Sticking the pieces together

As I explained in another review, The Worldwide Church of God (WCG) was virtually unknown in Sweden. I even checked the standard work on Swedish "alternative" religions, and it wasn't included. There seems to have been a small group of followers in neighbouring Norway, however. As a teenager, I actually heard of "The World Tomorrow", but assumed it was an obscure fundamentalist TV show, and thought no further of it.

To an outsider like myself, the WCG looks like the Jehovah's Witnesses, but with an even more curious message. The founder and leader of the WCG, Herbert W. Armstrong, seems to have blended Adventism, Mormonism and British Israelism. He was also a "Judaizer" of sorts, who insisted on the keeping of Jewish feast days. After Armstrong's death, something sensational happened: his choosen successor Joseph Tkach slowly but steadfastly began to change the distinctive doctrines of the church, eventually turning it into a main-stream evangelical denomination. There are two books that tell the story from the "Tkachist" perspective: "The Liberation of the Worldwide Church of God" by J. Michael Feazell, and "Transformed by Truth" by Joseph Tkach jr. (the present leader of the WCG).

This book, by contrast, tells the story from the perspective of a splinter group which decided to continue preaching the original message of Armstrong. The group calls itself Philadelphia Church of God (PCG). The author is the son of the current leader of the PCG. Whether Armstrong's movement was an outright cult, sociologically speaking, I cannot say. However, the Armstrongite WCG was obviously a very authoritarian, hyperactivist, top down operation, with the usual string of false prophecies, failed healings, and so on. I therefore expected "Raising the ruins" to be the usual round of cultish mumbo jumbo. In other words, typical weekend entertainment!

Was I surprised...

Actually, the book is a perfectly serious look at the transformation of the WCG from the viewpoint of the dissidents. Many interesting documents are quoted, and intriguing facts are unearthed. We get to learn about the financial situation of the WCG both before and after Armstrong's death, membership figures, the secretive nature of Tkach's changes of fundamental Church doctrine, and, yes, some gossip. One ironic fact that emerges is that the reformers were just as authoritarian as the old guard, since the only way to change the WCG's religious message was by command from above. (Feazell actually admits this in his pro-reform book.) Armstrong had indoctrinated (or educated, if you like) the members and ministers so well, that most simply left the church when Tkach, Feazell and the other reformers started changing the doctrines! Today, the reformed WCG is a very small denomination.

About half of the book deals with a remarkable court case, in which the reformed WCG attempted to stop the PCG from re-printing Armstrong's book "Mystery of the Ages", despite the fact that the WCG no longer believed the contents of the book, and had no plans to re-print it themselves! The WCG even boldly proclaimed that it was their "Christian duty" to stop Armstrong's heretical books from being circulated. After six years, the suit ended in a somewhat unexpected way: the WCG agreed to sell the copyright to most of Armstrong's writings to the PCG for 3 million dollars. The PCG agreed. Instead of stopping the heresy, the WCG now decided to make a fast buck out of it.

Of course, the book is fiercely partisan, and some questions are never really answered. For instance, Tkach is consistently portrayed in a very negative light. Apparently, he was bad both as a leader, speaker and missionary. He was supposedly a bit stupid, too. So how come Armstrong personally designated Tkach as his successor? Judging by the book, Tkach played a prominent role in defending the WCG against an earlier group of reformers, led by Armstrong's own son, who attempted to grab WCG's substantial estates in Pasadena with the aid of the courts and the police. Perhaps Tkach wasn't so incompetent after all? Another question left hanging in the air is the motivation behind the changes. Flurry believes that it was financial. The reformers sold off most of WCG's assets, some of whom were worth tens of millions of dollars! However, his own figures show no particular correlation between the reforms and the financial situation of the church. If anything, I got the impression that the evangelical WCG is *less* successful financially than the Armstrongite original. If the reformers were simply after cash, why not stay on course? Armstrongism, after all, seems more lucrative.

The book does give the impression that Armstrong didn't really control the church during most of the 1970's. This created elbow room for a more reform-minded group to take over the daily operations. Somehow, Armstrong managed to take back control later in the decade. When his own son attempted a hostile take over, some of the reformers must have gotten cold feet and decided to back the old man instead. But as the reformer Feazell points out in his book on the WCG, Armstrong seems to have been a very paranoid and lonely man the last years of his life, constantly attempting to "divide and rule" the administration at Pasadena. Or perhaps not so paranoid - the old fox suspected something! According to Flurry, Armstrong appointed Tkach his successor on the explicit condition that Tkach must fire his personal staff, and he also made room for a board of directors. Clearly, Armstrong attempted to divide and rule almost literally from his deathbed. In the end, he wasn't successful. Tkach seems to have fired *Armstrong's* staff the very same day the old leader died! This doesn't sound like a completely cultist group. In such groups, power struggles of this kind are virtually impossible. My best guess is that control became lax during the 1970's. That's the master key to the whole story.

Finally, some personal observations. When I read "Mystery of the Ages", I was struck by Armstrong's constant references to world leaders he is supposed to have met. Naturally, I assumed he was lying through his teeth. Cult leaders often claim to have contacts on the highest possible levels. Sometimes they are right (Moon and LaRouche comes to mind). Usually, they have delusions of grandeur. In high school, I interviewed the leader of a small political sect the name of which I won't disclose, who claimed to head an "international movement" with sections in far-away places such as Nigeria and Turkey. Naturally, he also claimed to be a backstage advisor to the Swedish government! Did I believe him? Of course not. His group probably never had more than ten members! However, they were *very* good at making PR, and were constantly mentioned in large Swedish newspapers. I was convinced that this Armstrong fellow was something similar. "When I met Chinese officals..." "When I met the king of Thailand". Yeah, sure, whatever.

Was I surprised when I saw the photos in Flurry's book...

:D

I can't say I like Herbert W. Armstrong and his frankly weird message. In fact, I like him even less when I see his smiling face alongside that of Nancy Reagan. Apparently, he had good relations with Ferdinand Marcos, too. But Flurry's book at least shows that Armstrong's opponents may have some explaining to do as well.

Reading "Raising the ruins" and sticking the pieces together, has been a fascinating experience.