketing techniques with companies selling other products.
America is all about sales and marketing - religion, media, politics, consumer goods, high priced subscriptions, and on and on.
In my elaborate 3:15 statement I taught extensively and adequately how the great rival of traditional christianity and islam spawned from parents in a jewish christian sect the Elacaites related to the Ebionites.
The idea of light vs darkness in a dualist worldview does is so much older than a "portland library concoction" and is the original "church of god" worldview.
After reading Ripley it also occured to me that only 7 years after HWA started broadcasting his message the entire world plunged into large scale suffering and tribulation only dwarved by the intense diabolical suffering of some minority groups by which nowadays all suffering is measured as a yardstick.
The commenter is right that "Satan was never "about to take over". The commenter does not understand Armstrongs basic theology.
In that theology Satan IS presently the rightful king/ruler of this world and the better world or king is about to appear.
In a sense we are in the World Tomorrow now. (and as Tonto points out) The "World of Tomorrow 1939 fair" was another product of Edward L Bernays, the father of public relations.
This idea of technological progress combined with american type of democracy created the "age of consent" and transferred the "pursuit of happiness" to the pursuit of democratic consumerism.
Now we are entering the 4th industrial revolution and it is even more important to know what you know or what you feel. As we type on this blog we are sharing that directly and immediately with google who is all knowing, omni present and in the near future will create a feedbackloop benefitting the masses through the interpretation of this agregated data on the behavior and feeling of the masses.
Unfortunately, this data contains all kinds of terrible mistakes and biases so I am curious as to what will be unleashed upon us.
Until that time people will ask me why I act as a defense lawyer of the truth and not go along with their obvious mistaken identification with the wrong combination of facts that led to their personal downfall or at least the feeling that they cannot cope in their particular construct of the truth. ( that is going straight into the algorythms determining their future)
PS
I feel I should see "inside john malkovich" again after many years. See if the 3 and a half floor offers me a new insight.
Nck
Jim said: "Ripley is spot on about robbing us of our potential. He asked why prepare for the future when you only have 3 to 5 years left. It hurts to know that I pushed Herbert’s agenda. I taught tithing thinking it was financing the “work of God”. It angers me to now realize Herbert was living the lifestyle of a king while the members were living in poverty. Once my mind was cleared of the fog Herbert created, I studied the subject of tithing. If you have not studied tithing go read it for yourself, it was given by land owners for the people. It was for the Levite’s, the poor, the widow and orphans. It was food products placed in the storehouse to be used by those in need. Those administrators were not to keep the best for themselves, ie fine china, silver or gold tableware, rare wines, Cognac etc. I could go on but most know the story already. Joe jr also did a masterful job of squandering all the assets left to him. I was dumber than so many of you. I didn’t walk away till 1995, at age 51"
You’re not alone Jim. I was once a believer too! I even remember as a dumb teenager in high school telling a couple of girls I’d get them a free subscription to the PT magazine that, “I believe the Worldwide Church of God is the true Church!” I cringe when I think about that now! I guess like HWA would say I was sincere in my beliefs, but boy was I sincerely deceived! Lol! So ironic huh?! I shake my head at it all now! For me it wasn’t until about a decade ago that I started to re-study everything HWA/WCG taught as Bible truth. Like you and others I’ve come to see things so much more differently now to how HWA did--in many instances I have Christian beliefs that are completely opposite to what HWA/WCG taught (eg tithing is not a Christian doctrine and never was on money to start with). What I am grateful for today, however, is that God has opened my eyes to understand His liberating Truth through His Holy Spirit so if I were in a debate with HWA today I could prove a lot of his eclectic theology as wrong and all from the Holy Bible itself! It makes me feel sorry for him and those who are still duped by his unscriptural teachings.
I can recall Herman Hoeh in the mid-70s preaching about the famine in the Jerusalem Church and how Paul gathered offerings for those people in Jerusalem who had giving everything away (as Ananaias and Saphira pretended to do). His point was that we should learn from that example and not do the same thing today. We should build for the future and not erode our capital he said.
Gordon Feil
So it appears that Ananaias and Saphhira got it right, except the lying to God part. Unfortunately, Herman Hoehs sermon was localized, and there's no way that Saint Herb would have allowed such a sermon to be published in one of the church publications.
Nck
So your false idol HWA lies are a "mistaken identification with the wrong combination of facts." Blame the victim and straight out of Orwell's Ministry of Truth. Likewise whitewashing the mental damage inflicted with your "they cannot cope in their particular construct of the truth." These are the types of shenanigans that got O J Simpson off the hook. You should work in the propaganda department of some banana republic dictatorship. Perhaps even head the department.
The Net must be enemy number 1 for the cogs. Anyone thinking of joining one of these cons can research these organizations and learn how controlling and greedy they actually are. They will learn many things that no one publicly knew before the Net.
Who, for example, would want to pay out a third of their income to a group of elites that refuse to work with their own hands, and instead live off the money that you earned?
This fact alone ensures that these groups have a very short life span. They can spend millions trying to rein in converts, but would not succeed. Armstrongism is dead, or near dead. The cancer that killed it is their own greed. Had they stuck with the message of the gospel and paid their way through offerings and donations, they would be in a better position. Their approach should have been to use as the Lord provides and be content with that.
Nick and Anon 2:23,
I agree that it isn’t fully accurate that hwa believed that the world was already under the authority of the prince of the power of the air. It’s not inaccurate to say that he was “about to take over” either, as he would climb out of the shadows to unleash the great tribulation on the world.
If you're unattractive with a poor personality, blame the WCG for being a 40 year old virgin.
If you're a loser, blame the WCG for your negative net worth.
Such is today's society and growing up in a cult magnifies the results.
I find the participants on this site amusing.
HWA taught that at some point before the end, demons were to be released from their restraints to really torture humanity. Homosexuals were to become the majority. Minorities were to start race wars. The ethics of all were to become perverted. This was in addition to famine, pestilence, and disease epidemics, plus the collapse of the international monetary system. Prior to the failure of 1975, we believed this would all kick in prior to 1972. Humanity was much more naive, and less sophisticated back then, so it was much easier to make such a "gospel" fly during that era. The human race is now accustomed to coexisting in the face of many more existential threats than just the bomb.
Jim jim jim.
The great tribulation was to be brought about by MAN.
Satan IS the king of this world according to Armstrongism UNTIL Christ returns.
I am not responsible for nitwits expectingna product that was never sold to them. Yes I blame a certain segment of victims.
Nck
2:48
What got OJ of the hook was his peers deciding he was not to be found guilty.
That is the ENTIRE point of a jury. The peers get to make the final verdict not the State.
They felt so because of racial issues. If the man was guilty does not matter and is irrelevant.
Did you quote from a book that was a bestseller before Ambassador was founded to make a point?? And you fault WCG for donating to a Shakespeare cause to liberate man through knowledge???
I am not reaponsible for people misconstructing a product in their head and expecting different results. Your Orwell quotes are welcomed. As a matter of fact at the 1977 Feast we had Animal Farm shown as an activity
Children included. It was great.
Nck
Nck
6.13 AM
You keep making similar remarks from time to time. You are either a loser minister or a loser member whom the ministers thought too small a fish to be bothered with. Just like bullies in the schoolyard.
"Beware of cultic marketing in EVERYTHING! .... nationalism ... "
And especially globalism.
Jim said: “...It’s not inaccurate to say that [Satan] was ‘about to take over’ either, as he would climb out of the shadows to unleash the great tribulation on the world.”
Nck said: “The great tribulation was to be brought about by MAN.”
I think you’re both right. I remember reading HWA stating the Great Tribulation is “Satan’s wrath” on the 12 tribes of Israel hence it’s also referred to as “Jacob’s trouble in Jeremiah; and obviously he’ll use the nations under the Beast to usher in this final holocaust, which was supposed to be headed by Assyria or Germany.
I recall hearing HH teach that again in another sermon that was sent out as a tape to the local churches. I was in Canada when i heard that one.
The point of whatever scenario was to prove that "Man" had messed up and failed "on his own". Then god would have vengeance on the day of the lord.
In that scenario man should not be able to say "Satan made me do it", as an excuse.
Even "Assyria" was branded. The rod of MINE anger.
Why do I harp on this. I believe many of the problems if not all reported problems regarding our wcg stint depended on "who" one "feared" or who one felt was in ultimate control of our destinies.
If misunderstood. One preaches fear on people of color, unruly children, booz. If well understood it creates a clear vision of light and darkness.
As I started of with.
Manicheism.
Although even with the Cathars the Manicheist principle seemed to have resulted in a class system of "commoners" and "angels of light."
Nck
10:01am More accurately, your type would be the playground bully too ignorant to see yourself for what you really are, accusing others of being exactly what you are. While still being the 40 year old virgin with a negative net worth blaming WCG for that, rather than facing the truth.
Hilarious!!!!!
5.25 AM
Yep, a minister or more likely, a former minister.
Love you too 11:10am
As the author of the linked blog, I have just a few things I wanted to drop in here.
First, former (and I suppose also current) Armstrongists are a very nitpicky bunch and it's impossible to write anything that they won't pick apart.
The main audience for my blog posts are those who were never a part of "the church" and there is a bit of simplification, and at times perhaps oversimplification, for their benefit.
I wrote that Satan was about to take over because that was easier than explaining the prophesized uprising of the Antichrist and The Great Tribulation.
****Here are my WCG credentials for anyone who is curious...
My mother was pregnant with me when she was baptised in the summer of 1973 in Montgomery, AL as part of one of Rod Meredith's baptismal tours. (Depending on who you believe, my father may or may not have thrown an empty liquor bottle at Rod's head at the end of the evening.) I attended services every single Saturday (except for when my mom put me into a hellish Saturday daycare from the age of three and a half to four, and one mysterious Saturday in 1985 when mom disappeared for an entire day with no explanation). We literally sat front and center every single week. Sometimes we would get there an hour before services started just to be sure to get the best seats. We stayed late every Saturday and I helped stack chairs after I was done with the mandatory "baby time" the young girls were all expected to do as preparation for motherhood.
In my mom's bedroom was a wall of bookshelves that contained every WCG/Armstrong publication ever produced. Each pamphlet, booklet, and book was there; meticulously maintained and available in an instant. She also saved each copy of the Good News, Plain Truth, and Worldwide News that she was ever sent, in addition to each and every spiral notebook she used for sermon notes. We attended Dallas church (first at The Garden Center and later at the VFW hall) under Ken Swisher until Assistant Pastor Wayne Dunlap was transferred to San Antonio.
We then moved from Dallas to San Antonio (I was never given a good reason why we moved) and attended services at Beethoven Hall in Hemisphare Park under Greg Sargent for a few years, before moving to Little Rock and attending services in a strip mall in Sherwood, AR after Ken Swisher was transferred there some years later. We never missed an episode of The World Tomorrow, attended The Feast of Tabernacles each year (usually in Big Sandy) and started my fasting for the Day of Atonement precisely at the age of 5. I completed each Y.E.S. lesson and went to every single Y.O.U. event until I left the church at age 14 to go live with my dad (who had divorced my mom shortly after I was born in 1973.)****
I also wanted to mention that there is absolutely no shame or regret that needs to be carried by those who "stayed too long at the fair." People have and will continue to join cults because it is in our nature to believe that we are somehow all special or "chosen."
There is a wonderful book by kathryn Schulz called Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error. In it, the author points out that we are all very very wrong a great deal of the time in our lives and that is as normal as the sunrise or the rainfall. But the moment that you realize that you were wrong, you suddenly aren't anymore. It's like a door opening and you being given a new shot to get it right. Maybe you'll get it, maybe you won't. That's okay. You're not omniscient and nobody expects you to be. If Herbert fooled you, be glad that it was him instead of Jim Jones or David Koresh.
Celebrating the days we have away from him are much better than mourning the days that he stole from us.
I will be adding more to my blog in the next week or so.
RJ
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