July 31, 2021 marks the 129th birthday of HWA. Yes, we know those in the most hard-line COGs don’t celebrate birthdays, and HWA is the ubiquitous exception to all the rules. I’ll always remember how HWA fondly recalled how Haile Selassie, though his country was experiencing a disastrous famine, and a governmental upheaval that shortly led to his death, sent him a birthday telegram. So, in anticipation of Bob Thiel’s customary birthday post, and likely use of the “Sacred Treasure” photo, we offer this rare bit of anecdotal history:
In the back of one of the Hitler Diaries was a scribbled note, in which the name “Herr H.W. Armstrong” was conspicuous. Now, like Rick (in Casablanca) my German is a bit rusty, but here goes:
“To be awarded to Herr H.W. Armstrong of the USA, the Grand Cross of the German Eagle. Herr Armstrong is to be honored for his theories of racial purity, forced segregation, propaganda extolling German military superiority, the coming of the glorious Millennial Reich, and for demoralizing of the American people in their misguided attempts to defeat the victorious German army.”
The story was that following the “discovery” of the Hitler Diaries, one of Gene Hogberg’s contacts in West Germany sent him a copy of the note, so he and Herman Hoeh did some research and got a replica of the award medal. They presented it to HWA with a suitable cover story, and naturally a photo of him sporting his fake medal was in order. Word has it that the copy of the photo was discovered after HWA’s demise, being used as a bookmark in his annotated copy of Mein Kampf.
Of course the above story is fictitious, but since April Fools Day may have come out of paganism, July 31 is as good day as any for a cruel joke.
For those various Armstrong factions, the weapon of choice is ridiculing the accomplishments of generations of great men and women.
As evidence, consider that these cults are committed to the proposition that all Herbies views were correct, self-evident, and based on fact and reason, while other people’s positions are not just wrong but illegitimate, ideological, and unworthy of serious consideration.
If you were to get a second opinion from someone who’s not a member of one of the various loony-bin crews, they would of course tell you that that he’s a secular whore masquerading as a man of God whose every pronouncement was a gospel truth that only the sinful or the sinister would question.
I’m by no means the first person to notice that Herbert was a militantly unfriendly proletariat that abandoned every ethical principle that governs responsible human activity. Many others are made note of his narcissistic tendencies. Herbert behaved like this is his world and we’re all just living in it.
Let me end by observing that the proverbs of Theognis, like those of Solomon, are observations on human nature, ordinary life, and civil society, with moral reflections on the facts. I quote him as a witness of the fact that Herbert and company were and are the type of person(s) who will trump up any lie for the occasion, and the more of a thumper it is, the better they likes it.