There are certain things that stick out strongly to me. There was his absolute narcissism fully admitted - that he viewed himself as "the most important person on the face of the Earth" - even well before his religious ideas kicked in. He fully admits he was "cocky", "conceited" - fully invested in himself in nearly every angle. His arrogance even as a young man was off the charts. His most desperate life goal - the thing he wanted more than anything - was to "make something of himself". This was the prime goal of Herbert Armstrong - that, due in part to the Great Depression - and due to another part by Herb himself - became deeply frustrated.
It's true he learned a lot from rich and successful people in his early adulthood. He learned techniques about advertising and took what he considered invaluable advice from multimillionaires. He spent an abundance of time with "important people" from every walk. He had the tools to be successful, but he did not have the product. That's where the religious part came into gigantic play.
When that religious "part" became a part of who he was, there were certain aspects of himself that history proves were exactly the same. First was the idea that he was the most important person on Earth. When Loma had that dream about Herbert, and Herbert heard it, it fed directly into the belief that he was the epicenter of the Universe. Within years, he began to conclude that he - and he alone - was the only person on the face of the earth with the "mission to warn" the nations of what was just a few years down the road. When radio - and television - became the normal means of mass communication along with print - Herbert found what had to be God's direct answer to him alone of how this was to be.
After all, in Herbert's world, he alone was right. He alone was God's mouthpiece. He alone was being taught by God. He alone was the only one who could revive the dead churches who weren't growing, or prosperous. Everything he viewed in his worldview was based on himself being absolutely distinct from everyone else, with a mission from God himself that he was chosen to warn the world. The Church's secondary explosion of growth was secondary to him warning the world - and was necessary as the financial arm so he could do what he felt God called him to do. Everything revolved around this - that he alone was "the voice crying out in the wilderness" and that the sure doom of the world was literally a heartbeat away.
This is why he felt the purpose of the Church was to "back him up". Because he already knew he was "the most important person on Earth" who had a mission from God. In order for the Church to "back him up", Herbert had to make sure they were fully in agreement with financially backing him up, but also "backing him up" in regards to what he viewed as his rulership, his authority, and of course, his government over the financial backing arm - the Church.
When the idea of the College came into fruition - everything from his past that he wanted but didn't get in his rich young years suddenly came right back. When he read the Northwestern Banker and hung out with the rich and famous, he read about all those Bankers Conventions. He saw those images of the offices of the powerful with marble and mahogany. He read about the lifestyle of the rich served on the finest gold. All of these things in the past he wanted. Suddenly, because of the "backing up" of his supporters - Church members, and co-workers who agreed with and bought into his ideas of religion - he had the way - not through being a banker - but as a religious preacher - to fulfill his heart's desires as a young person - through a College.
Of course, he rationalized away the fact that those were his "heart's desires" with words such as "God's College", "Quality", and you know the rest. Since it was a "God thing", "God's College" had to be the very best thing the world had ever seen. Consciously, or unconsciously, he had a way to get exactly what he wanted all of his life - power, prestige, and material wealth. And nothing was going to stand in his way now - through this path, he could "warn the world of what was to come" and fulfill his dreams as a rich, powerful, and successful person. And he could RULE like he never could rule in a worldly business - with full control over those in his kingdom.
The problem came when he began forming his "inner circle". When the in-crowd of elites saw that Herbert came upon an elusive, winning, financial formula of success that revolved around religion - the "in-crowd" we now know as pioneer evangelists of the Worldwide Church of God was established. One by one, the McNair clan from Arkansas bought in. Herman Hoeh bought in. This "enterprise" seemed to have God's blessing - and they began to realize the power that they had. Of course, in their minds, this was all a God thing - they were reviving the faith once delivered in the nearly dead Church. The true Gospel hadn't been taught for 1,900 years. They internally endorsed everything they began to do and believe as blessed by God. More saw the "blessings" and bought into it, the public started to see the "blessings" and bought into it, and in time, they established a doctrinal dogma that had a huge financial windfall with extreme wealth - and a theory of world change in just 3 to 5 years to cause people to become citizens of their own little kingdom. But there were no checks and balances on Herbert, and Herbert's extreme trust on his ministry's ethics caused very little true checks and balances on the ministry - so long as they fully and completely agreed with Herbert.
It was Herbert's - and the inner circle's - perceptions - combined with Herbert's salesmanship on who he was - that caused the religion to boom and grow to such large proportions. But the question still remains and hasn't been answered - did Herbert truly and fully believe he was who he said he was? Or was he intentionally conning his followers?
I tend to believe, of myself, based on everything I have researched and studied - that, because of his extreme, full-fledged narcissism, his beliefs that everything that happened was seemingly God-ordained to him, and of how he viewed himself and all of the instances - that he really believed he was who he said he was. One man - the most important person on the Earth - with a warning message of impending doom and destruction.
What I also believe is that he was never "converted". He thought he was, yes. But his fruits, and actions, demeanor, behavior, and admissions tell me otherwise. He was Herbert before religion, and he was Herbert after religion. He started out with a kind of religious piety - but when money and power became his for the yielding - any sense of religious piety went out the window, and "Business Herbert" - the "Business Herbert" of the 10's and 20's - was right back for the '50s and '60s and beyond. The only conversion he had was what he needed to have to keep his followers and achieve his goals and fulfill his mission. The rage, temper, impatience - those things never left. And in my view, the fruits of the Spirit - never came.
Was Herbert intentionally scamming his followers? I don't believe, now, that it was an intentional "I'm going to scam as many people as I can" philosophy. . This is not to say that those of his inner circle were not intentional, however. Herbert was an advertising genius - but as his organization grew, and grew - and became massive - he was outnumbered by thieves, wolves, and power hungry people who I think were intentionally scamming his followers. And by the 70s, the absolute carnality of worldly business politics had completely infiltrated the system while he was "warning the world" of "a strong hand from someplace" on his many self-promoting trips around the world. It was the thieves and the wolves - the inner circle - that hired the notorious infamous ministers that would end up on Herbert's desk for approval. Herbert's attempt at setting everything "back on track" in the late 70s and 80s was too late - too much scandal, damage, and harm had already damaged the Church - and it's members - and permanently etched it's destructive culture in stone.
All of this proves one thing. The Worldwide Church of God was the result of one man's greedy, self-centered, narcissistic idea that he was God's Warning Man - and the Apostle for the end-time Church of God - gone wild by the infusion of less than honorable and power-hungry men who fed his narcissism, helped him fulfill his worldly dreams under religious delusion, and took advantage of the windfall ministry to lead it to it's downfall. And somehow, you and I became enveloped into all of it and shared into that common religious delusion.
At least, this is how I have come to see it as of this moment. I didn't say I was done researching. ;)
submitted by SHT
submitted by SHT
27 comments:
Great submission SHT.
Unfortunately now we have all these HWA wannabees. And despite their incompetence and sometimes outright evil, they have sucked in poor, deceived believers.
It seems amazing to us on the outside how people can follow Dave Pack and Gerald Flurry, and yet they do, and break up family relationships as well as impoverishing themselves.
In some of the other groups, we hear of minister abusing their authority, but it is local - which is still bad, but does not affect the whole church group.
HWA was having incestuous sex with his daughter while teaching others to obey the Ten Commandments.
HWA taught not only that "the rules" applied to individual Christians but that "the rules" had applied to Jesus Christ.
Whether raping his daughter or having coffee and a donut on Atonement, HWA knew he was not following the rules that applied to everyone else, even to God-in-the-flesh Jesus Christ. Not even a sincere narcissist could reconcile such a conflict between words and deeds.
I believe that Loma was probably sincere, and Herbert saw a business opportunity. Several witnesses near the end of her life attest that Loma said as much to some close associates. A businessman can sell junk that he doesn't personally use, even though he may need to learn how to give a good demo of his product. I would guess the same about HWA.
8:10
I think that there were many people who were convincing him while all that was going on (not that they knew about it or not) that Herbert was specially called by God. You do raise an interesting question: How is it that he could commit such horrific crimes as multiple sources and family members allege was the case, and not be intentionally scamming his followers?
One theory might be he thought he was above the law. He has been rumored to say about Dorothy "God gave you to me", so in some twisted way he may have "spiritually justified" his crime.
Many times Herbert seemed conflicted about his beliefs in the earliest years even about such core beliefs as the Sabbath - and was convinced by people like Hoeh and etc. finally about what was right and wrong - but the bottom line always comes forward to greed and what doctrines would best fund his ability to "warn the nations". According to Herbert, he had to wipe everything out of his mind he had ever learned to be "instructed by God", and amended his beliefs based on circumstantial evidence to full on Sabbatarian Fundamentalism. I think he rationalized his "rights" to his own law-breaking by somehow believing everything he did had God's approval because of who he was - the most important man on Earth who had to warn the nations of a strong hand from someplace in three to five years. Oh, and to build a really expensive and extravagant college and auditorium on the side, fulfilling what he always wanted.
All Herbert needed was someone to believe him. And many “bought into it” as you said. I think that when he saw how well his Propaganda was working, I feel that his motivation was based solely on monetary gain. I don’t believe that he believed what he taught. Not for a second. His fruits were evident to that. The “fruits of the Spirit” were sorely missing. Just my thoughts.
"At least, this is how I have come to see it as of this moment. I didn't say I was done researching. ;)"
Good summation of Armstrongism during its heyday at the very end of your article SHT.
nck
PS
Of course HWA was not in it for the money.
If he had just eased up on some minor doctrinal points like d&r or medicine or other gta type of changes early in the sixties, the church might have grown into a million people first half of the seventies, making hwa a multi multi millionaire.
Is it so hard to accept that not everything is a result of scheming bad people, but most the result of people sincerely believing whatever they believe even mistaken or proven wrong by accumulating knowledge.
I think doctors in 1247 AD were sincere. I believe the Greek scolars believing the earth was flat were sincere. I believe Chris Columbus was sincere in his quest to find India. He was not "scheming" India in order to find America. (Henry Hudson did however disobey his orders to sail East over North.)
The core protestant cults, major parts of catholicism (ora et labora) and quakerism also I believe see WORK as some sort of faith into practice or service to god.
I see no evidence that HWA eased on his working schedule. He could have retired at 75, 80, 85, whatever. But no, he was still preaching to kids in hot tents for over an hour.
Did he waiver or was he perhaps disappointed by people who in the end did not live up to his standard of "conversion." I believe he was. I believe he had a hard time understanding why God would pick/call the small of the world. Why not people in the world who would in an instant understand what he was talking about, but would not act on it as he saw a christian should act. Why the people in the church who had to be taught repetitively or held constrained to even grasp a few straws of "the big picture." So yes I guess he must have had bigger and also personal crises of faith.
But then again there were the people like Hoeh or others who would reassure the unassured about his "divine" calling and the "miracles" that had been worked out already/ so far.
And the train continued until it crashed when it was handed over in faith in a manner that NO business entrepreneur should ever wish for his company to be handed over since it was entirely unprofessionally managed through the believe that "God would provide" the 1969 bylaws constituted all power in the hands of one single person, as if god was not able to pour out his grace and wisdom over more than just one.
nck
I concluded some years ago that the answer to that question was irrelevant insofar as HWA’s effect on me. The same damage would have been done whether he believed his own crap or whether he did not. You might say, however, that if he did not believe it, then his crimes against myself and my family were deliberate hate crimes. Regardless, still irrelevant. You can only die in the lake of fire once. This is a question that is better off not even being pondered, even from a Christian standpoint. We still have to forgive the man in either case.
BB
BB, I think many ex-cult members have that question in their minds. To not address it is to deny it. It may be irrelevant in the long run, but for the sake of mental health, we need to “deal” with the facts as they stand. Yes, we can forgive, and a lot of us have already done so, but sweeping it all under the rug doesn’t heal. It festers.
I had to deal with my father’s abuse. He was a very sick man. To deny it didn’t help me. And yes, what he did was deliberate and premeditated, as I think Armstrong did. Have I forgiven my father? Yes I have because I realize that forgiveness is for my benefit, not his. The same for forgiving Armstrong. Questions still remain.
@Byker bob
All crimes are hate that is a cop out. There is total and absolute 180 degree opposite difference between a total lying charlatan con man liar and a deluded mentally deranged narcissist.
Maybe there is something youn haven't faced about your experience with HWA?
The people I have met that are at peace with what happened to them have either forgiven and moved on or realize they were themselves partly complicit.
I was a child in the church and got beaten mercilessly my entire childhood. And there was some sexual abuse as well. So feel free to argue the merits of your position I am sure its not so simple.
I agree with Byker Bob as to the relevance of the question to HWA's impact on us. Of course, motivation (what's in the heart) is crucial to God's evaluation of his/our behavior. And that is exactly why Christ told us not to judge each other - we have no window into what's in the other person's heart.
I am uncomfortable judging HWA's repentance, conversion or prospects for salvation. I am, however, very comfortable in asserting that he did not meet the Biblical standards for being a leader within the ekklesia.
https://godcannotbecontained.blogspot.com/2019/07/forget-apostle-or-evangelist-did-hwa-or.html
No, deluded people can be sincere, but as HWA himself said, one can be SINCERELY WRONG!
megalomaniac
Also found in: Thesaurus, Medical, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.
Related to megalomaniac: egomaniac, sociopath
meg·a·lo·ma·ni·a
(mĕg′ə-lō-mā′nē-ə, -mān′yə)
n.
1. A psychopathological condition characterized by delusional fantasies of wealth, power, or omnipotence.
2. An obsession with grandiose or extravagant things or actions
Dennis Diehl is trying to get across some interesting ideas on fossils and stones. He finds that information in scientific journals and shares it with us. If in some 10 years modern technology finds out part of these writings are bogus and some arrow heads need different interpretation.
Am I then to forgive Dennis for the "lies" he has been spreading on the internet??
Also am I to conclude in the same manner that some church conclave in 256 AD or 325 AD was right on everything some 1700 years ago and had the final say on interpretation of some multiinterpretable book that does not provide very clear definitions according to scientific standards???
The problem with teachers/teachings and pupils and application will remain until google.3 version will be connected to our brain with an upgraded AI filter. We will believe what we will believe since we do not know everything.
Why did the most sophisticated nation follow total boorish leaders from 1933-1945.
Because it was convenient, some results seemed good and most of all, not all information was available and the information that was available was ignored because mazlows pyramid of basic human needs was not met.
Now get me that smoke so I can feel like Marlboro man!!
nck
In relation to my earlier posting.
Why is a figure like Bob Thiel a "laughing stock" on this blog and why do I regularly spill coffee on a clean shirt when no2hwa posts one of his snarky commentaries with an accompanying cartoon.............................................while BT in fact does not talk about very different topics from people that at the same time evoke hair raising emotions.
I guess it is just a different way of processing data.
I agree with Miller Jones that I do not have a clue as to how a God would process the data on my character or that of anyone else and then decide "guilty" or "ruler of one of the minor counties at tatooine". For now I am just looking forward to a combined facebook-google 3 upgrade database and have some fun at some of the algorythms that determine your lives, while in the process I am trying to figure out the algorythms that hamper my life through previous bias.
As I said. (no2hwa's) Cartoons help to identify those biases as does humor in general.
nck
@4:24 and 4:31 ~ Nobody understands the abuse aspects better than I. While thankfully, I never suffered sexual abuse, the beatings, forced fastings, and belittling harangues certainly had a pronounced effect which I’ve spent a lifetime repairing.
Although the abuse happened back in the ‘60s, I was still dealing with the effects of it early in the new millennium, despite therapy in the 1980s which was very helpful, and voracious reading of many materials on becoming a better me.
Around 2006, I ran across some extremely therapeutic materials by Joel Osteen, (He’s not my “new guru”, just someone with a couple of useable nuggets) who made me realize that forgiving is something which has tangible benefits to ourselves. Hatred is a very negative burden to be carrying around, and actually makes us toxic, affecting even our current relationships.
I also heard some very wise counsel from the pastor of a mega-church which I attended for several years. He said that we can forgive, but it doesn’t always mean that there can be a healed relationship in this lifetime. In so many cases, the pain and accompanying emotions can still remain so great that attempting to be around the people who caused it brings the hurt into the present, poisoning our lives anew. During one sermon, he called for all of us who were in pain to write down the source of the pain on a piece of paper, and lay it on the stage for Jesus to take care of. My paper could have said either “HWA”, or “parents” or both, but I opted for “parents” Obviously, all the bad memories don’t magically and mystically go away, but having been reassured that the act of forgiving doesn’t automatically demand re-establishing a relationship (how could you with the parental units still practicing the religion that caused the abuse?) helped greatly. The WCG-caused PTSD, which affects many areas of our lives, doesn’t just automatically go away, but does become somewhat more manageable when you are no longer fueling it with anger and hatred.
My comments as to HWA’s intentions are based on logic and not emotion these days. I spent far too many years as a member of the “I want to hate” club, and believe me, that impedes the healing we all are hopefully seeking. I am sorry for your pain, and hope this is of some help in your journey.
BB
I agree with most of the essay. I should say that I do not think I ever heard HWA claim to be the most important person in the world. At times he could even be quite self effacing. What he did say was that the work he was doing was the most important work. As a one-time student of graphology, I have found it interesting to see the differences between his handwriting prior to Loma's death and what it came to be in subsequent years. Definitely some changes for the worse. She was a good influence on him.
"All crimes are hate that is a cop out."
Will you people learn to read? BB specifically said "deliberate" hate crime, acknowledging that there exists hate crimes that aren't deliberate. He wasn't delving into a lesson on whether all crimes are hate related or not, so being a "cop out" is only derived from your mind. Not reality!
No doubt that HWA was a full-fledged narcissist but even a full-fledged narcissist knows what he is doing and why he is doing it.
The manipulation by HWA was intentional, deliberate and required planning. It took a lot of premeditated effort to successfully force his authority onto people to a point they wouldn't question it or were afraid do so to.
I seriously doubt HWA was given to thinking about God except as a useful tool to control others. Just because he developed and peddled flawed doctrines does not mean he really believed in them.
HWA was VERY preoccupied with hobnobbing with important people and trying to make an impression. HWA wanted to be important and he knew very well that the WCG was the means of getting him there. And he certainly was very flexible in his own behavior.
Now, about those tithes and offerings.....
Herb was protected from evil spirits. He wore the star of David cuff-links. According to the Kabbalah, the star of David protects you from evil spirits. The star of David goes back to BABYLONIAN captivity (I think the Jews stole it from the Babylonians). It points to Babylon the Great Harlot. 80 times in the bible Jerusalem is called a Harlot. Jerusalem is the mother of harlots of Revelation. The 6-pointed star of David is connected to the number 666 which also represents the name of the Hebrew God. As I understand it, this god either is, or was created by Lucifer. The God of the Bible was created by Lucifer, according to the Kabbalah (as I understand it).
This is from "Kabbalah Secrets Christians Need to Know" by DeAnne Loper (I think it is on Amazon).
... less than honorable and power-hungry men who fed his narcissism …
That would be all of us. HWA had a "base". They adored him. He could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue with a gun and his base would not desert him. His base saw in him what they wanted to see in him.
HWA was a kind of mirror. If you peer deeply enough into him, you could see yourself. He reflected what we are. And for a while many liked it. And some still do.
I was amazed when we were told from the pulpit at AC/BS that HWA's Co-Worker Letters would be added to the Book of Acts. There were no gasps of disbelief. That's what happens when you tell someone they are an Apostle.
Wow 12:37, are you Madonna by any chance. Nice talking to you.
Perhaps I do agree somewhat. My only negative experience in Israel was in Safed (home of kabbalah). I got a ticket for double parking and paid in a post office in Jerusalem. So I shared some of your sentiments. I also learned the Ottomans had difficulties in Safed, the British military police post got blown up in 1947 and the entire Palestinian population got evicted in 1948.
Anyway I love Madonna and thought the jews merry dancing in the streets at Purim. It's just my wife being a spoil sport complaining all the time that she feels like shes visiting one of those feast sites of my parents cult. While I wisely do not respond. Don't we all have secrets like Kabbalah?
Nck
You can debate if HWA was sincere in what he believed or not but the bottom line is that it doesn't matter. What HWA believed and taught was a very abusive theology. It destroyed thousands of lives and caused unmeasurable damage to the mental health of most that where ensnared in that abusive religious system. It could be that he really didn't believe what he taught the first few years of his ministry but because he repeated his lies so frequently he himself could have started to believe his own lies to be the truth. No person knows what the thoughts of HWA where but certainly we know that the fruit of his preaching was profoundly horrible.
5:34p
Absolutely. Thank you, Ed.
Good call, 8:35. Stealing food for your starving family could actually be classified as a “love-crime”, as could Gandhi-like acts of civil disobedience geared towards promoting social justice.
BB
8:16am and 4:24am
I've never understood the concept of forgiveness between human to human. Either you can decide to continue with a relationship as it is or you can decide not to continue with it if changes do not occur because you want to protect yourself. Otherwise, what has been done, has been done. There are no magic wands or fairy dust to make the past magically go away.
Making an effort to fully understand the circumstances and putting those circumstances in perspective doesn't require forgiveness.
And that doesn't mean a person can use what happen to them as an excuse for not taking responsibility for their lives.
What I do not like about the idea of human forgiveness is that all too often it is about keeping the power structure or status quo intact. People will expect someone to forgive because they don't want their own world or position disturbed.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/disturbed/201208/why-you-dont-always-have-forgive
I certainly don't feel any obligation to forgive HWA. I only regret I'll never have the opportunity to kick his fat ass.
A nice caption for the HWA portrait avove: “Pull my finger!”
LOL!
BB
when the blind lead the blind they will all fall in the ditch, so many so called ministers are after money not the soul's, this man was a false prophet. he had to know incest was a sin against God. In the last days false prophet shall come claiming they are from God . be not deceived let the spirit of God guide you and you shall not be deceived. .
I've never understood the concept of forgiveness between human to human. Either you can decide to continue with a relationship as it is or you can decide not to continue with it if changes do not occur because you want to protect yourself. Otherwise, what has been done, has been done. There are no magic wands or fairy dust to make the past magically go away.
Making an effort to fully understand the circumstances and putting those circumstances in perspective doesn't require forgiveness.
And that doesn't mean a person can use what happen to them as an excuse for not taking responsibility for their lives.
What I do not like about the idea of human forgiveness is that all too often it is about keeping the power structure or status quo intact. People will expect someone to forgive because they don't want their own world or position disturbed.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I'm so glad you said this. I believe what the Bible said about forgiveness is misused. I don't remember HWA ever being sorry about anything. Like people living in poverty and families being destroyed because of divorce and remarriage of women, children and members being abused, and people dying because of the healing doctrine etc. Mr. Armstrong said people should never decide what sin is but he himself decided that for members all the time. Makeup, birthdays, doctors etc.
Actually the Bible doesn't say we have to forgive someone who isn't sorry. I would say for our own good we should come to some kind of peace but that has nothing to do with forgiveness. I mean God doesn't forgive the unrepentant so why would God expect something out of us that God himself doesn't do.
I have wondered if HWA really knew what he was doing and did it deliberately. Did he only get around to changing things when certain issues applied to himself? Did he even see his own hypocrisy like having his own doctor and not having "faith" to be healed. My opinion is he really did believe in the importance of himself and in some ways knew he was wrong on some beliefs but didn't change things until he had to because of income.
Post a Comment