published by:
The Truth Foundation
11 Laurel Court
Freehold Township, New Jersey 07728
1981
Chapter 19 BLACKMAIL?
(pg 253) ONE MUST WONDER WHAT IT COULD BE THAT COULD CAUSE Armstrong
to so attach himself to Rader, even to the point of totally destroying the Church that he worked so long to build. Could an elderly man be fearful of what Rader would reveal regarding financial dealings? Possibly, but not to the point of acting the way Armstrong has acted in the most recent months.
As I wondered about these things, I knew that I would have to investigate further rumors that I had chosen not to believe. There was the recurring story mentioned earlier about Stanley Rader's homosexual conduct. That alone, it would appear, would be sufficient for Armstrong to take some drastic action. Yet Rader's hold seemed to get tighter and tighter, to the point where he was finally able to have himself ordained an evangelist.
But this was not the only story regarding Rader's sexual conduct. In 1974, Mr.and Mrs.Jim Fox, members of the San Jose congregation of the Church, were in a restaurant of the Hilton Hotel in Madrid, Spain. Fox noticed Rader and Gotoh at another table talking to a woman, and then observed them writing something down on a piece of paper and handing it to her. Rader and Gotoh did not know the Foxes and were unaware that they were being watched by Church members. After handing the note to the woman, Gotoh and Rader left the table and Fox heard one of the men say that they would see her sometime later that evening. Fox then became quite (pg. 254) suspicious that the woman was a house prostitute and had those suspicions confirmed by the bartender. Still wanting to be absolutely certain, Fox discussed it with his wife and they determined that he would approach the woman. Fox went to the woman's table and began to engage her in conversation. It did not take long for him to determine that she was indeed a prostitute, found out her price, and made tentative arrangements with her. He then left her table and went back to his wife and told her what transpired. As the reality of this hit them both, they became emotionally shattered. When they returned to the States, Fox discussed the situation with his pastor and was told that he should not mention it to anyone, and was assured that the matter would be taken to proper Church authority. Apparently, nothing further ever came of the situation. This disillusioned the Foxes with the Worldwide Church so much that they dropped out at that time. They continued to worship on their own and had no further fellowship with an organized church group until late in 1978 when they affiliated themselves with the Church of God International.
As this throws quite an additional cloud over Rader, it would seem that Armstrong would have even further justification for his removal. Yet in spite of this type of conduct, Armstrong continued to be fearful of what Rader would say to the world.
After the State of California made its allegations regarding financial improprieties, it would seem that there would be little more that Rader could say over and above that which had already been revealed through the press. There had to be something else. There were rumors that others knew what Rader had on Armstrong. I decided to pursue each rumor until I could come up with something concrete.
The facts were that the Worldwide Church of God was under the leadership of men who had sunk to the lowest depths of moral depravity.
Around mid-July 1979, rumors began to circulate that David Robinson, a minister of the Worldwide Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, had been fired by Herbert Armstrong. Robinson had been a member of the Church for over twenty-five years, and now he was out as a result of a meeting that he had had with Herbert Armstrong in Tucson on July 4th. It had long been rumored that Robinson knew some of the facts regarding Rader's hold on Armstrong.
(pg. 255) Robinson told me, "Finally, I just had to go see Mr. Armstrong and confront him with his sins in hope that he would repent." During Robinson's visit, Henry Cornwall was present. Rader was out of the country at the time and during his absence, Cornwall was a regular fixture in the Armstrong home. Was he there to help Armstrong, protect him, or, as is more likely, isolate him? During the visit, Robinson asked Armstrong if it was necessary that Cornwall be present during their conversation, as the matters to be discussed were matters between two ministers. Armstrong just hung his head in shame and mumbled, indicating that Cornwall would stay.
Robinson told Armstrong that his sins were grievous and that he must repent and take the necessary steps to straighten out the problems of the Church. He referred to a meeting that he had with Armstrong at his hotel room at the Holiday Inn in Bartonsville, Pennsylvania, during the Feast of Tabernacles in 1976. He was staying there over night, during his appearance at the Mt. Pocono Feast site before approximately eight thousand people.
In spite of the fact that eight thousand people saw him and heard him speak, he denied having been there that year. Robinson was the Festival Coordinator at Mt. Pocono and was responsible for the overall administration for the week long gathering.
During the night of Armstrong's stay, Dr. Floyd Lochner, who was traveling with Herbert Armstrong, contacted Robinson and told him that Armstrong was having difficulty getting to sleep. As Lochner would not be able to remain with Armstrong for that time, he asked Robinson to visit with Armstrong for a while and keep him company. What Armstrong told Robinson that evening, after drinking excessively, shocked him. It was after bringing these matters to Armstrong's attention on July 4th, that Robinson was fired from the ministry.
Here is Robinson's account of that visit with Armstrong in the fall of 1976:
"He got one of the crystal wine glasses and filled it with Harvey's and downed it quickly, and then more. He said he needed it to relax. He said he had decided to quit wine before the Feast, but felt that he couldn't make the circuit without it now. He said he had decided to lay off when he discovered that drinking so much wine tended to render him impotent, he had enough of that anyway.”
“He intended to marry, he intended to marry Ramona. He got (pg. 256) his wallet out and showed me her picture and a picture of her son. Mr.Armstrong said he needed someone to lavish his love on, but now he was abundantly able to take good care of a woman. He said 'Ted has finally given his consent, even if grudgingly.' “
“He got back on the Church just briefly, that was the subject I preferred to talk on, except it took a dangerous direction. He said that there were ministers who were extremely liberal and he was going to deal with them. I agreed that there were. He said if I would name them, he would fire them. He requested that I give him some names.
“He said that he expected the Church would soon be run by a committee, and that they had seen to it that contracts had been signed which guaranteed that their standard of living, or as he said, my lifestyle, would not be diminished. He would continue to have the plane, etc., no one could take that away from him. He said he had been particularly proud of Ted, as he had sent Stan's contract back with a reduction and a boost in his own. That was the sort of ambivalence that made me cautious of Ted as well as other reasons when Mr. Armstrong spoke against Ted.
“I felt sure he thought he could do so, but woe to the other person who did. I am sure that is not still the case.
“One must stop at this point, and consider what had happened. This was the first time I had heard anything about contracts in the Church, and especially among the ministry. He said that he, Stan, and Ted had just signed contracts which called for salaries for the three of them well into the six figures.
“Here the very top minister in the whole of the Church, the apostle of faith, if you will, one who had taught so many years ago about George Mueller at Bristol, England, and he had
spoken and written of faith for so many years, now fearing a committee in the Church. He was afraid his income-his disposable income-might be diminished, his lifestyle curtailed, and had gone to the courts and the law to provide for his sustenance. Where did that leave the rest of us? Were we dumb sheep that didn't matter at all? I think of all the things I have faced in the Church, this was the heaviest blow of all. Contracts between the three top men to protect themselves from the Church. It seemed certain divine healing was now needed badly in spiritual matters in the Church. But there was more to come."
And there certainly was more to come. Armstrong then began to (pg. 257) concentrate on the terrible stress he had been under without a wife. He said that his great desire to give a woman so much love was frustrated by not having a wife, and as a result he frequently masturbated. He then showed Robinson a diary wherein he had recorded each incident of masturbation. He had carefully noted all the details of each occurrence.
It was only Robinson's strong faith in God that prevented him from becoming totally disillusioned when faced with such a startling revelation.
As time went by, Robinson was to become aware of Armstrong's alleged encounters with boys in Europe, and that Rader had allegedly secretly obtained photographs. Said Robinson, "Maybe HWA was drunk, I don't know. It's easily possible for those things to be photographed."
That began to fill in another part of the puzzle and confirm some of the rumors regarding Armstrong's immorality. But could that be enough for Rader to hold over him? Or was there more? The major rumor that had circulated for so long was the one regarding Dr.Lochner. Lochner, a physical education instructor at Ambassador College, was frequently Armstrong's traveling companion. It was Lochner who would give Armstrong his daily massage and accompany him on walks. Armstrong grew to trust Lochner with his most intimate secrets. The rumor was Lochner had recorded many of his conversations with Armstrong without Armstrong's knowledge, and had also amassed a large collection of incriminating photographs. For the past few years, Lochner had been on the payroll of the Church at $25,000 per year, but had no duties.
At this time in 1979, he was sixty-seven years old. The question, of course, was whether or not Armstrong was maintaining Lochner in a no-show job in order to keep him quiet. When Mike Wallace confronted Rader with the Lochner rumor, Rader said that Lochner always asks for work so that he could earn his pay. Rader indicated, however, that for some puzzling reason, no one seemed to have anything for Lochner to do. If that were the case, it would seem that Lochner would have been discharged long ago in order to save that $25,000, considering that many valuable employees had been let go in recent years for "budgetary reasons."
Finally, I decided to phone Dr. Lochner and confront him headon regarding the rumors. I was amazed that Lochner was willing to speak as freely as he did. Perhaps it was because during the (pg. 258) gas crisis he had been cut off from his free gas supply by Church headquarters. Or perhaps it may have been due to his temporary removal from the payroll just a few weeks earlier. He was quickly reinstated, however, when he reminded Armstrong and Rader of his knowledge.
He said, "There's been a lot said about the information I have. I don't know why I've got the information I've got, but It's like I said to Mike Wallace, 'Mike, you can't use the information I have because you wouldn't use it totally. You've already established what you want to do. So you'd only take some of the information and the rest of it you'd leave people guess
about.'"
He then continued, "When you spend nights with a man and days with a man and years with a man, and he reveals to you the secrets of his life, the only way I would be entitled to reveal it would be if Christ would demand it of me."
While he was not ready to reveal all that he had, he did indicate a knowledge of sexual threesomes between a member of the crew on Armstrong's plane and two female members of the Armstrong family. He also knew and mentioned the names of the individuals involved.
Apparently, Lochner had done his homework even better than Rader.
Lochner said, "About the only person who would have more information than I do would probably be Stan Rader. And then he might not have that much information, he might not have as much information as I do. And I didn't go after the information, the information was given to me. I'm in a position now, where I've left it up to Christ. If he wants it revealed, there are ways He can get it revealed.
“Even with all the information I have I don't think I can take the prerogative of revelation of all I know."
Lochner seemed to be very carefully establishing the ground work for his self-justification in collecting pay for a no-show job. Continuing in my conversation with Lochner, I finally said to him, "What would you take as an indication that you should do something?" He replied, "Well, it's like one man called me not so long ago and said, 'Now's the time to bust them. Why don't you hit him for a million?' I said no. I've worked in this business for twenty-five years. My wife and I had worked very hard and worked full time but got a minimum of one salary, so I feel this way right (pg. 259) now, they have taken away my opportunities of the people being able to profit from my experience with my knowledge of physical fitness and child relations. They had promised that I can be employed as long as I'm physically fit and can do the job. Now, they don't use that experience and knowledge that I have. As long as they pay me for it, that's all right, but if they don't use it, I can't do anything about that. But I could do something about it if they stopped my pay."
Realizing that he had finally come to the key of the situation, I said, "That would be the sign that you would need, wouldn't it?"
He responded: "Well, that's what I felt. In other words, Christ is not going to come down here some night and tell me what I'm going to do. Now if He wants to put me in a position where I'd reveal it, He knows about it. Stan Rader and Herbert Armstrong are not the guiding factors in this. If He knows that I'm no longer worthy of the job, even though I'm just sitting here, it will mean that He wants the information revealed."
Lochner indicated that he had a knowledge of moral misconduct for at least a ten-year period. This would, again, seem to fit in with the statements made by Garner Ted that everything seemed to change drastically in a wrong way after his mother died. Lochner said that he felt that one of the reasons Armstrong was hanging on so tenaciously, so fearful of what might be revealed about him, was because he was not the type of man who would have the courage to get before the people and say that he had done wrong, had repented, and was sorry. And it appears as though Rader is very aware of this characteristic of Armstrong and has been able to use it to maximum advantage.
While there are a few such as David Robinson, who have a personal knowledge of factors in Armstrong's life which would disqualify him as a spiritual leader, the key seems to be Dr. Lochner. With Lochner knowing as much or more than Rader knows, it would be absolutely essential to keep him quiet. He seems to have developed a rather interesting rationale to justify his taking $25,000 per year for doing nothing: calling that continued paycheck a sign from Christ that he should not reveal what he knows. Obviously, had he gone for the big dollars, as was suggested to him by a friend, his rationale would not work. By not being greedy perhaps, he may continue to get away with it. Whether or not this could be construed as blackmail would
certainly be an interesting thing for the (pg. 260) courts to consider. Obviously, if he were to reveal what he knows, then Rader would no longer have a hammer over Armstrong's head. The key to breaking the bond between Armstrong and Rader would appear to be Dr.Lochner.
"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." Isaiah 64:6.
As the legal maneuverings continue, and probably will do so for some time as more becomes known regarding the unchristian conduct of Armstrong and Rader and the other Church leaders, as the Rader hierarchy increases its total control over the lives of the members, people seem to respond in three different ways. As some become more and more aware of the unscriptural conduct of their leaders they either slowly continue to drop out of the Church in total disillusionment or to continue in their belief on their own or in fellowship with other groups. Others, just as aware that they have come under false leadership, feel they have no choice but to stay with the Worldwide Church, as they are fearful they will lose their eternal salvation by leaving that physical organization. And, for the most part, there are the members so totally deceived that they continue to follow Armstrong, believing totally that he is God's apostle, and finally turning away from the truth of Scripture that they should know so well, believing instead that every pronouncement from Herbert Armstrong is inspired new revelation direct from God.
