Steven Hassan on Armstrongism and the issues facing children and second-generation members born into cults.

Steven Hassan discusses Armstrongism as he interviews Tricia Jenkins. He has spent decades helping COG members escape the church.

Tricia Jenkins, Ph.D. is a podcaster and professor of film, TV, and digital media at TCU in Fort Worth, TX. She is the author of three books including The CIA in Hollywood, as well as Superheroes, Movies, and the State. Her new podcast, Worldwide: The Unchosen Church, features stories about growing up in the Worldwide Church of God- a doomsday apocalyptic cult. We talk about issues facing children and second-generation members born into cults. Details about Herbert W. Armstrong’s authoritarian cult group, an influential Christian right group, and its history are fascinating.

RCG: Enabler-in-Chief (Part 3) “Stepford Prime” Edward L. Winkfield

 

Enabler-in-Chief (Part 3)

“Stepford Prime”

 

The Restored Church of God should change its name to The Stepford Church of God to more accurately represent the mentality of the ministry.

 

The original intent of Part 3 was to examine the office of evangelist, which Bradford G. Schleifer currently holds (per Dave). However, while pulling quotes from two other enablers at The Restored Church of God, it became clear that those men deserved more adequate attention than just being a support element for the Brad story.

 

Prepare to enter the Bizarro World of Christian-living sermons inside The Restored Church of God. Messages are presented as “feeding the sheep spiritual food," but in reality are distorted manipulations that pervert the word of God. They act as insulation against concerns about David C. Pack and the continuous prophecy failures.

 

Propaganda disguised as godly teaching. Shackles disguised as biblical tools.

 

A true Christian-living message helps someone to have a greater understanding of the Bible so that they can be better equipped to make the journey to the Kingdom of God. The principles learned can apply to all aspects of their life and help them beyond the intent of the speaker.

 

That is what they used to be inside RCG. Those days are long past.

 

 

Edward L. Winkfield is the Prime Stepford Wife in the RCG ministry. Under Brad, he loves to lead the retch parade of manipulation and Dave-cheerleading.

 

Ed is technically #4 in The Restored Church of God pyramid, but may someday overtake the #3 slot, which is currently held by Ryan P. Denee.

 

For a long time, the Denee name was royalty inside RCG. Considering Ryan is “the last man standing” of that once-glorious dynasty, Dave probably slathers him with just enough butter to keep him around. If the last Denee falls, then Dave would have to wander the halls in search of another family to appropriate for himself.

 

So, if Ryan is higher on the food chain than Ed, why not address him next?

 

He is just not a “damage control” type of guy. In all my time there, I never heard him touch the topic. He lets other men pick up the bullhorns and trumpet for Dave. That is not Ryan’s style.

 

On the other hand, Ed is a pure Dave-enthusiast through and through. He gets the gold medal when it comes to delivering a classic Damage Control Sermon.

 

On March 6, 2021, Edward L. Winkfield delivered a message titled, “Stay Immune to Heresy.”

 

It is one long David C. Pack love-fest wrapped in the package of a Christian-living sermon. For the first half, all the scriptural points seem to be enriching and edifying. Deceptively so, as it was designed to lull you in and catch you off guard.

 

While listening to this as it was delivered at Headquarters, I began to wonder if he was going to weave in a parallel about the Greatest Unending Story series.

Oh boy. I had no idea what we were in for.

 

The true heart of the message was finally revealed at about half way in:

 

@ 43:06 Now let's talk about the prophecy series. Some have left us. Some few, it's not many, but enough to warrant what I wanna say here. Some have left us claiming that the Restored Church of God is off track. My response is: According to who? You? Who died and made you the the determiner of whether God's church is on or off track? What a pompous, arrogant thing to even delve in to. God's church is not off track. Far from it. Far from it.

 

If you witness escalating corruption of biblical knowledge and take issue with it, according to Edward L. Winkfield, you are pompous and arrogant. Not for acting on it, but for even considering it.

 

Your gut may be screaming at you, “What is going on is wrong! We are not the church we used to be!” But that just means you are full of yourself.

 

Paint on a placid face and repeat silently: “The church is on track. The church is on track.”

 

Turn off your brains, folks. You do not want to be pompous and arrogant.

 

***(SPOILER ALERT)***

 

This entire message is an abomination.

 

According to Ed, if you disagree with Dave and the fraudulent prophecy series…

 

You are pompous and arrogant.

You are insulting.

You are the only one who has a problem with it.

You just don’t like the process.

You just don’t like what you are hearing.

You are a heretic.

Your discernment is backwards.

You are unlearned and unstable.

You are twisting the scriptures.

You are going to destroy yourself.

You are rejecting the knowledge of God.

You lack God’s grace.

You are rejecting Dave as a master at prophecy.

You are rejecting Dave as God’s servant.

You think you know more than God’s apostle.

You lack humility.

You are rejecting wisdom.

You don’t know your Bible.

You are a Pharisee.

 

Yes, all of that in one message.

 

@ 44:14 The problem is some few among us choked on prophecy. That's the issue, but it became “the entire church is off track.” That gets my goat when I hear it. First of all, you're insulting me. You're insulting all of my friends. We're hearing the same thing you're hearing. Why don't we have a problem? It's an insult.

 

What members have “choked” on since 2013 has been repetitive nonsense, confusion, and theological trickery.

 

Why don’t YOU have a problem, Ed? I recommend you listen to a great RCG Ambassador Center class called “Critical Thinking.” It would be well worth your time.

 

Turn off your brains, folks. You do not want to insult Ed or his friends.

 

@ 44:47 People choked on prophecy. It's what happened. They either didn't like the process or they didn't like what they were hearing. And they bolted out of the church calling us heretics when they were the heretics. I'm not trying to put anybody down. I’m just not gonna stand here and mince words. They flipped the narrative. We're the heretics. What? No, it's the other way around. It's the other way around.

 

People do not leave RCG just because they “don’t like” the process. Even though the “process,” is a perpetual back-and-forth “it is” “it is not” and “this means X” “no, this means Y” cycle.

 

People do not leave RCG just because they “don’t like” what they are hearing. Even though what they are hearing is falsehood gift-wrapped as God’s will.

 

People do leave RCG because a man who claims to be an apostle and a prophet sets dates for the return of Jesus Christ and fails. Repeatedly. Then enablers like Edward L. Winkfield use Sabbath services as a platform to sell how “on track” RCG is despite all the warning signs.

People leave RCG because the Bible exposes such men to be false. Even David C. Pack in his own “90 Reasons to Follow the Truth” series said to flee a corrupt organization.

 

Turn off your brains, folks. You do not want to be a heretic.

 

@ 46:08 Paul wrote and talked about things that were hard to understand. That's what it [2 Peter 3:16] said. They were difficult to comprehend…But what happened was you had “unlearned and unstable” people who twisted what he [Paul] was saying and what he taught. And not only did they twist what he was saying and taught, they ended up twisting other scriptures and they did it to their own destruction. How familiar does that sound? How familiar does that sound, brethren? And they destroyed themselves. 

 

Another RCG gaslighting moment. This sermon is full of them.

 

Turn off your brains, folks. You do not want to be unlearned or unstable.

 

If anyone doubts that these quotes are real, feel free to listen to a sampling yourself:

(listen to heresy clip 1 at end of the article)

@47:51 We are to grow in grace, it’s saying grace throughout and also the knowledge of God…How do you grow in the knowledge of God? What does it look like? The last five-plus years. It’s exactly what it looks like. Growing in grace, brethren, is required for this series. Bet you never thought of that. Growing in grace is required for this series.

 

If it truly looks like that, then we are all doomed.

 

Growing in gullibility and blindness is what the series requires. Closing your eyes, closing your ears, closing your Bible, closing your brain is what the series really requires, Ed. It looks like you have done that and you love it.

 

@ 51:00 God’s apostle, Mr. Pack, is an elder in the faith. He knows how to handle prophecy. He knows how to do it. He’s been doing it his entire ministry. He knows how to handle prophecy. He’s good at it. He’s a master…that’s a man who knows what he’s talking about…We should be submitting to him as God’s servant. As God’s servant. We recognize where he is in the Government of God. So, we should be submitting to him as God’s servant, not the other way around.

 

Dave is a master at handling the word of God deceitfully, for sure. Here we are sixteen months beyond this message and Dave is still doing it. And Ed is still there.

 

With Tammuz 15 fresh in your mind, do you still think he is a master?

 

If anyone wants to listen to a grown man gush like a high schooler with a crush, click here:

(Listen to heresy clip 2 and end of article)

@ 52:07 We do not know more about prophecy than God’s apostle, than Mr. Pack. And no, I’m not looking for a raise anyone. I’m not, you know, I don’t hafta suck up to the boss. But he knows what he’s talking about. He knows what he’s doing. He knows how to handle the word of God. If we wanna understand what is a difficult series, even difficult for him…ask God for more grace and to understand the things that we’re learning.

 

I understand it pretty well, actually. It was false prophecy nonsense before I left. It is still false prophecy nonsense today. And guess what? It will continue to be false prophecy nonsense until Jesus Christ returns.

 

Critical thinking is shamed. Proving the truth is shamed. Accepting the obvious is shamed.

 

@ 52:46 Be clothed in humility. Humble. We have to be humble ourselves. God gives grace to the humble. If we’re clothed in humility, brethren, we’ll be just fine.

 

If you no longer believe Dave, you are not being humble. Well, I want to be humble, so I better keep quiet. Despite what the Bible says. So, I’ll just continue to sit, turn off my brain, and just be humble all day.

 

@ 56:04 This series is helping us to get to understand God. To grow in the knowledge of God. That’s what it says. You can’t deny it. It says it. That explains it.

 

That is vile. The “god” Dave is presenting to RCG is not the god I want to worship. A cruel trickster dangling the eternal carrot on a stick. The Master who will never really throw the ball. A god that forces his apostle to lie to his people and then threatens them with burning if they do not choose to endure. A god of confusion who never makes good on his promises. A god so inept, he just cannot get his chosen servant to get the math right.

No thank you.

 

@ 1:01:58 Be patient. God will work things out. Wisdom and knowledge is coming through this series. It’s happening. It’s happening. Don’t miss it. Just because what we’re talking about is hard, does not mean the church is off track. Just because you’re confused, “Oh clearly, the church is off track.” No. No.

 

If you no longer believe Dave it is because you are impatient. You are rejecting wisdom. You are rejecting knowledge. Wow. Ed makes this series sound super-duper important. It is a good thing that it has dragged on for so long and fumbled so many touchdowns.

 

I wonder what Ed had in mind when he said, “It’s happening.” You mean “knowledge” like The Night To Be Much Observed turmoil at the time?

 

Dave moved the date of NTBMO that even Herbert W. Armstrong had settled on from the eve of the First Day of Unleavened Bread, all the way to the last. A dumb idea for dumb reasons. For over six months, Dave held on to this. Until it started approaching and then the logistical reality began to settle in.

 

By this point, I had enough of the nonsense and started to more openly joke with people in the office that on the NTBMO 2021, I was going to order a pizza. Because after sunset that night, eating leaven was no longer a sin. I could do an entire article about the absurdity of that premise. But, Dave did another 180 the week before and returned it back to where it always was.

 

Yep, God’s wisdom and knowledge is self-evident in that one.

 

I bring this up because Ed delivered this message during that “doctrinally fluid” space of time. Come to think of it, RCG has been in a continuous doctrinally-fluid state since Elul of 2013.

 

@ 1:09:25 Heretics that have baulked at this series, they don’t know their bibles. They pretend they do. They talk like they do. But if you ask them some specific element or something, they don’t know what they’re talking about….They think they know. They’re like the Pharisees, “Oh, we know.”

 

Once Edward L. Winkfield gave this message, he officially became Stepford Prime. This was the sermon where I personally lost ALL respect for him. Years of admiration and goodwill were erased inside 45 minutes. 

 

He went up to the lectern on that Sabbath to protect the prophecy series and David C. Pack, not to protect God’s people. The whole message is one big psychological beat down.

 

Listening through the rest of the message was painful, even at 2.5x speed. Every verse and every point from here on supports the madness. It is a disgusting use of the Bible.

 

This message was delivered in 2021. We now are living in a post-Tammuz 15 world. I wonder what perverted message Edward L. Winkfield will deliver now. What other godly principle will he pluck from the Bible to warp and throw in the face of God’s people?

 

If I were Stepford Prime, here are things I would present to those in RCG:

 

Pride: “Tammuz 15 was part of God’s process. Those who are upset are just being prideful. ‘It didn’t go the way I wanted!’ The devil was full of pride and see what happened to him.”

 

God’s Will: “We don’t always understand how God is going to work things out. We should seek His will, not fight against it. It was God’s will that His apostle, Mr. Pack, did the math the way he did. If you have an issue with that, take it up with God. It was God’s will to have the church endure this. So, don’t fight against God’s will.”

 

Obedience: “Christ was obedient unto death. He received His stripes without a word. Brethren, having a few days pass on a calendar…is that really a hard stripe? I mean, the weather has been wonderful this year so far. Aren’t you glad the day passed into another beautiful one? Be obedient to the process and to God’s Government the way Christ did. Submit, brethren.”

 

Shall I go on? (Ed, if you use any of these, you will also owe me sixty bucks.)

 

It was painful to watch RCG sink into the mire. It was painful to listen to David C. Pack embarrass himself week after week after week.  It was painful to hear how “on track” we were from the propagandist-enabler, Edward L. Winkfield.

 

The pillow he uses to protect Dave may not be as large as Brad’s, but every pillow helps.

 

I cannot help but wonder: If Ed ever left The Restored Church of God, would this message be a source of his greatest shame?

 

Heresy Clip 1 

Heresy Clip 2

Marc Cebrian

See: Enabler-in-Chief (Part 3) “Stepford Prime”

The Problem With Faith:

"They brainwash their members into believing that it is their decision, even though they shame anyone for looking to the medical fraternity. “If you don’t have the faith to be healed, you won’t have the faith to flee, or the faith to be protected in the “Place the Safety” or the faith to be resurrected” and you are told this from the pulpit!"

“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Hebrews 11:1

Personally, and as you would already know from past postings, I have found this to mean "Now faith is made up of that which we hope is true, based on no evidence that it actually is true"   Some may find that too inaccurate, but the way people apply it speaks for itself. 

Outside of scripture, faith is defined as: 

"A confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea or thing, that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence" -Dictionary.com

"Belief; the assent of the mind to the truth of what is declared by another, resting solely and implicitly on his authority and veracity; reliance on testimony".  -Accurate and Reliable Dictionary

"A firm belief in something for which there is no truth." -Merriam Webster Online Dictionary

"Belief in, devotion to, or trust in somebody or something, especially without logical proof."  -Encarta

The overly religious seem to believe that if one really really believes something that this qualifies for actually knowing it to be true. The believer asserts they are right simply because they believe they are right.  This, of course, is delusional thinking. 

This concept is best summed up by:

Step 1. Assume the Conclusion

Step 2. Assert your conviction

Repeat

On the other hand, knowing something is so can only be justified when it means it is demonstrable and measurable. Truth is simply whatever statement or belief can be shown to be actually true. Just having faith that something is true does not qualify nor can it be counted as knowledge based in fact . Unwavering faith that something is true is irrational and delusional by any definition. 

Scripture assures the believer that even if they have the faith of a mustard seed, one can command a mountain to cast itself into the sea.  Of course, this is nonsense and no one on earth has actually ever had this kind of faith or successfully pulled off this stunt.

 “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” ~Matthew 17:20-21

Luke evidently realized the insanity of such a statement on Matthew's part so adjusted the mountain to "mulberry bush" which seems more possible yet isn't either. 

"He replied, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it will obey you. -Luke 17:6

"Every religion claims to believe as they do because of reason, education or intelligence given by their god in revelation. But whether they admit it or not, all of them are assuming their preferred conclusions on faith.... Believe as hard as you want to, but convincing yourself, however firmly, still can't change the reality of things.  Seeing is believing but seeing isn't knowing. Believing isn't knowing. Subjective convictions are meaningless in science and eyewitness testimony is the least reliable form of evidence."   Fundamental Falsehoods of Creationism, pg 123

Unfortunately, Tertullian of the Second Century CE set an unfortunate tone for those with the tendency towards a perverse and foolish kind of faith and many, especially in the more cultish COGs promote this foolishness to this day. 

"We want no curious disputation after possessing Christ Jesus, no inquiring after enjoying the gospel! With our faith, we desire no further belief."

"And the Son of God died; it is by all means to be believed because it is absurd. And he was buried and rose again; the fact is certain because it is impossible." 

"After Jesus Christ we have no need of speculation, after the Gospel no need of research. When we come to believe, we have no desire to believe anything else; for we begin by believing that is nothing else which we have to believe." 

If you can't prove something isn't true does that mean that it is?  If we "know in my heart it is so" or "trust and obey for there's no other way...", is that actually so?  Is it a wise way to live one's life? Or is it delusional thinking and belief with a religious twist?

 Growing up in the Dutch Reformed Church no one would ever have shunned medical attention or believed something in the kind of "faith" that may end in their loss of a job or their personal demise for not taking good medical care of themselves. No one got "anointed" with the understanding that, for sure, "the sick will be made well."  I suspect they have been over that delusional kind of faith hundreds is not a thousand years ago.

Back to the scriptures on what it means to have faith.

John 20:29   "Blessed are they that have not seen, but yet believe"

Romans 14:22 "The faith that you have, have as YOUR OWN conviction"

2 Corintians 4:18 "We look not at things seen, but at things not seen"

2 Corinthians 5"7 "For we walk by faith, not by sight."

"Faith is the very opposite of reason and where faith is encouraged, reason is discouraged. We are expected to believe without reason; in fact, we are blessed if we readily believe the most outrageous, illogical, inconsistent, and contradictory claims from even the most credulous and questionable people without any evidence at all, according to the sermons of theologians past and present. 

"... As you can see, where faith is encouraged, reason is discouraged. They're opposites.  This is not just my interpretation but the common understanding of scholars and philosophers. Friedrich Nietzsche said, 'Faith means not wanting to know what is true' Or to put it another way, as Mark Twain did, ' Faith is believing what you know ain't so.'"

"Faith requires that we literally make-believe, that we presume, presuppose, and pretend that we ignore what we really do see, and imagine something is there when it apparently isn't. It means that we lie to ourselves and fool ourselves. Worse than that, faith requires that we believe the unbelievable."  Foundational Falsehoods of Creationism pg 152-153

"In other words, faith assumes its own conclusions, believes impossible nonsense without reason and defends those beliefs against all reason to the contrary. It can't help but be wrong to some degree to start with, and any errors will never even be acknowledged, much less sought out or corrected, so that situation can never improve. However wrong it already is, is however wrong it will forever be. Faith offers no way to discover the real truth about anything, but it s a great way to stary wrong forever and never admit it-even to yourself."  pg 154

Why bring this up again on my part?  Because the kind of irresponsible "faith" the Churches of God promote is dangerous.  I spent 26 years observing this kind of "faith" in WCG and not a little bit of time endeavoring to put some balance into the lives of those who insisted they were going to just "trust and obey and obey for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey."  We even sang that in the Church of my youth and THAT bothered me too! The difference in the two experiences is that what one trusted in and obeyed were seen differently and applied accordingly. 

You don't have to die from Covid,  a treatable staph infection or any other medical emergency to prove your faith. You don't have to tough out gallstones or peritonitis to prove your spiritual worth.  You don't have to "send it all in" to prove your faith in a Dave Pack, who at this time is about as close to insanity as any COG ,"yep, that's me spoken of in the scriptures" cultish leader ever has come. You need not shun family or friends to show loyalty and faith in your delusional Church teachings. In many respects, it does not matter one bit what the Bible says, and one doesn't even have to struggle over what it means.  It is simply irrelevant to today and I know that is not how most devote and faith filled fundamentalists think and certainly not what they would believe to be so.  Nonetheless...

Thanks for listening and reading if so disposed. This foolish faith topic has always been an issue for me both in my own past as a pastor in WCG and to this day observing the foolish advice and behaviors of the near cultish Churches of God. 

I would prefer the average Church of God member learn to stand up to their intrusive ministry and remind them when it is time for them to mind their own business and that you can successfully watch out for your own soul, thank you...

  

Philadelphia Church of God: It’s a toxic and dangerous environment, especially for children

Exit and Support Network had a letter up about the abuse in the Philadelphia Church of God leveled against those who seek medical attention.

The church has always had a huge disconnect between the official teachings, the actions of the ministry, and the lay members. Lay members were told to not go to doctors over and over while those very same ministers and leaders were in doctor's offices regularly and had operations as needed. These higher-ups always got around the issue by claiming what they had done was "corrective surgery".

The Philadelphia Church of God ministry is deranged and dangerous. I’ve lost count of how many people I know who had their lives cut short, not seeking medical attention, including my own family. 

 

They’ve fasted recently1 because there are many sick members in that destructive group2 including top brass like Stephen Flurry3, Andrew Locher4, and the wives of some ministers. 

 

A very prominent regional director “counseled” a good friend of mine to get surgery and reassured her in confidence that there are many members who quietly get procedures done–including the ministry. 

 

The leading ministers know they’re a fraud and yet are willing to sacrifice the lives of their members–members who are taught they will be healed once they’re anointed by a PCG minister. I’ve heard so many times how you’re healed once you’re anointed – as long as you have faith. And this is despite any physical symptoms you continue to have! 

 

If you search their website for healed members, you will find very few articles, almost none. I personally know of one member who now relies on medication, yet that person’s article is still up there! This is very misleading and dangerous. They pretend that God heals them! The only time I’ve heard of someone being healed is just after a cold or virus runs its natural course! 

What follows next in this paragraph is appalling and obscene. No COG minister or leader has the capability to make such a statement. Such incompetent garbage! 

They brainwash their members into believing that it is their decision, even though they shame anyone for looking to the medical fraternity. “If you don’t have the faith to be healed, you won’t have the faith to flee, or the faith to be protected in the “Place the Safety” or the faith to be resurrected” and you are told this from the pulpit! 

 

That’s fine if it were true! When you leave the PCG, you begin to realize how sick that place is5 and how God was never there! It sickens me to think how I played Russian Roulette with my own life and the lives of my children! 

When you leave any COG you quickly realize how sick the organization was. That is every single one of them! There are no exceptions to this rule anymore. 

How can they make SEP compulsory for kids? No parent should ever waive legal right over to any COG at any summer camp! They need to be held legally accountable if the occasion arises.

I remember being warned about vaccinations and always felt guilty for seeking medical attention–even for my young kids! I even heard of a teenager who was told she was vain for getting braces!6
SEP is compulsory for teenagers and us parents are forced to waive all legal rights when sending our kids to camp7. This has left me feeling very uncomfortable as there are no legal recourse should my kids suffer neglect, including medical. 

 

It’s a toxic and dangerous environment, especially for children, leaving many traumatized by the physical, emotional and mental abuse! 

 

I’ve seen mothers spank their 6 month old babies8 because minister wives like Lynda Macdonald [wife of John Macdonald9] couldn’t handle their soft cooing noises during services.f 

 

The kids are hammered with apocalyptic visions if they don’t stay and don’t obey! Camp theme only a few years ago was literally “loyal and royal” meaning that if you are loyal to Gerald Flurry, God will give you a position in His Kingdom. PCG A TOXIC AND DANGEROUS ENVIRONMENT, ESPECIALLY FOR CHILDREN

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