Ponderings on HWA, Leaving LCG and Todays Political Climate and the Church

The story below is from Facebook and is also by a former writer who posted here occasionally. It is his take on joining the Living Church of God at age 19, waking up and recognizing the dissonance, and leaving it and Armstrongism behind. He also wonders about how Herbert Armstrong would be reacting to todays political climate.

I exited a doomsday bible cult almost six years ago. Today is the 40th anniversary of the death of the founder of that cult. His name was Herbert W. Armstrong, and his cult was called the Worldwide Church of God.

I joined this cult when I was 19, just dropped out of college, emotionally vulnerable, confused, obviously scared, and full of anxiety and undealt with childhood stuff.

Nevertheless, it provided the safe space I needed; an alternative reality - a bubble. A place that said the world is so messed up and unfixable because of Satan, the devil, and there was nothing to do but sit back and wait for Jesus to return in (always 3-5 years) to fix everything. All I had to do was pray, pay, stay, and obey.

And that is what I did for 20 years. But then, I started acknowledging the cognitive dissonance that was growing inside my mind. I started challenging the doctrines and could see many of the teachings did not align with the scriptures. I learned the difference between eisegesis and exegesis.

I've expressed this before, but it was learning that Jesus as the Word (Greek: logos) in John 1:1, which means "rational thought," that gave me the green light to question without fear.

By now, the internet was fully developed. The Information Age was here. I studied the character of the now-dead founder. And what I found was a man remarkably similar to Donald J. Trump.

His own father described him as stupid and lazy. He spent his life up to his 40's grifting in sales positions and failing even when it was hard to do in the 1920's. Then he found religion during the Great Depression and managed to preach his way into a pastoral position in the Church of God, Seventh Day.

Arguing he could not preach what one man commanded in the church's hierarchy, he set out to start his own religion based on two key doctrines the Seventh Day Church refused to teach:

1. British-Israelism, a soft version of white supremacy.

2. Commanded observance of annual holy days outlined in the Old Covenant with the ancient nation of Israel.

For a decade, he built an audience using the power of radio out of Pasadena CA. Also during this time, he was commuting to Pasadena, taking his daughter, Dorothy, with him while his wife and sons were left behind, starving most of the time. From the time Dorothy was 13 till she married at 23, HWA was having a sexual relationship...excuse me, HWA was raping her.

HWA learned that grifting religious fear on the radio was making him a lot of money. He eventually opened a college to train young boys, whom he would send all over the country to start churches. These young boys were taught to teach only and exactly what he said.

By the 1960's, he had quite a money-making machine that required members to send 10% of their pre-tax income to him. Another 10% was required to pay for annual holy day meetings and conventions. And another 10% to be sent to Headquarters every 3rd and 6th year of 7-year cycles, to "help the poor and widows" in the cult. In addition, letters would regularly be sent out, frightening (already shit-poor) people into sending in offerings for buildings and additional pet projects. Always with urgency to "finish the Work."

He took his fear-mongering to television, becoming what was really the model for TV evangelism that followed after him. He claimed he was an end-time Apostle sent by Jesus Himself to restore the true teachings of the bible to the last generation. He said he was the prophet, Elijah, prophesied about by Jesus. He set 1975 as the year Jesus would return.

Just as 1975 came and went, so did scandal after scandal concerning sexual promiscuity and crimes, including money laundering and theft. Despite all that, his cult continued to grow, reaching over 150,000 members and raking in over 200 million dollars a year by his death in 1986.

With no strong leader to follow him up, the cult collapsed by 1993. It was at this time that pastors and evangelists were starting their own competing continuation of HWA's teachings. It has been estimated that there are still over 300 factions started since. The four largest groups today being:

1. The United Church of God

2. The Philadelphia Church of God

3. Church of God, A Worldwide Association

4. The Living Church of God

I stumbled across the Living Church of God in 1992 (originally the Global Church of God, 1992-1998). The imploding of the Worldwide Church of God at the time was brilliantly explained away using prophesy, saying the "falling away" from the true teachings of the true end-time church had to happen first, then Jesus would return and fix everything. And this would, of course, happen in just 3-5 years.

I watched 3-5 years go by for two decades before it started being clear to me that these cults have no idea what they are talking about.

I remember in 2016, as Trump bullied his way to the top of the Republican ticket, members of the cult and even the leadership subtly supported him. This was a problem because one of the core doctrines of the cult was that we do not participate in the "politics of the world." I even preached against supporting Trump one Sabbath. But from that year on, siding with the political conservative climate was more obvious in the writings of the cult and in conversations with fellow members.

These cults, sometimes quietly, sometimes openly, support the MAGA movement right along with the rest of Evangelical churches in America. Some of those members who would argue with me regularly on social media all the way to Trump's 2nd inauguration have oddly disappeared from social media.

I say stay away from all Christian churches in America today unless they are Progressive Christian churches.

If Herbert W. Armstrong was alive today, he would undoubtedly be a Trump supporter and would most likely had been a guest at the Inauguration, as he spent the waning years of his life flying around in a personal jet giving expensive gifts to heads of state and royalty.

Both grifters. Both pedophiles. Both are malignant narcissists. Both low IQ. Both lazy. Both bipolar. Both I would be deeply ashamed to have ever followed. I gave over six figures of my hard-earned income over a 20 year period to one of them (by extension of copy-cat cults following his death).

But I thank Donald J Trump because he helped me to "see" Herbert W. Armstrong. So I left that religious cult and avoided joining a political cult. I am free now because that is what the truth does. But it comes at a steep price the longer you fight against it.

For the love of all things good and decent, stay away from any groups that claim they are right about everything, have everything figured out, demonize (other) people who disagree with them, use fear to grow, label the core teachings of Jesus, "toxic empathy," and value obedience over morality.

EDB