You Cannot Force Someone To Be Happy.

Herbert Armstrong would always say that the role of the Overseer - the spirit being Worldwide Church of God God-Being in the Millennium - under Christ - would be to FORCE people, through the enforcement of Law under Jesus Christ - to be happy - by teaching them the ways of the Law and swift punishment for disobedience to that Law.

This reason was partially enforced by his literal interpretation of the scripture of Zechariah 14, which claimed that all the nations that do not go to Jerusalem for the Feast would receive no rain.

Of course, this was an allegorical parable to those who had not yet been revealed the spiritual mysteries of God which were made possible through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the indwelling of the Spirit which reconciles us to the Father. No one in the Old Testament days of Zechariah could ever understand that this scripture - like all the scriptures in the Law and the Prophets - pointed directly to Jesus Christ. And neither could Herbert Armstrong.

There's one aspect, however, that even a literal interpretation - what Herbert Armstrong was best at - cannot nullify. And that aspect is the freedom of choice that humanity has been given. No, freedom of choice does not eliminate consequence. But you are always free to choose whether or not you will follow Christ, or if you will not. If you will receive rain from heaven, or if you will not - the blessings of living life abundantly in Jesus, or the consequences of "no rain".

The aspect of kingship that Herbert Armstrong drooled over was very apparent in what was approved for the musicals he allowed in the Young Ambassador Festival of Music. One musical that was allowed into the Festival Film was "The King and I". In this musical, you have a display of a very authoritative king who is used to yielding all power and control over his subjects, produced in 1956. Such a musical would certainly have appealed to Herbert's love of power and control - and especially ruling. This was, exactly, the kind of kingship that Herb and Hirelings, through psychological trickery and deception, chained their tithe slaves with day in and day out. But through all of this trickery and deceipt - one thing he never did was forced anyone to be happy.

Herbert never was able to take away the freedom of choice from the members of his cult. He may have been able to deceive people into thinking leaving his cult was the worst thing they could ever do. Why, they'd be reduced to working manual labor. They'd be possessed by blood-thirsty demons. They'd have no friends, no life - in this age, or in the age to come. Good for nothings. This power of deception, however, was overcome by many who did leave the cult, and through overcoming, began to see through the lies and trickery with a clear head and conscience. Herbert was never able to force anyone to be happy.

The truth is, you cannot force anyone - for any reason - to be happy. In fact, forcing people - the exact words that Herbert used - is, in every way, illegal in spiritual and human law.

Forcing someone to do anything is a violation of free will - the one thing that God has always put as a prime directive for everyone - physically and even spiritually. God did not force Satan to be happy and content. He did not force the demons to do His will. He did not stop them from rebelling. He never stopped them from interfering with humanity. He never stopped "the serpent" from offering "Eve" the "Apple". You will never find in scripture God forcing ANYONE to do anything they did not want to do. God did not even FORCE Jesus to sacrifice Himself, and to become sin for us. Jesus himself said if he wanted to, he could call upon thousands of angels to minister to him. Jesus CHOSE to do what He did for us. He CHOSE to lay down His life for us. And by choosing to do so, he became worthy of all honor and praise and kingship.

In reality, Herbert's love of "Force" should be scary to anyone who hears or looks into it. Herbert's ministry of force was evident in everything he did. From forcing members to become ordained (they didn't have a choice). From forcing ministers never to retire. (They didn't have a choice) To forcing members as to where to go for the Feast, to what Hotel - they didn't have a choice either. To forcing members as to how to dress, or what they can or can't do on a certain day. (They didn't have a choice). Everything in Herbert's mind was FORCE. A rod of iron. A fist and a sword.

Of course, he would say, "I'm not forcing anyone! You have choice! If you want to go, GO! We don't need you anyway!" In so many words. Yet, he was forcing his way. And he did this with and through fear of consequence if you did not obey. That you would be HAPPY under his control and his power. That you would be HAPPY as his tithe slave. That you would be HAPPY under the rule of his interpretation of all powerful Law. And that you would be DEAD - spiritually - if you dared rebel and go do your own thing - words he despised.

But none of this was true.



Jesus taught that in his Spirit, there is freedom, there is liberty, and there is peace. Jesus said that his yoke is easy, and his burden is light. The Apostles taught the power of living a life of love and service to your fellow man - to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus taught his disciples to CHOOSE life. To CHOOSE to do right. To CHOOSE to be a great example. To CHOOSE.

Even in the book of Matthew, in Chapter 25, Jesus spoke specifically of the freedom of choice. He said that there would be two groups of people. Those who chose to serve - to visit the sick, the jailed, the widows, the orphans - and those who did not. He never indicated once he would force them to do anything while living life on Earth. He never once said anything about commanding them to do this or that. He never took away their choice. There were simply those who chose to, and those who chose not to. He did not force them. He showed them a way, and set an example. The choice was always up to them.

Just as such, by the imposition of dictatorial force, you cannot command happiness. You cannot command rejoicing. You cannot tell someone they have to be happy at a certain time and a certain place. (Yes, they tried this too, at the Feast.) You cannot force unity. You cannot force positive emotion. The most you can do is create a fraud. Someone who appears happy, someone who appears joyful, someone who appears in line - but inside, could be depressed, angry, sad, frustrated, down, discouraged, and downtrodden. This is not "the Government of God". This is nothing but the worship of appearances and the culture of lies from the inward self out to all a person encounters. It's a culture of evil, lacking honesty and truth.

The idea of "forcing" people to be happy is contrary to every word and every verse in the word of God. God is a God that allows choice - and consequence to those choices. God is also a God who is very clear what Justice he serves on those who violate someone else's choice - that is, forces someone to go against their free moral will in life. This "Government of God" of Herbert Armstrong?

It was not the "Government of God" at all. It was the "Government of Dictatorial Force and Power" - the government of oppression. 

No. You can never force someone to be happy.

Happiness is only accomplished when your choices fulfill your destiny, and your purpose. 

Whatever that may be.

Herbert Armstrong's Words on Child Rearing: Only suitable For Printing on Charmin.

Herb's Perfect Child. 

The psychologists who reject the revealed Word of God cannot rightly teach you how to rear children. They do not know what the human mind is. Unless they have the Holy Spirit — and I know of no such psychologists — they are incompetent to teach authoritatively on child rearing.*(HWA)

In my previous posts, I have brought up a portion of mindfulness that involves the balance required between the emotional mind and the logical mind, and balancing out the two extremes to find a good meeting ground for common sense.This led me to thinking about the aspect of childhood behavior.

I'm not a pediatrician or a child expert at all. So this is not going to be anything scientific or rooted in any kind of great knowledge. It's just going to be an opinion piece. So take that with a grain of whatever it's worth. Nothing I say here is substantiated by any expert or personal skill. They're the thoughts of a writer who is simply expressing thoughts, which can be discussed in the comments section below.

Herbert Armstrong, the leader of the Worldwide Church of God, the cult that I grew up in and thought was the one true church - would often say in his letters about children:

" In earliest childhood, Satan — the invisible spirit ruler of this world — begins to work on the child's mind. He broadcasts not in words, sounds or pictures, but in attitudes of selfishness, hostility, disagreement, resentment and self-will. Many parents neglect teaching their children's minds. They wait until teachers at school can teach them."*


 In Herbert's mind, the "attitudes" of selfishness, of hostility, disagreement, resentment, and self-will were "satanic" - an influence from an evil spirit. I contest this thinking wholeheartedly as absolute malarkey.

When a child is born, a child is absolutely and completely innocent, and without knowledge. A child has absolutely no concept of what is or is not logic. He only knows emotion. Logic is acquired through experience, when you have enough information to deduce that something is not going to harm you. 

This afternoon, while I was looking out the window, I saw a young mother walking her little baby (just old enough to toddle walk in diapers). The baby tried to run a little to catch up to her, who was just about ten feet up the sidewalk with groceries. The baby tripped on his own feet, and immediately began an instinctive cry. This was emotion - displayed because if insufficient knowledge to make a logical analysis on the situation that the hurt was only temporary. Since there was no balance on the "logical" bank, the "emotional" bank took over because it's all the brain had. A child never has problems displaying emotion. It knows nothing at all abut logic. 

The emotional side of a baby is very sensitive and learns quickly. A baby remembers, but does not have the logic to know how to logically use emotional information. If a parent removes a bottle of juice from a baby's mouth, the baby will react, cry, and remember. The next time the baby is given juice, the child will deduce because of lack of knowledge to form logic that the parent is simply just going to take the juice away, and will pull back. This is what Herbert would call selfishness, or an "attitude problem", and would blame Satan. He would call this a baby being "in disagreement". 



But, even though limited to only the human spirit, he still had a mind that could think, reason, calculate, make decisions. What an animal does is by instinct. What a human does is by thought — by reason — by decision!
Now see where this leads us. You train a growing child as you would train a dog or an elephant to do certain things a certain way. In some cases, because it has become habit, he may not change it.- HWA*

Resentment is learned. If a parent acts harshly to a baby, the baby's emotional side will remember. Resentment is not an attribute that just "happens". Resentment often happens because of mistreatment of the only thing a baby has - emotions. Any "logic" the baby has built up is extremely limited, and harsh treatment of a baby can take up a large part of the baby's "logical" banks. There's just nothing else to go on. To say satan "injects" resentment into a baby is simply to deny that the person saying such never did anything to cause resent in the first place. Common sense says this isn't the case. There are babies that have severe emotional problems due to a brain chemical imbalance which causes them to act in a way that is not appropriate. Herbert would call this "satanic". He'd probably try to exorcise it then get it the help it needs clinically!

Self-will? It's interesting that Herbert calls this "Satanic", since he himself admits he himself was full of this problem and caused his parents a world of trouble. as far as babies go, it's a driving part of their intense curiosity to learn about their whole new world. Only an authoritarian would call this drive "self-will" and think of it as evil. 

Instead of recognizing the makeup of the human mind - the emotional brain, and the logical brain, and seeing how this develops in our earliest years, and observing the sensitivity of the emotional mind and the lack of logic a baby has which is developed only through experiences and the acquisition of knowledge - Herbert only saw things through the mind of a dictatorial authoritarian, where any attitudes of natural emotional development were automatically a satanic spirit dead set about being rebellious. 

There can be no calculating how harmful, illogical, and stupid this kind of thinking was, and did to the precious babies who were simply developing and learning based on the only knowledge they had.

Just a statement: If I was HWA's baby, (Thank God I wasn't!)  I too, think I would become self-willed, stubborn, rebellious, hostile, disagreeable and selfish. 

Oh yeah - I forgot - just look at Garner Ted!
 
*The Plain Truth About Child Rearing, Plain Truth, October 1984. HWA. 


 

Using Logic-Mindfulness to Help Heal from Emotional Abuse

Thinking Logically can Help Heal Wounds

If there's one thing that provokes deep emotion - it's the bully.

Unfortunately, bullying seems to start as soon as a person begins to integrate with society. And many times, the reason is very, very simple: The victim of the bully is somehow perceived as different.

Maybe the young person stands out because of what that individual is not. Perhaps that individual is uncoordinated, or un-athletic. Perhaps that individual has poor eyesight, or hearing. Perhaps that person has an impediment, or a disability. Regardless of the reason, the bully feels the need to use their appearance of superiority to enhance themselves and diminish the other person. It's emotional - regardless of the amount of negativity, it's rooted deeply in emotion.

Bullying is not confined to children, however. Bullying can ,and does, happen in colleges, at work, in homes, in public places - wherever there are people, there's bound to be a bully. And the end results are always the same: Discouragement, Retraction, Isolation, loss of confidence, and avoidance. And invariably, you begin to forget the good things you are, or simply not believe the good things you are,  and only concentrate on the bad things that you are, which leads to a very, very skewed perception of your reality that changes who you are, and eats at you little by little, like a slowly growing cancer.

I was a bully victim in my youth, be cause I was different - and by the very people that were supposed to be the ones you'd think you could trust not to be bullies. I'm talking about the kids of the Church.

Not that they did not have "good reason". My clothes were different, coming from a poor family. My athleticism was nearly non-existent, since I was in non-traditional education. My behavior was non-conformed, because of a great deal of time away from church. In short, I did not fit the mold. I did not "cut the cheese". I did not make the grade to get into the cliques of youthfulness, where acceptance and coolness are everything, and maturity and wisdom are literally non-existent. It's never a good feeling to be the target of any form of bullying.

What a bully says to you does not define you. It does not validate their beliefs. And more than anything, it does not determine who you are, or what you can or cannot accomplish. A bully runs on emotion, who has not learned yet the skills of being logic-minded. And because their analysis of "you" is not logical, it's not "logical" that their opinion of you is truth.

 Using the skills I have learned, the reality of what I went through in the Church with bullies is this:

I was raised and born in a cult environment. That's a fact.

I was not the only one messed up. That's a huge fact. A lot of problems were brought on by the doctrines themselves, and the result of buying into those doctrines and how it affected entire families.

Nearly everyone, in some degree or another, was as messed up as I was. Even the most liberal of the families. We all had our issues. We all had our problems. We all had our struggles. And we all had our own methods to deal with what we went through. Because we all were in the same authoritive, dictatorial way of life which rejected so much of what living is about, and separating ourselves from just about everybody except for those just like us - how could we be expected to not have difficulties? To think I was the only one who was different than the others just couldn't be the case. Once every one of us went into "the world" into school or into work, it didn't matter who we were. Each of us were the oddball. Each of us were the one kid who didn't keep Christmas, or Easter - or participate in any "worldly" thing, or were kept home from Friday night or Saturday activities. Each of us were the different one. Every one of us was the target. And when we all met together at church - the misplaced anger from their experiences was then targeted to the weakest of the church group. In short, we all went through it. This doesn't excuse them, or any bully. But it does help to understand the emotions that were hidden in all of us.

There are causes for every situation, and logical explanations for every question. And thinking back, using logical mindfulness, instead of emotion-driven butt-hurt, can lead to discoveries that pop out that emotion can be quick to consume. If we can get past the emotions that consumed us with the things that have hurt us so much in the past, and look at things with logical-mindfulness, the only effect can be realizations that will help you see things in a new perspective, that can only benefit with healing and recovery.

When you use logical mindfulness to those moments that brought you the most hurt, it can help a great deal to cope with those who haven't yet mastered the skill of the resource of logic-mindfulness, as you put yourself in their shoes, and realize that the root cause of their behavior isn't because you are who you are - it's because they have not accepted and do not like who they are, and using you as a target of their own insecurities.

The ever hurtful people I remember were such ornery, cantankerous kids in the youth group of my past are all grown up now, with children, and some with even grandchildren. There is truth to the phrase "this too, shall pass". To everything there is a season. And regardless of the paths that we have taken in life, nothing can change the way that it was. The only thing I can change is what i do with the memories I hold with me today, and the life that I have in the years to come. And using the tools of logic-mindfulness in the way I address the past, and the ability to change the future, there's progress, a little at a time.

When a Church Violates Your Sacred Trust

I was born into a cult. Born in it.

This is important to understand in the context of this post.

Being born into a way of thinking - a mind-frame - is a way more potent form of indoctrination then making the choice to enter a cult after first being established in a former way of thinking. Of course, this is not the only factor into how intense the indoctrination is.

Other factors include the level of fear that the family shows on violating the doctrines of the cult, the level of adherence to all of the doctrines and expectations of the cult, and how receptive the person born into the cult actually is (the level of rebellion set pretty low.) In my case - the level of fear was at the top of the chain (out of my control, there were issues), the adherence level was borderline neurotic, and I was born with a trusting personality. All of this combined to create the perfect atmosphere for what I call Cultic Brainwashing Syndrome.

The trust factor was exponentially high for me.

The full and trusted, never-questioned authority in my mind, due to this high dose of toxic indoctrination, meant one thing in my mind: The word of the Minister WAS the word. In fact, I can remember staunchly defending the doctrines of the Church as far and as young as I can remember to anyone who would hear me, making me automatically the weirdo and the reject. (I'd even so far as VOLUNTEER the information to an unsuspecting Normal Person.) I fully expected the trumpet to sound, Christ to return, and eventually, we'd be sitting pretty ruling, and I'd finally get my own planet. MY very own planet to dictate to. I never took the time to imagine I could possibly be given a useless, impossible-to-develop, solid-less GAS planet, with the fiercest storms and most toxic atmosphere ever thought of - just full of hot air a place you'd never want to be. (Isn't this an apt description!)

When I grew older, and fully accepted the Armstrong dogmas, and was baptized, living my life in full assurance of Armstrongism (cognitive dissonance and all), my trust in the Church was violated in the space of two hours. The two hours when Joseph W. Tkach, The Head Honcho of the Church, blew apart everything that I ever believed and accepted in the Church. And I do mean, everything.

Herbert Armstrong (LEFT) and Joseph Tkach (RIGHT)

It helps if you look at this in terms of a relationship. It was as if your spouse, who spent 20 years of your marriage presenting exactly the way she was, in full belief of you, took you aside, and in ten minutes told you she was living a double life, was getting a sex change, had a girlfriend for all of those 20 years, had three children you did not know, and oh, by the way - went and did things all the time she told you she hated. It was a shell-shocking blast worthy of Krakatoa.

Now, imagine if this person did this in a cold, calloused, unfeeling, like it or leave it matter, suddenly, without preparation - and told you this is how it was, without even a real, heartfelt, believable apology.

This is the impact. It was like your pastor, your minister, your link to salvation, walked up to you, pulled out a pair of pliers, and yanked out your teeth. No sedation, no drug, no warning. And then said, now you need to learn to eat properly. Have fun with it.

This church violated my sacred trust. It was a relationship. Abusive as it was, it was still a relationship. The extent of the damage of that day could not be measured until many, many years later, undergoing intensive and extensive de-programming therapy.

What do you do when a church violates your sacred trust then? Denominationally, or individually - what can you do? Is there even a way forward? How does one even know how to think? Or how to ever trust again?

I'm not a psychologist. I'm not an expert at how this all works. All I can do is tell you what I was.

I was angry. I was confused. I did not know what to think. And when I investigated further, I became more shocked to discover the truth about not only the church I trusted, but every other factual piece of truth that crumbled every conception I had about the organization that made my life what it was. I felt betrayed. Depression, sadness, and deeper shock set in with every piece of evidence that proved to me that things weren't what I thought they were.

This violation of trust opened my mind to discovering things I had never seen before. I had never noticed the extent of the carnal and horrid nature of Herbert Armstrong. I had never really known the extent of Garner Ted's double life of debauchery. I had never realized how the Co-Worker letters were nothing but fear-laden sales letters, or how hundreds on hundreds of prophecies failed, or how many lies were told to the children of the church by all levels of leadership. I never knew about the massive "ambassador extravagence", or the deceptions involved with financing the master plan of the College on one hand, and getting money by telling the church the world was going to end and give, give, give as a final push on the other hand. I never saw the "coincidences" that were not coincidences at all that fit every puzzle piece together. I never understood the incongruity of the entire farce, until it hit me as a slap in the face of what the church I was involved in actually was - a business, under the pretense of a church.

Not only was my trust violated - but my every perception of what I had lived in thrust me into having to rewire every conception of what I believed was truth. I had to literally rewire, and rethink every thing that I held dear, and try to make sense of the world around me with new eyes, and with new vision. I felt like an alien, stripped of all sense of knowing and reality. This, in conjunction with many other life-issues I will not go into here - was simply a hell hole from the ass of a dragon.

How is it that I was able to accept? To move on? To learn to live?

First - I had to understand that I did not order the circumstances that defined my life. I was not at fault for the things that made my life what it was. I was caught up in something that was completely beyond my control and my abilities. Blaming myself, or wallowing in a pity party for the cards I was dealt, was useless. What was, is what was, and it is, what it is. Period. This came very clear to me after I nearly lost my life due to my medical conditions.

The ability to learn to think logically was paramount. A peaceful scene helps. 

Second - I had to accept the things that I could not change. The serenity prayer is very, very useful and true. God, grant me the serenity, to accept the things I cannot change, to change the things I can change, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Third - I needed help. This was the hardest part. I could not do this on my own. This was beyond me and my faculties to handle. So I had to bite the bullet - and get the de-programming help that I needed. My life depended on it. I had to learn how to handle the anxiety and the stress that the environment fueled, so my heart would have a better chance of avoiding a fatal relapse.

Fourth - I had to realize that the church I grew up in was composed of imperfect people. I had to understand what I always sang... "Put your trust not in mortals, for in them is no help." I had personal, absolute, irrefutable evidence of the involvement of Jesus in my life. Without Him, and the way He managed the way things happened as only a Superior Intelligence could, I guarantee you I would be dead right now, at this minute.

Most importantly, and finally. I had to learn to forgive.

Forgiving Herbert Armstrong is important to do. It's a work in progress. (Envoy)

The Worldwide Church of God was a church that violated my trust. It took everything away from me. But the Worldwide Church of God was composed of imperfect people running a worldly organization in worldly ways. The true Church of God is spiritual - and is composed of people who are known by their fruits, not by physical signs - but by the spiritual recognition of love for one another. It was vital that I learned that to move forward, I had to forgive each and every one of them.

Let's be honest. Have I done so? Completely? Totally? Do you expect me to say yes? I can't. I'm still working on it. But that's the honest, truthful answer. I'm not angry anymore - I'm right now in a process of rehabilitation. But I am trying. And I'm not going to lie when my heart is telling me that absolute forgiveness hasn't happened yet - totally and completely. But I understand that it is something that I am striving for, and with the help of God, I will be able to, someday, and hopefully soon, be able to say to Herbert, and to Joe, and all the others in my mind, yes, I absolutely and wholeheartedly forgive you. Because until I can imagine looking at Herbert Armstrong in my minds' eye and embracing him with a forgiving hug, instead of blasting him with words and forcing him to hear my side until I'm done - I don't think I am there yet.

Dealing with when a Church violates your Sacred Trust takes time. And patience. And effort. But it is a process that cannot be ignored, or swept under the rug. It is a process you must take. And it is a process you must not take alone. In the multitude of council there is wisdom. Embrace it. Swallow your pride, and let others work with you to move forward.

It's definitely and absolutely worth the effort.

Emotional Mind, Logical Mind - and Armstrongism's Impact

One of the tools that has been very helpful to me with the detoxification and deprogramming of Armstrongism's influence in my life has been the discovery of the spectrum of thought that people have between the two extremes of mindfulness - the Emotional Mind, which is FAR on the left, and the Logical Mind, which is FAR on the right. And no, I am not speaking politically here.

The Emotional mind, as I have learned, is a mind whose decisions and whose actions are influenced by emotion. To the degree of which depends on where you fit on the scale.

The Logical mind is a mind whose decisions and actions are influenced by how the mind determines the logic or rationality of the situation. Also, to the degree if which depends on where you fit on that scale.

People fall all over on this spectrum - depending on their circumstances. Some have a full-left emotional mind, which causes them to behave based solely on emotion. This can be very detrimental to sound reasoning, tantrums, and a huge variety of different emotional characteristics. Some have a full-right logical mind, which causes them to tune out any form of emotion, and make decisions based solely on how logical or reasonable, or rational a solution may be, without consideration of the emotional part, which seems rather useless and "illogical" to them. The "ideal" between the two to reach some degree of balance is, of course, a balanced position in the middle - where emotion and logic intertwine and create a healthy way of thinking - in a perfect world, anyway.

And now, we enter in Armstrongism.

The entire premise of Armstrongism was rooted in emotion. This may seem contradictory at first glance. After all, Armstrongism seemed to denounce and squash any kind of emotion with the intensity of a steel crusher in many cases - such as, when you feel inspiring music, squelch it - hold the inappropriate applause. Yet the emotion that they used to bring in the converts to their way of thinking was a very profound emotion - fear. This swung people, and quickly, to the emotional mindset (even the logical minded people.)

The decisions made then, when entering, and in armstrongism had the element of emotionalism involved - even when it did not seem like it was emotionalism. There was always thoughts like:

• Am I going to qualify? (Fear you will not, and end up destroyed.)
• Am I trying hard enough? (Fear you are not, end up a slacker, and end up destroyed.)
• Should I do what I'm told, even though I don't think it's right? (For fear of disobedience, and end up put out of the church and destroyed.)
• Did I just break a commandment? (For fear you've angered God, and end up destroyed.)
• Am I really trying hard enough for grace to cover me for my law breaking? (same story.)

The emotion that tipped the scale of most people from the logical to the emotional side was the emotion of fear. This is what made the doctrines of Herbert Armstrong thrive. And when you are tipped on the scale from the logical side to the emotional side - then you begin to succomb to the demands of the one who is instilling the fear in you.

Fear is not always logical. Fear is enhanced by believing the person or the thing making you fearful. For instance, look at the claims that Herbert Armstrong always made.

• I speak for Christ. I am an Apostle. I have divine authority. What I say goes. 
• I have the power to loose and to bind. My power is from God. 
• I have the only true gospel that has ever been preached in 1900 years. I am God's chosen vessel.
• Disobeying me and the ministers is the same as disobeying Christ. 
• If you aren't obeying the Government of God (me), you aren't really in the Church.

 These of course, are just a few points that were designed to program you to believe in the claims of his interpretations of his doctrines. But that was just the start. Now let's look at what he would call those who did not measure up to him (once the fear element was believed.)

• Slacker, coward, lukewarm, unconverted, slothful, rebellious, lazy, selfish, deceived, covetous, idolatrous (and many, many more.)

All of this played to the emotional side (even for the logically minded people). Once you were trapped in the fear - and then believed the negative statements for not doing as much as you should be doing (whether spiritually, financially, or physically), then you have tripped completely to the emotion-based mind, and are trapped in the "spell" of Armstrongism - tithe, pray, and obey - for fear you will anger the minister, or that you will anger God - to the detriment of the well being of you, your family, your friends, and everyone else you have known.

One might think they're being logical because of Herbert's "evidence". But when looking at Herbert's way of reasoning in his booklets, papers, and writings - it is riddled FULL of emotionalism throughout. He had catchphrases that he always used with his logic to demean, and beat down, and insult the intelligence and logical reasoning of those who would read his material. It doesn't take but a few paragraphs into his writings to read them, and see how often he talked down to his readers.

• "You may be surprised to know".
• "Do you?"
• "Now listen to GOD'S teaching."
• "This is what you should have done."
•  "LISTEN! Understand this."
• "Read it ALL"
• "NOTICE it!"

These subtle wordings dispelled your logical mind to give more measure to your emotional mind. Call it "trickery" if you want to - but it causes you to place weight emotionally without truly considering it logically. It's also a technique used by salespeople to create emotion to make you buy a product. Who, by the way, also use fear to enhance urgency. "You've got to buy this today, we might not have any left, and then you're completely out of luck. We won't have another sale like this. Don't miss out, because there's none less after this!" - well, that is, until tomorrow. "Oh, we got an unexpected shipment. But THIS is truly the last time! Act TODAY!"

So when it comes to the emotional mind vs. the logical mind in Armstrongism - how do we possibly begin to reason in balance? If the goal truly is balance.

What I've done, and what works for me, is to:

• Breathe, relax, and break down what's being said - factually. 
• Rule out the "what if's". "What if's" rarely become the real story. 
• Find out what the real truth of the matter is - not what you have been told it is, or think it is. 

In the case of armstrongism, there are logical explanations to their claims that have to be looked at, if we are to think logically.

• Factually - there has not been one prophecy they have uttered that has come true. 
• Factually - their claims of the World Tomorrow have not happened. 
• Factually - there are many ministers who have been verified as having unchristian fruits.

It would be a good idea to make a list of the facts that you have experienced - without the emotion, without the "hype", without anything but the honest truth of what you are experiencing. Then, to write down the FACTS of what impacts that your experiences have caused or done. This is logic-minded - without the fear or the emotional baggage that has been cast onto you through the emotional mind.

This is what has worked for me. It may not work for you exactly, and nothing I say should be construed as advice you should necessarily do - I'm not a professional, and anything I recommend is only what I have done, and has helped me - and you do at your own risk (I'm saying, this may not do a darn thing for you.)

Learning the logical mind, the emotional mind, and ridding yourself of the influence of FEAR is, without any doubt, one of the most important things that I have learned since undergoing de-programming from the toxic cultish influences of Armstrongism in my life.

May God grant you the healing and the ability to grow onward in blessing in your life.