Saturday, April 18, 2020

Cultish: Herbert Armstrong & The Worldwide Church of God



3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting.. Being young (well, relatively that is), I often forget what the RCG’s roots are. Listening to this and reading some stuff about HWA, I would say David Pack learned all his little tricks from the best.

Lake of Fire Church of God said...

Interesting interview that many of us could relate with her story. For example, her grandparents and my grandfather came across Mr. Armstrong on the radio in the 1950s. And yes, Michele, the Church and the original radio program was known as Radio Church of God.

Michele only briefly touches on the appeal of the Church during the dust bowl years when she mentioned people "were looking for a way to escape". But that answer needs to be further expanded in answer to the question "What made him (Herbert Armstrong) so special?" I think "the way of escape" was indeed the major appeal and draw of Herbert Armstrong. I know it was for my family.

Armstrong was preaching in the 1950s that the world was about to enter into the end time Great Tribulation; that this was the end of the age; that "time was short", and that there was a way of escaping all these things (war, famine, pestilences, etc.) that was about to hit our world at the end time. That is what made Herbert Armstrong and his message special! There was a way of escape.

Sad that her parents and family had to separate because of the Church's arcane Divorce and Remarriage rules in the 1960s when the Church ruled that her father was still bound to his first wife. They went along with the separation because of the belief that the 1972 great tribulation was about to occur. You can tell by Michele's voice what a joy and how happy they were when the Church reversed the Divorce & Remarriage doctrine in 1974 after the failed 1972 great tribulation prophecy and her family was re-united.

How does this relate to the Armstrong Churches of God today in 2020? There really is nothing new under the sun! I will borrow a quote I learned from Herbert's son Garner Ted Armstrong:

"When the premise is WRONG, everything else that follows is ALSO WRONG".

Herbert Armstrong was WRONG, and everything else that follows to this very day since Herbert's death in 1986 (Meredith, Ron "Tax Cheat" Weinland, Comrade Communist Dave Pack, Six Pack Gerald Flurry, Cartoon Bob Thiel, the clown James Malm, the dis-United Church of God, etc.) are also WRONG!

Richard

the Ocelot said...

James Malm should start his sermons with the phrase"Whoooa Nelly!" the famous phrase of the great Bozo the CLOWN!