GTA's CGI Forbade Interracial Marriage (c. 1993)

From Ambassador Report 52 (June 1993): 

Cosden A. Foland, a security guard who was recently in the news for his heroics in foiling a store robbery (see The Indianapolis Star, 8/18/92), was a loyal [Church of God International] member who discovered that by entering into an interracial marriage he was no longer welcome in CGI (see AR45, p. 4). As a result, Foland ... formed his own small fellowship group. He, nevertheless, still wanted to consider the CGI brethren his friends and hoped to occasionally fellowship with them as he and his family did with other groups. Here is what happened to him:

My family and I were sitting in CGI services listening to the sermon when four men came up and asked us to leave. I said, "Why?" They then said that if we didn't leave they would call the police. I said, "Call the police!" But the police never came. A few days later, however, the police did come to my place of work and served papers on me.

We were all on the TV stations. And in court my lawyer made them look sick. They are sick, but I continue to pray for them. Anyway, the judge said that I could visit or go to the church if I wanted. I no longer want to, however.

Ironically, GTA claims his church is nonracist,

There are very few things more racist than forbidding interracial marriage.

It also should be stated that HWA also banned inter-racial marriage and even made this astoundingly racist proclamation in his last book, Mystery of the Ages. 

Account of a Former Follower of Garner Ted Armstrong

Exit and Support Network has this beautiful, bitter sweet story about one man who fell into Garner Ted Armstrong's spell.

Enter Garner Ted Armstrong at this time. Boy, was I a prime candidate for a cult! I was searching at the time for some kind of meaning, some role model, someone and somebody to feel connected to or accepted by. ...

I was on the Church of God International tape list and after a few months I had boxes of sermon tapes by GTA. I used to listen to him for hours every day. I'm not kidding. I am a janitor and I can listen to my walkman all day if I want. I listened to GTA everyday at work. I could hear up to 5 or 6 tapes during my shift. It didn't stop there. I listened to him at home, cutting the lawn, washing the car, diving around, while I was shopping at the grocery store. All I listened to or read was the Bible, world news and Armstrong. I had allowed Armstrong to pretty much take up residence in my mind. ...

I  met GTA on two occasions and spoke to him on the phone. We corresponded through the mail. I wasn't a member of the GTA cult because the [Canadian] group of the CGI met downtown and that was too far for me to go every Saturday.

  One day his wife, who did not approve of Garner Ted Armstrong, handed him a newspaper.

The story that was highlighted was about GTA and a masseuse in Tyler, Texas and a lawsuit. I could not, would not, believe that GTA did the deeds that he was being accused of. But one very sad day in my life, I watched one of these trashy, daytime news type talk shows and they played the Video that the masseuse from Tyler had secretly taken of GTA. I tell you, as I sat there in my TV room, watching this tape of GTA doing his perverted acts and going after a woman who was not his wife, I broke down and cried. I felt like an absolute fool. Everything spun out of control for me mentally and spiritually.

 You can read the whole story at the link above.

Many CGI Members Happy to Have Left WCG

From Ambassador Report 52:

During the eighties, [Ambassador Report] frequently received letters from folks who said they were much happier in the CGI than they were in the WCG. Many have told us they found CGI less authoritative and more open. In regard to the latter, it is interesting that GTA, unlike Tkach, has frequently allowed himself to be interviewed by members of the press. Some have also pointed out that CGI has courageously taken a strong stand against the rabidly racist "Seed of Satan" teaching [so-called Christian Identity] that some former Worldwiders have adopted. Not only do most CGI members say they believe in CGI's doctrines, there are many who remain GTA admirers. 

 Now not all was rosy within CGI by any means. This article is mainly about the concern of some CGI members that Garner Ted Armstrong was leaning towards authoritarianism like his father.

The Lecture Garner Ted Armstrong Should Have Made

From Ambassador Report 52:

Some of us can remember a Garner Ted in the seventies who, as a former navy man with a naked girl tatoo, would casually tell dirty jokes while guzzling beer and playing cards after basketball games at Ambassador, and who wondered aloud about how a masculine Jesus could ever possibly have had anything other than normal sexual urges. We are supposed to believe now, however, that the new GTA is a much more sensitive individual. GTA now even offers a cassette sermon entitled "How to Have a Happy Marriage." Actually, the lecture many have been waiting to hear is, "How I Screwed Around and Still Kept My Wife, Family, and Ministerial Credentials." (Ted: No kidding. As a book it would be a major best-seller. Think about it.)

Larry Flint Threatened to Expose Garner Ted Armstrong's Sexual Shenanigans

From Ambassador Report 52:

When Larry Flynt announced in June, 1978 that the September issue of his Hustler magazine would make those same sordid facts known nationally, GTA was coincidentally disfellowshipped, this time for good, by HWA within days. While HWA's June 26,1978 disfellowshipment letter to GTA gave other (nonsensical) reasons for the disfellowshipment, the fact is GTA's reputation for womanizing within the church and gambling in Vegas played a major role in his being permanently banished from the WCG. Yet, to this day [1993], GTA has not publicly (or, perhaps, even to himself) acknowledged the part his own sins played in his fall.

GTA's CGI Often Used as Halfway House to Other Things

Ambassador Report 52, June 1993, has a most fascinating report on the state of the Church of God International, then led by Garner Ted Armstrong.

While there are those who are happy with their membership in CGI, our mail indicates that many who leave the WCG for CGI do not remain there for long. For many, CGI is a half-way house, only a stepping stone to other things. As one of our readers wrote us, "GTA's church is in a time warp. They are essentially just holding onto the few truths they had ten or twenty years ago. Those who really want to grow spiritually find themselves moving on."

I recall Mr. Gavin Rumney, author of the Ambassador Watch blog, commented that the this very thing happened in his journey out of Armstrongism. 

HWA's Disfellowshipping of His Son, Garner Ted Armstrong

Among post-1979 WCG members who continue to believe HWA's doctrines, HWA's disfellowshipping of Garner Ted Armstrong in 1978 is usually viewed as a regrettable but necessary measure he took to protect the church.

They say that Garner Ted Armstrong was seeking to secularize the church and was spiritually unfaithful to God thus weakening its ability to serve God, spread the gospel, and causing God's divine blessings to be withdrawn which, if things were not corrected as they were, could cause the church to disintegrate and be unable to fulfill its duties before God and humanity.

HWA portrayed those who fell out of his favor as covertly conspiring against him to seize power.

He also used highly emotive, yet vague, phrases (Bible truth was being rapidly watered down, God Almighty and Jesus Christ were virtually thrown out of the college -- and ... the Church!) to convince WCG members to be scared of those who fell out of HWA's favor and rally under the banner of HWA.

An example of this type of account can be seen in an article of his in the August 2, 1979 Pastor's Report. Here Garner Ted Armstrong, C. Wayne Cole and others who fell out of favor are portrayed as having tried for years to overthrow HWA. (Note that sometimes in this article HWA refers to himself in the third person.)

In those early days I used Raymond Cole, a pioneer student, as a "trouble-shooter," to restore peace where frictions had developed. He set up an office at Big Sandy, Texas. I moved him to Pasadena. Soon he moved to Eugene, Oregon. It was becoming extremely difficult for him to direct the growing ministry from there. ...

My son, Garner Ted, about this time began his own conspiracy to TAKE OVER the Church -- and if his father did not oblige him by dying, to put Herbert W. Armstrong [he meant "me"] into retirement. Ted brought four or five men in from the field to work on a peer basis with Wayne Cole in supervision over the ministry.

My comments regarding C. Wayne Cole may be seen at the end of this post.

After a period of time Mr. Cole managed to eliminate the others. Mr. Cole managed to set himself up as "the head" of the Ministry. ...

[Later] he was dispatched to Canada and Garner Ted put Ron Dart in as "head" of the Ministry. He was to a great extent a "Yes-man" to Garner Ted, and Ted's conspiracy to take over the Church -- by cutting his father [he meant "me"] off from the ministry, and by taking authority never delegated to him in two areas -- Policy setting and doctrine.

Ted and others had lobbied aggressively to get the college accredited. I refused for some time, saying it would be impossible to achieve accreditation and keep it GOD'S college. Their persistence, assuring me we could achieve accreditation and still keep it God's College, finally caused me to say, "Go ahead, then."

Result? A number of Ph.D's from various universities were brought into the college , and the Big Sandy student body was moved to Pasadena. Bible truth was being rapidly watered down and permissiveness escalated. God Almighty and Jesus Christ were virtually thrown out of the college -- and were rapidly being thrown out of the Church!

During these years from 1970 on, I was overseas a great deal of the time -- even up to 300 out of the 365 days of the year. Garner Ted had threatened ministers, or those who knew what was going on, with being fired if they communicated to me what was being done.

There came to be a total lack of response from ministers when I repeated requests during 1975 and thereafter. I was being SHUT OUT of all authority in the Church Christ had used me in starting and building. ...

Meanwhile, in these same years, a small group of self-professed "intellectuals" were busy preparing the STP (Systematic Theology Project).

I had repeated asked ministers to contact me personally on problems in the field -- but my requests fell on deaf ears.

Mr. Dart was sent away by Ted to Texas on a sabbatical for further study at the University of Texas. Garner Ted then brought C. Wayne Cole back as "head of the Ministry." He was Ted's tool working with Dr. Robert Kuhn and the "intellectuals."

Those who fell out of HWA's favor are accused of having long conspired against him.

In truth Herbert W. Armstrong cast out his own son because there was a vicious power struggle between Garner Ted Armstrong and Stanley Rader.

Rader had found out many years ago where all the ripe plums were, and finally [in 1978] it appeared that Garner Ted was going to stop him from picking them. ...

behind the scenes, Rader was not about to have his heavy influence over Herbert Armstrong undermined by Garner Ted. It wasn't long before confusion was to reign supreme over the entire organization. ...

There was no way after twenty years that Rader was going to let go of the Worldwide Church of God. After all, he recognized an opportunity at the beginning of his career [in 1955] and had patiently and masterfully moved himself into a position of power. He was not going to lose it. ...

now he [Rader] was going to take care of Garner Ted. The fact that he had supported Garner Ted on his return from exile in 1972 meant nothing. His support of Garner Ted at that time was only a practical consideration, since he realized that someone would have to be the front man for the organization and it may not be Herbert Armstrong for much longer. It was easy for him to support Garner Ted's return at that time knowing of his weakness for women, as this would be a tool that he could use to manipulate and control Garner Ted. But now things were different. Rader and Garner Ted had locked horns, and Rader was determined that this would be the last time.

On a Thursday, early in May 1978, Rader instructed Dr. Germano, the dean of Ambassador College, to call an emergency faculty and student meeting, complete with newspaper coverage. Garner Ted was never informed of this meeting. Germano then announced that the entire Ambassador College operation at both campuses was to be closed. This was the final blockbuster. No board meeting had been called, no vote taken on this move. Yet Ambassador College, a separately incorporated non-profit organization, was being capriciously closed at the whim of one man. Student acceptances were cancelled and faculty members were to be terminated. ...

It was becoming more and more obvious that Herbert Armstrong's ego problem did not allow for the sharing of the limelight with a son who had an ego just as large as his. Herbert Armstrong wanted his son to be a carbon copy of himself in all areas - except ego. He expected a grown man of forty-eight to say, in effect, "This is Sonny speaking for my Daddy." 

(This reminds me of what happened with Malcolm X. He tried to show his submissiveness by saying, in effect, I, Malcolm X, am speaking for the leader of my religion, Elijah Muhammad (who was born Elijah Robert Poole). He said this many times. Even this did not work for him. After discovering Elijah Muhammad's extra-marital shenanigans he left, converted to actual Islam, and was tragically murdered for leaving the cult. Bizarrely enough the Nation of Islam later embraced actual Islam, similar to how Tkach's WCG turned mainly Protestant.)

Herbert Armstrong seemed to feel that whatever he did was inspired directly by Christ, and that anyone else who did not do it his way was falling into the ways of the world. 

In 1973, after Garner Ted had been back from exile for some months, Herbert Armstrong, in turning over the reins of authority to his son, referred to Garner Ted as his "anointed heir." Now here is the great patriach five years later complaining that the anointed heir to whom he had given authority is making decisions on his own. Herbert Armstrong, the self-appointed apostle over a multimillion-dollar church, is trying to run the organization as though it were a candy store, exhibiting the best in tree-housemanagement mentality. ...

In the end HWA sided with Rader and this is why he cast out his own son.

One must wonder what type of a man this is, who, as a result of personal differences and jealousies, would ever treat his son in this manner. These developments, coming as they did only a few short months after everything seemed to be going so well in the Church, must make one wonder about the influence of Stanley Rader over Herbert Armstrong. What was it that enabled Rader to have his major threat, the son of the apostle, removed by that very same man? [Tuit later suggests Rader had embarrassing information on HWA and used it to blackmail HWA.] (John Tuit, The Truth Shall Set You Free, Chapter 7.)

(Much more valuable information about this tragic schism of the Armstrongs can be found in Tuit's book.)

Garner Ted Armstrong was not secularizing the church at all. It was HWA who actually secularized it. He was embarrassed of his tithe paying followers. When HWA met world leaders he hated admitting that he represented a church, the Worldwide Church of God.

That is why he created the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation (AICF). It was a front organization created to hide HWA's religious profession from the dignitaries he visited.

Also look at what Garner Ted Armstrong did in his own churches, the Church of God International, and, after he was caught on film committing shameful lewd acts, in the Intercontinental Church of God. Just look at the long list of religious articles he wrote. It is clear that he continued to preach many of the doctrines HWA taught until the day he died.

It should be clear that HWA's accusations that Garner Ted Armstrong was trying to secularize the church were total nonsense. He never tried to make his church anything other than teaching most of what HWA taught. There are some slight differences in doctrines and practices but what Garner Ted Armstrong taught after 1978 was essentially the same as what HWA taught.

HWA was lying when he claimed Garner Ted Armstrong was trying to secularize the church and that he was a threat to the religion HWA taught. No doubt there would have been a few differences between what HWA did and what Garner Ted Armstrong would do, but he never would have deviated from HWA's teachings as drastically as later happened.

HWA claimed his own son was destroying the true religion. Ironically he chose a man who really would destroy what WCG was and change it into essentially a mainstream evangelical church.

It is clear that HWA cast out his son out for base reasons. His justifications for disfellowshipping his own son were mainly lies or because of his own jealousy.

Sadly many those who stayed with WCG and later left Tkach's rule in order to continue with HWA's doctrines, HWA's sectarians, are still not aware of the sordid facts behind this schism and continue to believe HWA's false assurances that his disfellowshipping was a regrettable yet necessary act.

(Also it is particularly sickening to see how HWA demonizes C. Wayne Cole as being against him for years and years. Nothing, and I really mean nothing, could be further from the truth. In fact he was a loyal follower of HWA. After the receivership at first HWA was inclined to cooperate with the State of California. To do so he made C. Wayne Cole second in command of the church and sent him to Pasadena with this authority. Cole did not seek the limelight. In fact he was extremely nervous and even physically sick at the prospect of bearing such great responsibility. (Not least because he would have to face Rader as a rival.) But a few days later HWA changed his mind and decided to resist the receivership all the way. He appointed others and betrayed Cole by falsely accusing him of trying to overthrow him and of being a collaborator with the Receivers. He then accused Cole of being a traitor against him for years. He used such wild rhetoric against him because he was desperate to hide the fact that Cole was a loyal man that he viciously and cynically betrayed. Despite this vicious betrayal Cole continued to believe many of HWA's doctrines.)

Thoughts on Names in COG History

It has always irked me that some of the dramatic events in the history of the COGs do not have names. Here are some suggestions of mine.

• Great Disappointment of 1972: From 1953 onwards HWA taught that the Great Tribulation would begin in 1972 and culminate with the return of Christ in 1975. HWA wrote a booklet entitled 1975 in Prophecy. As it turned out 1972 came and went by with nothing. In a desperate attempt to make people forget his failed prediction he deceptively claimed WCG getting on a few new radio stations and getting more advertizing spaces in a magazine in early 1972 fulfill his expectation that something dramatic would happen two 19 year time cycles (38 years) after he started broadcasting on the radio regularly in 1934. There was no one single moment when WCG members as a whole were forced to confront the fact that HWA's prophecy failed, but the general disappointment helped set the stage for the turmoil of the 1970s and encouraged WCG members to resist HWA's tyranny.

• Changes of 1974: HWA was persuaded to change two doctrines in 1974. 1) He stopped the horrifying practice of ordering marriages to be dissolved in order for people to join. 2) He instructed WCG to observe Pentecost on Sunday instead of Monday as had previously been the case. Some WCG members left refusing to adhere to these changes, most notably Raymond Cole who started the Church of God, the Eternal. Among most COGs these changes are accepted and observed.

• Mass defection of 1974: In 1974 about 35 ministers and 2-3000 members left WCG. (Source, p.2.) Factors that led to this included disappointment that HWA's prophecy that the Great Tribulation would begin in 1972 did not come to pass, dissatisfaction that Garner Ted Armstrong was allowed to resume his responsibilities despite the shame of scandal that surrounded him because of his many extra-marital affairs, and HWA's rigid refusal to change most doctrines despite many ministers concluding that certain doctrines were wrong, such as Earnest Martin's repudiation of tithing. (John Tuit refers to this event as the 1974 Rebellion, but because "rebellion" is a loaded term in the COGs used to demonize non-conforming behavior I would prefer another name.)

• Schism of the Armstrongs: On June 26, 1978 HWA disfellowshipped his son and second in command, Garner Ted Armstrong. This was done as part of a vicious power struggle between Garner Ted Armstrong and Stanley Rader to decide who would be number two in WCG. HWA sided with Rader. Many WCG members chose to side with Garner Ted Armstrong and joined him in starting up the Church of God International. Many more were coerced, threatened with the lake of fire, threatened with disfellowshippment, and in other ways were persuaded to continue with HWA's WCG. (This term is inspired by the War of the Roses.)

There are my suggestions. Feel free to make your own contributions.

How Armstrongism Produces Narcissists

Saw this enlightening Anonymous comment from Banned by HWA:

It was the very doctrines of Armstrongism that exaggerated, condoned, and blossomed Narcissism within the church, instead of servant leadership, servitude, and humility. Notice these Armstrongism narcissism feeders that fed a person's self-importance and warped many minds:

1) You were born to be a King.
2) You were destined to rule.
3) You were special, one of a very few called in this whole world.
4) God chose You out of everybody else
5) You were a part of a very special work.
6) You were important.
7) You were going to be GOD HIMSELF. [It is a bit more accurate to say that we were taught that we would become God beings as fully God as God is God in nature, but we would remain under God's rule.]
8) You were keeping the Law right where everyone else weren't.
9) You are going to recreate the whole universe.
10) You're the first of many brethren. You'll be in the FIRST resurrection.
11) If you're a minister, you're even MORE important! You're the special of the special, the best of the best!
12) The World is not important, you are, the church is, and Herbert Armstrong.
13) You're a part of the biggest work in the whole wide world.
14) NO ONE ELSE in the WHOLE WORLD knows what YOU know or understands what YOU understand.

This is what Armstrongism taught. Those with narcissistic tendancies could not have ever been in a better environment then Armstrongism to completely shut themselves out to reality and feed narcissism with the strongest "fuel" possible. It's missing the whole message about Jesus: Focusing off of service and focusing on self. This is one of the biggest ways to see a false religion from an attitude of true service and love. 

It is embarrasing to say but in one letter Meredith sent me he assured me that God had chosen me to understand the truths (Arstrongism). I wholeheartedly believed him. And so I further fell into the terrible heretical madness of Armstrongism. 

HWA's Visits to World Leaders

These COG people believe that HWA's many meetings with world leaders were a sign of how important he was. A sign of divine favor made manifest among us. I recall one time reading HWA claiming that Elijah, the one who lived in ancient Israel, may have visited world leaders as he did.

The truth is a lot of tithe money which was selflessly sent to WCG was squandered by HWA, Rader and Osamu Gotoh to arrange these meetings.

Contrary to what HWA claimed, he did not preach the gospel to these world leaders. He just muttered some inane comments about a strong hand from some place. He was just satisfying his vanity. Most who knew him remarked on how egotistical he was.

Often COGs will mention his visits to world leaders as though it was a sign of divine favor and glory. Rader and the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation (AICF) will not be mentioned.

WCG members who stayed under HWA and left after the Tkach tend to recall these visits proudly.Some mention how HWA opened a children's playground in Jerusalem. They will say how the Israelis loved him so much they even named a square in his honor. Often these COG people will glorify HWA's visits to world leaders. One example may be seen in this Armstrongite website.

It proudly displays photos of HWA visiting five world leaders, that he was decorated by President Marcos of the Philippines with a Presidential Merit Medal, visited two judges of the World Court.

But this page makes no mention of Rader, Osamu Gotoh or the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation, HWA's front organization he create to hide from these world leaders and dignitaries that he was a religious leader.

This is true with many COG peoples' account of these times. They tend to be more likely to mention the AICF but Rader and Gotoh are less likely to be mentioned despite all that these men did to make HWA's visits to world leaders possible.

Bob Thiel, the unordained, self appointed false prophet, mentions HWA relations with Israeli leaders in an article in which he condemns Martin Luther (and thus all of Protestantism) in order to glorify HWA. It is well known that in his last days Martin Luther made a shameful speech in which he demonized Jews and called for them to be persecuted. (Of course today most Lutherans and Protestants do not hate Jews in that way. Recently the Lutheran Church apologized for this.) In contrast to Luther's disgusting anti-Semitic speech Thiel cites HWA's friendship with Israeli officials.

We've been participating in this foundation for twelve years. A whole square in front of the main headquarters building in the newer area of Jerusalem is named ‘The Herbert W. Armstrong Square’ (Armstrong H. Autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong, Volume 2, 1986/1987).

Actually Herbert Armstrong was photographed with the Mayor of Jerusalem who showed him a plaque that read:

UNDER CONSTRUCTION HERE:
A CHILDREN'S PLAYGROUND
 A GIFT OF
THE AMBASSADOR INTERNATIONAL
CULTURAL FOUNDATION
H.W. ARMSTRONG, PRESIDENT

Herbert Armstrong also reported that the then Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin said to him, "Mr. Armstrong...we all do deeply appreciate your interest in Israel" (Armstrong HW. Keep Your Eyes on Jerusalem. Plain Truth. October 1976). 

Actually, as John Tuit argued in Chapter 3 of The Truth Shall Set You Free, HWA never dared to preach the gospel to them lest he offend his Israeli hosts. What is so great about a little playground? Many people do stuff like that all the time. Why is tithe money going to them and not to WCG members? How is the gospel being preached to the people in Jerusalem through this playground? Notice how the plaque cited above does not even mention WCG, Tuit lamented. The people of Jerusalem using this playground would have no idea that it was a church which funded it.

These are some of the insights John Tuit reached in his book.

The disillusionment caused by these expensive visits was a major reason for the various acts of resistance that occurred during the 1970s.

HWA was just grandstanding.

But the WCG members were deprived and left with inadequate resources to manage their local congregations.

In summary, post-1979 WCG Armstrongites tend to remember HWA's as a glorious sign of divine favor pointing to the greatness of HWA. They tend to make no mention of Stanley Rader, Osamu Gotoh or the AICF and the instrumental role they played in setting up these visits.

In reality his extravagant spending caused severe discontent within WCG, and despite the severe punishments WCG's leaders could impose many WCG members heroically resisted these abuses of authority.