The Painful Truth-Herbert W. Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God
Understanding the psychology of religious seduction and spiritual abuse.
Some years ago, I was conversing with a fellow single man during the feast of tabernacles in Anchorage, Alaska. I was planning to take a drive through the magnificent Alaska scenery to see the Matunuska Glacier. I knew his second tithe funds were running low, and I asked him if he would like to come along.
“No, thank you. I’m going to attend the family day activity. I hear the place where it’s being held is very nice.”
For a tragically short time, the Spirit of the Prince of Peace drowned out the murderous demands of the State.
On August 1914, Europe’s major powers threw themselves into war with gleeful abandon. Germany, a rising power with vast aspirations, plowed across Belgium, seeking to checkmate France quickly before Russia could mobilize, thereby averting the prospect of a two-front war. Thousands of young Germans, anticipating a six-week conflict, boarded troop trains singing the optimistic refrain: “Ausflug nach Paris. Auf Widersehen auf dem Boulevard.” (“Excursion to Paris. See you again on the Boulevard.”)
