It was February 18, 1970. A small group of ministerial students were spending an evening with Herbert W. Armstrong, the founder of the Worldwide Church of God. Those of us who had been invited were given a glimpse of a life-style which in today’s world only a very few are able to afford. At his home, a small mansion on Pasadena’s South Orange Grove Boulevard (once nicknamed “millionaire row”), we were surrounded by rare antiques, expensive paintings, and Steuben crystal. The carpets were luxuriant; a Steinway grand stood in the corner of the drawing room.
The gourmet cuisine served at dinner was excellent as were the European wines-all four of them. We had been shown a large number of expensive paintings and objets d’art and, as was his custom, Herbert would relate what he paid for each and what they were now worth. That theme carried over into the conversation at dinner. Then, as the servants began to clear the table, he turned to one of the guests and said, “What do you think all of these beautiful things on the table are worth?” Of course, none of us had even the slightest idea. And so, he was able to proudly proclaim, “Over $125,000!”
He was quick to point out, however, that art objects of this quality were so rare that they were in fact “priceless.” The sculptured, foot-high, solid-gold saltcellars were, for instance, the only known copies of those once owned by Louis XIV. (They had been specially made for Herbert by Harrod’s of London.) The crystal goblets were identical to those found on Queen Elizabeth’s table. The supremely crafted cutlery was of solid gold. The tablecloth was made of the finest Belgian lace. The gold-covered china was of the finest craftsmanship and formerly belonged to Czar Nicholas II of Russia.
As we sat there sipping our four different wines and eating off the czar’s china, I couldn’t help but think of the incredible contrast all this presented to the meager existence of so many members of Herbert’s church-the very ones who were, through their tithes and offerings, making all this possible. I had personally known many Worldwide Church of God laymembers who were barely able to keep their families fed, let alone properly clothed, because of the large amounts they felt compelled to contribute to the Armstrong organization.
Ironically, just five days after the above occasion, one such beleaguered church member, a dedicated employee of the organization, wrote his minister and outlined the tragic financial straits he had come to as a result of obeying the church’s teachings. The following excerpt, though a bit lengthy, shows in detail the type of deprivation inflicted on many who have come under the influence of the Armstrong organization and its teachings:
1. Automobile: The automobile is unsafe to drive.
A. The brakes are in poor shape; sometimes they lock the right or left front wheel, and to unlock it one must back up. This happens while driving.
B. The engine is too heavy for the front suspension, and I am in fear of the front suspension collapsing.
C. The exhaust system is leaky and fills the auto with oil smoke and fumes while driving.
This automobile must be replaced. I risk my family’s life every time we drive in it; I had Mr. Schreiber check it, and he said to replace it this year before the Feast.
2. Clothing
A. My wife has no underwear, has had none for a year or more. She has only one brassiere and one slip and both are in very sad shape, ripped up, etc. She has no nylons and only one pair of socks.
B. She only has one good dress and with constant wear it is going fast. She has only one pair of shoes, and they are one size too big. When she stands in them, there is a one-half inch gap at the heel, she only has one coat, and it is all ripped up inside. My wife needs clothing badly.
3. Clothing
A. My clothing is in sad shape also, but better than my wife’s. I have only one suit I can wear. It is a summer suit I got from used clothing, and when the seams go, I will have none. I have no pants I can wear anywhere. If it were not for the uniforms at work, I would have none at all; to change clothes I have a choice-a uniform from work, my suit, or one pair of levis with holes in them. My shoes need repairing. My socks are all full of holes at the heels; I do have three or four sets of underwear that are good.
B. My children’s clothes: If it were not for used clothing, they would have none. We do good to keep them in shoes as they need them. Their feet already have corns because of the wrong shoes in the past; we are finding that used clothing is not able to supply their present needs. They are growing to a size that is not available. There is no money available to go to a Thrift Shop.
4. Our Furniture
A. Most of what we have will be usable for some time, but some items need replacing.
B. The bed my wife and I sleep in is 23 years old, and we are continually being cut by springs coming through the mattress. I woke up one night with a spring stuck into my thigh and had to lift myself straight up off of it. We cut out an average of one or two springs a week; I feel it is also a cause of my constant back problems, but I have no money to replace the bed.
C. We have only two dressers for seven people and this is not enough; because of this we keep the children’s clothes in cardboard boxes in the closets. The rest I feel we can get by with.
5. Entertainment
We rarely go any place through the year except to the Feast [of Tabernacles]. I have taken my wife out to dinner once in the past five years. I don’t recall that I have ever taken my children any place except at the Feast of Tabernacles. We have gone to the zoo with the children once since being in the Church and that is 10 years or so.
6. Medical/Dental
My wife needs dental work badly. We owe Dr. Howell $35.00 now, but we don’t have any money to pay him. My children have never had a dental or eye checkup and they need it. I need glasses. I went to the eye doctor two years ago and was told this but no money. I also need some dental work, but mine is small.
7. Imperial Schools
We owe Imperial [the Worldwide Church of God’s now defunct private schools, offering grades 1 through 12] $577.20, and it will take $65.00 per month to pay them off by next school year. We are currently paying $40.00 when we have it. We will have another child in school next year, plus our three.
Summary
I am sorry to be a burden to this work, but I do have a large family to feed; my children eat like adults, and they do wear clothes. If we lived on a ranch in Arizona, we could probably live cheaper, but we live in Los Angeles and there are just more expenses here. I am not demanding. I am only showing you my condition as it is. I will get by as long as I can, but we are getting close to the end of our rope. Please advise me!!
This poor member’s dedication and “good attitude” cannot be denied. But he shouldn’t have been suprised by his poverty. Not when you consider that he was giving away nearly 40% of his net income in first tithe, second tithe, third tithe, regular offerings, holy-day offerings, special emergency offerings, church emergency loans, building fund contributions, and Spokesman Club dues! And this doesn’t include the income he lost by passing up employment opportunities to keep the Old Testament sabbath and holy days, as the Worldwide Church of God teaches.
The Armstrong organization has always been quick to publish letters from individuals claiming all kinds of financial success (“blessings”), divine intervention, and good luck that supposedly resulted directly from obedience to the church’s teachings concerning tithing. However, letters such as the one we have quoted above somehow never made it into print. In our Letters section in this issue we have included a number of letters that describe some of those cases the Armstrong neglected to mention.
Read more HERE.
And people should follow the “Read more HERE” where they can find that the third tithe was an abused slush fund.
It would be much less disturbing if this abuse ended with the death of Herbert Armstrong, but it didn’t. Ronald Weinland managed to get into trouble with the IRS and the Justice Department, was convicted of five felon counts of Income Tax Evasion and sent to prison for spending $3.5 million on himself and his family — a personal fun luxury fund he spent on BMWs, luxury cruises, Las Vegas trips for entertainment, underwear from Victoria’s Secret and much much more. At the same time, the PKG members had to sacrifice to make the Weinland’s ends meet and put themselves into the hole.
We believe the accounts of Banned! concerning widows being shafted by giving away their inheritances and then denied any support from their respective churches. Pack, Flurry and Meredith are particularly tight fisted and even malicious. They want your inheritance. They want your money. And, worst of all, in all this sacrifice, they want your loyalty.
Many of the smaller ACoGs are really bad too: They are there for the ego, power and money for their cult leaders.
For poor members in need (many because of their sacrifices to the ‘work’ of their particular Mafia sect), it is the worst of all possible worlds. If you don’t have money, you will be ignored or openly abused, just like any other cult. If you have to ask for help, you will not only be rejected from being helped, you risk being disfellowshipped.
It’s a terrible price to pay to put your own life on hold so someone else lives the more abundant life on your money — a life you could have had if only you had not been suckered into giving up to con artists that tell you lies.
That’s the bottom line, of course:
They lie to you and then
They take your money.
Herbert Armstrong had a $5 million divorce from Ramona. We paid for that. It was totally wasted money.
Anyone want to bet it wasn’t paid for out of 3rd tithe? (After all, Herbert Armstrong was fatherless by that time….)
There are only two experiences I recall when WCG gave members money.
At a gathering during a FOT, an unemployed man told a minister he had no money left – the minister put his hand in his pocket, pulled out $100, handed it to the member with, “That’s it.”
One lady did receive a “widow’s pension” out of third tithe. I don’t know if her having been a former employee and personal friend of a regional director had anything to do with it. I overheard her mentioning to another member, who was a government employee that she got in trouble for also getting welfare payments. She apparently agreed to pay back the government a small amount each week.
In an ICG sermon, GTA said that he dropped third tithe altogether, considering the government took on that responsibility with welfare payments, for which we’re taxed already.
The way some people gave the church I would not be surprised to learn that they did indeed eat pet food as a source of food. Spending your entire life doing time in a cult reeks havoc on the wage slave.
A scripture comes to mind. Matt 7:11
‘If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!’
We all gave gift to our children. Where was the benefit that Matt 7:11 talks about? When did the heavens open up and flood you with goodness? What good did it do to first ask, then beg, then get pissed off when you realize that the promise in that book remained unfulfilled? When will your needs be filled?
The answer is that your needs won’t be fulfilled unless you change something in your life. And what would that be?
Stop letting men use your fears to motivate you into following them.
Start educating yourself. Where did the bible really come from? Is it inspired?
Quit attending church. Why? The sermons may be your cause for depression, hopelessness, money problems, sexual hangups, and your alcoholism.
Learn to love your fellow man. The people outside your church are not all evil. There are many fine human beings in the world. What you don’t consider is that those in your church, your deacons, elders, your minister, may be evil men who found it best to hide their evil deeds within the confines of a church.
I knew a number of employees who could easily have written that letter. During third tithe year, I could have been one of them. Armstrongism has a lousy history of socio-economic justice for members and employees. What is peculiar is that so many of us had been mentally conditioned to the point that we just accepted that the ministers should have some of the things that we knew we would never get to have ourselves. I’m a Levis, Budweiser, and rock n roll type of guy anyway, a guy that actually enjoys driving Fords and Chevies. Dom Perignon and Handel or Brahms, or mezzanine seats for the opera or ballet would have been wasted on me, as they fall outside of my enjoyment threshold. Still, many of the ministers had an irksome attitude of elitism or entitlement which precluded any sort of empathy for the members who struggled financially partially to support the ministerial lifestyle. Later, I realized the stupidity of assuming that our oppressors deserved any sort of perqs or extra status. It took years of personal growth before I realized or could admit that they were just a bunch of pretentious assholes.
Unfortunately, from all of the reports, these same sorts of financial conditions, practices, and elitism still either exist or are worse in the ACOG splinters.
BB
I’ve been ‘watching’ for Dave Pack’s promised ‘common’ sermon. If it’s anything like what he appears to have said, the ‘common’ doctrine will make 3 tithes seem a pittance.
Instead, his latest 3-part rambler is apparently his final warning to the splinters. I listened to a few minutes here and there, and landed upon one of his jabs at how the splinters have abandoned ‘the truth’: he accuses them of doing ‘good deeds’ and ‘helping people’.
When I was in RCG, Pack stated that donating to “worldly” charitable causes was actually “fighting God’s purpose” — because God allows suffering to teach people lessons and by trying to help others, you would be interfering with that. You were just supposed to give to “the Work” until it hurt and then give some more.
Ken, I remember those lines from Dave’s post-Katrina sermon.
Luke 10:32b “also, an RCG member, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan…”
It was more than just that, though. Behind the scenes, individuals who contacted us with major issues were mocked and ridiculed, especially any former WCG/splinter members who would “dare” to attribute any of their negative circumstances to their involvement with “the Church.” My biggest regret is that it took going through my own personal crisis for me to truly see the light and act accordingly.
Conservative talk show hosts often cite what seems to them to be strong reasons to curb your normal feelings of compassion soas not to help homeless people. First, they lump all of the homeless together as having drug and alcohol dependencies and then they assume that any out of pocket contributions to them will only go to feed their habits. Even if this were true, people who are very advanced in their dependencies often need a medically supervised detox program in the hospital or recovery center, or they could die. It is a much more complex situation than the cliches of simplistic thinking talking heads want to make it. Even with help, sometimes the first attempt does not take. It requires a lot of compassion and patience for most of these folks to make it after years outside of the mainstream, being beat down by the mean streets.
Also, in the case of a national disaster, it has been traditional within Armstrongism to label the area affected as one of grievous sin such as homosexuality, or a country governed by godless communism, pagan tribalism, or even a state that allegedly persecuted “Mr. Herbert W. Armstong”. The majority of the members of the ACOGs allow their leaders to present glaring generalities in support of their admonitions not to be compassionate. Let’s put it this way. If some little kid, or a young single mother caught in one of these disasters is praying to God for water, food, or blankets, and suddenly, an organized group, be they Christian or atheist, comes along with exactly what these victims were praying for, who do you think they are going to praise for it? Maybe Dave Pack has never had the experience of giving some needy person his pocket change, and then watching tears well up in that person’s eyes as they look up into the heavens and say “Thank you, Jesus!” Regardless as to whether each of us hapoens to be believer, or non-believer, this is often the spontaneous and heart felt reaction that our gifts cause!
If these people use their interpretation of the law, or the importance of their evangelistic efforts as an excuse to turn their backs on needy “outsiders”, then they ignore the royal law of love, lose their rewards, and are most definitely not worth following. They negate and bring curse upon their own ministry! It has been said that one should be very wary of people who are cruel to animals, because when the chips are down, they will treat people the same way. How much more fearful should we be of allowing people who mistreat the debillitated and defenseless to come into and assume control over our lives? Look at the parallels! “No, don’t help outsiders!” “No, Mr. and Mrs Tithepayer, we’re not going to help you. There must be a reason why you are not being blessed. Learn to manage your finances better! Eat beans, and get your clothes from Goodwill and Salvation Army. If your car is dangerous, then take the bus!” These hard hearted ministers are no different from Marie Antoinette!
BB
According to Bob Thiel, Manor Del Mar, another piece of the former Ambassador lifestyle, is up for sale. Be quick, or Gerald Flurry will grab it!
On the other side of life, a minister once announced he had been part of a visiting program to prospective members in developing countries. Noting the lean cuisine, he said he told a woman “In the World Tomorrow, your dog will eat better than this!”