Herbert Armstrong didn’t even complete high school, but some how he read material in the Central Library in Portland, Oregon from G. G. Rupert, wrangled a ministerial certificate from the Church of God Seventh Day and for no particularly good reason was granted the title of ‘Apostle’ by the very Conference he later betrayed, going on and becoming one of the most prominent false prophets in the United States in the early Twentieth Century with nutty ideas and even nuttier kook predictions which fell flat, but yet, he became a foremost expert in the minds of his deluded followers. Continue reading “The Self-Made Armstrongist Experts”
tragedy
British Israelism was at the center of one of the greatest standoff tragedies in the history of the United States.
Why Armstrongist leaders MUST lie
Herbert Armstrong lied because he had to. All Armstrongist leaders must lie.
To understand why, let’s look at what a sociopath said on Quora:
*UPDATE*
The situation that made answering this question anonymously a necessity has passed.
I hate doing this, but I have to answer this anonymously. I am a diagnosed sociopath and according to Quora statistics, many of you have seen and liked my answers, questions and blog posts.I am probably among the most fortunate of my particular set in that I had a great family. My Father was a very even keeled man who never finished high school because he figured he knew everything he needed to know at 13. He was a “been here” in our little community, a branch of a family tree that had roots in our small town going back six generations. My Mother was a loud, social butterfly who formed the hub of the local rumor mill. Both of my parents were socially active; Moose lodge, VFW, County Fair, Grange Hall; these were the places I grew up.I was the weird kid in school, the guy who didn’t “get it.” There was a very good reason for that, I wasn’t attached to anything. If you watch people as they go about their normal lives, and I have spent my entire life doing so, you will realize that there is a social mandate at work and it shows up very early in our children; that’s why neuro-typical kids pretty much all act the same. As they grow they become more complex but are little more than collections of well known stereotypes.The general call and response of daily life was largely lost on me as a child. I have no talent for rote memory, because I have no desire to learn anything that demands rote memory. Even at 5 and 6 years old I had dozens of songs and television shows and movies memorized, but I didn’t care about the “times tables” or “presidents” or anything else that demanded memorization by benefit of it’s existence. But after a long while I learned to do it because I was laughed at, called stupid and ugly (I never understood the correlation, so I put it down to limited vocabulary) and generally bullied by my peers.Then I learned something wonderful, something so amazing that it changed my life forever; I learned that people don’t want to hear the truth, they want to hear what is expected. So, I learned how to lie to people so I wouldn’t be abused any more. I learned this early, I couldn’t have been more than six or seven.So there is one of the first questions people ask about sociopaths answered. Why do they lie and manipulate? Because people punish you when you tell them the truth.
The situation that made answering this question anonymously a necessity has passed.
I hate doing this, but I have to answer this anonymously. I am a diagnosed sociopath and according to Quora statistics, many of you have seen and liked my answers, questions and blog posts.I am probably among the most fortunate of my particular set in that I had a great family. My Father was a very even keeled man who never finished high school because he figured he knew everything he needed to know at 13. He was a “been here” in our little community, a branch of a family tree that had roots in our small town going back six generations. My Mother was a loud, social butterfly who formed the hub of the local rumor mill. Both of my parents were socially active; Moose lodge, VFW, County Fair, Grange Hall; these were the places I grew up.I was the weird kid in school, the guy who didn’t “get it.” There was a very good reason for that, I wasn’t attached to anything. If you watch people as they go about their normal lives, and I have spent my entire life doing so, you will realize that there is a social mandate at work and it shows up very early in our children; that’s why neuro-typical kids pretty much all act the same. As they grow they become more complex but are little more than collections of well known stereotypes.The general call and response of daily life was largely lost on me as a child. I have no talent for rote memory, because I have no desire to learn anything that demands rote memory. Even at 5 and 6 years old I had dozens of songs and television shows and movies memorized, but I didn’t care about the “times tables” or “presidents” or anything else that demanded memorization by benefit of it’s existence. But after a long while I learned to do it because I was laughed at, called stupid and ugly (I never understood the correlation, so I put it down to limited vocabulary) and generally bullied by my peers.Then I learned something wonderful, something so amazing that it changed my life forever; I learned that people don’t want to hear the truth, they want to hear what is expected. So, I learned how to lie to people so I wouldn’t be abused any more. I learned this early, I couldn’t have been more than six or seven.So there is one of the first questions people ask about sociopaths answered. Why do they lie and manipulate? Because people punish you when you tell them the truth.
We’ve already covered the fact that members of the Armstrongist churches are sociopaths previously.
Armstrongist leaders MUST lie because people don’t want the truth.
It’s as simple as that. If you are currently in an Armstrongist cult, you do not want the truth and if the leaders and / or ministers told you the truth, not only would you not like them, you’d leave them.
How do we know this?
The scientific method.
David Hulme found this out the hard way awhile back. He hinted that he was going to eliminate British Israelism and excise it from Church of God, an International Community. Almost immediately, some of his leading ministers rebelled and split off, forming an ACoG of their own. David Hulme was a onetime World Tomorrow presenter and founding president of the United Church of God (which he subsequently abandoned) to form the CoGaIC. He had a semi-successful sect of the Armstrongist cult and even had a printed copy of his magazine, Vision. He’s had to stop printing it and now it is just an online website. It’s amazing how fast things can go to hell in a handbasket after only 16 years. If only he had continued lying to his ministers and members about the viability of British Israelism, he’d still be in good stead –because Armstrongists hate truth, and if you have the audacity to tell them the truth, they will hate you, make fun of you, oppose you and leave you.
The other Armstrongists have realized this. Roderick Meredith at the Living Church of God even has a course at Living University for British Israelism. More and more, ACoGs have realized that British Israelism is the fundamental core of their religion and are finding more and more ways to promote the idea.
It’s all a lie of course. British Israelism is bunk. In keeping with the sociopaths in Armstrongism, though, the sects of the cult promote it. Armstrongist leaders MUST lie. They must lie because people don’t really like the truth.
So all you Armstrongists out there, watching the insanity of your headquarters / home office as it disintegrates and the leaders become more and more egocentric and eccentric, just remember: You are responsible for all of it because you don’t want the truth.
Armstrongism is a cult, after all and you shouldn’t expect anything but lies if you can’t handle the truth.