Category: Douglas Becker

Douglas Becker’s views on the Churches of God

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Scientific Society Superstition

Arab society went from brilliant science to superstition because of an ideology.

Well… So what would science look like after centuries of the world dominated by British Israelism? Expect stupidity… the same sort of stupidity represented by religion (Islam) rotting the mind. Cultural power and political power trumps science and engineering.

Note that the superstition had a major impact on candidacy for the Nobel Peace Prize. Remember that Herbert Armstrong was said to be a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize? It never happened. Moreover, there doesn’t seem to be a single Armstrongist who has ever won the prize.

Don’t look for such publicĀ  acclaim any time soon.

In fact, if there were a War Prize instead, it would be difficult to select the winner among the squabbling sects of the Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia.

Who would you pick?

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bar rescue

Typical Assortment of Booze in Motel Room at Feast of Tabernacles
Typical Assortment of Booze in Motel Room at Feast of Tabernacles

Several years back, a member at the Feast of Tabernacles posted a picture of his collection of alcoholic beverages in his motel room at the time. Very quickly, someone not associated with Armstrongism posted and asked, “Where can I sign up??!!??”.

That’s an excellent question, particularly these days in the waning days of the Cult of Herbert Armstrong Mafia sects suffering from atrophy and entropy. It is also a missed opportunity for the leaders of the aging seniors within Armstrongism. If there’s one thing that surveys tell us, it’s that seniors, particularly religious seniors, love gambling and booze. It’s high time that the ACoGs cash in on the potential market of Alcoholics that represent 6% of the population. In fact, the Armstrongist Churches of God seem to have a much higher percentage of alcoholics: When Dale Hampton came through to visit the Seattle church in the 1970s to help people understand alcoholism, he estimated that 18% of the adults of that church were alcoholics. In Spokane, 240 miles away, the percentage was much much higher, if you can believe the incidences of hypoglycemia which are indicative of the third stage of alcoholism. It was the disease de rigueur for most of the adults in the WCG there. The [jqeasytooltip tipposition=”tiptop” tipfollowcursor=”true” ][jqeasytooltipcontent]Don Weininger: 1975[/jqeasytooltipcontent]minister[/jqeasytooltip] there certainly was an alcoholic, which partly explains his murder of his wife and his suicide outside the office of Carl Maxie, the wife’s divorce attorney. Anyway, the path to success is to go about drawing in that population of people best suited to Armstrongism — the alcoholics will fit right in.

Moreover, the Feasts are always going to be a special treat, particularly the Feast of Booze in the Fall. Every potluck can be overflowing with spirits. In fact, the church can be especially appealing to Native Americans with their belief in the Great Spirit, as long as they are persuaded of the Great Spirit’s Spirits.

Giving new meaning to 'ACoG'
Giving new meaning to ‘ACoG’

Yes, friends, we can swell the membership with the potential pool of 18 million alcoholics in the United States to draw upon. Hey, some of the WCG congregations actually met in a bar on the Sabbath, so it should be natural for long time members — although we’ll want to go upscale on this one.

It's being done now!
It’s being done now!

There’s a good market for this: All that needs to be done is to determine the demographics and set up the Church Bar accordingly.

BarChurchThe beauty of this commercial enterprise is that it is self-sustaining, if done properly. Initially, tithes, offerings and special building fund will be needed to buy property, build the appropriate facilities and stock it with booze. Out of work members can go to work as bartenders, wait persons and maintenance. Once started up, the Church Bar will be able to sustain itself with patrons from the neighborhood during the week and Sundays, with the bar closed on the Sabbath for ‘members only’. It should actually make a profit. Happy high members can truly rejoice in the Sabbath, having at least a mild buzz. Sermons can be adapted for visitors to show from the Bible that Scripture supports use of alcohol and that it ‘cheers the heart of God and man’ as well as not a few women.

“But,” you ask, “what if something should go wrong??!!??”

That’s where Jon Taffer comes in.

JonTafferofBarRescueJon Taffer is the renowned expert driving Bar Rescue. He comes when bar owners are in trouble and ask for help. He has rescued hundreds of bars using science. He tells those in trouble, “I don’t embrace excuses; I embrace solutions”. He is just the man to set the Alcohol Churches of God on the right path when they run into trouble, if they will call for the help and follow his advice.

We can’t expect every Church of God to accept this new paradigm. In the 1970s, it was the Feast of Pentecost somewhere in Western Washington. David Jon Hill was slated to give the morning sermon. He stumbled up the steps and made a comment about how he “flew up the steps” to the lectern. That afternoon, Roderick Meredith gave one of his most fiery sermons ever about drunkards, so it’s unlikely that the Living Church of God will pursue this. Only if he dies and his successors see the light will there be the Living Bar Church of God.

Herbert Armstrong was a boozing alcoholic. That may be one reason he wanted to spring from the Church of God Seventh Day: He wanted to continue to wallow in his alcoholic solution to problems. Garner Ted Armstrong was an alcoholic. David Jon Hill was an alcoholic. Regional pastors in the hinterland were alcoholics. The whole WCG was top heavy with alcoholics and that defined the character of the church (or lack of it). Alcohol permeated the entire structure. So why fight it?

After all that is said and done, we have to admit that Dixon Cartwright, editor of The Journal was right. The Bible may not have any authority. Herbert Armstrong wasn’t a prophet. The ‘farmer theologians’ are at best misguided. What we should do though, is hold the social groups together.

After all, most of the people of the Armstrongist churches of God have one thing in common: They are boozing alcoholics. It bonds them. It makes them comfortable with each other.

And darn it all, after a drink or two, disagreements just don’t matter any more.

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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

by Robert Jackal; Oxford University Press, Copyright 2010


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.