Ai COG: Hotel Armstrong: You Can Check Out, but You go to the Lake of Fire

 

The Cult’s Favorite Tactic: Blame the Exiles

In an August 1980 Good News Article, the Ol’ Herb was on a mission to demonize anyone who dared leave his flock. In a piece that reeks of desperation, he claimed ex-members—those “embittered” dissidents—spend their days obsessing over what’s “wrong” with the WCG, conjuring up “monstrous, impossible, filthy lies” about the church and its leaders. Their minds, he said, are consumed with negativity, twisting facts into falsehoods, spreading rumors, and fueling their “vengeful bitterness.” Meanwhile, loyal members focus on the “wonderful truths” of God’s work—see the difference? If you don’t, you’re in danger of becoming one of those satanic exiles. It’s the WCG’s favorite gaslighting trick: don’t question us, or you’ll end up like them—cursed, miserable, and doomed.

We show how Armstrong and his demonic decedents shamed ex-members and current ones alike to silence dissent, all while ignoring the real reasons people left—like the WCG’s corruption, failed prophecies, and predatory leaders. In an unsurprising reveal: those “dissidents” weren’t the problem—the entire religious system of Armstrongism was.

Painting the Villain: Ex-Members as Satanic Liars

The article kicks off with a vicious attack on ex-members, claiming their “principal purpose in life” is to “expose the evils” of the WCG. The founder paints them as bitter haters whose every thought and conversation revolves around what’s “wrong” with the church. They’re not just critical—they’re liars, twisting facts into “filthy” rumors about the WCG and its leaders. He quotes Jude 8-19 to seal their fate, calling them “filthy dreamers” who “defile the flesh,” “speak evil of dignities,” and are destined for “the blackness of darkness forever.” They’re “raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame,” driven by “ungodly lusts,” and lacking the Holy Spirit. In short, they’re not just wrong—they’re satanic, and their fruit is chaos, leading splinter groups that fight each other and drag others away from Christ entirely. If you’ve been in any of the WCG’s offshoots for any length of time, you have probably seen similar letters and sentiments expressed in a similar fashion.

This is gaslighting at its ugliest. The WCG didn’t just excommunicate members—they vilified them, turning them into cartoonish villains to scare the flock into loyalty. But ex-members weren’t making up “filthy lies”—they were exposing real ones, like the cult’s failed prophecies (1972 Tribulation, anyone?), the triple tithes that bankrupted families while the Armstrongs lived like kings, and scandals like Garner Turd Armstrong’s college harem at Ambassador College, which we covered in “Suspicious Lies.” The WCG couldn’t handle the truth, so they smeared the whistleblowers, gaslighting members into thinking criticism was satanic. It’s a classic cult move: don’t fix your problems—just blame the ones who call them out.

The Warning Shot: Don’t Join the Damned

The dear leader doesn’t stop at ex-members—he turns the spotlight on you, the reader. He warns that their bitterness could infect your heart, urging you to “think no evil” and set your mind on “things above” (Colossians 3:1-3, Proverbs 23:7). The WCG, he says, is the “Body of Christ,” preparing to be Christ’s spotless Bride at His soon return, so forget the past—your sins are covered if you repent. But ex-members? They’re not blessed like the WCG, which is “back on track,” growing, and knit together with Christ. He tells you to pray for them, that they might repent and return, but also to pray for each other to endure to the end, now “near.”

Here’s the gaslighting twist: if you even think about sympathizing with ex-members, you’re at risk of becoming one of them—bitter, cursed, and lost. The WCG framed itself as the pure, blessed church, while ex-members were miserable failures leading doomed splinter groups. But the reality? The WCG was bleeding members because of its own failures—financial exploitation, authoritarian control like the Visiting Program we exposed in “Gestapo in God’s Name,” and leadership scandals. Ex-members weren’t “unblessed” for leaving; they were free, while the WCG was the one fighting to survive, hemorrhaging followers to those “eight or 10 little splinter groups” that wouldn’t have existed without the cult’s own dysfunction. The founder gaslit members into thinking the problem was the dissidents, not the cult that drove them away.

The Real Lies: The WCG’s House of Cards

The article’s biggest lie is its refusal to admit why ex-members left. Herbie claims they’re just bitter and satanic, but let’s look at the facts. By 1980, the WCG was a mess—GTA had been disfellowshipped in 1978 for his Ambassador College harem, a scandal that confirmed members’ worst suspicions about the leadership’s hypocrisy. The cult’s prophecies kept failing (no Tribulation in 1936, 1951, or 1972, no Petra escape), yet they still preached the end was “near,” keeping members in fear, The triple tithes left families broke while the Armstrongs lived in luxury, pulling in $200 million a year by the 1980s (over $600 million today).

Ex-members weren’t “conjuring up lies”—they were telling the truth, and the leadership couldn’t handle it. The splinter groups the founder mocks? They formed because people saw through the cult’s facade and wanted out, even if they didn’t fully escape Armstrongism’s grip. The real “fruit” of the WCG wasn’t growth or peace—it was broken lives, financial ruin, and a pipeline to atheism for those who, as the article admits, “departed entirely from Christ” after leaving. The WCG gaslit members into thinking ex-members were the problem, but the cult’s own corruption was the root of it all.

Stop Falling for the Shame Game

The WCG’s gaslighting in “How Ex-member Dissidents Fill Their Minds” was a desperate endgame: smear ex-members as satanic liars, shame current members into silence, and pretend the cult is God’s pure church—all while ignoring the scandals, failed prophecies, and control tactics that drove people away. The founder wanted you to believe dissidents were the problem, but they were just the ones brave enough to speak the truth about the WCG’s rot. Stop falling for the shame game. Your doubts, like those of the ex-members, aren’t satanic—they’re a sign you’re waking up. Ditch the cult’s lies, and walk out of the trap for good.

Hotel Armstrong © 2025 by AiCOG is licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0

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