Herbert Armstrong’s TANGLED WEB
An Insider’s View Of The Worldwide Church of God
From Herbert Armstrong’s Tangled Web…
The whole church had looked on Loma Armstrong with deep respect
and great fondness. She had conducted herself with dignity and
love toward members of all levels. She was kindly and had the manner
of a noblewoman. She certainly had the common touch as well. Her
eyes exuded real warmth and concern for whomever she talked to.
She stood straight, dressing with both modesty and real taste at the
same time. She was a genuine lady.
Her character was evident, and she was trusted. The whole church
was deeply saddened by her death in 1967. She had meant so much
to so many. The church sustained a loss far greater than it then
knew. Her character had been far greater than her husband’s, and
the church was a decade in finding that out.
Because Herbert Armstrong is surprisingly easily influenced and
because his wife Loma’s influence had been in the direction of
Christian living, when that influence was gone, it was replaced by
a different influence. On a number of occasions, even Herbert Armstrong
is reported by his son and top officials of the church to have labeled
that influence as of a wrong spirit.
In Tucson, on July 4, 1979, he told me Stan Rader was only involved
in the areas of accounting and legal work, and in no other! Yet,
within three months, he had ordained Stan as an evangelist, the
second-highest rank in the Worldwide Church of God! And, it is an
ecclesiastical office, having nothing to do with those areas mentioned
by him in Tucson!
This is the influence HWA complained of to Wayne Cole when Wayne
was still director of the field ministry in the church. Tapes of
those phone conversations have been widely distri- buted. Excerpts
of them were even played on the CBS program “60 Minutes.”
There are many who believe Stan’s influence took over where Loma’s
influence lapsed at her death. There is ample reason for thinking so.
Herbert Armstrong has been “in love” a number of times during
the past decade. He said himself he had been “in love” with “Amy”
when she was 25 years old. He reported this to a group at Big
Sandy in 1974. He did say, when it was over, that he thought it might
have been infatuation.
But earlier there had been the young Filipino girl whom he had
brought over to this country, according to widespread reports.
However, he never did bring her to church with him! He apparently kept
her under wraps.
Many think Ramona Martin, whom he married, was working for
Stan. You still hear those reports. In any case, this marriage was
some time in the making. There were stories circulated about the
relationship and what happened on their trips abroad. As Herbert
Armstrong is so fond of saying, “Where there is so much smoke, there
has to be some fire.” Using this principle, there certainly had to be a
lot of fire! Such stories still float around in shockingly graphic detail.
Herbert Armstrong’s pending marriage delivered a massive blow to his
reputation. When the age difference was combined with floating
rumors, his real reputation could never survive among those in the
know. While some still nominally supported him, that support was,
in the main, based on salary considerations. The old solid
respect had gone with the wind. Like Humpty Dumpty, it could never
be put back together again.
Church literature was subverted to report the Tucson wedding
in the most glowing terms. The May-December wedding was made
to sound like a storybook romance, when, in truth, it was a travesty. While
Ted relented at the last minute and performed the wedding, it still had
grotesque overtones. Ted tells the story of his father’s relating to him the
next day in unbelievable detail his oral sex with his new wife. Ted
tells people he was so embarrassed, horrified, and repulsed he wanted to
hide.
Herbert Armstrong had taught for so many years that oral sex was totally wrong. But in his world travels he had changed his
mind about so many things that now he was prepared to water down
doctrine. It certainly had been church doctrine that oral sex was
wrong before God. His deep interest in Masters and Johnson’s sex
teachings seemed genuine, but there were grave doubts raised about
this being the first time he had opportunity to practice the techniques
of his teachers!
However, the fears of the wags were soon justified. He suffered a
massive heart attack. Few were surprised. Young wives and 85-
year-old men are seldom compatible. The inevitable occurred.
Ted reported his father very sick at Feast time, 1977. Ted flew
by and visited with him before beginning the circuit. He said his
father, in a low voice, begged him not “to take the church away
from him” that year. He was not to hold ministers’ meetings, not
to undermine him.
It certainly is evident that had Ted intended to do so, then was
his opportunity. He didn’t do it. It would have been rather easy to
hold a directors’ meeting and pass the necessary legal motion. Then
it would have been done. But he didn’t do that, as he responded to
his father’s sickbed request.
When Herbert Armstrong made the next moves against his real
son in favor of his “other son, Stan,” his whole being was set to
finish off Ted. This action reminded me of Constantine’s conduct
in killing his son Crispus a short time before his own death. Many
an old ruler who had such power has done such deeds just before
he went to his grave. Among those who did such things was Herod
the Great, of Bible fame.
As Lord Acton wrote, “Power corrupts, and absolute power
corrupts absolutely.”