1963 (Postscript)

Published in 1963, The Inside Story of the World Tomorrow Broadcast never again saw the light of day. No revisions, no reprints, no updates down the decades. That's probably understandable given the changes that quickly dated it. But Inside Story wasn't merely dignified by a slide into obscurity, it was officially withdrawn and the membership was commanded to throw away their copies. Don Billingsley certainly chucked his. On his COG-FF website he has posted a warning to the unwary.

It seems some people didn't get the memo.

It's a fate that, if Don has it right, was reserved for quite a number of other publications.

• Modern Dating (Garner Ted Armstrong, 1969). Really bad advice by a dude who certainly hadn't practiced what he preached.
• Divorce and Remarriage (1953). The justification for the unyielding doctrine that split families apart, but was later revoked.
• Marriage and Divorce. More of the same from 1973.
• The Plain Truth about Child Rearing (Garner Ted Armstrong, 1970 edition). A truly horrid approach to raising kids. (PDF here)
• The Real Jesus (Garner Ted Armstrong, 1972). Jesus recrafted to fit the WCG's paradigm. Later bloated out into Ted's first full length book and released just before he was booted out of his father's church for good. (PDF here)

Alas, these publications survived unto this very day. Herb may have imagined he had prophetic insight, but he didn't forsee the Internet. The embarrassingly inaccurate The Proof of the Bible (1958) was a special case as it was enormously popular. It was supposed to be killed off and all stock destroyed in 1972 but was allowed to quietly fade into oblivion instead. That story was covered in some detail in Ambassador Report. (It appears that this was yet another example of plagiarism with Herb basically rewriting a 1933 Seventh-day Adventist publication called Prophecy Speaks by Earle Albert Rowell. )

The reason these titles are still with us is the devotion of an enduring Armstrong remnant who believe they are still relevant, or perhaps they're just on a nostalgia trip. The reason many of us appreciate their efforts is a bit different, the documentation of a system that would rather not be remembered "warts and all".

Douglas Becker has thoughtfully transferred Inside Story into flipping book format, and it's already (fast work!) available. You either love or loathe this format and, in general, I'm decidedly on the 'loathe' side, but in this case, due to the smaller size of the pages, it works really well, giving the genuine booklet 'feel'. 

1963 (Part 3)

Moving right along...

Let's take a peek at the Herbaceous office back in 1963.

Nice.

"Now, at last, new executive offices have been completed for Mr. Armstrong and his son. They are very beautiful and modern - and afford a stunning view of the city of Pasadena with the Sierra Madre Mountains in the background... On the south end of the roof - just outside the main offices - is a terrace and sun-deck arrangement for sunning, visiting in the fresh air and table tennis. Many of you readers will be interested to learn that Mr. Armstrong is an avid athletic fan of many sports, but has found that table tennis - combined with much walking - suits his schedule and requirements to keep him in good physical condition for doing God's Work."

Herb was a ping-pong aficionado?

Even by today's standards, this was pretty swank. Not sure where the drinks cabinet was, but you can bet there was one. Rod assures us that Herb's office was bigger than Ted's, so all was right in the world.

Rod also assures us that the radio studio was where "Mr. Armstrong and Mr. Ted Armstrong spend many hours of labor in a grueling responsibility."

"First of all, let me say that there are many hours of preparation put into each broadcast! BUT - these hours are not necessarily put in just before or right at the time of making the broadcast. Rather, these are hours spent in earnest, personal prayer - fervent Bible study and meditation - the constant study of world news, and conditions, and alert thinking about how God's Word and the prophetic revelation of the Bible really affect and apply to the lives of us all in this twentieth century."

Translation: they winged it.

It's a great source for historical perspective. As the years went by the executive offices got bigger and the Bullgeschichte machine more outrageous, but the basic ingredients were all there in spades back in 1963.

You can download your own copy of Rod's "Inside Story" here.

1963 (Part 2)

Rod Meredith's references to Garner Ted Armstrong in Inside Story are intriguing.

"Later, God struck down Mr. Armstrong's two sons, Richard David and Garner Ted, and brought them to repentance and conversion. This is more significant than it may seem, because for many years it looked as if they might never be converted - but only continue to regard this as "Dad's religion."

Naughty boys.

"Garner Ted Armstrong surrendered to God and was changed by Him so completely that it amazed those of us here that had known him."

A somewhat back-handed compliment, and not entirely truthful (see chapter 6 of Marion McNair's book or the feature articles in the 1977 magazine edition of Ambassador Report). Ted was way off the rails, but now Rod generously deigns to give him the seal of approval. The passage smacks of a pat on the head by someone who regards himself as Ted's superior. The truth seems to be that while GTA was increasingly the voice of The World Tomorrow, had his by-line appear regularly in church publications with the nice office and the title of executive vice president, he was largely frozen out of the decision-making process, a situation that lasted from 1958 through till 1971. Rod - with the smaller office and less exalted title - was the more influential of the two by far.

Whatever else you can say about Rod, he was always ambitious. It's not hard to imagine that he was flummoxed at being pushed aside in the line of authority - on paper at least - by the upstart sons. Could there be some kind of subtext in Rod's encomium to Ted? Consider Rod's choice of words when describing GTA's office. "The decor of the room exhibits definitely masculine tones" (caption no. 2) and "Certain decorative features of his office reflect a definite masculine personality." (p.26, emphasis in original).

What is that all about? Nobody else is so described in the booklet.

"Mr. Ted Armstrong - as many of you may know - has an unusually wide range of interests and abilities in various sports and outdoor activities. When time permits, he is an excellent hunter, fisherman, and plays a fair amount of basketball, handball, golf and other sports." (p.27)

Which is all true. But no mention of Ted's skill in painting or his undoubted musical talent. Rod seems to be stressing Ted's macho nature, the masculine sportsman. It's almost as though Rod is trying to be reassuring. What's going on here? Given his predilections as a casonova, this hardly seems the buildup he needs.

To be continued.

1963 (Part 1)

I'm old enough to remember 1963, sort of. I was still in single digits back then and had never heard of Herbert Armstrong. It turns out that an out-of-town uncle was a PT subscriber at the time. He must have been one of the first in New Zealand. But of that I was blissfully ignorant, more interested in comics than much of anything else.

In 1963 the church put together a booklet for PT subscribers. You could call it a brag book. It was largely written by Rod Meredith and rejoiced in the title The Inside Story of the World Tomorrow Broadcast. It wasn't much of an "inside story" but it was pretty effective as PR by early nineteen sixties standards. I knew about the publication, but it had long since been withdrawn by the time I became interested. Reading it now is a bit like stepping into a time machine and peering back beyond the crises that exploded in the 1970s and defined my own experience. 1963 predates both the recently demolished Hall of Administration and the Ambassador Auditorium, the "peaceable kingdom" church seal had only just been adopted, Loma was in the land of the living and the Pasadena campus was still a comparatively small operation.

Meredith was, of course, just a young man, and Herb was at the height of his powers. The good and the great at "HQ" included such luminaries as Benjamin Rea, C. Paul Meredith (Rod's uncle), Raymond Cole, Jack Elliot, Charles Dorothy, Jon Hill, Al Portune, James Gott (husband of Beverly, Herb's daughter), Charles Hunting and Wayne Cole. Raised, praised and subsequently erased from institutional memory. The elder Meredith was always referred to as "Dr.", which looked impressive as a PT by-line, but in fact, his qualification was (I'm sure someone will correct me if I misremember) as a veterinarian.

Somebody decided that this booklet would be lavishly illustrated with photographs. Black and white of course, after all, this is 1963. There's "the majestic Italian Gardens", Ambassador Hall, the "elegant faculty dining room" and suchlike. Even a shot of some rather pokey "prayer booths". But what really caught my eye were the offices of Herb and Ted.

To be continued.

The Plain Truth on Race, 1964

Over at Living Armstrongism Redfox has an interesting post about current paranoia promotion in the Philadelphia Church of God over racial issues; PCG's False Prophecy of "Race War". Reading it I was reminded of the articles published in The Plain Truth in the 1960s. Perhaps the most disturbing example I've found comes from the pen of a certain Roderick C. Meredith, writing in the September 1964 issue.

The article, "CRISIS Flares into Bitter Racial REVOLT!" (emphasis in original) is anything but an objective, calming word on the subject. Meredith explicitly rejects the program of peaceful civil disobedience led by Martin Luther King, then under the sub-head "The Prophesied REVOLT of the Gentiles in Our Land" he makes some amazing statements after quoting Deuteronomy 28:43 [The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low]

"The Hebrew word here translated 'stranger' is clearly referring to the GENTILES or peoples of other races - who are living in the midst of modern-day Israel."

By "modern-day Israel" Meredith means the Anglo nations. By "Our Land" he means Anglo-Americans only. Where he went from there you can read for yourself in the clipping from that article.

Granted, this was the 1960s, these were less enlightened times and hindsight has 20/20 vision. Yet this same sabre-rattling logic seems to have been passed on like a virus into groups like the PCG. And what about the LCG and its ministry? Has the current Presiding Evangelist ever repudiated these statements?

Wouldn't it be interesting to sit down with Meredith now, all these years later, and ask "do you regret writing that? Is that the way you still understand those passages?" and maybe, just maybe, "would you like to offer an apology for what you wrote back then?"

There are many people who find it hard to accept that the Worldwide Church of God was ever racist in its teachings, or that BI was a fundamental part of that problem. That's not to say all members today share those views; many - perhaps most - absolutely don't.

Then again, some do, and that's a problem.

And honestly, can you separate out BI assumptions from Meredith's prejudices?

COG trivia: In my heart there rings a melody

What relationship has this hymn by Elton M. Roth to Herbert Armstrong? No, it didn't appear in the famous purple hymnal (nor even in the earlier gray hymnal). You wouldn't think, looking at the lyrics (see the original PDF here) that Herb would have had much use for it, and it's clear modern devotees don't. Yet it's an important part of GCI/WCG/Radio Church of God history.

The answer lies in the Autobiography of Herb Armstrong.

In those days "The Radio Church of God" opened with an opening theme, the hymn composed by Elton Menno Roth (who later became my personal friend) "In My Heart There Rings a Melody," sung in lively manner by our "Radio Church Quartette." (1967 edition, p.508)

Yes brethren, this is the foundation theme song to the Church of God. More than that, it was composed by Herb's "personal friend"!

So can we expect to hear it at this year's Feast of Tabernacles I wonder, at least among the most slavishly devoted of Herb's imitators?

A solo by Stephen Flurry, Bob Thiel tinkling the ivories and Dave Pack on the tambourine?

Can't you just picture Ronnie Weinland on the harmonica with Rod Meredith clapping and stomping along in time?

For those of us who don't read music, there's a recording for you to sample here.