Worldwide Church of God: How Did We Get Out?

Got up this morning thinking about the anniversary year ahead. It'll be ten years since we left WCG, the Worldwide Cult of Get. While enjoying the freedom I wonder where the time went. Well, it went while we were free from the cult's mental manipulations, that's for sure.

You'll recall that one of the cult researchers suggested that exiters write down the reasons for leaving any particular abusive regime. Well, I will now in this 10th year of our escape.

I remember you asking one time, "How did we get out?" This will be one man's abbreviated story. Some evidence I'll not be able to place in the exact time frame as I get into cleaning fits every now and then and throw things out. I mainly have kept the reveal-all books and other printed matters.

I recall at this time that I was rather intent on studying the whole subject of "Born Again". The cult had decided to adopt the Protestant interpretation. Where had Herbie gone off the track I wondered ten years ago. I restudied the original 1962 booklet I still had. His research was shoddy as he wanted to distance himself from hated Protestantism so he came up with a novel twist on the subject. He was able to because he ignored relevant verses and was bent on teaching as he wanted to. He had found "new truth". What a crock! Now JWT was trying to distance himself from Herb by artfully skirting around the "truth from on high" delivered to the now dead "apostle". Remember how proud we were that we knew the "truth" of being born again?

I was amazed at how I had been taken in in '62. But at the time I was so ignorant I thought the epistles were the wives of the apostles. Well, 25 years of study had certainly enabled me to careful analyze the shoddy research Herb had done. With the findings I had made I began my exit thinking. More was to come.

I remember giving a sermon on the subject to show the "new truth" on the subject of being born again. Bragg was unable or unwilling to adapt to the new understanding. He was still locked into the old way but uncomfortably had to agree with HQ for the sake of his job and pension.

Bob was always after that pension. He used to joke about it from the podium. Well, he finally got his blood money after signing the standard non-disclosure agreement that all retiring WCG ministers have to. Charles Hunting told me of the money offered him to keep his mouth shut. Even Reg (name withheld) is getting hush money.

I recall at the time that I had a helluva go around with Dale Peterson after I had delivered the new teachings to the VT church. He just couldn't accept that Herb had been wrong on the born again subject. It was a central doctrine. I never convinced him. The matter was dropped as I went on to study other doctrines that were likely to be altered by JWT and his thugs. Tithing was next on my list.

I'll send more later on the various anniversary dates as I recall the stuff we were about to get into with the revelations from the Ambassador Report.

I received my first contact with the Ambassador Report so hated and feared by the WCG cult leaders and ministers. I knew of it but had never seen an issue. Probably wouldn't have read any of it anyways as I was such a fanatical, mind-numbed slave. We were always afraid of "demons" getting into our minds.

In 1991 I was on Bill Dankenbring's mailing list for his "Prophecy Flash" newsletter. He was a ministerial wannbe and was trying to make up a competing cult from the fallout members from the WCG. He spent some time trying to distance himself from the corruption at the top of the WCG food chain.

What I received were four legal-size pages listing reports from June, 1976 through January, 1991-nearly 15 years of information covering many important milestones of the declining fortunes of the cult. I was amazed at the titles but was a little reluctant to spend the money Trechak wanted for back issues.

Ambassador Review's Introductory Letter
"The Gerringer Letter"
"The 1939 Article"
HWA's Failed Prophecies
WCG's Error-Filled Tithing Doctrine
Profile Of A Cult
Thirty Articles On All Facets Of The WCG (90 pages)
The Modern Moloch
The Kessler Letter
WCG's Parallels With The Catholic Church
Marion McNair's "Armstrongism--Religion Or Rip Off"
In Bed With Garner Ted
Fleecing The Flock
WCG Power Struggle
GTA Ousted
The Isolated Tucson Homes Of HWA And Rader
Court Records Reveal Church Leaders' Extravagance
Rader Sues GTA
Hoeh's Doctored Academic Record
Leona McNair's Defamation Suit
WCG Evangelist's Porno Collection
Al Portune and Others Defect
David Robinson's "Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web"
WCG-related Suicides
HWA's Salary Raised to $258,000 Per Year
HWA Incest Allegations
John Tuit's Book "The Truth Shall Make You Free"
HWA's Personal Medical Program
253 Ministers Who Have Resigned
Dibar Apartian's Son Kills Himself
Criminal Charges Against Ramona
HWA Confesses To Incest
Ernest Martin Releases "The Tithing Fallacy"
Homosexuality In The WCG's Leadership

These documents were to answer many of the questions I'd had since the first bombshell in 1972 of Ted's suspension for being "in the bonds of Satan" as Herb called it. We were not told that Ted was an adulterer. We knew little of what was going on as cults have to control the flow of information. Dictators hate the free press.

Anyways, it's amazing that all 72 Ambassador Reports up through 1999 are now available online. One can go and read them in the privacy of one's home.

So, at this time in '92 I was deeply involved in an intense study of tithing using other materials outside the WCG's slanted, self-serving, poorly-researched material. I was making frequent rips to the Dartmouth library to use their vast collection of reference works. I also had Doc Martin's study from 1976.

My next anniversary experience is the finding of an amazing book written in 1951 by an outsider.

This fair analysis of HWA and his myrmidons is from "The True Believer" by Eric Hoffer.

This amazing book was published in 1951 by Harper. The author wrote it after passing through the 30s and 40s during the rise and fall of the dictators and WW2. He likely didn't know of Herb but had crucial insight in to what makes up such an evil man. After all, did not Herb study Hitler's methods? You bet.

I first heard of the book during the "Great Rebellion" inside the cult during the mid 70s. Dan Rogers said that many questioners and critics of the WCG were reading it. At the time I guess I dismissed the book as probably being one more way "demons" could get into your head. How controlled I was. I, the true believer. I didn't try to find a copy of the book. I waited 16 years more.

Anyways, the insight that Hoffer had into the various facets human nature was simply fascinating. He describes the curse (!) of freedom:

Freedom of choice places the whole blame of failure on the shoulders of the individual.

Unless a man has the talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden.

We join a mass movement to escape individual responsibility, or, in the words of the ardent young Nazi, "To be free from freedom."

See, we aligned ourselves with Armstrongism and in becoming his slaves, we escaped individual responsibility. Big Daddy would now make all decisions for us and at last give us peace in all the harried decisions of living.

A rising mass movement attracts and holds a following not by its doctrine and promises but by the refuge it offers from the anxieties, barrenness and meaninglessness of an individual existence.

I thought it was about doctrines. Well, I guess in the light of the dumping of the WCG core doctrines, that certainly wasn't true.

It is futile to judge the viability of a new movement by the truth of its doctrine and the feasibility of its promises. What has to be judged is its corporate organization for quick and total absorption of the frustrated.

Hitler knew that the chief passion of the frustrated is "to belong," and that there cannot be too much cementing and binding to satisfy this passion. [Sabbaths, Feast Days, potlucks, Bible studies, "We Are Family".]

It is obvious that a proselytizing mass movement must break down all existing group ties if it is to win a considerable following. The ideal potential convert is the individual who stands alone...

Remember how we were told that our friends and relatives were "carnal", that "churchianity" was pagan, and that the whole world was under the rule of Satan. We were told the whole world was deceived but the WCG. Heady stuff to make us feel powerful and not the anxious, ignorant, and naive losers we were.

This little book of 166 pages of text is one of the most important books I have ever read. It is brimming with juicy little tidbits that help explain what led us to the Armstrong Gulag and what made us submit to the numerous indignities for decades. It explains what Armstrong knew about human nature and how he used that knowledge to make us hurt ourselves.

I was learning in '92 that the WCG was purely a human organization, run by evil men appropriating the name of a god to be able to lord it over the poor fools we were and avoid the real work of honest labor. One observer said:

Since Joe Tkach had started dumping doctrines shortly after Herb's death, I started on my own research program to study out what had formerly been delivered "from on high." Joe told the ministry to be sure to understand the changes in order to be able to explain them to the members. I wanted to get a jump on studying for the next change.

I knew one of the doctrines that had been under attack from time to time was the doctrine of tithing. So I was going up to Dartmouth College to do independent study. Of course I was finding many studies proving tithing was not incumbent under the New Covenant.

While at Dartmouth I would often go to the periodicals section to see what was the latest from Christianity Today magazine concerning the WCG upheavals. One day I saw in the classifieds a free booklet offered bearing the question at the head of this. I sent for it.

A little refresher: The WCG members were indoctrinated in what is called historical premillenialism. That is, JC was to come before the millennium. He would then set up a kingdom to last a thousand years.

There are three other main ideas as to what the millennium means. There is Dispensational Premillenialism, Postmillennialism, and Amillenialism. I bought a book teaching these views by their respective scholars. Each opposing view is ably defended by many scriptures. Again, the Bible can be made to teach almost anything given the ability of the interpreters' abilities to practice high-flying theological gymnastics.

The booklet introduced me to Preterism. The WCG was futuristic in its approach to prophecies in the NT. Some great thing is about to happen and to happen soon. We were reading the immanency statements in the NT and were always on edge for their completion. Futurism is a convenient approach to the NT for control freaks as it allows the handlers to continue to keep the dumb sheep stirred up and obedient in order to be in on the happening. The problem is that the sheep are reading documents nearly 2000 years old! Futurists have been twisting the NT for years to reconcile Mat. 24:34 with reality.

Thousands of sermonettes and "difficult scripture" articles have been torturing that verse for centuries to make it say other than as it reads.

Well, preterism is just the opposite of futurism. These people take the many immanency statements and accept them for what they say. Some great thing DID happen in the first century. The preterists are much more honest in handling the prophecy statements. They even make sense out of the babblings in Revelation. Preterism is a sub-branch of Postmillennialism.

Well, I'll not spend time on the various views of the millennium as we don't believe in any of them. My studies led me to see that the futurists believe in a physical kingdom on earth but spiritualize the time statements. The Preterists accept the time statements as read but spiritualize the idea of the kingdom and related teachings. Both believe in an inspired Bible and are trying to save JC as being seen as a false prophet like the one condemned under De: 18:22.

The booklet is one more step in my exit process. A major bomb is to arrive soon.

On this day I received the first of many letters explaining why certain members have left the cult over the years. Many of these letters were resignation letters from ministers and faculty. This one was written in 1975 by Bob Gerringer to Charles Hunting. Bob was an AC employee having a friendly relation with Hunting. He felt it necessary to explain to Hunting his leaving the cult. It runs to 22 pages with a covering note.

Herbert's tinkering with the unclear tithing laws and citing no scriptures.
Herb's false charges against the dissenting ministers.
Herb's arrogance.
Herb's lack of respect for the general membership.
The D&R doctrine which destroyed thousands of marriages. (God was the one responsible, not faulty research.)
Bob suspected that the WCG wasn't the only true church.
He thought to follow HWA was to show disrespect for God.
Bob critically studied many key doctrines of the WCG to find them wrong--Church government, tithing, old & new covenants, Sabbath, holy days, healing, law and grace, binding & loosing, etc.
Bob saw the clear parallels with the Catholic Church.
Herb's nutty charges of satanic influence on dissenters.
Life as a student in the Hitlerian college.
Bob listed a number of false prophecies Herb and his thugs had made over the decades.
Clear parallel's were drawn between the JW's and the WCG.
Bob had read Hoffer's The true Believer and saw how the WCG was like other controlling secular dictatorships.

If you don't still have this amazing letter you can now read it online along with Al Corrozo's, Richard Plache's, and the 72-page letter Orlin Grabbe wrote to his mother in the 70s explaining his disgust with and departure from the organization.

Again, the 4-pages of letters are most telling. The first was from Ralph Helge trying to stop the use of the name "Ambassador". The editor cited other local entities also using the name in their titles. Helge shut up. How sweet it is to put one of the thugs back in his box.

-There was a page of the names of many ministers who had resigned including five evangelists, three regional directors, and 14 pastors. In reading the list I wondered what they knew that we didn't. Well, we were to find out in short order.
-There were several pages of false prophecies Herb made going back to the 30s.
-A report on the whole AICF fiasco which wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars sent in by us, the cash cows.
-A study of the workings of Herb's mind as revealed in his writings.
-A satirical study to show that the Catholic Church is the "true" church.
-The article, "Tithe Spy" proving invasion of tithing records.
-An article on a study of the tithing doctrine. The researcher was fired after he found the truth the cult hated.
-The whole hullabaloo about accreditation. Remember the flip-flops?
-An article showing the AC's blocking of student's mail.
-An empty page which Ted had been invited to fill on any subject. He had been offered space for 15,000 words.
-A list of other groups to fellowship with after leaving the main cult.
-An announcement of ex-evangelist Marion McNair's book on Armstrongism.
-A collection of "Tithing Papers" questioning the cult's doctrine.
-A list of the WCG's "Talmud" teachings.

This one mailing would have been enough to cause less fanatical members to leave. But there were to be over 70 other issues up into the 90s.

Do not duplicate, copy or redistribute in any form without prior written consent.

Disclaimer