Before Joel Osteen, Brian Houston, or even L. Ron Hubbard, there was Herbert W. Armstrong and his Worldwide Church of God (WCG). A doomsday apocalyptic cult active in roughly 70 countries around the globe, the WCG lured its members in with the promise of protection from an impending World War III and a place of leadership in the utopia to follow.
Who exactly was Herbert Armstrong and his followers? What was it like to grow up believing that you were one of only 144,000 people that God called in all of human history to lead his new world order? And how has Armstrongism survived in the 2020s? Find out these answers – and so much more - in this introductory episode, “God Speaks to Us,” narrated, written and produced by a former member of the church itself, Dr. Tricia Jenkins. Sound design and editing by Thirteen Media.
Special thanks to Dr. Steven Hassan, Lisa Metzel Bonnet, Nathanael O’Reilly and D.J. Grothe for their contributions to this episode and to Joel Kramer, who gave us permission to use clips from his documentary Called to be Free, which can be viewed on YouTube.
1 comment:
I often listened to Brian Houston. In stead of HWAs endless "give, help. serve," Brian would instead use the words "be generous, be generous, be generous." All these televangelists employ cosmetic changes in their wording to hide the fact that they are conspiring together. They all reject rights, people operating as adults rather than children, and being assertive.
These groups are like a franchise with small differences between them.
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