Herbert W.
Armstrong: Racist
By M.A.M.
In the June-July 1981
issue of The Good News, there is an
article titled “After 50 Years – Christ’s Apostle
Still Ahead of His Time!” Like just about
everything else published by the Worldwide Church
of God about Herbert W. Armstrong, this is a lie.
Herbert W. Armstrong was a man whose feet were
firmly planted in the past. Within his church,
Armstrong tried to re-create the world of his
youth.
We can see the theme
arise again and again in his writings. In
Mystery of the Ages, Armstrong wrote, “I
have lived through the horse and buggy age, the
automobile and industrial age, the air age, the
nuclear age and now into the space age. I have seen
America live through the agrarian age when farmers
walked behind their horse-drawn ploughs singing
happily, and into the urban age when Midwest
American farmers are groaning and fighting for more
government subsidies to prevent the extinction of
farm life. (page vii).” For farmers at least, the
past was better than the present.
Armstrong’s love for
the past surfaced again shortly after the murder of
John Lennon. “In disgust, I left TV, but at 10
p.m., I tuned in for the LOCAL news. It was all
eulogizing the ‘rock’ ‘musician.’ A local Tucson
crowd of 2,000 had flocked to Reid Park bandshell
to leave roses, and mourn for their dead idol. The
local station had a lot about the ‘man and his
“music.”’ (I had never thought of it as music, but
a loud raucous SQUAWK and SCREAM with a fast beat -
just an irritating noise.)
“Pardon me, please!
Perhaps I never had any musical education, although
I have played the piano since 8 years old. I must
have been terribly misled, for I supposed that the
singing of a Caruso or a Galli-Curci of my father's
time or a Pavarotti or Beverly Sills or an Arthur
Rubinstein of our day produced music. I guess I'm
terribly out-of-date. I have heard roosters make a
loud raucous squawk when being captured for a
Sunday dinner when I was a boy, but I just never
had been ‘educated’ to call that ‘music.’
“When as a boy I
worked one summer in a flour mill, to the constant
‘beat’ of the machinery till it nearly drove me
crazy, I somehow never realized that was
‘music.’
“Please bear with me
in my ignorance.” I'll try, but it isn't easy. At
least here he was being truthful. Armstrong was
ignorant of popular music. A strong beat has been a
characteristic of popular music since the rise of
jazz, right after the first world war. Apparently,
Armstrong was unaware of anything that occurred
outside of the opera house since Caruso's
time.
“I do remember, when
I was in England at the college just before the
mid-'60's, the Beatles were breaking into public
notice. The had a new ‘way-out’ style, with an
idiotic mop-topped hairstyle, with hair covering
the forehead to the eyebrows, the ears and longer
hair in the back of the head. The forehead is the
seat of intellect - the mark of intelligence
instead of animal nonintelligence. They started the
style of male hairdo to turn evolution into reverse
- man was becoming a dumb brute animal.”
The new music was
just “a loud raucous SQUAWK and SCREAM with a fast
beat - just an irritating noise.” The new hair
style “turn[ed] evolution into reverse - man was
becoming a dumb brute animal (The Worldwide
News, “How The Beatles Changed The
Culture of the Western World,” December
22, 1980, page 1).” These were not the reasoned
words of an open-minded, enlightened man. They were
the belittling comments of someone who refused to
accept the present. If Armstrong did not like the
way a person combed his hair, he resorted to
name-calling and insults, even equating him to an
animal.
On page 158 of
The Missing Dimension in Sex, Armstrong
again belittles modern popular music: “WHO
determines what is ‘popular music’ today? The
‘teens.’ Even the radio stations who do not go to
rock and disco music, in the main, play what is
called ‘popular’ music. But is it MUSIC? Or is it a
moan, a groan, a wail, a dirge, and a
screech?”
Anyone who was single
in the Worldwide Church of God would be aware of
the courtship rituals enforced by the ministry.
These were based on the dating “procedures” (See
The Missing Dimension in Sex, page 154)
Herbert Armstrong practiced in his youth. After
all, if God’s Apostle followed certain
“procedures,” they were God ordained and all should
follow them. We’ve all heard them: date in groups,
date in order to develop friendships, don’t date
for the purpose of finding a mate, don’t be alone
with a person of the opposite sex, don’t date
outside the church, date widely. In theory, these
practices would prevent one from marrying the wrong
person or committing fornication. They would expose
you to a wide variety of people, and develop your
interpersonal skills. In practice, they made dating
unnecessarily difficult, and made it much harder to
find a mate by erecting all sorts of artificial
obstacles. It also put you under a microscope
because if you followed the prohibition against
being alone with a member of the opposite sex, you
had no privacy. In addition, the church was full of
people who refused to mind their own business, and
asked prying questions. If you were seen together
at church services, rumors would sweep through the
congregation. Last, but not least, you had
ministers watching you, enforcing Herbert’s will on
the dating question. Ministerial meddling was
common. All of those I know who were single
in the church had at least one serious relationship
ended by ministerial diktat.
When Armstrong was a
child, back in eighteen-ninety-whatever, women
didn't wear make-up. Naturally, it follows that he
wouldn't let women wear make-up in his church. To
Armstrong, make-up was “physical colored dirt” that
deceitful women wore. In his classic booklet
The Truth About Make-Up, Armstrong wrote,
“Its modern, popular and almost universal use today
originated with the harlots of Paris. From there it
traveled to the old redlight districts of San
Francisco, Denver, New Orleans, Chicago, New York
and other American cities. Then it was used by the
streetwalker prostitutes to attract and seduce
men.
“My wife remembered
an incident that occurred when she was a little
girl nine years old. Her father ran a small town
general store. In the store she found two small
packages of face powder, one white, the other red.
She began to apply some of the colored powder to
her face. Her mother saw her, and quickly took the
powder away from her.
“‘No, no! Loma,’ said
her mother. ‘You mustn't ever put that on your
face. Only the bad women use that!’”
Apparently, Loma
found this incident so traumatic that years later,
she was psychologically unable to confront her
husband about his incestuous relationship with
their daughter.
“My mother - before
she died - remembered that she used to apply a
little powder on her cheeks but didn't seem to
remember at what time this custom started. But she
did distinctly remember that her mother never once
applied powder, paint, or any kind of cosmetics
whatsoever to her face. She was a very virtuous and
religious woman, and in her time "only the bad
women" put paint or powder on their faces. My own
mother very emphatically declared that no lipstick
ever touched her lips - a fact in which she took
great satisfaction.” Yes, only harlots wore
make-up, while the spiritually pure kept their
faces free of the colored dirt. If it was true, as
Armstrong claimed, that in his youth only
prostitutes wore make-up, it was true of all times
and places.
With his adoration
for the past, it is no surprise that Armstrong’s
views on race relations remained unchanged from his
youth. Segregation, bans on interracial dating and
marriage, and the inferiority of the “Negro” race
were things he took for granted. As his article in
the October, 1963 Plain Truth
demonstrated, Armstrong cloaked the racial
prejudice practiced in the Jim Crow south with
Biblical garb. His attempt to make racism Biblical
is truly astonishing.
Armstrong went to his
grave without changing his opinions on race. In
Mystery of the Ages, Armstrong lays out
his racial theories in a book published just a few
months before his death. Support for segregation, a
distaste for interracial marriage, and a belief in
black inferiority are all on display in his final
book:
“The subject matter
of the chapter [Genesis 6] is the generations
ancestry of Noah. Exceeding wickedness had
developed through those generations, by Noah's
generation reaching a climactic crisis that ended
that world.
“What was this
universal evil and corruption? Jesus described that
universal, corrupt evil as ‘eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage’ (Matt. 24:38).
Eating food and drinking is not evil. Marrying is
not evil in itself. There had to be wrong
use and excess in eating, drinking
and marrying - the evil was in the manner,
and in the extent of eating, drinking and
marrying.
“It could only be
eating improper food, drinking excessively of
alcoholic drinks, revelings (Gal. 5:21), rioting,
violence. Marrying, to be evil, had to be as in
Genesis 6:2, when men ‘took them wives of all which
they chose.’ There was rampant and universal
interracial marriage - so exceedingly universal
that Noah, only, was unblemished or
perfect in his generations - his ancestry. He was
of the original white strain.
“It is amply evident
that by the time of Noah there were at least the
three primary or major racial strains on earth, the
white, yellow and black, although interracial
marriage produced many racial mixtures.
“God does not reveal
in the Bible the precise origin of the different
races. It is evident that Adam and Eve were created
white. God's chosen nation Israel was white. Jesus
was white. But it is a fair conjecture that in
mother Eve were created ovaries containing the
yellow and black genes, as well as white, so that
some of the children of Adam and Eve gave rise to
black, yellow, as well as white.
“The one man God
chose to PRESERVE the human race alive after the
Flood was perfect in his generations - all
his ancestry back to Adam was of the one strain,
and undoubtedly that happened to be white -
not that white is in any sense superior.”
So Armstrong says. But you’ll notice that he
believes that Adam and Eve were white, and so was
Noah and Jesus and the twelve apostles. Armstrong
tries to convince us that the white race is not
superior in his eyes, but he strongly implies that
it is preferred in God's eyes.
“If you are a
livestock breeder, planning to enter your prize
animals in a livestock show - perhaps at a state or
county fair - you will be sure to enter only
thoroughbred or pedigreed stock! Mixing the breed
alters the characteristics.
“God originally
set the bounds of national borders,
intending nations to be SEPARATED to prevent
interracial marriage. Notice, "When the most High
divided to the nations their inheritance [speaking
of land or geographical boundaries], when he
separated, [notice - he separated] the
sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people..."
(Deut. 32:8).
“But people wanted to
intermarry - until there would be only ONE
RACE!
“That desire seems
still inherent in human nature today!
“Noah was of perfect
lineage in his generations. His wife and three sons
were of that same white strain. But Japheth
evidently had married an Oriental woman, and Ham a
black.
“We know little more
than stated above about civilized development prior
to the Flood. (Pages 147-149, emphasis his
throughout.)”
Where he developed
this theory, I don’t know. There is no Biblical
support for this point of view. One can only
conclude that these were the opinions with which
Armstrong started, and he interpreted the Bible to
conform to his opinions.
Incredibly, Armstrong
predicted that the Kingdom of God would be
segregated. God would appoint the resurrected Noah
as his Minister of Racial Purity to supervise the
separation of the races.
“Since Noah lived
first, we now take a look at Noah. In Noah's day,
the chief cause of the violence and chaos of world
conditions was racial hatreds, interracial
marriages, and racial violence caused by man's
efforts toward integration and amalgamation of
races, contrary to God's laws. God had set the
boundary lines for the nations and the races at the
beginning (Deut. 32:8-9; Acts 17:26). But men had
refused to remain in the lands to which God had
assigned them. That was the cause of the corruption
and violence that ended that world. For 120 years
Noah had preached God's ways to the people - but
they didn't heed.
“At that time, even
as today, that world faced a population explosion.
It was when ‘men began to multiply on the face of
the earth’ (Gen. 6:1). Jesus said, of our time,
right now, ‘But as the days of Noe [Noah] were, so
shall also the coming of the Son of man be’ (Matt.
24:37) - or, as in Luke 17:26, ‘And as it was in
the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of
the Son of man.’ That is, the days just before
Christ returns. Today race wars, race hatreds, race
riots and race problems are among the world's
greatest social troubles.
“Noah merely preached
to people in his human lifetime. But Noah, in the
resurrection, immortal, in power and glory, will be
given the power to enforce God's ways in regard to
race.
“It seems evident
that the resurrected Noah will head a vast project
of the relocation of the races and nations, within
the boundaries God has set for their own best good,
happiness and richest blessings. This will be a
tremendous operation. It will require great and
vast organization, reinforced with power to move
whole nations and races. This time, peoples and
nations will move where God has planned for them,
and no defiance will be tolerated.
“What a paradox.
People are going to be forced to be happy, to have
peace, to find abundant and joyful living! (Pages
341-342.)”
How would they be
made happy? By not having to associate with those
of other races. Armstrong blamed many of the
world’s problems on the integration of the races.
The cure would be the re-institution of
segregation. The world’s problems would be solved
by apartheid. In this and many other areas, Herbert
was a man behind the times. He either couldn’t or
wouldn’t change. Although he claimed to be God’s
Apostle, when it came to race he was more like the
Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.