Armstrong’s Worldwide Church of God: Musical Chairs of Change

First of Two Parts

It was in the summer of 1969 that I first visited the beautifully landscaped campus of Ambassador College in Pasadena, California, headquarters of Herbert W. Armstrong’s Worldwide Church of God. I had written to Herbert’s son, Garner Ted Armstrong, silver-tongued spokesman for the broadcast “the World Tomorrow,” to solicit his cooperation in my research of indigenous American religions. A staff member gave me an hour-long tour of church and college facilities. But his answers to my questions were guarded, and I was denied permission to photograph printing presses and data-processing equipment.

My book entitled The Armstrong Empire was published in 1974 by Eerdmans. In the spring of 1976, nearly seven years after my initial visit, I returned to Pasadena at the invitation—unsolicited—of Stanley R. Rader, 47, general counsel and financial vice-president of the Worldwide Church of God. The church’s leaders, while taking exception to certain portions of my book, felt I had at least tried to be accurate and fair, and they invited me to come to their headquarters for in-depth conversations.

There was a time when friendly overtures of this kind were unheard of in the WCG. For years Herbert W. Armstrong has viewed the media with suspicion, and it is his continuing policy to refuse interviews. Garner Ted (GTA), while more approachable, has been selective in his conversations with reporters. But a new era in WCG public relations dawned with the rise to power of Stanley Rader and Robert L. Kuhn, GTA’s administrative assistant. Rader, hired as a tax expert in 1956, has been the constant companion and adviser of Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA) since 1968. In 1975 they logged 290 days of overseas travel in church-sponsored jet missions to world capitals. Rader’s growing influence was a subject of controversy in the church until his baptism by Herbert Armstrong in Hong Kong in March, 1975. Kuhn, 32, attained his present post in 1971. A 1969 graduate of Ambassador College, he was admitted to Johns Hopkins University Medical School at the age of eighteen and was awarded a Ph.D. in brain research by UCLA when he was only twenty-two.

Both of these men converted to the Armstrong brand of Christianity from Judaism; their wives and children are not members. Both are brilliant, creative, and gifted with extraordinary administrative skills. Together they coordinate the WCG’s $67-million-per-year operation; together they planned and launched the church’s newest enterprise, the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation (AICF). Their roles are complementary: Rader is the organization’s financial and legal wizard, Kuhn a philosophical-theological-cultural genius who is playing an ever-increasing part in shaping WCG doctrines and programs. Both Rader and Kuhn were wealthy before joining the WCG. Rader had headed successful legal and accounting firms, from which he withdrew in 1969 in order to devote his total energies to the church. Kuhn, whose father is a leading manufacturer of men’s sportswear, risked the loss of a substantial inheritance (his parents at first opposed his change of religion) and surrendered a lucrative scientific career to retool at Ambassador for what was, at the outset, a life’s work that held little promise of prestige or financial gain.

The years 1972 through 1974 were critical for the WCG. Since its inception in 1934, the Radio Church of God (as it was known until 1968) had enjoyed an annual growth of 30 per cent in membership and income. But during Gamer Ted’s four-month exile in the early months of 1972, the “Work” reportedly went into a financial tailspin. With GTA’s restoration to the air waves in June, the church’s financial fortunes took a turn for the better. But in November, 1973, six ministers resigned, charging GTA with sexual transgressions and complaining of autocratic rule, financial irregularities, and doctrinal rigidity. By the time the dust had settled, some four months later, forty ministers and two thousand members had left the organization. By the end of 1974, nearly three thousand had been “disfellowshiped”; some eighteen hundred exited in 1975.

During my nine-day visit to WCG headquarters last spring, I had long conversations with Rader and Kuhn; briefer sessions with Roderick Meredith, Herman Hoeh, Raymond McNair, David Antion, and other top leaders; and an exchange of greetings with Garner Ted Armstrong. I also toured facilities and attended church services and other events. All the people I met were friendly, courteous, and accommodating. The climate seemed to reflect the new openness in the WCG’s posture toward “the world.”

At the $3 million computer center an operator punched out my name on her keyboard. Instantly there appeared on the monitor my name, address, and WCG literature and financial records. Richard Rice, director of the mail processing department, told me that the computer maintains an active file of more than two million addresses for the United States and Canada plus ten thousand elsewhere in the world. The North American entries break down to 56,000 “household units” (addresses which include at least one baptized member), 37,000 “co-workers” (regular contributors who are not members), 132,000 “donors” (occasional givers), and 1,800,000 “regulars” (non-contributors who regularly receive The Plain Truth and request other publications). Rice said that 613,064 new names were added to the files in 1975–80 per cent of them derived from a telephone service in which people can call toll-free. Up to two dozen telephones are manned during peak periods.

The 177-member staff mailed 61.4 million pieces of literature in 1975, all but 3.8 million to North American addresses. Incoming mail ranges from the engraved letterheads of senators, governors, and movie actors to misspelled scribblings on scraps of paper. Once an orange-crate box containing $10,000 in bills arrived from a farmer in a southwestern state; another mail brought a crudely addressed tin cake box, also containing $10,000 in currency.

Following the major schism in 1974, some observers predicted the total collapse of the Armstrong empire within a year. But the WCG has emerged wealthier and stronger than before. Since 1965, baptized membership and attendance at church services have more than tripled, to around 66,000 and 94,000, respectively (as of June 30, 1976). Income over the same period more than quadrupled and in 1975 reached $66.8 million (of which about $56.5 million came from within the United States). Last October an attendance of 105,000 was logged at sixty sites around the world during observance of the eight-day Feast of Tabernacles.

I gained many favorable impressions during my visit: of the beautifully appointed campus and buildings, of Herbert W. Armstrong’s plush office (which I visited in his absence) and the palatial homes of WCG executives, of the efficiency of the church’s well-oiled machinery and the cordiality of the staff members I met. But the dominant impression I received may be summed up by the word change.

In a continuing game of musical chairs over the past decade, the directorship of church administration has shifted from Raymond Cole (who left the WCG two years ago) to Roderick Meredith (now pastoring a WCG church in Glendale, California) to David Antion (GTA’s brother-in-law, who defected in 1974 only to rescind his resignation two days later and return to a teaching post at the Pasadena campus) to Wayne Cole (Raymond Cole’s brother, who held the position for two years) to Ronald Dart, 43, former head of the Big Sandy, Texas, branch of Ambassador College, who replaced Cole last spring.

Circulation of the monthly magazine The Plain Truth crested at 3.8 million late in 1975 and later subsided to 2 million. There is no longer talk of a ten-million-copy goal. But U.S. circulation received a 250,000 boost when free newsstand and supermarket distribution was inaugurated last fall. Used with apparent success in Europe, this method enlists cooperation of vendors on the basis that the magazine is a public-service educational publication rather than a proseletizing instrument. Arabic and Japanese editions are projected for The Plain Truth, which currently appears in five languages—English, Spanish, French, German, and Dutch—in 187 countries worldwide.

Throughout its more than four decades of publication, The Plain Truth has alternated between a secular and a religious approach. Current policy, perhaps with an eye to general newsstand distribution, focuses on the secular, with soft-sell introduction of biblical themes and quotations by way of interpreting world news. Though it is still mailed free to all who request it, readers are now encouraged to underwrite the cost of sending the magazine to others. The Good News reached a mailing list of 400,000 with the stronger meat of the Armstrong gospel until merged with The Plain Truth in February. Those more deeply involved are further nourished by the newly revamped Ambassador College Correspondence Course and numerous theological booklets. The ultimate goal, of course, is full baptized membership in the WCG and involvement in one of the sect’s some 500 congregations.

“The World Tomorrow,” currently heard on more than four hundred radio and TV outlets, also is undergoing change. The new strategy calls for daily five-minute capsule commentaries on radio plus one thirty-minute sermon by GTA weekly and one-minute spot announcements on TV. GTA hopes soon to launch a syndicated newspaper column. The church recently announced that a new division, Garner Ted Armstrong Productions, will handle radio and TV, the newspaper column, and commercially published books by GTA.

Most controversial of recent WCG innovations has been Ambassador Auditorium, an ornate, 1,262-seat concert hall that doubles as a church meeting place. Rumors of the cost of the magnificent structure have run as high as $24 million—cited by Stanley Rader as an example of “loose journalism.” The building contract, he stated, was “a shade under $9 million”; $1.5 million in furnishing brings the total to less than $11 million. Even so, he admitted, “it is the most beautiful building that has ever been built in the United States; per square foot it is one of the most expensive.” The facility was selected for a gala TV testimonial to Bing Crosby telecast by CBS in March.

Another example of “irresponsible reporting” cited by Rader and Kuhn is the much publicized speculation that it cost the WCG $500,000 to fly in the Vienna Symphony for the dedication of Ambassador Auditorium in September, 1975. Robert Kuhn reports a much lower figure: under $160,000 for the whole event, including printing and publicity costs.

Certainly the most notable of the WCG’s achievements in recent years is the launching of the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation (AICF), conceived and administered by Stanley Rader and Robert Kuhn. The AICF’s avowed purpose is “to bring the finest cultural events and artists to the greater Los Angeles community, as well as to join with the community in supporting leading charitable, humanitarian, educational and cultural organizations.” The explanatory statement says that the church “believes that the performing arts are the highest expression of the human spirit and that the support of charitable and humanitarian activities fulfills its biblical obligations.”

The AICF inaugurated a glittering sixty-four-concert series in 1975–76 featuring Vladimir Horowitz, Maria Callas, Yehudi Menuhin, Joan Sutherland, and other world-renowned artists. All expenses were underwritten by the foundation; purchasers of tickets designated their ticket money to go to charities of their choice or to AICF benevolent enterprises (including archaeological excavations in Israel and Babylon and educational projects in Egypt, Kenya, India, Nepal, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Okinawa).

Considerable opposition came from the extreme orthodox segment of the greater Los Angeles Jewish community. According to Rabbi Shlomo Cunin, the hidden purpose of the AICF is to proselytize Jews. Although Rader and Kuhn are baptized members of the WCG, they had been introduced by Yitzhak A. Sover, then head of the Israeli Office of Tourism in Los Angeles, as Jews in good standing. “Kuhn is a member of a Reform temple,” he pointed out, “and his kids go to Sunday school there.” Thus the two men gained entree to influential Jewish organizations for the purpose of promoting the AICF. The foundation has gained acceptance and support from mainline Reform and Conservative Jews.

The AICF has announced ambitious plans for the future. Two non-WCG professionals have been added to the payroll. Wayne Schilkret, former director of publicity and promotion for the Philadelphia Orchestra and Washington’s Kennedy Center, has been tapped for the position of general manager for the performing arts. The expanded series will include Broadway plays, children’s theater, and pop concerts in addition to classical music. An AICF-sponsored concert was held in Milwaukee in February, and cultural events are projected for other cities. At least one record album is being prepared.

The other top-drawer professional is Robert Shnayerson, for five years editor-in-chief of Harper’s and before that senior editor of Time. Shnayerson edits the AICF’s much heralded new magazine, Quest/77—the Magazine of Human Potential. Like Ambassador Auditorium and its concert series, the magazine has ambivalent goals. To the general public it is a National Geographic type of journal of education and culture. But to the church constituency it is a means of impressing notables and thus opening doors for the propagation of the Armstrong gospel. In a letter to constituents HWA described the AICF as “a necessary adjunct to … getting our VITAL MESSAGE to all nations through heads of government.” The new magazine, he said, would “go before KINGS!” with “articles on the very PLAN of God.” Kuhn sees Quest/77 as the “flagship” of a series of quality AICF “consumer” magazines focusing on the uniqueness of the human spirit.

In the past, recruitment of outside talent was rare. But Michael Germano, dean of Ambassador College in Pasadena, told me that only 70 per cent of his faculty are WCG members. The remaining 30 per cent are affiliated with a variety of religious groups, including standard-brand denominations, Buddhism, and Judaism, or have no religious ties. (About 95 per cent of the students, however, are WCG-related.) Further evidence of Ambassador’s shift from isolationism to accommodation with “the world” is the fact that accreditation, formerly eschewed, is now being sought. Officials hope that the Pasadena college will soon be granted recognition by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

Last summer it was announced that Ambassador College will soon become Ambassador University, with schools of business, theology, agriculture, and ecology, and possibly law. Plans for Pasadena call for an expanded physical plant, including a new high-rise church headquarters building, and a beefed-up intercollegiate physical-education program, to capitalize on an anticipated larger enrollment. Projected for the Big Sandy campus is the development of “a top-notch and professional agricultural, ecological, conservationist, forestry, animal husbandry type program.”

Until recent years, the sole voice of authority on matters of WCG doctrine was that of Herbert W. Armstrong. During the thirties and forties he handled all the church’s writing and broadcasting chores. Then when the first seven Ambassador graduates were ordained in 1952 and 1953, these carefully trained protégés—principally Herman Hoeh and Roderick Meredith—assumed an increasing share of responsibility for preparing doctrinal articles and booklets. But as Garner Ted’s influence waxed following his return to power in mid-1972, the influence of these ardent and often legalistic expositors of hard-core Armstrong teachings began to wane. A new breed of scholars, committed to the reforms espoused by GTA, gained prominence. Typical of the younger theologians are Pasadena professors Lester Grabbe, a 1976 Ph.D. graduate of the Claremont Graduate School of Theology, and George Geis, who is nearing completion of a doctorate at the University of Southern California.

But the key figure in WCG doctrinal research and revision is Robert Kuhn, who has been closely involved with all doctrinal changes over the past six or seven years. Contrary to the testimony of many defectors, Kuhn says that HWA is amenable to suggestions when approached with the “right attitude.” The church is not monolithic, Kuhn insists. And HWA is not infallible. “Truth” has come to him through an evolutionary process that (at least in recent years) has involved input from the church. The WCG, Kuhn says, is constantly seeking to reprove old truth, discover new truth, and correct error. At a ministerial conference HWA declared, “We are the only church willing to admit error and make changes!”

The Systematic Theology Project, unveiled at the church’s ministerial meeting last May, is a new approach to doctrinal study and revision. According to its coordinator, Robert Kuhn, the project was established because “Mr. Ted Armstrong has for years wanted an official handbook of the doctrinal teachings of the Worldwide Church of God.” The ministers were handed a bulging packet that included a thirty-three-page outline to be used “in planning/organizing/writing the preliminary systematic theology.” Doctrinal papers from the ministry are being solicited in the open-ended quest for biblical truth. “In fact,” wrote Kuhn, “the Systematic Theology Project will never be fully completed.” Nevertheless, he concluded, “we can … foresee a time when a hardcover book on the doctrines of the Worldwide Church of God would be available in bookstores and libraries throughout the world.”

The packet also included definite statements on seven topics: divorce and remarriage, marriage between believers and nonbelievers, faith and financial responsibility, healing, race and ethnic relations in the church, sabbath observance, and birthdays. On each paper was inscribed, “The following statement of the Worldwide Church of God supersedes all material heretofore published on this subject.”

One of the greatest changes in the Armstrong work over the years is in the concept of church government. In a 1939 article, HWA vigorously denounced “organization,” tracing its origin to “spiritual BABYLON—that is, ROME!” and ultimately to Satan. He declared, “There is not one single HINT in the New Testament of any Church BOARD with authority to rule, to govern, to decide doctrine, or to handle tithes and church finances.… All authority and power to rule is limited solely to each LOCAL congregation.” He admonished his followers to “drop all effort to BUILD UP A MOVEMENT or an ORGANIZATION.” But with the passing years Armstrong reversed himself and imposed upon his disciples a rigidly authoritarian organizational structure based on the pyramid concept of “government from the top down.”

Have something to add about this? See something we missed? Share your feedback here.