Herbert W. Armstrong, Trust & Hookers

It was sometime in the early eighties (I forget the actual date), that a photo appeared in one of the Worldwide Church of God cult papers of Apostle Herbie standing in front of a group of his loyal cultmasters. Since I knew them all, I was appalled that so many of my former "friends" had thrown their hats into the pit of religious prostitution. Now, I have more respect for the hookers that trawl Hollywood Boulevard than for these guys.

Doing biz, in those days, I often came through Hollywood (Santa Monica and Hollywood Boulevards - up and down around the Gower Street) around eleven PM, only to see the pimps, the addicts, the pushers, and the hookers being huddled in a group, shuffled into the police wagon, and from there, to the station. Booking usually followed, and then there was the release for all so they could continue to prorogate their trade. No one seemed to care. I watched all this happen.

There were sirens that shrieked in our ears, whirring red and blue lights, loud yelling from megaphones, suspects forcibly bent over cars, hookers' dresses flipped up while officers looked for drugs, lights and officers screaming "On the ground with your hands over your head," and then, the usual cuffs and obscenities (from every side) that overflowed along the length of the (now blocked) east-west streets that would give us access to the north 101 freeway, and home. Hollywood is a hooker and drug haven. And even the most elite are involved. Please note the Heidi Fleiss case.

Hookers usually work their trade, usually for the necessity of survival, but the religious cultmasters, who are fleecing people - including the needy, do it for joy, profit, comfortable living, and the "golden parachute" of retirement. These cockroaches are not only ego driven, but a selfish, heartless breed, and have been shown to be nothing but religious opportunists. Please remember the statement to the Pharisees: "The harlots and tax-gathers will enter the Kingdom before you." I'm NOT judging hookers. Only the Infinite can do that. I'm only an observer. But, those cultmasters, in my opinion, are in fact, many spiritual and frequency levels below that of the basest hookers. Please check out this site as well as the AR's Meanwhile, they preach a doctrine of: "Trust us. We're telling you the Plain Truth. Believe us."

We all trusted those cultmasters. Whatever they said was Ok with us. Since they were supposedly men of God, we gave our allegiance and minds over to those whores. Whatever they taught, we believed . . . since their baseless teaching supposedly came directly from God, and through Apostle Herbie, of course. Let's make NO mistake here. Those cultmasters KNEW they were fleecing the flock (there are those who have, in years now long gone, admitted it to me privately), but they also knew the "plain truth." They know that this whole scam was nothing but a business. If they blindly did their "duty," then they would reap the rewards. Who cared about the trusting congregations anyhow? These people and their money were dispensable. This was a massive swindle that needed to be reinforced. Those cultmasters obliged, and gained our trust.

It's a strange thing that throughout civilization, people who WILL not think for themselves, simply go and listen to some zombie in a pulpit and automatically believe that person. Why doesn't everyone of us simply listen to what any person says (as in any written article here), go away and evaluate it, prove it to be true of false, and draw our own conclusions? Any good teacher will only tell you ten percent of what they know on any subject, and hold back the other ninety percent for FAQ.

However, far too many are willing to trust anything that comes from the pulpit - and that goes for the current membership in the Worldwide Church of God+ cults - and they blindly implement it without question. Trusting in any teacher maybe Ok, but we must be sure of the teacher's credibility, and many of Apostle Herbie's offspring cultmasters/hirelings have, in my opinion, little more than the IQ of an amoeba, and have resident testicle meat between their ears. Why should anyone - and this is directed to the current members of these splinter cults - believe someone who is so ignorant, and in many cases, so fanatical? Should such an incompetent teacher ever be trusted?

Believe nothing merely because you have been told it. Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect for the teacher. But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis, you find to be kind, conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all beings -that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide. Buddha

As I've said before on this site, these cultmasters are ostensibly ignorant men when it comes to real life. Remember the saying: "The blind lead the blind until they both fall into the ditch." It is the honest, hard working and trusting people of the congregations who have ultimately suffered at the hands of the mercenaries.

But, we also trusted them, and the doctrine of "trust" can only be extended just so far. When we completely trust a cultmaster and throw caution to the wind, then we allow into our minds a total belief system entrenched in their muddled thinking and teaching to happen, we can become gullible, pliable, and brainwashed. Then folks . . . it's "welcome to your favorite cult."

It's probably because of fear that all of us people once took out our brains, left them on the doorstep of the services hall, entered and absorbed the bilge of the cultmaster, and left the building, picking up our brains on the way out, then we emptied into those brains the phlegm of WCG loyalty and theological lunacy.

However, fear can only come with ignorance. And ignorance is something we need to eliminate. When we come to a point that we have ALL the facts, the we can apply the fundamental principle of OCKHAM'S RAZOR. I.e. When we have all the facts, the simplest answer is always correct. But, ignorance kept us from these facts, and the fear of looking further was constantly waved over us, like "The Sword of Damacles." We trusted, blindly and in good faith, but we trusted those geeks who stood behind a pulpit and spouted bilge that they really knew nothing about.

When many of the cultmasters and hirelings eventually learned learnt about the enormous people-damaging scam that was operating, most of those wimps refused to give up the spreading of the destructive propaganda. And so, they become prostitutes, hookers, of the cult, and to Apostle Herbie's aberrant behaviour, plus they must have been heavily influenced by their personal, generous paychecks and all the associated perks that traffic would allow.

"If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it." Marcus Aurelius

However, this didn't deter our finely fed, enriched, and endowed cultmasters. People in congregation went without food so the cultmasters, reportedly, could dine on caviar and champagne. It appears, to all input sources on the subject, that they KNEW of the improprieties, but kept their mouths shut. The "plain truth" about Garner Teddy and his whoring was well known among the upper echelon before, during, and after the time of his two departures. Some were openly angry at Teddy's reinstatement (Teddy's reinstatement was mainly for profit reasons, since he was the very popular TV and radio "voice"), but that gutless upper echelon went with the flow of Herbie's thinking, anger, jowl shaking, foul temper and the subsequent threats to anyone who disagreed. The cultmasters were - as one writer put it - emasculated, and they meekly went along with the edicts of an ignorant bully who controlled their paychecks. It was a parallel to the SS thugs that meekly following Hitler. Those egotistical bastards didn't have the courage to challenge authority either.

The problem of propaganda then extended to the congregation in the field. We were all fed a pile of hypocritical vomit, and we believed it. We trusted.

In effect, those salesmen thought they could brainwash us to a restricted thinking that, not only profited them personally, but would bring income galore into the cult. This would guarantee them (personally) more glory, more perks, and a continued paycheck. They fed us the line of BS, and through ignorance, we trusted them.

Please DON'T trust anything you read or hear. PLEASE check it out. Even what's been said here. You're free to challenge anything, and in that way, we all learn. Sometimes any teacher will simply state the facts, leave a lot in "fog area," and that leaves the student to scurry down and find ALL the relevant facts for themselves. If any teacher laid out all the facts and spoon-fed the congregation, the that person is NOT a teacher. That person is a paid voice. And that's what the cultmasters and many of the hirelings in Worldwide Church of God (and now Worldwide Church of God+) were, and are, doing. So why should anyone trust teachers who are ignorant people, bullies, arrogants, and loyalists to a paycheck? Teachers are made to encourage people to think, and then go onto an eternity of knowledge and understanding from there.

Trust is conditional. It relies on the evidence that such a trust is well founded. With Worldwide Church of God, it all started with an ignorant bully. We had no idea that he stole ALL of his "revelations" from other sources. Had people examined the subject carefully, we would not have been fooled by an uneducated salesman with an intoxicating penchant for ego-mania, and other forms of a perverse lifestyle.

There are some who have challenged some of the things I've said, and that's perfectly Ok. It proves one thing. People are thinking. Keep at it. Please keep thinking. And let's exchange LOGICAL ideas. Not emotion. Such illogical emotion doesn't gain diddly. But, the essence of reality is in our minds. It's the most precious commodity that we have. Our minds are the individual link to the universal Infinity. But thinking is very practical. It is our right, our heritage, our freedom. Thinking and reasoning must NOT be muzzled by any whacko group.

That's what happened (and is now happening with Worldwide Church of God+ extensions) to us all. When anyone - no matter who - tells you exactly what to believe, then please, watch out.

We have an infinity to learn, and an infinity of time (in time/space) to learn it. Let's not let the ignorants of religion clamp the chastity belt onto our minds. Only by an open mind can we look, learn, and walk in a path that is right for us.

We must trust our own instincts, and not that of some yo-yo behind a pulpit, on TV, in a "church" building, or within the confines of some antique book. Unless we open our minds and receptivity to ideas, then we're just as imprisoned as we were in Worldwide Church of God. Granted, we'll all make mistakes on our road to truth, and that's Ok too. But who can tell me that anything great ever came from a scenario that was NOT preceded by multiple mistakes? Every great achievement in history had a pathway that was loaded with blunders, stupidity, and failure. That's how we learn. We learn mainly by finding out what NOT to do. Was ours any different simply because we trusted? This was only a diversion from our path to show us what NOT to do. It wasn't any punishment. It was only a lesson that we needed to be learned and reinforced.

And now we've grown beyond the cultish mentality of the "new improved" cultmasters of the Worldwide Church of God+, who it appears, would like to be the "new improved" Apostle Herbie - and there are plenty of contenders. However, we can really only trust those facts which we can actually prove, or deduce logically.

This methodology is the only common sense way. If I'm wrong in this approach, then I'm open to proof otherwise. But, if we "lock" into any given theology, philosophy, or life stance, then we invariably shut out any further input. It's our personal decision to constantly keep an open mind and not trust ANY source. We can look, examine, toss it around, and then make up our minds. If it's provable, then we can build on it. Blind emotion (as in Worldwide Church of God) need never form a part of our thinking equation. It can only destroy us.

Do not duplicate, copy or redistribute in any form without prior written consent.

Disclaimer