Millions are collected yearly by various Armstrong related groups. Much of this is spent on insomniacs, who for lack of something better to do, tune into one of their late night info-commercial programs. This of course results in few conversions. Most I am sure have a brain and Google old Herbie’s name sooner or later and come up with a host of anti-herbal websites once they learn who the religion is based on. That being dead false prophet Herbert W. Armstrong.
Below is a chart from Google Insight (Trends) using the old mans name. The results are not encouraging. The gurus who hung out a shingle and started their own family business that uses Herb as the foundation and authority are spinning their wheels. Those that support them, well your money is wasted on monuments to men. The religion is failing miserably.
Death Rattle of Armstrongism. About time!
Unless the movement reinvents itself, it’s gone. Any new people that would normally be attracted need to adapt to a kind of authority that hasn’t been part of the American workplace or culture since the 1950s. That is unnatural enough! Just wait until they find out about the three tithes with today’s taxes! Then there is readily available a chronicle of the failed prophecies dating in our modern times from 1975. And, good luck selling the idea that the USA is the private domain of the descendents of one of the lost tribes of Israel! If you just consider the whites as you could get away with in the 1950s and ’60s, you’ve got Germans, French, Italians, Scandinavians, various Slavic peoples, and others mixed in with those who came over on the Mayflower from England. Everybody today knows what Assyrians look like because many fled Iraq and Saddam, and sorry, they don’t look German.
First time someone cites Velikovski, people will find out that his writings provide a virtual textbook for how not to jump to conclusions from partial research. And, the structures in Petra are actually crumbling and unsafe from too many visitors. So much for a relatively secret place of safety. Counter to “times of the Gentiles” theories, minorities have proven themselves to be both intelligent and civilized. Spanking of children is all but forbidden by law in most states, and violators if reported by any school teacher are assigned a CPS social worker and ordered by the courts to attend parenting skills classs just to keep their children. The leaders are their own worst enemies! Who would ever consider such angry, flaming monsters to be reliable spiritual guides?
And, then there is Herb himself, the theological version of OJ Simpson or Robert Blake due to the cloud of incest hanging over his reputation, with even his own family saying they believe he is guilty. And, the theology is all anachonistic anyway, because everything is filtered through the Old Covenant! Time and date: Expired. They can’t even dump it in third world countries like expired pharmaceuticals. Rot your mind, rot your heart, rot your kidneys, Cucaracha!
BB
Well said Bob. Armstrongism is dying because the gurus refuse to adopt the religion into the modern era. Any religion that refuses to change within the culture that they are incorporated in die out within 75 years.
For you in a COG its like this: Religion must change with societal evolution or they expire like a carton of milk. Every dollar you give is a dollar you could have used to better your life and that of your children. The demographics of Armstrongism shows that people in their late 40’s thru 70’s support these religious cults. With this in mind, the recruitment aspect will never be able within modern society to replace these dying blue ribbon tithe payers. When the money is pissed away it is gone forever and with it the third tithe some of these folks think will support them later on.
If your a widow, an orphan, your shit out of luck!
It’s because the Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia follow the seven habits of chronically unhappy people:
1. Your default belief is that life is hard.
2. You believe most people can’t be trusted.
3. You concentrate on what’s wrong in this world versus what’s right.
4. You compare yourself to others and harbor jealousy.
5. You strive to control your life.
6. You consider your future with worry and fear.
7. You fill your conversations with gossip and complaints.
Sounds like a typical Sabbath service.
And now with xmas coming up, there’s so much more opportunity to develop real depression using the highly successful habits of chronically unhappy people.
Tsk. Tsk.
All that anger.
‘All that anger’
Yes indeed! Anger is occasionally replaced with violence. Violence towards those who cause the anger. In the case of Terry Ratzmann his violence did not take aim at those who caused it. That is the problem of doomsday cults. Who is to blame becomes muddled in the mind of those most effected. Unfortunately this results in the death of innocent people.
I would say that the chances of a repeat performance is in the cards when the membership sees that the prophecies of HWA dissolve into nothingness. Frustration, anger, betrayal all come to mind. It will be a SHTF moment!
Don’t believe me? Watch. The prophecy of Germany marching on the USA will come to naught. They don’t even have a military protecting the E.U. NATO led by the USA is what makes the European Union a power! The Americans are the military power that protects the E.U. from foreign attacks. You won’t hear this from Spanky, or little Bobby Thiel.
Soon the prophecies of HWA will be designated as bullshit and the treasuries of the cults will go into a death spiral!