(For the record, AW regards British Israelism in any form as irredeemably fallacious, totally discredited, and intellectually indefensible.)

All2True Editorial

March, 2005

Modern Maturity

Herbert Armstrong was a spoiled selfish child in an adult body with the power to make everyone around him miserable if he didn't get his own way, and sometimes, even if he did get his own way.

That's just the way narcissists are: Emotionally immature without proper behavior controls, without accountability, with the assumption that everyone else is a lesser creature than they and that they are the most important person to walk the earth and, maybe, the most important person who ever walked the earth.

This isn't about narcissism, though, this is about maturity.

Herbert Armstrong was given to rages when he didn't have his own way: Diatribes, sometimes beamed out to 100,000 people via satellite about some imagined affront. He'd threaten his own congregations with threats like walking away from the church he built to start all over with his "eight Japanese sons" of the Japanese Diet who were hanging on his lavish seductions. "Do what I want, or you'll be sorry!" Sometimes the threat was eternal death in the Lake of Fire and other times it was the threat of the Great Tribulation. His ability to yell at people for hours in his tantrums was legendary--and quite frighteningly real to those who were the objects of his rants. Ask the minister who was dressed down in front of his peers at a dinner for not supporting Herbert in his quest for women without makeup: It was a miserable two hours standing and not being able to answer this selfish child without self-discipline. Herbert Armstrong had absolutely no accountability and could never tolerate it. Once this child in a man's body had a taste of the freedom of choice, he became a permanent slave to his own passions.

He always had the best, just like a spoiled rich kid with unlimited pocket money in a vast candy store. He was bankrolled by tithes to indulge in his every whim. He just had to have Steuben Crystal. He needed $68,000 worth of gold and silver for his table for AC senior banquets. He absolutely had to have 750 crystal goblets at $250 a pop.

He set the rules, but he did not have to follow the rules: After all, they were his rules and he could break them with impunity. Doctors? You couldn't go the doctor, but he could. Day of Atonement? You couldn't eat, but he had a donut and a cup of coffee--he was so old and frail, you know [unlike the aged widows who were older than he, but without the girth of fat around his ample belly]. He advised us to "Simplify your lifestyle" while he became ever the more blatantly wastefully complex. He told us that we must tithe faithfully, but gave only a little over 9% himself--it didn't matter, he owned everything anyway, at least he had the access to everything he wanted and never really had to pay for it [but we did].

He could be generous to those who indulged him, but underlying it all was the caveat that you had to please him or he would turn on you in an instant--just as anyone who had no restrictions in accountability would.

No limits. No accountability. No self-control. No discipline. No real maturity. A spoiled rotten selfish child.

And he left a legacy.

Those who served hard bondage under him learned from his arbitrary, selfish, spoiled rotten, childish behavior. You know them well enough. There's no sense in giving them free publicity. They're the ones who are immature, spoiled rotten, selfish children in adult bodies who hold themselves accountable to no one and have power without discipline, throwing a tantrum when things don't go their way, but hide in fear from anyone who can expose them.

At some point in our lives--particularly those who are parents--have had to learn to deal with spoiled children. The solution is clear, though not always clearly implemented.

Don't give them an audience.

Also visit http://www.cultabuse.com

Last Updated: Tuesday, March 29, 2005