Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Account of a Former Follower of Garner Ted Armstrong

Exit and Support Network has this beautiful, bitter sweet story about one man who fell into Garner Ted Armstrong's spell.
Enter Garner Ted Armstrong at this time. Boy, was I a prime candidate for a cult! I was searching at the time for some kind of meaning, some role model, someone and somebody to feel connected to or accepted by. ...

I was on the Church of God International tape list and after a few months I had boxes of sermon tapes by GTA. I used to listen to him for hours every day. I'm not kidding. I am a janitor and I can listen to my walkman all day if I want. I listened to GTA everyday at work. I could hear up to 5 or 6 tapes during my shift. It didn't stop there. I listened to him at home, cutting the lawn, washing the car, diving around, while I was shopping at the grocery store. All I listened to or read was the Bible, world news and Armstrong. I had allowed Armstrong to pretty much take up residence in my mind. ...
I  met GTA on two occasions and spoke to him on the phone. We corresponded through the mail. I wasn't a member of the GTA cult because the [Canadian] group of the CGI met downtown and that was too far for me to go every Saturday.
  One day his wife, who did not approve of Garner Ted Armstrong, handed him a newspaper.
The story that was highlighted was about GTA and a masseuse in Tyler, Texas and a lawsuit. I could not, would not, believe that GTA did the deeds that he was being accused of. But one very sad day in my life, I watched one of these trashy, daytime news type talk shows and they played the Video that the masseuse from Tyler had secretly taken of GTA. I tell you, as I sat there in my TV room, watching this tape of GTA doing his perverted acts and going after a woman who was not his wife, I broke down and cried. I felt like an absolute fool. Everything spun out of control for me mentally and spiritually.
 You can read the whole story at the link above.

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