If you thought the political crap from Bill Watson and Bob Thiel was mind-numbingly tiresome, Mark Armstrong has exceeded them by miles. Every single thing he writes is a political crapfest of Republican against Democrat, liberal against conservative, and doom and gloom. Everything is wrong with the world he lives in and he is MAD! Like Bob Thiel and other self indulgent COG leaders, he cannot find anything good to write about. He would do better to channel his opinions into writing for Newsmax or some other ultra right site than pretending to be spiritual by spiritualizing politics when god is brought in at the last sentence, but that is how COG leaders have operated for decades.
His entire financial existence is built upon rebroadcasting his dad's videos and republishing his writings and expecting people to still support a dead guy.
Check out some of his weekly updates here.
From Church of God News:
The church is in the midst of a major make-over of its old websites for The ICG and the Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association – but will there be any changes to reverse the decline of the ICG itself?
When Garner Ted Armstrong died in 2003, the ICG had around 90 congregations and was on around 30 television stations and cable outlets. His son Mark took over the day to day operation of the church and the production of the television outreach program. He was not ordained, and had no interest in ministry.
Tom Kerry and a number of other ministers considered him unqualified for leadership and left in 2004 to form the first split in what eventually became known as Church of God Ministries International.
Under Mark Armstrong’s leadership, two-thirds of the congregations have now been lost, and there has been no television outreach program for years. His personal involvement is a weekly blog and an occasional article for the quarterly magazine, both of which have little or no Christian content.
21 comments:
My impression is that he has done little more than milk what hid dad accomplished to provide for himself and his two younger brothers. It's a small family business that appears to be dying a slow death. If he appears to be angry, perhaps it is because he never really wanted to be in this profession. Does anyone know him personally? Was he more or less expected to take over the family business? Did he have other plans for himself and now feels trapped? Who knows?
Yes, Mark Armstrong makes Bill Watson look reasonable - and that's quite an accomplishment! Talk about Bat Shit Crazy! The man is the personification of the Armstrong legacy.
The son of one of the most profligate and adulterous father's of all time, and the grandson of a narcisstic megalomaniac pedophile. His political views are almost as bizarre and outlandish as the religious views of his patrimony. In a way, it is entirely appropriate and fitting that the Armstrong dynasty would effectively end with such an individual!
Seem a little harsh? There isn't enough lipstick in the world to make this pig look any better, and we may as well call it exactly like it is! Let's talk about the PLAIN, unvarnished TRUTH!
Organizations such as the Catholic church and the Jehovah's Witnesses have a intellectual wing that pumps out some worthwhile material for its members. But any worthwhile ACOGs writing have always been restricted to politics. Writings on spiritual matters have always been a waste land with the two trees gibberish and similar.
The only thing I know about M.A. was that he was kicked out of AC in the early seventies and then pops up again on the internet 40 years later.
nck
No TV show anymore? How are expected to hear the Anglo-Israelist-Armstrong-Gospel?
Just like Pack's RCG: Big Television studio, but no broadcast!
It's funny: GTA, along with other WCG progressives tried to stamp out British-Israelism in the late 1970s after a devastating book by scholar Dr Benware exposed HWA's plagiarism, but it appears, later on, conservatives in GTA's breakaway cult succeeded in reestablishing British-Israelism! Go figure?
What all Armstrong cults have in common, however, is the Donate-button on their websites: Yes, your money will go toward 'the Work' (minus handling charges)
The organization has been able to "garner" about $700k a year in revenue according to its Federal 990 form.
Along with a likely expense account, phone, car , house etc., Mark also receives about $52k a year in salary.
Not bad for simply running reruns and for a home based cottage industry job.
Stats from 990 Form here...
https://www.open990.org/org/752741186/garner-ted-armstrong-evangelistic-association-01021998/
I don't know how many WCG/COG examples we need to show the offspring of the Guru's that they should count on actually finding a field of study and endeavor that THEY like and stay out of the Father to son to grandson cycle. Bob Jones Sr, contemporary of HWA and despised him, had Bob Jones II, III, IV, V take over Bob Jones University as time went on. More drama than WCG especially when one finally came out and went to get a real job of his choosing as a reporter in Washington.
One funny tale about Bob Jones Sr. One day in a sermon he thundered out that it would be over his dead body the day kissing was allowed on the campus. Well...his grave is on the campus and a favorite spot for kissing on campus from what former clients at my practice down the street informed me. Never say shit like that! lol
Like Dave Pack's "If I ever get into strange.....but don't you worry, I'm not going anywhere"
PS Dave has alienated his entire family so if his Jesus doesn't show up soon, no one is going pick up the family biz or want the contraption of a church he built. If someone does, it won't last long and his campus buildings will either go to an evangelical church just looking for a place like that or a drug rehab center.
"The First Generation founds it. The Second Generation maintains it. The Third Generation Loses it."
Or a brothel.
The meme that was bandied about in the WCG during the last century was "God works in families." This may still be a motif in Splinterdom. It was never clear to me how this was to be distinguished from simple nepotism. The idea that God works in families cannot be accepted as an unqualified principle. Because the Dark Side also works in families. For instance, Saul and his descendants. And most of the nations at enmity with Israel were ruled over by heredity lines of kings. And all those guys named Antiochus in the Greek period.
My theory is that religious "ministries," both Christian and Armstrongist, become progressively commercialized as leadership is passed down through generations. That works fine in business where the drive to engage in commerce is profitable, thematic and strategic. But it leads to a corrosion of ethics in religion, not inevitably but frequently. This is especially so when the denomination is run by a single personality and the descendants with no checks and balances. The original religious commitment segues into a family operated business. And this becomes a vexatious problem when a family commercial venture becomes conflated with the idea of God's one and only true church.
I have stated many times that I believe if you peel away the religious varnish from Ambassador College you will find at its core that it was all about understanding and skillfully using an organizational hierarchy. One of the operative mechanisms in that "education" is the concept of "God works in families." The astute student will recognize the value and potential of this principle.
God may work in families in isolated circumstances, but commerce is always ready.
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Dennis, BJU is going downhill, just like the WCG did in the 90's. Sexual abuse problems that weren't properly dealt with in one of the reasons why this is happening. It got so bad, they went to netgrace.org, an organization founded by a grandson of Billy Graham, a man thoroughly detested by the Jones family. Sadly the Jones's balked at netgrace.org recommendations to clean up the mess. Apparently, maintaining the corrupt culture at the university was more important than restoring moral order.
Doesn't say much for this blog when you've been reduced to having a pop at Mark (who?) Armstrong.
9:32 What??????????????????
Why shouldn't this blog point out Mark's craziness? He set himself up (or his mommy did) as the leader of the church. He is not qualified and is not a real minister.
I am glad this blog pointed out Mark Armstrong's issues. He is the reason I left the church. I got sick of the constant political opinions that he expected us to swallow. I haven't set foot in a COG since and never will.
I clearly remember the "God works with families theme", very emphasized and expressed at AC. Of course it was nepotism though. Further, I remember the corollary theme: "Ministers' families are attacked by the Devil more than other families."
These two themes were convenient to counter when ministers' families were obviously troubled but still favored and rewarded.
9.32 AM
There are hundreds of HWA splinters out there. General things reported about those mentioned on this blog apply to all the splinters.
Politics, politics. Just like how during the last year with the presidential election coming up, Gerald Weston had to work in something about “leftists” any chance he could. To most of these Church corporate heads it seems as if their “god” is an American political right winger and not much else.
A few months ago the ICG website was revamped and updated - previously it was hawking really out of date literature, and sections were labelled "coming soon" for years.
I used to take a look at Mark's weekly "HQ update" for his rants, in particular, his climate change denial. Only once, to my knowledge, did he reference a scholarly article with anything close to a credible alternative to anthropogenic activity.
Next to Bob Thiel there can be no other minister in the church that is as bad as Mark Armstrong. He clearly flunked Spokesman Club.
The Incontinent Church of Ted was founded by Garner Ted Armstrong to support his playboy lifestyle after his rebellion against his own father Herbert W. Armstrong failed and he finally got expelled openly and permanently from the Worldwide Church of God.
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