The Stuff Fundies Like had a great comment about fundamentalists and books. You can change the word 'Fundie' to 'Armstrongites' and books and still get the same thought process.
Armstrongism has always had a love/hate response to books. Herbert bombastically proclaimed that the printing press had been invented for the soul propose for the future use by the WCG to publish an end time message. However, members were not encouraged to read outside approved church literature and books. Only COG leaders who had God working through their minds and hands could produce such spiritually significant books such as Mystery of the Ages or The Missing Dimension in Sex. These two books alone have to be Armstrongism's worst books it has ever printed. Both mind numbingly boring as hell. Even Herbs's sex illustrations were so clinical that there could be no joy found in it. One can quickly see why Loma despised sexual relations with Herbert.
A larger percentage of COG homes did not have a large number of books in them. Worldly books were sinful and infected with satanic drivel meant to lead us away from the one true Church. COG homes were to be filled with myriads of booklets, magazines, correspondence courses and books all produced by the Dear Leader.
If HWA. Meredith, Flurry and others in the hierarchy of COGdumb had thier way there would be book burnings on every sabbath day gathering. Their though process runs exactly like what was posted on Stuff Fundies Like today:
For when a fundamentalist reads he places his Spectacles of Moralism and Simplicity upon his nose and simply ignores anything that doesn’t fit his own prescribed view of the world. And it’s not just non-fiction. If the fundy happens to stumble upon some literary work, whether it’s Hester’s plight in the Scarlet Letter or the plotted revenge of the Count of Monte Cristo, the fundamentalist will only see what he considers to be moral or immoral actions and never consider what’s being said about the humanity or the larger social implications behind them.
He then goes on to write:For every fundamentalist plot can be boiled down to these elements: Someone is right. Someone is wrong. And Someone is bound to be damned if they keep it up. That’s all that matters. Insight into things like life, love, pain, greed, sacrifice, hate, bravery, desire, and the common human condition are just so much window dressing. Hardly worth noticing, really.
So I put the question to you: is it worse to burn a book or to have a library full of them that you will not allow to expand your mind or touch your soul? Perhaps it might be kinder simply to set them ablaze and have done with the façade.
Part of the reason I post so many different view points here is to get people to engage their brains. Armstrongism destroyed brain function and rational thinking in so many. To think outside the book is too difficult for many in the COG. It is better to be told what to believe than to ever crack open a book from the 'wolrd' and engage your brain. Because of that, it is no wonder Armstrongism id dying a slow and painful death. It has never moved on from the world that existed at the time HWA invented the WCG and existed right down until 1986. We are close to 30 years after Herbs death and Armstrongism has never moved forward.
