Guest Column: The Radicalization of Two Men

The Radicalization of Two Men

Over the months since my father’s death in December of last year, I’ve had an opportunity to reflect on what caused the alienation and hurts which characterized my relationship with him over the last couple of years of his life. For me, this has been an essential part of coming to terms with his passing and moving on with my own life, but it has also given me some insight into the larger forces that have been at work within my former religious community (Armstrongism) and the nation I call home (the United States of America).

Prior to his death, my father had threatened to cut off all ties with me because of my criticisms of his friend’s (Bill Watson’s) messaging. At the time of his death, my father (Wayne Hendrix) was barely speaking to me, and I found the thought of listening to Bill Watson preach his funeral so repulsive that I could not bring myself to attend that event!

What had caused such a horrendous state of affairs? What had provoked this alienation – this breach? As with most such circumstances, the road to that place was a long and winding one whose milestones only became apparent to me after I had reached my destination and had been given an opportunity to review the route which we all had traveled.

Like any event in the history of the wider world, the number of possible beginnings and milestones (turning points) can seem endless when we begin to examine the series of events which led to a particular event/circumstance. Even so, a careful review and consideration of those events can help us to identify many of the landmarks and occurrences which inexorably led to the outcome on which we are focused. This is the process that anyone must pursue in trying to understand/explain some circumstance of history, and it was the very one that I knew would help me to understand my own personal trainwreck.

In a sense, this series of unfortunate events began in the middle of the 1960’s with my father listening to Herbert and Garner Ted Armstrong on a Northeastern Ohio radio station. My dad, Wayne Hendrix, began life some twenty-odd years before that in Alabama, and his attitudes toward the U.S. and race reflected the baggage which that association entailed. In other words, as a young man, my father was already predisposed to accept Armstrong’s teachings about Anglo-Israelism.

In the context of his own background and experience, Anglo-Israelism seemed to perfectly explain America as he had experienced it. For him, the United States as Manasseh (and Britain as Ephraim) made sense of the early colonists being able to wrest this land away from the natives, enslave their African brethren, form a “Divinely-inspired” republic, and rise to the status of the preeminent nation on the face of the earth. Likewise, a few years later, a short distance away, another young man (Bill Watson) had also embraced Armstrong’s Anglo-Israelism and had embarked on his own personal journey which would intersect with my father’s story a decade later.

It must also be remembered that both men were living through some profound changes in the America which they had known as children. Throughout the 1960’s and 1970’s there were a number of prominent challenges to the power and position of White Anglo-Saxon Protestant men in American society. Among these challenges, the Civil Rights and Feminist Movements were probably the most important in terms of their perceived threat to the traditional order of things. For men like Bill and my father, these movements sought to undermine the God-ordained role of WASP men as the natural leaders of society (and it is essential to understand that they believed that God, through the Bible, had ordained the order that was being challenged and replaced).

In addition to these challenges, there were also a number of other forces at work that were rapidly changing the society which they cherished. I’m thinking about things like the globalization of the world’s economy, increased immigration from Latin America, and the environmental movement. For men like Bill and my dad, all of these developments threatened to take away the good paying jobs on which men like them had always depended to build their individual version of the “American Dream.” In short, to them, it seemed like everything that had contributed to America’s greatness was under attack and threatened!

Once again, although these feelings were certainly NOT confined to the followers of Herbert and Garner Ted, their teachings seemed to underscore the seriousness of the threat which these forces posed to their beloved America. Armstrongism taught that the end was near, and that the United States and other English-speaking nations of the world were in danger of God withdrawing their blessings and protections. Indeed, Armstrong and his followers believed that all of the “bad things” that were happening were the beginnings of God’s punishment of “Israel” for their abandonment of the order which he had ordained!

As a consequence, over the years that followed, it should have come as no great surprise that these developments would be increasingly regarded by them as evil and un-American. In hindsight, it also seems inevitable that this negative energy would come to be focused on a number of policies which resulted from these larger movements and forces. I am, of course, thinking about things like affirmative action, legalized abortion, initiatives to protect gay rights, trade agreements with other nations, and the unwillingness of the federal government to curb illegal immigration. Indeed, the policies themselves and their proponents came to be regarded as evil and further evidence of America’s decline. What’s more, the widely accepted liberal bias of the mainstream media eventually came to be regarded by them as a justification for dismissing any information which they provided as tainted and unreliable (which would eventually make them more susceptible to one Donald John Trump’s alternative facts).

Then, the unthinkable happened – America elected its first African American president in 2008! And, horror of horrors, he was re-elected in 2012! Of course, neither Bill nor my father would ever admit that their shock had anything to do with the color of his skin. On the contrary, they both channeled their anger and frustration at his liberal policies – those were the things that made him evil and un-American! Even so, the visceral reaction of both men to the Obama presidency pushed them even further in the direction of the extreme right of American politics. For them, there was now only one party that represented moral clarity and goodness, and it clearly wasn’t the Democratic Party!

During the Obama Administration, a development within CGI also served to further reinforce the rightward drift of both men. A black Canadian pastor named Adrian Davis gave his full-throated support to Bill’s and Wayne’s political messaging. As a consequence, both men felt emboldened and insulated against any charges of racism connected with their messaging. In short, the presence of a black man within the church who was proclaiming a message which was very similar to the one they were promulgating reassured them that they were on the right track.

In addition to the larger trends in American society and developments within CGI, my dad’s and bill’s trepidation over America’s direction was further heightened by my own decision to come out of the closet and reveal to everyone that I was/am gay. Moreover, my decision to pen a couple of articles on human sexuality for Dixon Cartwright’s The Journal only added to their consternation and dismay. As ministers of CGI, both men felt compelled to distance themselves from my views and to underscore their opposition to the gay “lifestyle” (even though it was widely known that I was completely celibate and living in a loving relationship with my former wife). In short, both men saw it as a moral imperative to underscore the wickedness of homosexuality so as not to be in anyway associated with (or tainted by) my “sin.”

Unfortunately, just a few years later, a demagogue of extraordinary brashness and cruelty appeared on the American political scene, and the stage was set for the final radicalization of these men. Donald Trump pushed all of the buttons that had been simmering and unspoken for the last fifty years! He unashamedly labeled Hilary, the Democrats, and the mainstream media as evil and vowed to completely overturn their corrupt policies and “make America great again.” This was music to the ears of Wayne and Bill, and a large number of their fellow disgruntled Americans. Moreover, Trump even promised to “build a wall” and stop the flow of illegal immigrants that were altering the very makeup of American society. Likewise, he promised to end what they perceived to be America’s greatest sin, legalized abortion. In similar fashion, Trump was openly hostile to LGBTQ rights and any effort to compromise with the forces of “secularization” in American society.

For my dad and Mr. Watson, God had sent them one last good King Josiah to reclaim America’s righteousness and halt her decline. Moreover, it appeared to make absolutely no difference to them that Trump was a known womanizer, adulterer, and proponent of questionable business practices. After all, wasn’t that what red-blooded men did? Hadn’t Mr. Armstrong himself been married twice and divorced once? Hadn’t Garner Ted been caught red-handed propositioning a female masseuse? Wasn’t my own father on wife number three?

What’s more, by this time, God’s political will was so clear to both of them that the notion of incorporating their political thinking into their spiritual messaging seemed completely natural and logical to them. In short, they had both become so completely partisan and radicalized that the incongruity of their position was completely lost on them.

Indeed, they had both become so laser focused on this brand of messaging, and so isolated from the society around them, that they were both shocked when I had the nerve to challenge their political messaging. How dare I challenge God’s messaging? Indeed, my challenges only served to enrage them and make them more determined than ever to promote their political views (or what they now regarded as God’s political views). I was unwelcome NOISE that was to be ignored and shunned. To them, I was defending the forces of evil – I had fallen captive to Satan and his minions! And hadn’t Christ himself said that a person must be willing to give up family and friends to serve him?

Moreover, like many of their fellow Trumpists, Wayne and Bill reinforced these impulses in each other. They reasoned that the fact that they had both reached the same conclusions about all things political was evidence enough that they were right – that God’s Holy Spirit had led them to this place! Indeed, the thought that they had somehow gotten off track or that their judgment in these matters might be clouded was completely foreign to them. Nevertheless, the forces that led to the radicalization of these men, and the circumstances surrounding my father’s death, are clearly traceable to their life experiences, friendship, and relationships with other like-minded individuals.

It is equally clear, however, that their extreme thinking did NOT originate in the mind of God – that it was NOT a product of the inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit! The United States and other English-speaking peoples of the earth are NOT Israel, and God is NOT a god of extremes! And, finally, the God of the Judeo-Christian Scriptures promised to supplant all of the political systems of this present world (including those of the United States and Great Britain).

It is my hope that this analysis of the radicalization of these two men will strike a chord in others who have experienced time in an ACOG in recent years. In short, I don’t believe that the story of these two men is unique within this culture. Indeed, I believe that many ACOG ministers and lay members have traveled the same path to political extremism (which accounts for the continuing popularity and acceptance of this kind of messaging within that culture). What do you think?

 

Lonnie Hendrix