For decades, the church spread its message through pirate radio stations, WLS superstations, and Mexican radio stations. In the cool of late-night evenings, their powerful signals reached deep into the heartland of America.
The World Tomorrow" radio program, presented by Herbert W. Armstrong, was broadcast on Mexican radio stations.
The World Tomorrow" radio program, presented by Herbert W. Armstrong, was broadcast on Mexican radio stations.
Specifically, the program was aired over the superpower 100,000-watt station XELO in Juarez, Mexico. This station, having an exclusive channel over the North American continent, could then be heard in virtually every state.
In addition, the broadcast was also carried by powerful border stations XEG and XERB, along with XELO.
One failed prophecy after another tore the church apart. When 1975 passed without event, the focus shifted to new time cycles and myths.
The church limped along, with prosperous years and lean ones.
Money was squandered in ways that would shock members even today if they knew the full extent.
Beneath the surface, it was a festering cesspool of corruption and deceit. Then, its vulnerability was laid bare.
Armstrongism’s greatest vulnerability wasn’t ex-members, dissidents, or the disfellowshipped—it was the internet and WiFi.
When the internet spread, the church’s tightly woven stories began to fray. Headquarters could no longer dictate the narrative. People shed their silence and fear of losing salvation. Ex-members, apostates, critical thinkers, and dissidents, wielding firsthand knowledge of the church’s wrongs, exposed it to scrutiny the leadership couldn’t stifle. They labeled it a “rumor mill” and tried to quash it. They couldn’t.
The truth exposed the church’s gaslighting and lies, which could no longer hold.
Armstrongism thrived on control, relying on members’ perceived ignorance. “Pay, pray, obey, and never question” was the mantra for decades. But with computers and smartphones, the church became a public embarrassment. Never in its history has the extent of its folly been so clear.
Today, the youth are slipping away—quietly, in groups, in waves—realizing fear, guilt, and fantasy aren’t needed to live a good life.
Armstrongism’s greatest vulnerability wasn’t ex-members, dissidents, or the disfellowshipped—it was the internet and WiFi.
When the internet spread, the church’s tightly woven stories began to fray. Headquarters could no longer dictate the narrative. People shed their silence and fear of losing salvation. Ex-members, apostates, critical thinkers, and dissidents, wielding firsthand knowledge of the church’s wrongs, exposed it to scrutiny the leadership couldn’t stifle. They labeled it a “rumor mill” and tried to quash it. They couldn’t.
The truth exposed the church’s gaslighting and lies, which could no longer hold.
Armstrongism thrived on control, relying on members’ perceived ignorance. “Pay, pray, obey, and never question” was the mantra for decades. But with computers and smartphones, the church became a public embarrassment. Never in its history has the extent of its folly been so clear.
Regular members are leaving too. Some mourn years lost, others feel grateful for their newfound freedom, and many are simply fed up with the lies.
For decades, the church warned that Satan and his forces—through the Catholic Church, world governments, or vast powers—would persecute them. Yet, the Church of God’s reckoning came from within, from its own members.
One thing is certain: the church will never recover. Not next year, not in five years, nor in fifty—if it even survives that long. Freedom and truth have a way of changing everything.
15 comments:
Let's not forget ZZ Top's "Heard it on the X," Or, for that matter "Wolfman Jack" on XERB in American Grafitti.
These were clear channel stations. Local radio stations were mandated by the FCC to go dark at sunset, giving way for the clear channel stations which would then boost their power, From suburban Philly, at around 9:00 PM, I could pull in Cousin Brucie on WABC New York, Dick Biondi on WLS Chicago. I got WBZ Boston, CKLW, Windsor Ontario, and WWVA Wheeling West Virginia. Many nights, I fell asleep on my 6 transistor radio. No matter! A new 9 volt battery only cost 19 cents! These are part of what gave me a sense of reality and saved my ass from Armstrongism during my tormented childhood. If I'd ever gotten busted by the parental units, I could have easily told them I fell asleep listening to Mr. Armstrong! I kept secrets! They never knew about my beer in the attic, or the Marlboro reds in my locker at school. Oops, I did get busted once, cause my mom wanted to smell my right hand, but I had just started a fresh pack, so convinced them it was my first time trying them! I had good cover because I was on student council, a miler on the track team, and a member of Spokesmans Club! If it hadn't been for the regular child abuse, as taught in the child rearing booklet, I probably would not have gotten into the smoking and drinking, but would still have listened to the rock and roll! Anyhoo, I was smoking the cigarettes given out by TWA on the plane flight to AC, Pasadena. In those days anyone travelling on public transportation smelled as if they had been smoking.
Authoritarian parents believe they can run over their kids roughshod! This is a cautionary tale, and possibly germain to one of the topics currently on hand. You really can't control them! If anything, the kids of today have so many more outlets and alternatives. Presentation is everything. If you want your kids to absorb your beliefs and values, find a way to make them appealing. It's your responsibility to sell it to them! Your kids are a report card as to how effective you are as a loving parent! My parents? Double F! I would encourage Father God to forgive them, but still double F! I need some of that forgiveness myself, come to think about it!
BB
Never heard The World Tomorrow on XEG, but many other fundamentalist preachers used it. Billy James Hargis comes to mind, from my college years.
Not to mention the Saturday night programs for drugs that (supposedly) cured cancer.
When made King, Jeroboam didn't trust God's way, so he relied on the alternative of bully morality. HWA and his minions ministers have been doing the same since he started his denomination, hence the totalitarianism, thuggery and brainwashing. Herbert 'Jeroboam' Armstrong.
1 Kings 12:25 Therefore the king asked advice, made two calves of gold, and said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!”
Byker Bob said “If I'd ever gotten busted by the parental units, I could have easily told them I fell asleep listening to Mr. Armstrong!”
MY COMMENT – That comment cracked me up. Sorry, but it was too funny!
Also sorry for what you had to endure growing up raised by the “Plain Truth About Child Rearing” booklet. Like many other things in the R/WCG, church members took this booklet to the extreme. If I remember correctly reading a comment you may have made a few months back about your father’s ordination (to deacon, I believe), one of the litmus tests for ordination was that ministry witness that the father had his children under control. I guess you were collateral damage.
I remember seeing parents bring spanking boards (paddles) to Church each Sabbath. I overheard one mother tell my mother that she was “spanking and a praying”. There were also the designated tents and areas where corporal punishment could be administered at the Feast of Tabernacles. Too much emphasis on the Plain Truth about Child Rearing. I wonder if Herbert Armstrong raised Garner Ted with the same extreme zeal with the booklet that sounds like your parents raised you.
Richard
NO2HWA said, “For decades, the church spread its message through pirate radio stations, WLS superstations, and Mexican radio stations. In the cool of late-night evenings, their powerful signals reached deep into the heartland of America”.
MY COMMENT - The R/WCG certainly did. Radio, and specifically, Amplitude Modulated (AM) radio was at its peak and as a result the Radio/Worldwide Church of God lagged nearing its peak not too far behind. It took time to convert the small fraction of radio listeners into tithe paying members – thus the lag in time. The World Tomorrow broadcast thundered across the nation on numerous 50,000 watt AM stations in the United States (the legal maximum wattage), and on the Mexican night clear channel AM stations that had greater wattage than the US AM stations. As Byker Bob stated, “Local radio stations were mandated by the FCC to go dark at sunset, giving way for the clear channel stations.” These Mexican AM stations operated with more wattage than the US maximum wattage. As mentioned, XELO was a 100,000 watt flame thrower reaching much of the Northern and Southern hemispheres. The significance of the FCC mandate for local stations to go dark at sunset on these select AM channels was to eliminate any & all radio interference so that these Mexican stations could be heard thousand(s) of miles away clearly.
I started out in Commercial radio broadcasting as a broadcast engineer (1972 – 1976). I worked for a 1,000 watt daytime station serving Baltimore/Washington that operated on a Mexican/Canadian clear channel 900 kHz on the AM dial. Radio XEW-AM from Mexico City had the clear channel at night (I can’t remember the Canadian station that also had the frequency at night). It was my responsibility to sign the station off the air at sundown. My station along with every other US station operating at 900 kHz went off the air at the same time at sundown (which varied by month of the year). My car radio was always tuned to my employer’s radio frequency. At night when the station was closed and off the air, I would get into my 1968 Mustang, turn on the radio, and I would hear 50,000 watt WLS Chicago at 890 kHz bleed into my station’s 900 kHz open channel.
While Byker Bob was listening at night to music with his transistor radio and ear plugs, I was doing the same with my transistor radio listening to the Wonderful World of (drum roll, please) … National League Baseball! Growing up in the Washington/Baltimore corridor in the 1960s/1970s, we had the Baltimore Orioles and the Washington Senators both of the American League. There was no inter-League play in those days. So, through America’s 50,000 Watt stations (some of which carried “The World Tomorrow”), I could listen to games with the St. Louis Cardinals, the Cincinnati Reds or the Chicago Cubs (when they were on the road because Wrigley Field didn’t have stadium lights then). I could also listen to the LA Dodgers and San Franciso Giants when they were on the road visiting teams in America’s heartland. I could also listen to other American League games.
Sometimes, I even listened to the World Tomorrow on these superstations in the offseason. My earliest memory of listening to Mr. Herbert Armstrong was at my grandparent’s home over 50,000 watt KXEL Waterloo, Iowa. I used to listen to the World Tomorrow at night on my transistor radio from 50,000 watt stations WWVA Wheeling, West Virginia, WRVA, Richmond, Virginia, and WLW Cincinnati. I once found Garner Ted's broadcast after his ouster from WCG while listening in Des Moines, Iowa on WOAI San Antonio.
Your post on this subject stirred up a lot of memories for me. The Church indeed spread its message and grew through the use of superstations in both USA and Mexico. The Church and AM radio peaked together. AM Radio has been in decline for a long time now - just like Armstrongism, R/WCG and their daughter and granddaughter ACOG churches that are in decline also.
Richard
Well, Richard, the worst damage that I had to repair persisted for years. I got in the habit of being a real "Eddie Haskell" duplicitous type teen ager just to avoid or survive all of the draconian punishments. That was my fallback for survival. And this is something that many of the parents in the current ACOGs may not realize that unfair and excessive punishment does to their childrens' character! Kids are so much smarter than we give them credit for, and when I saw that my son was picking up on my subtle duplicitous nature, I really had to work on myself to root that out, and it took years. He knew I could talk my way around any trouble he ever got into and actually used me to do exactly that. My parents and the church may have set that off, but I simply had to break the cycle. Thankfully, we nailed it, and he 's doing a real good job with his kids. It is so much better to be a totally honest person whom people can trust, whose word is their bond.
Church people sometimes think of those of us who leave as being lawless antinomians. I can honestly say that the day I left marked the beginning of my education in good ethics! Hard to imagine about a religious organization, but sadly, very true.
BB
So you say the church will never recover. But never say never. Certanity of the future is the hubris that tripped up Herbert Armstrong. Irony of ironies that it could trip up the cruel despisers of Sabbatarians.
There is an era of change steadily approaching the door. Baby boomer leaders are mainly in complete denial of that.. but the younger generations can hear the footsteps.
People who believe that the church will recover and undergo a new period of growth generally cite the theory that it's "God's True Church" and Jesus said it would never be stamped out.
I can't see that as even being a remote possibility. I do not believe that God ever had anything to do with raising that church up, or using HWA as a semi-Biblical character, an apostle. The fruits were always either artificially contrived, or completely absent.
However, if some charismatic individual comes along, someone capable of overcoming the PR nightmare and selling the concept to the point of attracting followers, there could be a future growth spurt. I believe that the prophecy hook has been outrageously burned, first by HWA himself, and worst of all by Dave Pack, with his spiritual Tourettes Syndrome. Bob Thiel cannot be described as doing it any damage, but that's because nobody seriously listens to him. He's like the tree that falls in the middle of the forest.
In any case, that church is not going anywhere, let alone going viral or becoming prominent.
Who wants to go viral? Not one mention of God, Jesus Christ or the Bible.
Is The Journal newspaper to blame? Where a subculture in the church was created when people became more interested in the gossip of the church than God?
As people who are more interested in the attainment and acquistion of power than actually being Christian in their behavour towards other they deem less worthy?
"I can justify being incredibly cruel towards others because Herbert Armstrong had major faults ...." will that hold much sway with Jesus ? Time will tell.
Well, Anonymous 11:30, the thing is, in order to complete the great commission HWA envisioned for his church when he tried to insert himself and it into the Bible, the church has to go viral! Ideally, it wouldn't wuss out and speak in nebulous terms about some strong hand from someplace, but the message would actually be based on God, Jesus, and the Bible! And members would be recognized not for cultic weirdness and 1940s clothes, but for Christian behavior.
The problem is that the ACOG members and ministers never acknowledge or repent of HWA's sins. They take them as license. We try to shake them up, but they won't listen.
Oh please we? Going over the faults of Herbert Armstrong was happening in the 80s and 90s, to do it now in 2025 achieves what exactly? Very late in the day to start in 2011 with this blog.
What was the "we" really doing in the 80s and 90s?
One minute the "we" are writing posts about munching bacon the next proclaiming to be athiests and now amateur psycologists perceiving the church brethren as nothing more, than lesser than subjects, for them to study from their own lofty, self proclaimed superior positions.
Like patients in Bedlam the famous London 19th century lunatic asylum, the brethren are in church for these counterfeit Ministry to look down on, jump to conclusions and use as free psycology studies training and entertainment.
Then they have the cheek to blame the brethren for the churches shrinking in attendance.
But you lot always forget about God, well i shouldn't expect athiests to.
HWA is still a relevant topic, and a fair target, because people still worship him.
Also, it's not that the brethren became "less than" subjects on their own. He and his religious philosophy made them become that way. Everyone who ever left remembers having existed in a "less than" state for the duration of their membership and now appreciates the freedom they enjoy in daily life and the ability to regenerate and apply their own thinking skills.
Why do you target the atheists here? There is very strong Christian presence here and excellent writers on that topic. The atheist presence at one time was significant, but has really shrunken.
Jeroboam is an excellent parallel to Armstrong. Both of them used the Leviticus 23 annual observance locations to create what amounted to political conventions to keep and rally support.
Suddenly I want a Coke.
Internet also endangers Armstrongism in another way. People share their lives. So when they come across this “amazing church” or such, they are likely to tell people and share its materials. That gives people like us the opportunity to head off a potential convert.
I run into some of these people on TruthSocial (follow me at LTWalker03). They will intermix political posts with Armstrongist articles and such. While some of them are sock puppets trying to pull the same bait and switch that got me, some are people genuinely interested in their newfound source of religiosity. They don’t know what they’re getting involved in. So I will engage them to expose Armstrongism. Even if I don’t persuade that person, the other parties reading will know better than to get sucked in.
I’ve also engaged expressly Armstrongist accounts on there. At least two have blocked me.
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