Herbert W Armstrong: What Did He Do... (part 2)

What Did He Do... (part 2)

When talking about my cult upbringing, people sometimes ask me what I would say to Herbert W. Armstrong if I were able to travel back in time and meet him. (He died in 1986 when I was 13)

My answer is always the same.

I would grab him by the lapels of his $2000 suit coat and shout in his face as loudly as I possibly could, “YOU STOLE MY POTENTIAL AND MADE ME AFRAID OF MY OWN FAMILY, ASSHOLE!” And then, depending on my ability to restrain myself, I might then, possibly, spit in his face.

But here’s the real kicker of the whole scenario… I don’t think that he would have had much of a reaction to our confrontation.

After all, we are talking about someone who, when confronted with accusations about his incestuous acts on his youngest daughter, never once denied them and is said to have even admitted abusing her to several people. (Source links available upon request)

The incest allegations notwithstanding, you can’t really call Herbert a “monster.” Looking at other cult leaders like Jim Jones, L. Ron Hubbard, and David Koresh, Herbert Armstrong looks almost harmless. So, really, what did he do that was so bad? I mean, after all, didn’t his organization donate money and labor to truly worthy causes all over the world? Didn’t his teachings promote things like eating healthy diets and strengthening the nuclear family? Who could have a problem with a guy like that?

Well, when you look at the backgrounds and behaviors of notorious cult leaders, a commonality becomes apparent. Those people share the distinction of recognizable acute mental illness. Herbert wasn’t diabolical or sadistic, he was just a charismatic and selfish (and/or greedy) narcissist. And that was the secret to his success and longevity. “Crazy” cult leaders burn themselves out (sometimes literally), but a “Con Man” cult leader can live to the ripe old age of 93 and die surrounded by millions of dollars’ worth of golden finery and his very own private jet.

Now let’s look at what he left behind besides the $80,000 golden chalices and a stack of writings, that if laid out page by page, end to end, could reach beyond the moon.

He left millions of isolated, confused, and fearful people with little or no financial stability or plans for the future aside from going to “the Place of Safety” in order to hide from “the Great Tribulation” (aka “Armageddon”). Each of those people had been encouraged to cut ties with their “unconverted” family members and friends. They lived in a world where their only real support structure was The Worldwide Church of God and the followers of the teachings of Armstrongism.

Even though “the church” was VERY big on family, it had an ability to destroy families that statistically rivaled substance abuse and infidelity. A bizarre doctrine known to Armstrongers as “D and R” (Divorce and Remarriage) was arguably one of the worst offenses that the church ever committed.

It was a position that made, at least a little bit of sense, on paper.

If a man and woman made an oath before God to belong only to each other until separated by death, then they should be held to those terms. So, if a woman divorced her abusive husband and then years later married another man who treated her with nothing but love and respect, their otherwise legal marriage could be ruled invalid by the Worldwide Church of God, and the couple would have to separate if they wanted to escape the horrors of “the End Times.” It was not uncommon for children to have loving and safe two-parent homes ripped apart because of the ill-informed judgments of a man and his ministers.

And then you have families like mine.

Now, I’m not naïve to think that were it not for my mother’s indoctrination into the WCG that my parents would have remained happily married. The most likely would have divorced at some point anyway. All of my parent’s siblings divorced at least once, so I’m sure my mother and father would have split up as well. But WCG doctrine made the idea of her ever getting remarried iffy at best. Moreover, my actual father was considered “spiritually dead” and despised by God for rejecting Armstrong’s “true gospel” teachings when they were shared with him. (More on that in a page or so)

Now add to the surgically precise and sterile removal of my father’s influence (or any hope for a future step father to take his place) from my life, the endless preaching that my unconverted family members were, at their core, people who hated the “truth” about God’s Plan and would constantly be inspired by demons to pull me away from God’s divine protection so that I would fight for the side of Satan.

For reference, think of the movie, The Matrix. When you were in the matrix, each and every person you encountered, who wasn’t a part of Morpheus’ group, could at any moment turn into an Agent and kill you. According to the cult of Armstrong, any person who wasn’t under God’s protection could conceivably be a demon (or under a demon’s control) and actively seeking to pull you away from God’s protection.

Now let’s follow that to the logical conclusion that myself and many other children raised in this belief structure came to.

Your unconverted family members, school mates, and basically anyone you don’t go to church with (and possibly some of the one’s you do go to church with) might be a demon intent on tempting you to do something that would make God mad enough to exclude you from being among the protected.

But then it gets worse.

You see, in Armstrongist belief, the people who never knew the truth will eventually be instructed by God’s chosen people on the true purpose and plan that God has for them. It’s fine just as long as you never knew that you about the rules you were breaking. HOWEVER, if you had been shown the truth and then rejected it, well….

All I can say is that it sucks to be you.

The good news is that you aren’t going to hell - because there is no hell. The bad news is that there is a “Lake of Fire” (no, it’s not like the one in the Meat Puppets song) and you’ve got a one-way ticket straight in.

No written warning, no second chances.

You’ve got to get it right the first time or God will judge you to be as evil as the demons who lead you astray.

Let me make this crystal clear for you.

Adolf Hitler gets a second chance because (presumably) was never able to receive Herbert Armstrong’s broadcasts or publications. God is going to show him mercy.

Me, on the other hand, I’m beyond forgiveness. I had the ultimate blessing of being born into God’s true church. I was given unlimited access to information about God’s true plan. I lived among God’s chosen people. I “kept” (observed) God’s true holy days and followed his laws and commands – and then I rejected all of it (for several reasons I will go into later in another post) and walked away forever.

So let’s recap.

Family is super duper important to God, but some people aren't allowed to have one because that would break God's rules.

My entire family, aside from my mom and my sister, everyone at my school, and basically anyone I meet who isn’t a cult member is potentially a demon with the intent of making me a servant of the Prince of Darkness.

Adolf Hitler gets a mulligan and a private tutor from among God’s chosen faithful servants, but if I leave the cult, I am damned to burn because (unless, of course I change my mind and return to the cult BEFORE the Great Tribulation starts).


This seems like a good place to pause until next time.

I will be glad to answer any questions or address any comments you'd like to share below.

Or you can email me at Ripley@ripleyjohnson.com


RJ

See Part 1 here:  "What Did He Do That Was So Wrong?" (Part One)

Deep Time--And Why Understanding It Would Have Mattered

One of the erroneous concepts given me as a child and then as a naïve young man all caught up in the Worldwide Church of God's "Whale of a Tale" and "A Theory for the Birds" and  concerned more about all things pertaining to the message of the Bible and the consequences for not understanding it and then believing it all,  was the concept of Deep Time.  

Deep Time in my hand: 12 million year old Megaladon Tooth. 14.5 Billion year old Iron Meteorite and thousands of years old stone tools I found in the Willamette River in Oregon just last year.

Planted firmly in my head was the idea that it all began with two people called Adam and Eve, perhaps thousands of years ago, but only thousands and progressed through the lives of a Noah, Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob sometime back in time since then, Major Prophets in the 6th Century BCE transitioning into the life of Jesus in the 1st Century CE, various Apostles, who knew everything,  and then leading up to now over the past 2000 years since.  That was it. That's all of history and certainly all I ever needed to know or care about.  

Astronomically, the Milky Way was the entire Universe up until the 1930's when it no longer was and every lifeform on the planet was an original creation and looked just like those named by Adam in the Garden of Eden, as noted, just a few thousand years back in time.

We, as humans, were the focus, center and reason for it all and that "soon" it would all change for us either by going to Heaven (Or God forbid, HELL) or as I was convinced as a teen, culminate in the Wonderful World Tomorrow and hopefully not annihilation in a Lake of Fire for not getting it. 

Hmmm....

It took way too long to appreciate the reality of deep time and all that had really transpired in all that over that deep time would lead to "our time".  

Over that deep time there have been, so far discovered, 5 mass extinction events of most of the previous life on the planet over the past 3.8 billion years, though our minds don't do well with the word "billion". These life forms will never again present themselves to tell their story except in their fossilzed remains and humans will make careers finding and placing correctly in deep time. This also applies to the real origins of the human species and "US". 

Two personal favorites: 400+ Million Year Old Trilobites
Science notes we are most likely in the Sixth Mass Extinction event now with climate change and the stress human progress and population have put on the planet. 

So what? What does any of this have to do with Banned HWA and the processing of the WCG experience that it serves?  Because, to me and in my own life, the not so deep time perspective of the Bible kept me off course in that which perhaps I should more have done with my life personally.  I and it kept me from following my real curiosities about it all. I was too easily satisfied with the myths and tales woven by people I never met and who's world view was not one that most would take seriously today. Except I did until I couldn't any longer.  

Since time was short in the 1960's and it was all going to end, my budding interests in dinosaurs, fossils and all that I would later come to understand as Paleontology, mattered not a bit. Having grown up very conservatively Dutch Reformed Calvinist, I was already blind to the concept that there was more, much more to life and the history of it all.  The lenses and filters I viewed everything with and through was "Bible Time", which is a very limited view of all that actually was the real history of our planet and life on it including ourselves.

It is too late for me to follow my bliss as they say. I will never be the Paleontologist I now know lay just under the surface of my young life. Whether I "wasted" my life in becoming versed in the story of Bugs Bunny, which I might as well have studied, or not depends on how I view it. I learned a lot and sometimes learning what you don't believe is just as helpful as what you do now believe with more evidence and based on less faith in the unbelievable. 

But perhaps just one young person, male or female, might catch their own vision of wanting to do what they actually love and not be sidetracked by the pettiness and limited views of those piously convicted but marginally informed as I was when younger. 

Having been a pastor for over 1/3 of what I suspect my lifetime to be, I get to share here my experience and conclusions just as all other do. Just because they don't lead me into another splinter of WCG or back full circle to my Presbyterian Dutch Reformed Roots, as it did my parents who were both Elder and Deaconess in WCG, My sister and son now somewhat Evangelical with another in Catholic mode, does not mean I have no right to share my own experience and conclusions.  

It may not help most No doubt it will piss off a few here that I no longer see as they see or am as they are,  but it might help one follow their passion for learning instead of getting stuck in the Bronze and Iron Age views of others real or imagined. 

How long is deep time?

Deep Time is the term used by scientists to describe the vast amount of time that has passed since the formation of the universe.  It is an amazing.. 13,820,000,000 years long For many of us we can almost remember back to our early childhood and maybe can comprehend the lifespan of our parents and grandparents.

The Wonder of it all...

Whale Evolution: It's No Mystery

Victims of Kevin Owen Dean Encouraged to Contact US Marshal's Office

He is guilty of molesting a raping many, many young girls at the Y.O.U camp in ORR, Minnesota where he essentially an "all action pass". Anyone who he abused should get into contact with the US Marshall's office. We need to fight these pedophiles you prey on and ruin young girl's lives. 

He molested me at 14, raped my sister at 16 and had an ongoing "relationship" with my other sister for years- starting when she was about 15. She had Stockholm syndrome and "fell in love with him". He impregnated her at age 16 and made her get an abortion. 

I have reached out to the US Marshall's office. 

He needs to pay for his crimes.