AThe Emporia Gazette Emporia, Kansas Thursday, May 11, 1972 - Page 2
Garner Ted Exiled
Reprinted by permission from ©TIME, the Weekly News-magazine.
UNTIL LAST fall, lean, gray-templed Garner Ted Armstrong was the quintessential religious soft-sell artist. His program called THE WORLD TOMORROW was carried on some 400 radio and 99 TV stations. His slick, free monthly called THE PLAIN TRUTH went to 2,100,000 subscribers. To the millions of Americans who followed him, Garner Ted dispensed glib solutions to such problems …
AT FIRST, Herbert told W.C.G. members that Garner Ted was simply taking a long overdue leave of absence. Then, in February, the inner church membership — about 75,000 people — heard a letter from Pasadena so secret that their ministers were ordered to burn it after reading. It's message: Garner Ted was “in the bonds of Satan.” At the end of April, the senior Armstrong made a more public statement to the broader church membership — the “co-worker” category, which includes such sympathizers as Chess Grandmaster Bobby Fischer — explaining that Garner Ted had confessed to some kind of transgression against “God, against his church and his apostle, against the wife God gave me in my youth, against all my closest friends.” …
… In Herbert Armstrong's theology, unknown to much of his public, the British and the Americans are among the ten lost Hebrew tribes, destined to fight — and succumb to — a renewed Holy Roman Empire probably led by Germany. Then a Chinese-Russian alliance will fight the battle of Armageddon with the victor. At first, Herbert Armstrong predicted the beginning of the end for the late 1930s. The most recent Apocalypse was due on Jan. 7th, 1972.
In other departures from traditional Christianity, Armstrong and his faithful worship on Saturday, not Sunday; they observe kosher laws set forth in the Old Testament. They celebrate Passover but not Christmas or Easter. They deny the Trinity. But they believe steadfastly in the tithe — so much so that each member is expected to set aside three tithes, or tenths, of his gross income. One tenth is for church headquarters. One-tenth is for the member's travel expenses to church festivals. And, every few years, yet another tenth is required for “widows and orphans.” The church monitors the tithes by computer; one member caught cheating was sentenced to tithe double for the rest of his life.
Garner Ted Exiled Thu, May 11, 1972 – Page 2 · The Emporia Gazette (Emporia, Kansas) · Newspapers.com
Interview with Bobby Fischer, the Ambassador Report (1977)
ZOLA: Did you ask Herbert was Ted's sin? And did he or did he not tell you?
FISCHER: No, I didn't want to insult him. Why, did you hear that we had a conversation.
ZOLA: Yes.
FISCHER: I met Herbert in the Hall of Administration, and he started to talk to me about his airplane and flying. And then he started going off on some wild tangents that may be significant. Then, it meant nothing to me. He was talking about stewardesses on the airplanes and how one of them was tempting Ted. I didn't know what he was talking about. I thought it was raving stuff, because I had no idea what he was talking about. I was wondering why he was telling me this. But he didn't admit anything.
See, I wasn't at that stage trying to find the loose brick. I wanted to believe. I feel that if Ted had done something 30 years ago, and nobody knew about it, it would be cruel to bring it up.
But this is different. This is a way of life, apparently from what I'm starting to hear. I'm sure if there's all that smoke, there's plenty of fire.
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