Douglas Becker – Page 22 – The Painful Truth-Herbert W. Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God

September 27, 2015February 4, 2016

empty promises

Matching the questions to the answers may be problematic!

Within the context of 1971 when it was written, the WCG was living in its last days.

Everything about it is provably false.

Your worries are just beginning!

Only if you spent much of it involved with Herbert Armstrong

That's really rich, coming from the Worldwide Church of God!

Uh... Hello! This coming from Herbert Armstrong? He had a $5 Million divorce!

Really???!!!

Written in 1971, the answer appears to be no!

Financial conversions are not covered! Sorry! If you are talking about religious conversion, well, be aware that in the WCG nothing changed for the better!

R.I.P.

WCG

If you are wondering, Herbert Armstrong was against serving in the military. Unfortunately, if you were a conscientious objector, the last place you wanted to be was serving out your I-W program at Big Sandy, Texas for the WCG! The hypocrisy was horrendous and men were persecuted and abused for their religious beliefs by the religion that taught them!

The WCG never did either.

Is this a choice or are they the same??!!

Which doesn't exist any more!

Yes... no... and NO!

Totally wasted in the WCG!

Lost at last!

Gotten totally wrong!

Still missing: Gone AWOL because of Herbert Armstrong

As opposed to the decline of the WCG

And not one word about teens and cell phones!

The truth is that if it's serious, you should go see a doctor!

Should be titled: The Proof of the Old Testament Using Fulfilled Prophecies (some of which failed). Talk about not living up to its promises!

Garner Ted Armstrong

- Gambler

- Adulterer

- Boozing Alcoholic

- Serial Rapist

Yup! He knew Jesus!

Written by Roderick Meredith in 1955. He should have researched to find out how to prevent his diabetes.

Failed to include planning.

Would have helped for planning his succession....

Written in 1964: The truth really changed in a decade!

Fail! Fail! Fail! Fail! Fail!

We have proof the United States and British Commonwealth are not from Israel!

The WCG predicted by Revelation???!!

The author didn't have a clue!

Not any more: Doesn't exist!

The WCG sure knew how!

It's hard to pick one out of the 40 written!

It's more important to know what science can discover about the human mind poisoned by boozing alcoholics of Armstrongism!

Given the Waring tribes of Armstrongism, it would be interesting to know!

If only you stay away from Armstrongism, you'll have a much more awesome future, unless you define awesome as totally dysfunctional.

Oops!

Herbert Armstrong wrote a lot of booklets which made promises — actual and implied. When we go back through and review the booklets he and his staff wrote in the light of what has actually happened, it is clear that the great swelling promises and prognostications were profoundly empty. Looking back, the booklets now seem crassly hypocritical. The Radio Church of God, Herbert Armstrong and the Worldwide Church of God never measured up to the very standards they set. The slide show includes only 39 of the booklets:

Answers from Genesis (1973)
Are We Living in the Last Days (1971)
A True History of the True Church (1959: ‘Dr.’ Herman Hoeh)
Ending Your Financial Worries (1959)
Has Time Been Lost? (1952)
Hippies, Hypocrisy and Happiness (1968)
How to Have a Happy Marriage
How to Understand Prophecy (1972)
Is this the End Time (1971)
Just What Do You Mean Conversion? (1972)
Life After Death (1973)
Military Service and War (1967)
Never Before Understood: Why Humanity Cannot Solve Its Evils (1981)
Pagan Holidays or God’s Holy Days? (1976)
Seven Proofs of God’s True Church (1974: Garner Ted Armstrong)
The Bible: Superstition or Authority? …and can you prove it? (1985)
The Incredible Human Potential (1978)
The Key to the Book of Revelation (1952)
The Mark of the Beast (1952)
The Middle East in Prophecy (1948)
The Missing Dimension in Sex (1964)
The Modern Romans (1971)
The Plain Truth about Child Rearing (1963)
The Plain Truth about Healing (1979)
The Proof of the Bible (1958)
The Real Jesus (1971: Garner Ted Armstrong)
The Seven Laws of Radiant Health (1955: Roderick Meredith)
The Seven Laws of Success (1961)
The Truth about Make-Up (1964)
The United States and British Commonwealth in Prophecy (1964)
The White Horse: False Religion (1976)
The Wonderful World Tomorrow: What Will It Be Like? (1973)
This is the Worldwide Church of God (1971)
To Kill a People (1971)
What Is the True Gospel (1955)
What Science Can’t Discover About the Human Mind (1978)
Why Were You Born? (1957)
World Peace: How Will It Come? (1978)
Your Awesome Future: How Religion Deceives You (1978)
[jqeasytooltip tiptheme=”tipthemewhite” tipicon=”fa fa-frown-o” tipposition=”tiptop” tipfollowcursor=”true” ][jqeasytooltipcontent]The absolutely most embarrassing prophecy ever![/jqeasytooltipcontent]1975 in Prophecy[/jqeasytooltip] (1956)

[jqeasytooltip tiptheme=”tipthemeflatdarklight” tipmaxwidth=”610″ tipicon=”fa fa-book” tipminmargin=”15″ tipposition=”tiptop” tipfollowcursor=”true” ][jqeasytooltipcontent]

Moral Mazes: The World of Corporate Managers, Twentieth Anniversary Edition

Chapter 7: The Magic Lantern, page 185.

[/jqeasytooltipcontent]Moral Mazes[/jqeasytooltip] aptly describes what is represented by this list of Armstrongist publications:

From the standpoint of public relations, the journalistic ideology closely resembles the social outlook of most college seniors — a vague but pious middle-class liberalism, a mildly critical stance toward their fathers in particular and authorities in general; a maudlin of championship of the poor and the underclass; and especially the doctrine of tolerance, open-mindedness, and balance. In fact, public relations people feel, the news media are also constructing reality. They are always looking for a “fresh” and exciting angle; they have an unerring instinct for the sentimental that expresses itself in a preference for “human interest” rather than substance; and they arrange facts in a way that purports to convey “truth,” but is in fact simply another story. In reality, news is entertainment. And, despite the public’s acceptance of journalistic ideologies, most of the public watch or read news not to be informed or to learn the “truth,” but precisely to be entertained. There is no intrinsic reason, therefore, why the constructions of reality by public relations specialists should be thought of as any different from those of any group in the business of telling stories to the public. Everyone is telling stories and everyone has a story to tell. Public relations men and women are simply storytellers with a purpose in the free market of ideas, advocates of a certain point of view in the court of public opinion. Since any notion of truth is irrelevant or refers to at best what is perceived, persuasion of various sorts becomes everything.

And there it is. Armstrongism isn’t about truth; it is simply about manipulating perceptions to evoke responses to their story telling. Herbert Armstrong was an ad copy writer, after all. As such, he lined up some facts, threw in some colorful descriptions and weaved his fictional stories. The booklets in the slides presentation above is representative of this magical world of the ‘magic lantern’, creating illusions illustrating imaginary constructs of perceived ‘reality’. There is neither truth nor reality in any of it. It is all fake.

Moreover, it isn’t just about Herbert Armstrong and his ‘public relations’ advertising hirelings, it is also about The Journal, which is exposed for what it is in the brief description given by Robert Jackal; to wit: the pursuit of a “fresh” and exciting angle with an unerring instinct for the sentimental that expresses itself in a preference for “human interest” rather than substance; and the facts are arranged in a way that purports to convey “truth,” but is in fact simply another story — in reality, it is merely infotainment. The editor reveals his true self when he speaks of the doctrine of tolerance, open-mindedness, and balance — while secretly harboring contempt for the “farmer theologians” who deign to advertise in its pages.

Moral Mazes has framed it and nailed it in the landscape of the church cult corporate of lies, deceits, conceits, fiction, fantasy — all parading as religious truth — which, if it be told, can be demonstrated as pure rubbish if you but stand back and look at the chaotic mess it represents.

Dr. James Milam, in his book, [jqeasytooltip tiptheme=”tipthemesquareyellow” tipmaxwidth=”100″ tipicon=”fa fa-book” tipminmargin=”15″ tipposition=”tiptop” tipfollowcursor=”true” ][jqeasytooltipcontent]Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Co.: Houston, Texas; 2013[/jqeasytooltipcontent]Ending the Drug Addiction Pandemic: Discovering the Liberating Truth[/jqeasytooltip], in Chapter 2: Core Evidence (page 17), says:

Within the big lie all of the component falsehoods have been carefully crafted to support each other in concealing the whole truth. To assemble the abundance of decisive scientific and clinical evidence comprising the biogenic paradigm it is necessary to identify, define, and disentangle each piece of the truth from the corresponding part of the shroud of disinformation that has so carefully hidden for so long. Surrounded by the support of the others each falsehood has become an inarguable given truth. It is therefor necessary to confront and discredit them one by one until the whole fabric of disinformation is disposed of.

He adds this sentence in Chapter 3: The Language of Denial (page 34):

The familiar comes to seem normal and every big lie develops its own familiar language of deception that conceals the truth while purporting to represent it.

In the end, Armstrongism promises the truth and fails to deliver. What it delivers instead is empty promises which can never be fulfilled.

September 22, 2015February 4, 2016

weak

Everything is fine!

Uh oh!

Everything's Not Fine!

How can you be so confident?

He was weak!

Let Us Have A Moment of Silence For Our Brave Friend

Herbert Armstrong, Science Fiction Writer

Founding CEO of Evil Cult

The world is better off without him.

Play Evil Corp Video (note: some scenes may be disturbing to some people)

The Evil Corp portrays the functioning of crisis among upper management.

The Executive Vice President explains the situation.
The CEO, as her patron, explains to her why he can be so confident in the crisis.
CEO: I’m glad he’s dead — he was weak; the world is better off without him.

People may find the opinion of the CEO of Evil Corp concerning the crisis of losing $400 billion in one day, the confidence he had for the future and his perspective on his Executive Vice President of Technology puzzling, even disingenuous, but it is the result of the standard objectification used by those in the upper management of corporations who see others (and even themselves), as nothing but objects to be manipulated without becoming emotional about the choices they must make. Make note of the fact that though the Executive Vice President had a gambling and drinking problem, that was not the most important factor — the most important factor — and the one the CEO abhorred was that of weakness. A lot can be tolerated in the corporate environment, even adultery, but someone who is perceived as weak is doomed.

Herbert Armstrong -- Evil Cult CEO detested the weak — Herbert Armstrong — Evil Cult CEO detested the weak

Those who think that it is any different in the Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia should be warned that Herbert Armstrong himself detested those who were weak. In fact, he saw himself as the strongest person and those under him were weak: He created those under him and gave them positions; as such they were far inferior to him. In fact, at the lowest levels, Herbert Armstrong had no enthusiasm for the church members and believed that none of them really had a shot at salvation except in the rare cases that they supported him enough [to be noticed]. The letter that Herbert Armstrong sent to Roderick Meredith, March 19, 1980, should dispel any doubts:

When you were made second Vice President, it became a standing joke among leaders at Pasadena, the saying, “Well, after all, I am the second Vice President.”

In fact, Herbert Armstrong often showed contempt for his evangelists in various ways: He saw them all as weak.

Fast forward to today: Herbert Armstrong has died, leaving a vacuum. The weak evangelists, pastors and local elders saw their chance to make their way free from the domination of those they could not previously rise against. Roderick Meredith was one of the first of these when he established Global. But he didn’t have the fortitude to keep his promises to submit to his own board: He rebelled, lied, broke his promises, bankrupted Global and established the Living Church of God to gather to himself those weaker than he was to submit themselves to him to make their cushy living.

Robert Thiel later left Meredith and Living as a prophet, but before he did, he was so weak that he had to have others in Living declare him as a prophet (there is some suspicion that he took some liberalities with quoting dead people he claims supported him as prophet). For heaven’s sake, if you are a prophet of God, you have the force of God behind you and you don’t need other humans to vouch for you.

Ah, the days of Victor Kubik sneaking around to find a way to support himself post Worldwide Church of God — he found someone he looked to: Dennis Luker. Though he was weak and did not have the faith to stand up against Joe Tkach alone (and if God is for you, who can be against you?), he found a champion to be his patron and the rest of two decades of history.

Just how weak is David Pack? He made a major failed prophecy that everyone in the churches of God would come flocking to Restored (not to mention that 3 major leaders of the ACoGs would die). It never happened. And it never happened again. How weak is that?

Some of us remember Gerald Flurry was relegated to quite a minor congregation in Quincy, Washington. Herbert Armstrong considered him weak. Quincy is really out in the boondocks. There’s just no respect for the weak.

Then there’s Ronald Weinland. He’s been weak from the beginning. And now he’s in prison for felony Income Tax evasion. How weak is that?

There is a whole cast of other weak characters skulking about. They’ve managed to eke out a niche and put up a shingle for the money and self-aggrandizement, but they really don’t have much and the world just isn’t listening to any of them. That’s pretty weak.

In the 1960s, Herbert Armstrong complained that there were no “men of character”. He was talking about prospects for those to support him in those days. Apparently, he finally found one worthy of his respect — Stanley Raider. Even that didn’t last. His last, final and disastrous search for the strong resulted in picking a psychopath to continue his legacy. It is fitting seeing that Herbert Armstrong himself was a weak man — morbidly obese, committing incest with his daughter for 10 years at the beginning of his ministry, having failed prophecies as a false prophet, basing his religion on British Israelism which can be scientifically disproved, having a donut and cup of coffee on the Day of Atonement to keep up his strength, never even finished high school and a boozing alcoholic with a violent temper — all of these are properties of a weak man.

In the end, we detest weak men.

Like the CEO of Evil Corp, we believe that the world is better off without them.

September 1, 2015

Respect

“The 1% of the 1% playing God without permission.”

Somewhere on the way to the season finale, a tragic event occurred which changed everything.

A very popular but very disturbing new series on the USA Network, Mr. Robot, is very topical and quite graphic. Those involved in making the series have made every effort to be as relevant as possible in portraying the world of The Evil Corporation and one man’s effort to “save the world” as a quite mentally ill delusional but highly proficient tech hacker. The stories themselves are quite surreal and we’re never quite sure what’s supposed to be real and what isn’t. Sometimes a production becomes a victim of its own success in unexpected ways.

The day of the scheduled season finale, an horrific event occurred: The fatal shooting of Alison Parker and Adam Ward on camera during a live broadcast:

Virginia TV News Reporter, Cameraman Shot Dead During Live Broadcast

Mr. Robot had scenes which were disturbingly similar to the actual shooting. Viewers expecting to see the season finale were greeted at the beginning of the show with a message that the season finale was postponed a week:

The postponement represented a sensitivity for those affected by the shooting, demonstrating respect for both the public and those intimately connected to the TV station family. This was a rather rare event which can be appreciated by those who have suffered loss. There is little more important than respect within a social context.

In fact, respect is tremendously important for the functioning of a social group. Those who are in positions of power need to have sensitivity and concern for those who have a lesser position within a group so that the social order can have viability. Those who have power and privilege within a hierarchical bureaucracy who do not have respect for those of lower caste in their ranks define a dysfunctional organization: They are the 1% of the 1% playing God without permission. In their hubris, they show contempt for those they consider beneath them, and, often, as collateral damage, those in charge may totally ignore those they consider beneath them. By their attitude of superiority, narcissism and hubris, they become the caretakers of a cult, for, without respect there can be no truly viable group — they create chaos and dissatisfaction, misery and injustice.

An indicator of the kind of respect the Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia has for its own membership came to light recently at Otagosh in a blog entry of The Gospel According to Yertile. Neotherm comments:

I enjoyed your anecdote. It is very accurate. The implicit cast system you defined was a little different at AC Big Sandy. It went something like this:

Ordained Administrators
Ordained Faculty Members
Ordained Staff Members
Non-ordained Administrators
Non-ordained Faculty Members
Non-ordained Staff Members
Students
Staff Members and local church members
Feral dogs roaming campus
1-Ws

This can create dillemmas. At one time my boss was a non-ordained administrator. In fact, he was not even member of the WCG. (There was a hiring binge in pursuit of accreditation that resulted in may credentialed non-members showing up on campus.) Once a minister, who had nothing to do with our department, showed up and gave me instructions on what to do about a matter that fell within the purview of our department administrator. As a WCG member, you had to do what the minister required. This meant ignoring the non-ordained administrator who had responsibility for the department and its policies.. Even though AC received accreditation on the strength of its credentialed faculty, it was always clear that the ministry ran the show. My guess is that this “hidden government” was concealed for accrediting committee members. The fact that Don Ward was a cross-over and had a secular degree as well as an AC degree and was a minister probably kept some situations from escalating out of proportion.

I recall in a WCG congregation in the midwest years ago asking an almighty local church elder a question. He gave me an answer and I said that I agreed with what he had said. This was a big, big mistake. In an instant he was toe-to-toe with me and in my face yelling. This was at a crowded Sabbath service. I was taken aback initially but it emerged that he believed that I had no right to agree with him. I was supposed to listen to what he said and then just keep my mouth shut. Like the great Ozymandias, his decrees were above evaluation by lesser beings like myself. If I had disagreed with him, who knows what would have happened.

He later became a GCI pastor and recently retired. He had a serious anger management problem that probably needed professional therapy. But he seemed to prosper in GCI. I always felt sorry for the souls who had to be in his congregation. And I always felt that GCI Church Administration had no idea what was going on in their local congregations. I have other corroborating evidence of this latter statement.

— Neotherm

This is better understood in the light of Failed Experiment.

The Armstrongist churches of God are heavily hierarchical bureaucracies unwittingly modeled on the structure of Fortune 200 corporations where those in the ‘management’ mid level and above deal in abstracts objectifying people as portrayed by “Moral Mazes” by Robert Jackall. They are not churches at all — they are soulless church cult corporate structures of power and privilege devoid of anything that approaches mercy, equity, compassion or respect: They exist solely for the ‘profit’ of the shareholders, which is, generally speaking, the Apostle, Evangelist, Prophet or some sort of General who is all powerful, autonomous and without any accountability within the group. His delusional ideas based loosely on the daft pronouncements of the very wrong-headed Herbert Armstrong become doctrine, administered harshly and narrowly upon the helpless, but liberalized for those within the organization who have status, rank and privilege. They are at the top of their dysfunctional fiefdoms as the 1% of the 1% playing God without permission. All sorts of immoral, unethical and illegal scenarios play themselves out, such as a minister recommending that a man with a disabled son leave his son in a shopping mall so someone could find him and take care of him. We have one of the worst examples of cult gone wrong with Ronald Weinland and the PKG where he respects no one and treats them with utter contempt. The same can be said of David Pack, Roderick Meredith and Gerald Flurry. Those who expect real respect from United or CoGWA need only to bring forth a proposition they don’t like and see what happens.

Respect is essential for a healthy functional social group. It is the cult which is defined by disrespect, neglect and contempt. Those who run a cult need to be warned because you never know when some tech may start working to take you down to “save the world”. At best, you will slowly sink into entropy where you are stagnated without growth because, let’s face it, you just aren’t a healthy place to be. And you never know: People could just become dissatisfied and leave and even if they don’t, there’s not going to be much energy or enthusiasm.

Unfortunately, those who have no respect for those they consider beneath them are not likely to change. Remember though, it is appointed once for all to die. In the end, if you have no respect for others, you will eventually become irrelevant.