"How are the mighty
fallen! Tell it not in
it not in the streets of
the Philistines rejoice . . . How are the mighty fallen in
the midst of the battle!" (I Sam.1:19-25)
"But if ye will not do so,
behold, ye have sinned against the
Lord: and be sure your sin
will find you out" (Numbers 32:23).
HOW ARE THE
MIGHTY FALLEN!
For many years I have remained
silent. I have said nothing. But
about
ten years ago, after 30 years as a member of the Worldwide
plain
truth. The incredible TRUTH about Herbert and Garner
Ted
Armstrong would make
the Jim and Tammy Baker scandal seem
like
small potatoes by comparison. Since that
time, new scandals
.
have
arisen, causing this "problem" to explode onto the scene once
again. In this up-to-date article, you will read
things never put in the
"official" autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong. Prepare yourself
to be shocked
-- staggered -- and utterly dumfounded!
William
F. Dankenbring
My
connection with the Worldwide Church of God began in 1956, when I first heard
the "World Tomorrow" program on radio station KVI, 590 on the dial,
at
I remained
a faithful employee of the Church and "the Work," as we called it,
until 1974, when a crisis of believability struck the Church, and reports began
to surface of serious wrong-doing on the part of Garner Ted Armstrong, and a
cover-up perpetrated by his father, Herbert W. Armstrong. At that time, in a massive "budget
cut," I was terminated from employment in the Church's editorial division,
along with several others. Hurt and
depressed by the sad spiritual condition in the Church at that time, I began
publishing religious books, an area the Church seemed to have no interest in --
books to "keep alive" the truth of God.
I remained a member of the Church until
precisely one year after the death of Herbert Armstrong in January 1986. At that time, Joseph Tkach,
the new leader of the Church, decided he had had enough of my independent
publishing work, and had me "disfellowshipped
from the Church." It was January,
1987. I was permitted no opportunity to
defend myself, or to meet with a council of ministers -- my fate had been
decided, I was accused of rebellion and being a "false prophet," and
simply informed I was "suspended" one week, disfellowshipped
the next, and "marked" the third week!
Then
on Thursday evening,
In
fact, Joe's messenger said, it was Herbert Armstrong himself who had authored
the article, dictating it to Aaron Dean, his personal secretary. According to Joe Tkach,
Herbert Armstrong was furious at the fact that in the preface of Overcoming
Satan, a book I had published in 1981, I wrote a short "In Deepest
Appreciation" column in which I expressed my "deepest gratitude,
heart-felt appreciation, and warmest thanks" to Herbert W. Armstrong --
"the most dynamic man I have ever known."
In January 1982, 1 had sent a copy of this
book to Aaron Dean, asking him to show them to Herbert Armstrong, with a letter
I sent to him. I was seeking to renew my
acquaintance with the apostle over the
But
the messenger from Joseph Tkach said that when
Herbert Armstrong, who was about 90 years of age at the time, read that short
column in my book he went into a rage and told him to disfellowship
me, for I was using his name to make money and sell books! The messenger from Joe said that Joe at the
time flatly refused and told Herbert Armstrong he wouldn't do it. And so the matter ended, except Herbert
Armstrong dictated -- Joe Tkach said -- the slanderous
diatribe which then appeared in the Pastor General's Report in April 1982. Even Joe Tkach,
supposedly, could not stop its publication when the "apostle general"
issued such an article.
When
I heard this news, it at first made me feel satisfied, on the one hand, if it
were true, that Joseph Tkach was not
responsible for the attack on me in 1982.
Rather, his messenger said, he supposedly attempted to defend me
three separate times when Herbert Armstrong wanted to disfellowship
me. But was it really true? If so, why hadn't he told me any of these
things at the time? Why was I left in
the dark for five years? Or were these
just self-serving lies concocted by Joe Tkach
to make me think well of him after he had disfellowshipped
me from the Church?
About
that time, I checked an "Index to Church Literature" which was kept
in the Ambassador College Library, and found a list of all the articles I had
written while in the employ of the Church in the 1960's and 70's -- about a
hundred articles and booklets. Then I
saw a reference to the article in the Pastor General's Report which had
attacked Triumph Publishing Company and accused me of "merchandising the
brethren." And guess what I
discovered? Listed as the AUTHOR of the
nasty little diatribe against me was the name of none other than JOSEPH W.
TKACH! Not the name of Herbert W.
Armstrong! Was this just a case of
Joe trying to transfer blame from himself to Herbert Armstrong? Apparently so!
I
had been a member of the Church since 1957.
Since 1974 I had published the truth of God, independently, as God made
the means available, and during the following 12 years I published 19 books --
surely a miracle of God! When I left the
Church employment I had nothing but a few thousand dollars severance pay
and a typewriter -- no organization, no support, no salesmen, no promoters. Even
the Church offered no help whatsoever, despite the quality and usefulness of
the books I was publishing. Although the
Church never condemned the books, it never praised them either. The attitude over the years seemed to be to
"damn with faint praise," as the old Navy expression has it.
There seemed to be an air of jealousy over my book writing and
publishing on the part of the leadership of the Church. Nevertheless, I remained a member until Joe Tkach himself had me "disfellowshipped"
based on trumped up charges in 1987.
Looking back on that visit from
Joseph Tkach's emissary, it seems that even then Tkach must have had a very negative attitude toward Herbert
Armstrong, the man who had allegedly 'hand-picked" him to be his successor
over the Church. Over the years, I had
come to learn many unhappy truths about Herbert Armstrong myself --
disillusionment had set in with many of his teachings in 1974 -- and his
cover-up of his son's sins orchestrated by Herbert Armstrong at that time. The truth was depressing, and it took me
years to climb out of that giant cloud of depression. What was the truth about this mysterious
man? How did he become a religious teacher
and minister? What were his original
motives? What were the facts about his
life-style? And what
about his son, Garner Ted Armstrong?
What is the true story about these men?
It's time the facts were known.
The Mystery of Herbert W. Armstrong
So many today seem to almost worship
the memory of Herbert Armstrong. Since
his death on
What went wrong? Where did Herbert Armstrong go astray? There is much more to the saga and life story
of Herbert W. Armstrong than many thousands of people imagine. The truth will boggle your mind. The evidence shows, today, in retrospect,
that Herbert Armstrong was a great teacher of many truths of God, many of which
he restored to the Church during these end times -- but he was also a deeply
flawed man of God.
When I think about the life of this
man, and the Church and religious Work he built, I feel much like David felt,
when hearing of the deaths of Saul and Jonathan. David lamented their deaths, with the song
quoted at the beginning of this article.
He sorrowed for them, even though Saul had totally disqualified himself
from office. Even though Saul had been
God's selected, chosen "anointed," he had begun abusing his
office and finally sinned greatly and totally disqualified (I Sam.15). Even after that point, however, God left him
in office for many more years, until the time came for David to be given the
throne.
So
I have pondered about the truth about Herbert W. Armstrong. The parallels between the lives of King
Saul and Herbert Armstrong are plentiful.
But there are other amazing Scriptural parallels, also.
The Real Unwritten Biography
In
the days of the Judges of Israel, a young child was born who was destined to be
a prophet of the Lord God. His name was
Samuel. He grew up in the
Notice
what Almighty God had to say about His own anointed high priest, the one
occupying the highest spiritual office in the land. "Now Eli was VERY OLD (much like Herbert
Armstrong became!), and heard all that his sons did unto all
"And
he said unto them, Why do ye such things? for I hear of your evil dealings by all this people. Nay, my sons; for it is no good report that I
hear: ye make the Lord's people to transgress.
If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him: but if a man
sin against the Lord, who shall intreat for him? Notwithstanding they hearkened not unto the
voice of their father, because the Lord would slay them" (I Sam.2:22-25).
Eli
had a very serious problem in the sight of God.
He was overly indulgent of his own sons, who were committing adultery
and fornication with the women of
"And
there came a man of God unto Eli, and said unto him, Thus saith
the Lord, Did I plainly appear unto the house of thy father, when they were in
Egypt in Pharaoh's house? And did I
choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest . . .?
"Wherefore
kick ye at my sacrifice and at mine offering . . . and honorest
thy sons above me, to make yourselves FAT with the chiefest
of all the offerings of Israel my people?
"Wherefore
the Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy
house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me forever: but now the
Lord saith, Be it far from me; for them that honor me
I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.
"Behold,
the days come, that I will CUT OFF THINE ARM, and the arm of thy father's
house, that there shall not be an old man in thine
house... And the man of thine, whom I shall not cut
off from mine altar, shall be to consume thine eyes,
and to grieve thine heart: and all the increase of thine house shall die in the flower of their age" (I
Sam.2:27-33).
As
Samuel grew older, God then spoke to him in a vision, regarding the fate of
Eli. "And the Lord said to Samuel,
Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle (this was a prophecy of the coming
judgment on Eli's house, and also a prophecy of the future Great
Tribulation! Eli was merely a TYPE of a
leader of the Church of God during this end-time generation!). In that day I will perform against Eli all
things which I have spoken concerning his house: when I begin, I will also make
an end. For I have told him that I will
judge his house (family) for ever for the INIQUITY WHICH HE KNOWETH; because
bis sons made themselves VILE, and he
restrained them not" (I Samuel 3:11-13).
Does
God change? Is He a respecter of
persons?
Malachi
was inspired to write, "For I am the Lord, I change NOT; therefore ye sons
of Jacob are not consumed" (Mal.3:6).
God
will deal with any modern-day servant of His who lives and acts like Eli, just
as He dealt with His servant Eli, over 3,000 years ago! And he will deal with their adulterating sons
just as He dealt with the evil, fornicating, womanizing sons of Eli!
Make
no mistake! As the apostle Paul surely
wrote, "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap" (Gal.6:7).
The
sad tragedy and truth is, our generation has seen and witnessed another
"Eli and son"! It is possible
that the modern "Eli" repented late in his life, of his
"indulge" of his remaining son, who also was a high-ranking minister
in the Church -- but God Himself will have to be the judge of that.
The
1974 Debacle and Exodus
In
1974 many ministers left the Worldwide Church of God. The reason many of them left has not been
thoroughly understood. The truth has
been buried under an avalanche of false accusation, rumor, and official denials
and pronouncements from the pulpit.
But the truth should make you shudder with horror, and lament like
Jeremiah, and pray like Nehemiah, for the sins of God's people and God's
Church!
Be
sure these covered up sins shall not go unpunished in the sight of Almighty
God! Let's investigate the facts -- just the facts -- and see what the evidence
tells us.
As
in the tragic case of Eli, whose sons perished when the Philistines attacked
and seized the ark of God, the historical record proves beyond any doubt that
Herbert Armstrong's own son, Garner Ted Armstrong, was guilty over a quarter of
a century of committing adultery and whoredom with hundreds of women, including
paid prostitutes around the world and young Ambassador college co-eds, many of
whom later became married to ministers in the Church!
I
first learned of this shocking revelation in 1972, when Ted Armstrong
was "exiled" temporarily from the Church and sent to Colorado. According to reports, he had committed
adultery with a young stewardess on his Falcon jet. He was so enamored of her that he wanted to
divorce his wife Shirley and marry the stewardess. According to a recent e-mail I received from
a friend of the girl, who died of cancer in 1998 and left a wonderful family
behind, the actual facts of the case are that Ted Armstrong victimized
her. She was not his “mistress” at all,
but she told her friend, who knew her very well, that Ted was a “crazy man” who
would manipulate and lie with complete ease.
She was his stewardess for about four months. Says the confidant, “She ran away from him
when he raped her in a motel room after tricking her into believing she was
going with him on a church trip. She ran
away from him and moved back to Minnesota and he chased after her. He would sleep in his car waiting to get a
glimpse of her. She was absolutely
petrified of him.” So far as I know,
these are the real facts of the case!
This
shocking revelation was then topped by the news that this girl, whose name was
Gail, was not the first of Ted's sexual interests. He had been living a secret life of Playboy
preacher for all the length of his ministry!
I learned that he had been committing adultery with a girl in 1965 when
another minister of the Church was also accused of committing adultery. The other minister was fired; but Ted wasn't
even reprimanded or suspended from his job as first vice president of the Work
and Church at the time!
Over
dinner one evening, this whole sordid story was poured out to me by the former
executive secretary of Herbert Armstrong.
She had several girls come to her with their problems, and the problem
was "Ted." He was having several affairs. When Mrs. Swaney
tried to talk to Herbert Armstrong about it, Mrs. Loma Armstrong defended
Ted. Ted later accused Mrs. Swaney of having a demon, and she was fired from her
responsible job, disfellowshipped from the Church,
and ostracized by all her former friends in the Church. Years later Mrs. Swaney
was allowed back in the Church, but she was never rehired by the Work. Eventually she died, a true sister in
Christ She had suffered virtual
"martyrdom" for her role in the Ted Armstrong affair.
It
was in 1972 that an associate in the Work of God confided to me that Ted
Armstrong had been having affairs with an estimated 200 or more girls during
his ministry as an evangelist in the Church, while he preached on the radio and
television. Two hundred! Some of these were former students at
Ambassador College, baby sitters, and female employees of the Work -- girls I
had known as friends and acquaintances at Ambassador College!
One
man, a friend of mine, whose name was Jerry Horton, worked in the radio studio
at the College. One day he was taking
some material up to Ted Armstrong's office.
The door was ajar, so he began to go in -- but then he noticed a strange
phenomenon. On the couch was Garner Ted
Armstrong, having sexual relations with a young, pretty college co-ed! Hurt, shame-faced, and infuriated inside,
Jerry quietly retreated. But he never
forgot the sight. Shaken to the core,
this traumatic discovery caused him to lose all respect for the leadership in
the Church, and he eventually left.
When
astonishing facts regarding Ted Armstrong's moral turpitude threatened to
become public in 1972, I remember a painful Bible study in Pasadena when
Herbert Armstrong announced the "exile" of his son to Colorado. I remember painfully how God's
"apostle" threatened the entire listening congregation, warning them
NOT to try to find out what Ted had done -- it was kept an official mystery, a
secret. All Herbert Armstrong admitted
at the time was that Ted had some sort of "breakdown,"
and
had been under a lot of
"pressure" from his many responsibilities. In other words, he lied to the entire Church
of God, and performed a masterful "cover up" that made the
"Watergate Cover Up" of President Nixon look amateurish by comparison!
What were the actual facts?
In The Broadway to Armageddon, a
book written by former minister of the Worldwide Church of God, William B.
Hinson, several sensational, shocking facts are pointed out. In his informative, very helpful book, Hinson
quotes another former high ranking minister, Al Carrozzo,
whom I knew personally many years. He
and I used to play softball together on the Church league softball teams. In answering questions put to him by
ministers, Carrozzo admitted, "Yes, it is true
that Herbert W. Armstrong forced Ted and Shirley to get married. The fact that Shirley was pregnant was a
source of great embarrassment for Herbert.
Rod Meredith relates the profound embarrassment he experienced when
Herbert Armstrong tried to explain how Shirley gave birth to a premature eight
pound baby boy. It is a matter of record
substantiated by scores of people who were there."
Carrozzo continued: "Herbert Armstrong
had known about Ted's sexual shenanigans from the very beginning. By the beginning I mean 1952 and before. The majority of the Evangelists did not
know years in advance of Ted's exile in 1972."
When asked how many women Ted had had
affairs with, Al Carrozzo answered: "Absolutely
yes, Ted admitted to having affairs with over 200 different women . . . He said
'by conservative estimate' there were 200 women. This was on January 30, 1972, in his home in
Pasadena" when he made this confession.
In a full-color, quality publication
called Ambassador Report which was published in 1977, Al Carrozzo wrote a thorough expose of Garner Ted Armstrong's
sexual misdeeds, entitled "The Profligate Son." In it Carrozzo quotes Ted Armstrong as telling him in a private
meeting, at 10:05 A.M., May 16,1973, "Al, let's get one thing
straight! I'm a no good, fornicating,
adulterating son of a bitch!"
Carrozzo goes on, "This was not the
first or the only time Ted ever admitted that he was an adulterer. In spite of repeated public denials, Ted has
privately admitted that he has been guilty of flagrant, continuous adultery and
fornication for almost a quarter of a century -- as a church member, an
executive, and an evangelist!"
Carrozzo points out how he first learned of
Ted's problem in 1965 when the "whole sordid affair was swept under the
rug, while Ted came out lily-white." In 1967 the husband of one of Ted's
victims informed Carrozzo that his wife had had
sexual relations with the handsome radio evangelist. When Al confronted Ted with
the allegations, he admitted it was
true, but blamed the girl for flaunting her exciting body in front of him,
until in weakness he gave in. Al did not
pursue the matter further, as Ted talked him out of telling his father.
In an article in the New Times, dated
December 4-10, 1997, entitled "Honey, I Shrunk the Church," by Ron Russell,
we find an astonishing report made about Ted Armstrong's infidelities, and his
own personal admissions. The author
interviewed Al Carrozzo, who had been an evangelist
in the Church. Carrozzo
told him a strange story. The author
wrote:
"The
word had leaked out during the 1960s, the result of a minister having been
caught
having
sex with an Ambassador College coed. It
was a big scandal on a campus where
Herbert
had forbidden girls to wear makeup and where holding hands was a punishable
offense. Before being
excommunicated, the fallen minister let it slip that Ted also had
been
sleeping around.
"His comments prompted Carrozzo, then dean
of students, to conduct his own
investigation, which convinced him that it was true. Among Ted's avowed con-
quests
were dozens of wide-eyed college women, including some who became
ministers'
wives. Carrozzo
says -- adding that he shared his knowledge with a
superior who told him that Ted had been fooling around for years and
that
Herbert had given up trying to do anything about it. Much later, the former dean
says,
he confronted Ted after listening incredulously to a distraught young married
woman
confess to committing a carnal sin.
After much hesitation, she declared that
the younger Armstrong had seduced her. 'He admitted it,' says Carrozzo. 'Then, I'll
never
forget, he said: "Put me behind
bars, slip my food to me, keep me in solitary
confinement, but just don't take my microphone away because I must
preach the
message God has given me"'" (New Times, Dec.4-10, 1997,
p.16).
But in mid-1971 Ted's problem once
again surfaced. Ted's promiscuity became
known to top administrators in the Church, and Herbert sent him on a leave of
absence for several months. Members of
the Church were led to believe Ted was gone for "health reasons."
During these events, Herbert
Armstrong was never candid to the Church.
He covered everything up and threatened anyone who would pry into
matters with expulsion and disfellowshipment from the
Church! In his own mind, I suppose, he
thought he was "protecting the Church." But as he allowed his son to return, without
evidence of TRUE repentance, the problems continued.
After
Ted was brought back, and allowed to preach at the Feast of Tabernacles sites
in the fall of 1971, things once again came to a head. During his stay at Squaw Valley, after he
preached a sermon entitled "What The World Needs Now Is Love, Sweet
Love," Ted spent that very night in the arms of his mistress, Gail, who
was an Ambassador college student, and the stewardess of his Falcon jet, which
he used to fly around the country. That
very night, Ted and the young girl shacked up in a Lake Tahoe cabin on the south
shore. Once again Church investigators discovered Ted's adultery -- caught him
red-handed, in the act. And his father
was again notified.
In
a subsequent letter to the members of the Church, Herbert Armstrong wrote that Ted
felt he would be up to speaking at all the Festival sites, but after speaking
at Squaw Valley "his fourth site, tensions had built up until his nerves
were at razor-edge, and he could not continue."
This
was of course a carefully constructed "lie," obviating the true
nature of the discovery of Ted's "problem." Once again Herbert Armstrong prevaricated,
and rather than face the unvarnished truth of the situation, and publicly
rebuke his philandering son, he chose to deliberately lie, to once again cover
up the adulterous liaison! Herbert
knew perfectly well why Ted was unable to continue preaching after Squaw
Valley. To say that Ted's nerves were at
"razor-edge," and therefore he could not continue, was a blatant
DECEPTION -- an absolute LIE! Herbert
Armstrong knew better. But he had known
of his son's problems all along, just as Eli the high priest had. And he did not want the truth known to the
membership whose tithes and offerings supported the Church. He felt that the revelation of Ted's promiscuity
would e devastating to the Church's finances and income. So the charade continued.
Shortly
after this, Ted was "exiled" to Hawaii with his wife and two close
friends. The friend was to
"watch" Ted every second. He
evidently failed. For while Ted was in
Hawaii "recuperating," a letter arrived at the Ambassador College
Mail Receiving Department from a woman who managed a massage parlor (euphemism
for "whore house") in Hawaii.
The woman complained that there was a young masseuse in her employ who had
been trying to come out of a life of sin, and who often watched Ted Armstrong
on television. This young masseuse had
been "horrified into nightmarish disillusionment" Carrozzo
writes, when she recognized Ted one day, sitting in the massage parlor, waiting
to be "serviced" by one of the prostitutes! The madam indignantly wrote that her masseuse
was extremely upset from seeing the suave preacher there, especially after
learning of his real reason for
being
there! (It wasn't to preach the gospel
to the whores!)
After
this incident, Ted was sent to Colorado to ostensibly "repent.." After spending abouyt
two months in "exile," he was brought back, however. Soon, Ted's adulterous affairs were once
again discovered. Herbert Armstrong was
forced to take further action. Al Carrozzo explains what happened:
"Around 10:30 p.m. Garner Ted came home
from a Los Angeles Laker basketball game
and was
stunned to find his father, most of the headquarters leadership, and Stan Rader
waiting
in his living room. Upon learning the
purpose of their visit, he flew into a
reactionary rage during which he openly admitted he had had illicit
sexual relations with
some
200 women -- and that was his 'conservative estimate' -- during his two decades
of
association with his father's church.
Among his consorts were literally dozens of
youthful, wide-eyes coeds, plus several who became executive or
ministerial wives.
On
this occasion Ted was given an official letter of disfellowship"
("The Profligate
Son," by Al Carrozzo, Ambassador
Report, 1997, p.46).
During
this meeting Ted admitted he had been having an intimate sexual affair with an
Ambassador College stewardess ever since the summer of 1970. This clandestine, adulterous affair continued
unabated, until Herbert Armstrong had been informed of it in the summer of 1971. At that time, Herbert Armstrong took no
action at all. Says Carrozzo,
"Instead of removing Ted from the ministry for good -- as he had done with
other ministers guilty of adultery -- he precipitated a vast cover-up, much
like former President Nixon attempted.
There is one major difference though: Herbert had been covering up Ted's
sexual looseness since the early 1950s" ("The Profligate Son,"
by Al Carrozzo, Ambassador Report, 1997,
p.46).
Ted
Armstrong was again exiled to an A-frame in Colorado, for several months. During this time David Antion
was commissisoned to write a research paper on
"Qualifications for the Ministry," for Herbert Armstrong. Antion's thorough
paper, citing Biblical references in I Timothy 3 and Titus 1, showed that Ted for
his vast womanizing was no longer qualified to remain a minister in God's
Church, according to the Bible. However,
Al Carrozzo continues his account, apparently neither
Ted or his father Herbert accepted the conclusions of the paper. Says Carrozzo of the
situation:
"At the time, the leading ministers and I
all thought Herbert really wanted to know
about
Ted's qualifications, but later we found out he was trying to learn all the
main
arguments against his son's return so he could persuasively refute
them. Herbert
forwarded Antion's paper to Ted, who promptly
dismissed it, claiming the Biblical
arguments didn't apply to him because he had been 'called to preach the
gospel from
his
mother's womb.' This defense, then,
turned out to be Herbert's argument in favor
of
Ted's return to full status and authority, in spite of Herbert's earlier
pronouncement
that Ted, even if returned, would not
occupy ministerial office" (ibid., p.46).
In
contrast to Herbert Armstrong's handling of his son's flagrant and continuous
adultery, it might be germane to mention that when another minister was caught having
committed a single act of adultery in 1968, he was fired from his job,
put out of the ministry, and disfellowshipped from
the Church. Not only that, but his sin
was detailed publicly before the entire student body of Ambassador College in a
special assembly for students and employees.
On
June 8, 1972, Ted was reinstated to an elevated position in the Church, and
allowed to make radio and television broadcasts. On July 20, he was reinstated to full rank as
an evangelist in the Church, and placed back on both college and church boards,
and named executive vice-president of the Worldwide Church of God.
Did
Ted Armstrong ever really repent of these carnal sins of adultery and lustful
passion? He certainly professed
repentance -- many times. Al Carrozzo, who counselled with him
many times concerning his adulterous affairs, writes about Ted's amazing
ability to shed crocodile tears and to show incredible "remorse" when
confronted with his sins. He declared,
"Later it dawned on me that Ted is a
sterling actor, a pwerful persuader -- one who
can
make you feel guilty for even approaching a delicate subject. One Worldwide
Church
evangelist summed it up succinctly: 'Tec
can charm the rattle off a snake.'
Unfortunately, he charms people too.
Glib as an orator and possessing awesome
mental
dexterity, Ted can change black into white, turn silk into wool, and refine
sin
into baseless allegation and rumor" (ibid., p.44-45).
However,
in a newspaper interview in 1987, in Orange County, California, the Pasadena Star
News asked Ted Armstrong about the allegations of his having committed
adultery in the past. The writer wondered if Ted Armstrong had really been
guilty of sexual sins, in the mid-1970s.
Here was an excellent chance for Ted to
"come
clean" about his womanizing past and admit the truth, showing the
sincerity, if any, of his repentance!
In
the January 4, 1987 article, the reporter asked Ted Armstrong about the charges
of adultery and womanizing which were made back in 1974. His answer?
The article declared:
"Armstrong
FLATLY DENIED old stories that
he had sexual
encounters with Ambassador
students and other women.
'There
was never a whisper of
anything immoral and hadn't been for
years and years."
The
tragic truth is that Ted Armstrong has never "come clean" publicly
about his horrendous immorality and sexual sins under the cover of evangelical
saintliness. He has never admitted that
as a "man of God" he seduced women, countless women, and bedded them
like a satyr -- a sex-crazed monster.
Showing
his own utter hypocrisy, in a meeting with ministers of the Worldwide Church of
God in Big Sandy in 1974, Ted Armstrong personally suspended four ministers --
Walter Sharp, Dale Haynes, Bob McKibben and Jim
Morrison -- who were all concerned about Ted's "qualifications" for
the ministry. During this seven and one
half hour meeting, Ted denied ever having full sex with any woman other
than his wife. He admitted having fallen
for one "silly young girl," as he then put it, but he denied
having gone "all the way" with her.
So he himself continued the "cover-up" and refused to admit
the plain truth, which by then, had become common knowledge among the field
ministry! Those who complained -- or who
sought the truth -- were simply FIRED!
This
hypocritical "cover-up" continued throughout the seventies. Herbert Armstrong NEVER made public mention
of his son's sexual indiscretions, adulteries, and wickedness. We will see shortly the probable reason why
Herbert was so loathe to publicly attack or humiliate his son, and to rebuke
him for his on-going hedonistic charade.
Only
after Ted himself was disfellowshipped from the
Church, for other reasons, in 1978, did any one in an official capacity in the
Worldwide Church of God admit to Ted's adultery. Interestingly, it was Stanley Rader, Herbert
Armstrong's personal assistant and the attorney for the Church, who had the
temerity to admit Ted's adultery in public.
He did this on the Tom Snyder late night television show.
What
does Almighty God think of these things?
Ted
Armstrong seems to think that he can do anything -- that he was "born to
preach the gospel." In his own
words to one critic, he exclaimed, "My father and I are ABOVE THE
LAW!" According to him, the normal
qualifications for being a minister in God's Church, as they are outlined in I
Timothy 3 and Titus 1, are not applicable to him -- because he was
"specially called" to preach, regardless of how he lives his
life!
Paul
wrote to Timothy, explaining, "A bishop then must be BLAMELESS, the
husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, OF GOOD BEHAVIOR . . ." (v.2). To Titus, Paul writes that an
"elder" in the Church must be "blameless, the husband of one
wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless, as the
steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker,
not given to filthy lucre; but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men,
sober, just, HOLY, temperate: Holding
fast the faithful word as he has been taught . . ." (Titus 1:6-9). How does Ted Armstrong "stack up"
alongside these Scriptures?
What
does the Word of God say about his kind of attitude and conduct?
Jeremiah
the prophet, under divine inspiration, thunders, with the message of God, to
these modern day "prophets" and "ministers" - - regardless
of WHO they themselves think they are --
"For the land is
full of adulterers . . . For both prophet and priest are
PROFANE; yea, IN MY HOUSE have
I found their wickedness, saith
the Lord. . . . And I have seen
FOLLY in the prophets ... they prophesied
in Baal, and caused my people
to err. I have seen also in the prophets
. . .
an horrible thing: they
commit ADULTERY, and walk in LIES: they
strengthen the hand of
evil-doers, that none doth return from his wicked-
ness: they are all of them
unto me as SODOM, and the inhabitants
thereof as GOMORRAH"
(Jer.23:10-14).
The
adultery and lies of Garner Ted Armstrong, a modern "son of Eli," and
the sins of Herbert W. Armstrong, a modern "Eli," will not go
unaccounted for or unpunished. God will
not be mocked!
Has
Garner Ted Armstrong ever repented of his sins of adultery and sexual
immorality? Frankly, he has never even
publicly confessed to them in cldar and unmistakable
language. Wrote Al Carrozzo
about twenty years ago, when Ted's sins had surfaced at that time,
"Has Garner Ted changed? Did he really repent? One thing is sure: Ted
'repented, many, many
times. He has been called 'the
professional repenter.'
He
can cry on cue" ("The Profligate Son," ibid., p.47).
Shocking New Revelations
In
more recent days, of course, the sins of Garner Ted Armstrong have returned
with a "vengeance." Just a few years ago he was caught and filmed on
video-tape in a massage parlor in Tyler, Texas, attempting to force himself
sexually upon a massage therapist, Sue Rae Robertson. As a result of his being caught on
video-tape, in the act of masturbating himself in front of the masseuse,
singing a song to himself, and trying to force himself on the masseuse,, the
masseuse and her husband have SUED both Garner Ted Armstrong and the Church of
God, International, in court for damages and legal fees. The case is still pending in Texas court. and
is due for a jury trial soon.
However,
bad as this is, now word comes to us that the Church of God, International Board
of Directors has finally FIRED Ted Armstrong from all positions he has held in
the Church. According to a letter sent
out to all Church members, they have found out that he has been having an
ongoing sexual relationship with a female Church member in the Tyler area. This information just surfaced a few months
ago. According to reports, Ted Armstrong
has taken this woman, less than half his age, on vacations to Disney World, and
it is even alleged that she is now pregnant!
In the letter to the membership announcing the action they are taking against Ted