Post-mortem. Part Two

herbie-as-child-final-5

“The unexamined life is not worth living.
-Socrates

Socrates believed that the purpose of human life was personal and spiritual growth. Growth is not possible unless we seek a greater understanding of our true nature and take the time to examine and reflect upon our lives. Understanding our pattern of behavior gives us the conscious understanding of ourselves and the path that we are on. We see those blind spots and set a into a course of action that will correct our deficiencies.

Not so with Herbert W. Armstrong. Indeed, his life was a lavish and rich experience for the time he ran his family business. A life of elegance, surrounded with the finest things that life has to offer….for those with the money to afford such luxuries.  His source of wealth was a group of people who decided to shelf their own self-respect and self-worth and hand it over to a man who made great and boisterous claims. Herbert and the great Creator of the universe were forging the tools necessary for salvation within the 20th century. The “Church of God” was born to rule!

For over 1900 years the world lost sight of the “true gospel” we were told, and Herbie was here to correct that along with his Pal who created it all! Working his little fingers to the bone, the same fingers that fondled his daughter, Herb typed out all the things “god” told him. As his family business grew, the appeals for money went out to all those with insomnia, begging them for their lives. For ones time is their life. God was unable to provide the “true gospel” without these folks contributing their lifeblood to “God” and Herbie’s cause.

Herbie’s “god” was willing to starve families and destroy lives for the work. Starve them through the three tithe system, force divorce between spouses who remarried, and had Herbie hire on men who abused those who made his groups existence possible, and that also allow pedophiles to have their way with the children of other contributors. This was after all, the work of “GOD”!

On the flip side, shall we mention the contributors that find themselves driven towards suicide? Those believers who believe that eternal death (the lake of fire) is better than serving time in a Armstrong church? Herbie didn’t want you to know about that little fact.

Sins of the Apostle

For those who cover over Armstrongs many sins, may a pox be on your house. You continue to close your eyes and enable these type of men with your financial and monetary support. The bible and Christian living is not part of your equation. Your idolatry is however.

You follow men and not the “God” you claim to love and pray too. It is your cult of personality, your elite status of being part of the hoax known as “Gods True Church” that hinders your eyes and plugs your ears! You never live the life that Socrates spoke of and you never even tried to lived the life that Jesus Christ spoke of. The life that is constantly “examined” and that bears the fruit that the “Golden Rule” exemplifies.

 Fruits of the Work. Immorality Justified

  • The practice of drunkenness. Those who never drank come into the church where they are taught “Drink your wine with a merry heart” or “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”    These people become alcoholics and their lives are skewed by living the “unexamined” life. Much of this is learned at the FOT. Ask any maid who had to clean up after these groups.
  • HWA’s Incest. To the shock of many, time ago it was revealed that Herbert was fucking his own daughter. For those of us with a moral compass, we studies the matter and drew the conclusion that indeed the evidence was overwhelming, that this man who claimed he and “God” were on a mission of salvation for all of mankind, did things that should never be done to a innocent child. From AR59 we read:

    “It recently occurred to me that I’ve given the WCG thousands of dollars and only about thirty to AR in the last two years. Yet you folks have done more with the little you’ve been given than the WCG did with the billions they’ve spent over the past five or six decades….I owe you and the other AR contributors a large debt of gratitude. By late 1992 I’d developed several doctrinal disagreements with the WCG but still wanted to remain a member. About that time a friend lent me copies of every issue of AR which I finally had the courage to read. I was left shocked, enraged, and liberated from my blindness. Especially infuriating was the information on HWA’s sexual abuse of his daughter Dorothy between 1933 and 1943 (AR27). Initially I doubted it, but an inquiry of Mr. Gary Antion confirmed the awful truth and it prompted me to send a letter to 35-40 members who I knew personally. They received them on April 19, 1993 as the Branch Davidian compound burned on TV. But few of them were ever opened because the local ministry (Ray Meyer and Warren Heaton) ordered an emergency hotline message to all members saying I was disfellowshipped and commanding them not to open any mail from me. Most of the letters were returned unopened.The following Saturday I was “marked” from the pulpit and called a liar (even though Meyer, days before, had admitted he knew about Armstrong and his daughter). My old church friends and acquaintances were gone. The few who read the letter reacted with a “so what?” response and couldn’t believe I would consider this significant in any way. A decade of incest and hypocrisy had no impact on HWA’s credibility or his “apostleship.” One of those people was Victor Kubik who said he was amazed that I would be concerned about this “blip of history,” as he put it.Like you, I endured accusations of slander and malicious gossip. The truth isn’t for everyone. But for those of us who appreciate it, it is a gift from God. Thank you for helping me end my idolatry and grow closer than ever to God and His truth.”-Mark Thornton Wisconsin

  • Innocence lost. Many of us newbies, including myself, believed in and respected the God we were taught about in our early years. Years that were outside the confines of armstrongism. Most of us I would imagine had a religious background (conventional Christianity) from either our childhood or our early adult lives. I certainly did. We may have laughed at the obvious religious charlatans running their horse and pony shows over at the Trinity Broadcast System, and laugh we did. We thought that we could never be deceived by the religious charlatan. We thought wrong in our arrogance. So we spent time in the gulag participating in the rituals that we were told “pleased” God. After a time, when the scam was exposed, we accepted that we had been taken as fools for the benefit of unscrupulous men.

The time was right to “examine” our lives and the investment of time badly spent. The results of this examination varied between all of us. Some became rabid militant atheists, some embraced conventional Christianity, and others kept looking for that pipe dream, “Gods True Church”. Many of us claimed agnosticism as our mantle. We don’t know if a “God” exists. It is however the most honest answer one could make. You could always change your mind. Whatever decision that was made by the individual, that decision was based on whether or not we “examined” our lives and what values we held dear. For those who were born into the church, this process was life changing and the most difficult of times ever! One had to study a great deal to come to a conclusion. The results of this “examination” bore the results of knowledge accumulated and moral decisiveness on the part of the former Armstrong believer.

  • Suicides. Of all the crimes these cults are responsible for, suicide is the most hideous. How do you get another human being to destroy themselves? Is this not murder when you carelessly discard a person because they cannot meet an impossible criteria? Is it not murder when a person is disfellowshipped and believes his or hers salvation is lost forever? Then they kill themselves because they believe that there is no more hope left? Yes, this is murder! The latest example : Janet C. Privratsky, died by suicide. Her church, the Philadelphia Church of God led by Gerald Flurry, cited their no contact policy and cut her off from any contact from her family members who wanted nothing to do with the cult.

Think for a moment. We were all in a ACOG at one time. What do you think drove Terry Ratzmann to commit mass murder that Saturday back in March of 2005? The man was not disfellowshipped, nor was he in a bad standing within the organization. Could it be something to do with the sermons? Sermons that spoke of endless hopelessness and death? My summation says yes. The LCG is a doomsday cult. They have no hope to offer that one could embrace and gain strength from in order to endure the trials of life. Gerald’s PCG, and Pack’s RCG are the same sorry sacks of shit that were molded from Herbert W. Armstrong’s vision of the world tomorrow. A bogus vision that created a vast empire of wealth and opportunity for those who pull the strings of fear and compromise the integrity of the membership. Such is the conman. Amoral.

 Another Horror Story

I was sexually abused by an elder over probably a longer period of time than I choose to remember. He wrote to them and confessed, but I had no knowledge of this confession until I was twenty-one and the abuser had long since died in a sanatorium. I have four brothers and a sister. Out of the six children, five were sexually abused by people within the church. There have been several suicide attempts.

I am finding unraveling memories from childhood an extremely painful and emotional experience, as I recall instances and experiences which I now know were wrong and evil.

The damage done by this cult to the innocent victims, i.e. the children who did not choose to join and embrace this strange way of life, is irrevocable. My personality was shaped during the sixties and seventies to a degree that I don’t feel a part of “normal” society at all.

Your site disturbs me as the implication seems to be that pedophiles were quite common within the church. Is this the case? If so, what are the reasons?

I never felt loved or wanted as a child and this also seems to be a common thread. The child rearing booklet was probably responsible for that. Were children supposed to be merely a part of a great master plan?

Anna’s Horror Story
(This story was the most disturbing until former members from the Philadelphia Church of God started coming out of the darkness and into the light)

I apologize for the lack of proper English text, spelling etc…..I have just stumbled across your website. I am very glad to find that it exists. I don’t know if you want to hear another horror story…but here mine is….I am not pointing fingers at anyone…I don’t want to do that….this is still too painful for me…and I might go to hell if I point a finger and judge someone now won’t I?

My parents joined the church when I was 5. I remember the Christmas before…it was beautiful…the tree glowed in the living room…I remember opening one of many presents…a doll-which actually walked if you held her hand and walked besides it. That was my last happy memory spent with my parents while growing up. After my parents joined the church they both turned into strict authoritative parents–us kids went from calling our parents Mom and Dad to sir and ma’am. we were struck 20 times with a belt one at a time in a closed bathroom for minor infractions…as the church taught and believed in “spare the rod spoil the child”. Someone stole 15 cents….it was worth us all getting a turn with the belt. Thou shalt not steal after all……anyway the riches stopped for us kids after we joined the church….my parents went from being generous and loving parents to cold cheapskates, for lack of a better word.  I remember not having any clothes….except for a pair of pants and a few shirts.  I didn’t realize at the time that any extra money my parents had were being tithed.–and since my parents had quite a few children, money didn’t go far.  I didn’t even own a pair of underwear. …it wasn’t until I grew up and left the house that it made sense why we never had money for clothes-boots-underwear-pillows for our beds-and mittens (our mittens were socks with sandwich bags over them, and our boots were sneakers with bread bags over them….all tied on with rubber bands.)

 In a way I am glad I grew up so poor….I learned frugality…it taught me survival skill….but this is America after all………….and yet I also remember days of atonement where we all fasted for our sins.  I remember being 10 years old and starving so much I was sick…I remember finding an old crusty hotdog roll that must have been left out for at least a week wadded up with some dirty clothes–and I remember eating that…just to make the pain in my stomach go away.

But yet I digress,,,,I have many stories, but I should get to the point here….and here it is: from my formative years me and my brothers and sisters sat in that church for the 2 to 2.5 hrs every Saturday….we didn’t talk to many people in the church…we always felt like outcasts…maybe because we wore the same clothes week after week…..I don’t know, but we did feel like outcasts…so us kids kept to ourselves.  During sermons we played tic-tac toe, connect the dots and hangman. None of us really listened much to what was being preached…but somehow some of there message got thru to us…to me in particular…I truly believed that the church drove me crazy…as a young child i started having nightmares…I dreamt that my brothers and sisters and parents were all dying around me…I could do nothing to save them…for the days of tribulation and the end times were at hand…night after night.  I dreamt of their miserable deaths…and me? well I loved my brothers and sisters more than anything….but truly I believed I would see this….I remember praying every night to god in heaven and in Jesus Christ’s name to please please let me die first in exchange for my families life…i lived each day straining to hear the trumpets blow…and not knowing what to do if i ever did hear them but to run….and not even stop to put on my shoes, just run!!!!!—-so I grew up in fear….and later my parents quit the church when I was in my mid teens but the damage had already been done…now my parents were certainly doomed.  I believed that we kids all had a chance if my parents were still in the church but with their quitting and all we would certainly all starve to death and die of thirst at the shores of lake Erie with sores all over us while a big ass scary horseman chased us down to torture us some-more.

german-gestapo-officer-n-31Within months of my parents leaving the church I had my first nervous breakdown….where instead of dreaming of the great tribulation I also lived it while awake! Constantly I lived in persecution while the devil sat outside my bedroom window trying to break in…..after a year I came out of it and returned to school…and lived a somewhat normal life, hiding my insecurities from the world…and being as nonreligious as possible therefore blocking that part of my mind out that I couldn’t deal with.  15 years later I suffered another devastating nervous breakdown that took everything including my children from me….again,,,this nervous breakdown occurred when I tried to go back to the church….which only served to throw me back into the living hell that I believed in and still believe in….that nervous breakdown lasted 2 years…I have since moved on…I have won my children back from their father.  I own my own home.  I work…I am a professional…I haven’t set foot in another church since….I am still afraid to pray, thinking it will drive me crazy if I do.  I am still afraid of the monster that could be lurking outside my bedroom window (whether Satan the devil or one of those horseman from god)  I still feel that I am going to watch everyone around me die…I am still miserable…..I am clinically depressed though i receive no treatment for it…a huge part of me is still trying to die….I do not go on dates…I try not to be close to anyone….I am waiting for doomsday…I am waiting for the day of reckoning…I am waiting to watch everyone around me die while I live on in a modern day Hiroshima…I am waiting for god to come down and say ….you and yours just aren’t good enough…so good bye…I never loved you….another big part of me thinks maybe it will be okay …maybe I am forgiven…maybe it’s okay not to attend church not to ever be baptized…maybe I’m forgiven because the church destroyed me…so much that I am not allowed in my own mind to think of god but briefly without feeling unsteady in my own head….for fear of another nervous breakdown…I have no church…but I miss my god…I am sad for myself that not only did the worldwide church of god give me so much to dread and be terrified of in this world but they have also taken my ability to worship Jesus and god as I feel that they should be worshipped.  They have in a sense taken my god from me…and replaced him with a nightmare…not to be picked up, not to scrutinized but to be shut away in a dark corner of my mind…33 years later I am still traumatized still afraid of the things that go bump in the night.   

The Gerringer Letter.

 Even though many knew Herbert W. Armstrong as an evil man, and that the world would have been a better place without him, the facts remain that this man had a profound negative influence on the world. Plain Truth subscriber Denis Michael Rohan tried to set fire to the al-Aqsa Mosque. An event that started a global Islamic political movement. From Ambassador Report we read:

“Soon after Rohan’s attempted Mosque burning Mr. HWA began saying that neither he nor anyone else in the WCG had ever proclaimed that a literal temple had to be built in Jerusalem. When I heard him say it, I believed it — unquestioningly. After all, it would be virtually a sin to question Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong.

Could Mr. HWA’s denials represent a possible credibility problem? situation ethics? expedience? deception? The following quotes helped me decide:

PT, Oct., 1958, page 4, column 31 paragraph 4, HLH: “A temple or sanctuary is yet to be built by the Jews in Jerusalem! … it shall happen in less than 14 years from now!”

PT, June, 1967, page 2, column 2, paragraph 6, HWA: “There will very soon be a Temple in Jerusalem, with daily sacrifices once again being offered … They will invade Jerusalem, and take charge of the Temple.” Page 4, column 2, paragraph 3, HWA: “So there will have to be a temple there!” Page 5, column 1, paragraph 4, Herbert W. Armstrong: “So there will be a temple built on the spot of the old temple in Jerusalem.” Page 5, column 2, paragraph 4, HWA: “Then Revelation 11 shows there will be a temple in Jerusalem.”

PT, Mar., 1968, page 8, column 2, paragraph 3, RCM: “…. a religious center and Temple will be built there (Jerusalem) within the very next few years!” Page 41, column 1, paragraph 2, RCM: “The building of a literal Temple” and “a great religious leader making his Headquarters right in that Temple in Jerusalem” are to be signs that “the END OF this age” is near.

PT, Aug., 1968, page 41, column 2, paragraph 4 GTA: “Bible prophecy specifically states that there WILL BE A TEMPLE IN JERUSALEM.” Column 3, paragraph 3, GTA: “This reveals clearly. that the TEMPLE of which these prophecies speak must be a Temple IN JERUSALEM — on the same site as the one in which Christ spoke; the same site on which Solomon’s Temple had stood. This cannot be some other “temple” in some other area — it must be a temple IN JERUSALEM — or the prophecies of your Bible fail! … He will SIT IN A TEMPLE OF GOD” — ON THE TEMPLE SITE — IN JERUSALEM!”

Why did no one in the WCG speak out against Mr. HWA’s denial of the above statements?”

Another whack job from the 1990’s

Ray Willie Lampley a former WCG member and self-proclaimed “Prophet of the Most High” was arrested for conspiracy to manufacture and possess a bomb. “Sheriff Gray told the Enid News that it was his belief that the bomb about to be assembled was intended for a “test run” near the white separatist community of Elohim City. Said Gray, “From what I’m thinking they probably would do some bombing there and try to lay it on the federal government.” ~AR61

Conclusion

“Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.”

appleThe founder of the Worldwide Church of God was a morally deficient man. Herbert Armstrong’s lifetime work has bore the fruit of death and destruction. Ruined lives and suicides. Poverty and mental illness. Therefore, Armstrongism cannot be a moral religion. It is amoral. And those who are of the tree of Armstrongism should consider:

“The unexamined life is not worth living.
-Socrates

20 Replies to “Post-mortem. Part Two”

  1. It’s clear that Herbert Armstrong was a kook who drove people insane and corrupted them.

    Thanks for the mention of alcoholism. A boozer corporation is one that is dysfunctional. Ambassador College and the Worldwide Church of God are examples of the kind of damage that is done when the alcoholics are not only in charge, but make liquor the center of people’s lives: It’s little wonder the FoT was designated “the feast of booze” (a play on “the feast of booths”).

    While there may be notable exceptions, most of the Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia were headed up by practicing alcoholics. The most intense boozers in local areas became the leading men. Alcohol was the central focus of some of the churches. The damage to families in the sects was rooted in alcohol abuse.

    It should be noted that the older generations of ministers in the CoG7D are firmly set against the use of alcohol. It may have been one of those invisible reasons why Herbert Armstrong decided to betray them and boot out while taking their money for years after he was on his own preaching heresy (from the CoG7D point of view).

    Evil. Corrupt. Dysfunctional. Abusive. Controlling. Angry. Alcoholic. Delusional. Wrong.

    What’s not to love?

  2. Yes, Herbert W. Armstrong was the Jimmy Hoffa of COG-7! Only problem was that his Russell Bufalino was not yet around!

    BB

  3. Regarding the incident regarding the arson by Denis Michael Rohan here is a comment by Garner Ted Armstrong in which he mentions that incident. Amazingly he does not give the slightest admission or acknowledgement that HWA’s preaching had anything to do with this frightful affair.

    “”Just the other day, I was reading the Jerusalem Post in my room in Jerusalem’s Hyatt Regency Hotel. A letter from an indignant citizen took issue with Arab charges that the `Jews had tried to burn down the A1 Aqsa mosque’ many years earlier when considerable damage was done by an arsonist.

    “”The writer pointed out that a `deranged Australian’ not a Jew and certainly not a citizen of Israel, had torched the mosque. The reason for the letter? Because Palestinian Arabs are still smarting over attempts by the `Faithful of the Temple Mount’ to build a temple in Jerusalem!””

    Source: http://www.garnertedarmstrong.org/pubs/PropheticInsightandAccuracy.htm

    Of course, Garner Ted Armstrong, that deranged Australian did that horrific deed partly because he was listening to your father’s false prophecies regarding the Temple Mount.

    It is just amazing how he pretends this has nothing to do with him or his father.

    I remember I was watching an ad on Al Jazeera and it showed footage of that arson committed by the deranged Armstrong influenced madman. That arson has caused so much trouble. It is just unbelievable how HWA can have such a terrible effect even through merely one man who took his words seriously.

  4. Back when Mark’s “Prophetic Insight and Accuracy” first appeared online, I sent ICG an email regarding the section on Denis Rohan. Note: the booklet has changed considerably over the years, with some parts revised or removed.

    I met Rohan in the late 1970s when he was a roving caretaker of Australia war cemeteries. He had been attending the WCG in Sydney at that time. The story was that before he was allowed to attend, the minister checked if it was okay with Pasadena. Apparently the person who gave permission for Rohan to attend was GTA.

  5. This all adds up to that when you have an insane cult which attracts psychopaths and crazies, you’d better have an excellent PR department which can spin the inevitable fallout to prevent the peasants storming the castles with torches and pitchforks.

    At some point, pretending you don’t have a problem just doesn’t fly.

  6. According to a Sydney Morning Herald story (link in Wikipedia article) he was in a mental hospital and died in 1995.

    A year or so after I met Rohan I heard he was boarding in the house of a respectable WCG family. Stories came out that the family claimed Rohan showed signs of demon possession. [Another bad call for GTA, who claimed to be an ace demon-spotter.]

  7. I find it incredible that Rohan, after creating an international incident and outrage in 1969, and HWA’s PR machine making every possible effort to distance him from WCG, is apparently happily attending WCG services in Australia, the outrage and black eye having been forgotten. What was everyone involved thinking? The man was under psychiatric care, with his demeanor raising enough questions to the point that local members believe he might be possessed.

    Someone was either uncharacteristically forgiving, or wanted to keep him under surveillance and control the situation.

    Interestingly, Rohan caused the exact opposite of what he had hoped and planned. From this incident, Israel derived a whole new awareness of the depth and strength of feeling in the Arab world centering on the mosque, and the (possible) temple mount, and abandoned the idea of even using it as a casual prayer site. David “bent” Ariel apparently did not learn from this, and ended up being arrested and deported for trespassing at the site apparently after having been warned. David had been a participant on one of the forums in which I participated about ten years ago.

    BB

  8. David Ben Ariel (something or other Hoover) died of AIDs infected in the way you might imagine people of his ‘Bent’ might acquire the disease.

    Herbert Armstrong has left us quite the legacy.

    I was reflecting on the Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia this morning when I encountered the article about how Millennials have lost trust in institutions (government, corporation, churches). “They don’t even know my name”.

    There’s nothing to trust in Armstrongism.

    If they think they can appeal to the current generation in the 21 to 35 year old age group, they have another thing coming.

  9. Douglas wrote:
    “I was reflecting on the Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia this morning when I encountered the article about how Millennials have lost trust in institutions (government, corporation, churches).”

    As well as they should! I have several liberal friends who during conversation, have also adapted the idea that these politicians, bankers and the rest of the “elite” scum deserve nothing from them but a bullet. There is going to be a SHTF moment at some point. I believe that point is coming soon.

  10. Yes, and Generation Z, born after 1997, is expected to be similar in many respects to the G.I generation, born 1901-1924.
    Demographers base this on the fact that the generations seem to repeat themselves after 80 years, and the bigtime recession we’ve been having will have shaped generation Z in many of the same ways as the Great Depression shaped generation GI. Gen Z will value frugality, social consciousness, and integrity.

    BB

  11. Byker Bob, I might agree with you about Generation Z, but because of profound changes in society, I suspect that these will be “Boomers 4” just as Generation Whine is “Boomers 3” Gen X is “Boomers 2”.

    It all began with Generation Zero — those mothers who spoiled their children rotten with the best of intentions, but who have left us with a legacy of dysfunction, extending, but not restricted to, our economy.

    More like Patient Zero if you ask me.

    I’m not optimistic.

    I suspect the best we can hope for is that Generation Z will take afternoon naps.

  12. Byker Bob, it pains me to point out that there are 7 generations in the work place. The one generally missing from research is the so-called “Swing Generation” between “The Silent Generation” and “Boomers”.

    Here’s the best I can come up with (you may help make corrections):

    Swing Generation

    Birth Years: ~1933-1945 (overlap)

    Significant World Events:

    Eisenhauer elected president
    Senator Joseph McCarthy goes on Communism witch hunt
    Civil Rights movement begins in United States
    Rapidly growing economy in United States
    Sputnik
    Assassination of President Kennedy
    Development of mainframes
    Star Trek on TV

    Characteristics:

    Pop Culture
    Architects
    Strong ideas about how things should be done
    Voters
    Buyers
    Leaders of business and cultural institutions
    Flexible approach to integrating ideas
    strong sense of trans-generational common values and near-absolute truths
    disciplined
    self-sacrificing
    cautious

    Values:

    Process oriented
    Believe in consistency
    Strong desire to bridge gaps between generations
    Focused on health issues
    Readers
    Individualism

    Communication Preferences:

    Letters
    Telephone
    Face to Face

    Communication Obstacles:

    Voice mail
    Social media
    Texting

  13. There are other distinct sub-divisions, as well, such as big boomers and little boomers, also called baby boomers, and baby busters. These are the baby boomers and their little brothers and sisters, the younger of whom often weigh in with Generation X.

    Whatever the groups may be, the ACOGs have not kept current with their marketing gameplans, and are therefore greatly missing out. One could argue that it would be disingenuous to even concoct a demographic marketing plan for Christianity, but that is a sparate subject.

    BB

  14. it would be disingenuous to even concoct a demographic marketing plan for Christianity

    I’m not being disingenuous when I ask, what would Jesus do?

    Marketing Christianity?

    It’s something cults have to do to survive, since they aren’t out setting a good example to inspire others.

    Just taking a look at the PCG should convince everyone of that.

    And there’s just no market for the sort of dysfunctional dystopian abusive religions anymore, unless it’s Islam.

  15. If I were to tentatively classify Herbert Armstrong for a Generation in the Workplace, I’d make it Boomer: He wanted to have his say and go his way, assuming that just because he declared it somebody would eventually magically make it so (a strong hand from someplace, coming soon to a world near you — meanwhile, do nothing and send me your money — and don’t forget to praise and worship me).

    He made people earn his respect and then didn’t delegate (really) and held the power to himself.

    He was all “me!” “me!” “me!”.

    He wasn’t about to listen to anyone else.

    To me he represented the worst the Boomers had to offer with none of the benefits.

    He was truly ahead of his time.

    As a kook and scoundrel.

  16. “If I were to tentatively classify Herbert Armstrong for a Generation in the Workplace, I’d make it Boomer”

    The narcissistic college grads who need to be coddled by corporations in order to get any work out of them! Fitting!

  17. The level of sophistication in today’s business world represents quite a transformation. Gone are the days when the Raiderettes danced in the Heidelberg booth at trade shows, people smoked cigarettes in the booths, pinned roses in the ladies, and got clients drunk in hospitality suites so that they would sign orders for equipment. Whatever generation cleaned all of this stuff up deserves Kudos, because once upon a time, that’s the way it was!

    I recall one incident from back in those days. A major Japanese equipment manufacturer had appointed an airline pilot as master distributor for their emerging technology. At every major city that he flew into, he would meet with potential dealers to generate interest in the products. My boss was one of the takers. During our training session, suddenly the pilot ripped loose with an absolutely thunderous fart. We all politely ignored it, and he continued conducting the training. But, it soon happened again! At that junction, he explained that the annual physical for the renewal of his pilot certification was up and coming, he knew that his blood pressure had recently become elevated, so he had been eating raw garlic cloves to bring it back down, and this uncontrollable flatulence was an unfortunate byproduct. Actually, he needn’t have worried. it happened at the time of day when my boss was three sheets to the wind on the Jaques Bonet brandy with which he laced his coffee, and soon retired to his trailer on the back parking lot to sleep it off. Having been exposed to the flatulence in the mens’ dorms at Ambassador College, and because my boss was a big fan of the “pull my finger” routine, it was no big deal to me.

    If such things are currently happening in professional environments, I have no idea. It appears that progress has been made, proof of societal evolution.

    BB

  18. One of the things that has happened is that professionals have discovered some things are bad for them — really bad. As a result, many of them have stopped smoking (most of those totally on their own) and many stopped drinking.

    I knew a top level internal software developer for operating system software who worked for a major corporation. When I first got to know him, he boozed it up and ate aggressively. Ten years later, I met him again and he had stopped drinking and lost weight. He explained that he just didn’t see the percentage of living the way he did.

    What has occurred in the past three decades is an expanded awareness of problems with alcoholism, drug abuse and smoking. It has really hit the media and social networks over the years. I talked with the former Pierce County Executive, John Landenberg, in the County-City Building cafeteria and he told me his drive to eliminate smoking. He said that most of those taking up smoking were stupid teen age kids (apparently there was some research behind that). He actively sought to ban all smoking in Pierce County facilities and finally succeeded in getting State Laws passed to make smoking illegal in any government facilities and in bars and restaurants.

    People are figuring out that stupidity is bad for them.

    And of course, they have all that bad behavior of singers, actors and athletes as an example. No body in the media seems to be able to get away with anything.

    I have doubts that other kinds of bad behavior have done anything but get worse. Note the financial community and the scams that have created havoc. Just look at corporate irresponsibility — the things they do because they can. Greed, the profit motive and the end justifies the means philosophies have undermined society. Oppression and abuse haven’t diminished much if at all.

    As a commentary on Armstrongism, the Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia seems to have followed the trends of corruption at large in society. Around the time of the exposure of Richard Nixon’s misdeeds, the misdeeds of Garner Ted Armstrong came to light, for example. Today, the church corporate greed of David Pack, Gerald Flurry and Roderick Meredith mirror the corporate and government greed of the selfish inhabiting the lofty heights of ‘leadership’. Except for the name on the door….

    I had an amusing thought this morning. Given how abusive David Pack and Gerald Flurry are, wouldn’t it be fun if they conducted the Stanley Milgram experiments on their members just for fun? They might as well. Demands that members send in their savings, sell their properties and sacrifice their incomes seem to be at an all time high. I’m not so sure that the ‘churches’ are not much more than the Philip Zimbardo Stanford Prison Experiment, except, of course, the CoGs aren’t calling it all off because it’s too disturbing to continue — they continue it because it’s too profitable.

    In some ways, society is improving in some segments, but you can be sure that the CoHAM is going to resist positive changes for all their worth while they slide into deeper entropy with the idea that staying the same will some how change them.

    “Prove us wrong and we will change,” said Herbert Armstrong. He left out a word.

    Nothing.

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