Prophecitus Armstrongitus

There's a syndrome out there in COG-Land.

Syndrome: "a characteristic combination of opinions, emotions, or behavior."

It's a syndrome that is marked by delusions, illusions of grandeur, false statements, inability to acknowledge error, erroneous suppositions, and repetition. This syndrome has been ongoing for over 60 years.

That syndrome - though, of course, not officially recognized - is what I will call....

 Prophecitus Armstrongitus. 

Prophecitus Armstrongitus is a tendency to speak forth prophecies (the attempt at foretelling the future) using the Bible, doctrines of Armstrongism, or both, to further and advance their belief system in an attempt to cause others to believe their dogmas as well. 

Though most have Prophecitus Armstrongitus in it's more benign stage (they won't actively spread Prophecitus Armstrongitus, but will defend the prophecies if provoked)- a few have what I will call Malignant Acute Prophecitus Armstrongitus. (MAPA). Those who have MAPA will stop at nothing to proclaim their delusions as truth to the impair and detriment of those who believe what is being said - REGARDLESS of how badly such prophecies have failed.

Malignant Acute Prophecitus Armstrongitus is in my opinion mentally dangerous. Those who succomb to one who has MAPA will first become excited and act on the delusions with belief and expectation. However, the prophecies by those with MAPA always fail. Once these prophecies fail, then the one who succombed to the syndrome will experience depression, anxiety, despair, dissonance, anger, frustration, resentment, discouragement, and may also succomb to long-lasting effects of doubt, distrust, and spiritual harm that may lead to agnostic or atheistic tendencies.

Those who have MAPA will not be able to admit their failures. They will either blame a lack of understanding and set a new timeframe in the not to distant future, or state it has been fulfilled in an ethereal or intangible way, which was different than first prophesied. Often, they will then issue a whole new set of prophecies in addition to the first one.

Those with MAPA are extremely cunning and deceptive, and usually appear to be intelligent. Their speech is smooth, as butter. Often, their response to criticism of any form is rash anger. Some go to the other extreme and avoid any response at all.

A few seem to have displayed strange physical symptoms as an awkward lean, wild gestures, and an apparent astigmatism when it comes to constructing bookcases. OK, I just had to throw that in there. 

How then, can one avoid the snare of MAPA?

First, vaccinate yourself with the Word of God. The Bible is clear that false prophets speak presumptuously. Many claim they are speaking for God when they are not. They are deluded and are speaking out of their own minds. When their prophecies fail to happen - which they always will - pay them no attention whatsoever, and ignore any power they profess to have. They have none. The only "power" they have is to get you to believe. Once they are proven false, you know that they are speaking only of the delusional effects of MAPA.

Second, use discernment. Is what they are saying in line with the Gospel of Jesus Christ? If it isn't, pay them no attention.

Third - use history as a defense. Armstrongism has a long and detailed - and firmly established record of failed prophecies over 60 years. If one with MAPA is fully converted with the doctrines of Armstrongism, the chances of any of their prophecies to EVER happen is .000001%.

Fourth - know what is and is not a prophecy. If one with MAPA attempts to say they are uttering a prophecy, but uses words as a disclaimer to give them an out (likely, seemingly, possibly, maybe, could, perhaps), these are NOT prophecies at all. They are simply suggesting a possible outcome, no matter how they brand it. A real prophecy has a definitive date, time, and fulfillment without room for error. Not one REAL prophecy uttered by one with MAPA syndrome has EVER happened. Even the suggested outcomes rarely ever happen, if at all.

MAPA feeds on the false doctrinal systems which malignantly spread in the 20th century by Herbert Armstrong. Herbert Armstrong's skill and cunning deceptions were propagated by recognition and implementation of advertising psychological methods on target audiences. Many have attempted to replicate his success. None have even come close.

Recovery is a process from one who has been victimized by MAPA. Prayer, support, time, and therapy will slowly begin to heal one from the symptoms of MAPA. The sooner, the better. Each case is different.

*****Of COURSE, a disclaimer: MAPA is NOT an official syndrome, nor recognized as a syndrome by any real syndrome authority. Yet - The effects of false prophecies by those in Armstrongism ARE real. Don't pay any attention to those who speak presumptuously. They will always be wrong - and will always try to take your hard earned money on the pretense of the authority of tithing laws of the Old Testament. Don't learn the hard way how many wolves are out there in sheep's clothing. ********

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. 


 

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.

Cult Recovery Lesson: I Have the Right to Make Mistakes and Not Have to Be Perfect

This is the third installment of a series on "Basic Rights" by the Blog Owner. 


Overcome! Don't Slack! Or It's the Lake of Fire for YOU!

From the time I was a toddler, just able to hear - these are the words I heard (perhaps, without understanding - but heard, nonetheless). When I was old enough to understand by hearing and by reading - the expectations, subconscious or blatant - were clear. The life I was to lead was very special, as a child of my parents called out of the world. A life of continual overcoming.








I am not saying it's wrong to overcome. "Overcoming" means to clear hurdles and change from ways that are bad for you - like addictions, trauma, depression, pride and greed, for example. It's what you do when you realize you are in a pattern, for whatever reason, that is causing you, or somebody else, negative impacts - that may be in your relationship as a husband or a wife, as a son or daughter, or a father or a mother. Overcoming can be a good thing in these examples.

Overcoming can also be a truly bad thing - if it's abused.

When you are forced to change your individuality - and told to overcome the basic person of who you are - then it's not overcoming. It's control. When you are forced to conform to a mold that is not who you are - then that's not overcoming. It's dictatorial command. When you are told to overcome every aspect of your life that has no relevance to anything spiritual or harmful - than that's not overcoming. That's unauthorized power. And all of it's a form of abuse.

Our expectations in the cult (in my experience - each person has a different story) were to overcome everything that made us individual and unique. Our hairstyles, dress, mannerisms, speech, and what we ate were strictly regulated - things we had to overcome. We had to overcome "worldly" friendships, the fear of tithing over a quarter of our income, and our basic common sense when a ministerial order simply was the stupidest thing you ever heard in your life - but because "it came from a minister of God", obedience was mandatory, and God would "take care of it" in His own time.

Our idea of overcoming was becoming perfect as God is perfect by being as close to as perfect as possible in obedience to the Law, which we interpreted as the expression of holy love - Law keeping. Therefore, when we fell short on our expectations, we fell short on our overcoming - and we risked "not qualifying", or "not making it". We had to expend tremendous energies to simply try our best, not slack, to try to become "good enough" to hopefully qualify to "make it", and somehow have worked hard enough that God would see our efforts and His grace would then grade on the curve and we'd be accepted in His sight.

This caused - for me at least - an intense fear of extreme failure, and a perfectionist nature that made me have an extreme phobia of wrong-doing, of any sort, no matter how minor or trivial. You may see this as extreme. And it is. That does not change it's reality. It is only through years of de-programming and understanding reality that I am beginning to realize, slowly, a realization that is like a ray of light. I'm not there yet in grasping this. But it's this realization that:

I Have the right to make mistakes and not have to be perfect. 

I do not have to accept condemnation on my shortcomings and my downfalls, or take them internally as I have on a lifelong basis. I do not have to accept the harsh criticisms of those who pridefully and arrogantly assert themselves as unqualified experts. More than this - I have had to learn, and am learning, that making mistakes is a part of life, and it is not going to disqualify me from any future reward - so long as I don't engage in harmful activities that go against the golden rule - "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you."

When you grow up in an environment where you believe that you will be cut off from God for accidentally doing something illegal on the Sabbath one minute before sunset, or forgetting your offering on a Holy Day, or accidentally having a sip of water on the Day of Atonement - or leaving a crumb of bread in the sofa during the Days of Unleavened Bread. When you grow up being judged on your appearance, on your clothes - or you are condemned because you slipped and said "Darn" or "Fart" instead of stinker - (yes, I know - but it's what it was) - and your expectations were to be nothing short of the best role model of the Kingdom that you can be in life and in the Church - you don't believe you have the "right" to make mistakes or the "right" to not be perfect.

And a person never discovers the reality of who they are, individually, or who they can become or what their talents or abilities really are. They simply become a drone in a sea of drones, acting and behaving and seeing and hearing only in ways that make them a conformer, not an individual. It is better to be and live who you are in truth and reality then pretend you're someone you are not in a lie.

Yes, Jesus told us to overcome. But that did not counteract the right we have to learn, to grow, to make mistakes, and to accept our imperfections. The environment of the cult that I grew up in did not believe that. And the harm it is causing people stifled under their oppressive regimes cannot be underestimated.

Learning who I am as a person takes time and patience. I'm not there. But discovering my individuality and freeing myself from the mind control of the Cult Drones - that's freeing. It's one of the lessons I'm trying to grasp in my ongoing journey of recovery.


Basic rights adapted from The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook by Eugene Bourne (Oakland, CA, New Barbringer Publications, 1995)