2 Readers respond to Brian Convery’s anti–one-God CONNECTIONS article 3 Dixon Cartwright thinks the Bible canon is the elephant in our room 3 Charles Groce muses on what we TheJournal expect when a minister shows up 4 Orlin Grabbe wrote his “Memories of News of the Churches of God Pasadena” while at Harvard in ’79 Vol. XV, No. 4 Founded 1997 Issue No. 146 (Dec. 20, 2011) Pastor says forgive and Bobby Fischer movie features your pain will go away Harry Sneider The writer is publisher of THE JOUR- tors the Huntsville Church of God. NAL. This article contains opinions of His sermon’s title was “Freedom, RCADIA, Calif.—Harry the writer. Freedom, Freedom.” He spoke of lib- Sneider, former WCG and eration from pain and suffering caused AAC employee and person- By Dixon Cartwright by hating and holding grudges. al trainer to actor and former gov- IG SANDY, Texas—Albert ernor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Foy remembers a night in Taking control many other notables, is featured in B1959, when he was 12, when On that night in 1959, while look- a new movie about the late chess his dad “whipped” him for his failure ing up at the heavens, the preadoles- champion Bobby Fischer. to respond fast enough to a fatherly cent Albert decided he “had to get The film, Bobby Fischer Against directive. control of my mind” and “had to the World, appeared in January The “spank- make a decision.” 2011 on HBO television and in ing, whipping, He decided that he could make movie theaters. beating, whatev- “this pain go away.” Mr. Fischer moved to Pasadena, er you want to Mr. Foy’s sermon was not about Calif., in 1972 to be near the col- call it,” hurt the pros and cons of corporal punish- lege and church headquarters after young Albert ment. It was about what forgiveness his triumph over Boris Spassky in not only physi- can do. the World Chess Championship in cally but emo- Reykjavik, Iceland. tionally. Sometimes God won’t forgive? “He was a coworker with the Afterwards Mr. Foy was disturbed the first time Church of God, and Mr. Herbert Albert Foy FEELING HIS CHEERIOS—Harry Sneider poses in front of the Laemmle Music Hall he found him- he noticed a passage in the Bible that 3 theater in Beverly Hills, Calif., with a Bobby Fischer movie poster. The film Bobby W. Armstrong wanted to help self gazing out a window of the four- says God will not forgive people un- Fischer Against the World appeared on HBO cable television and in cinemas in January Bobby in any way he could,” Mr. room house “that my dad had paid less they forgive other people. 2011. It’s available as well on DVD. Mr. Sneider was Mr. Fischer’s friend and personal Sneider remembers. cash for” that was home for his par- He had long since forgiven his fa- trainer in the 1970s. He worked with other famous people as well, including actor and “He gave him fantastic support ents and his 10 brothers and sisters. ther, but that verse, Mark 11:26, star- California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. See the article at right. See a related photo with outstanding legal advice and He was staring at the moon and stars tled him. on page 11. [Photo by Sarah Sneider] See AC’S TRAINER, page 11 with “tears running down my eyes.” Even though the Bible advises peo- “My dad was the type of man who ple to forgive others even if the of- wanted us to be respectful and good fending parties do not ask for forgive- citizens and always to obey,” Mr. Foy, ness, God seems to hold Christians to a now in his 60s, said. higher standard than He holds Himself Holding everybody accountable: Some say AC He was speaking before members to when it comes to forgiveness. of the Church of God Big Sandy at a Almighty God, according to that alum’s Web site is the grandfather of Wikileaks Sabbath service on Nov. 12, 2011. Bible passage, will forgive people only A 1969 graduate of Ambassador when they forgive their fellow tres- By Dixon Cartwright Central America, he led a colorful and Wikipedia.com, he “specialized in the College, Pasadena, Mr. Foy was up passers. Yet Jesus set an example of for- Web site that posts commen- iconoclastic life. study of financial derivative instru- from Huntsville, Texas, where he pas- See PASTOR CITES, page 37 tary with a libertarian leaning He wrote about the four years of his ments and published important pric- Ahas credited an Ambassador history he spent at AC in an insightful ing models for futures, forward con- College graduate with being the essay that has kicked around for tracts and options, especially in the grandfather of Wikileaks. decades on the Internet. foreign exchange (FX) markets.” Or, more precisely, the Libertarian Mr. Grabbe wrote it in 1979 while In 1986, while a faculty member at International Organization says J. a graduate stu- the Wharton School of Business at the Organizer says Texas AC ’60s Orlin Grabbe’s Web site was the dent at Harvard. University of Pennsylvania, he wrote “Wikileaks granddaddy site.” He had traveled a book, International Financial Mar- reunion was worth the wait Wikileaks.org, founded by Austra- the well-worn kets, that is still frequently cited as a lian Julian Assange, has startled and path of many a reference for financial traders. The writer was a student at Am- ly time for the coming together of all outraged governments and corpora- young man grow- Linked to Wikileaks bassador College, Big Sandy, Texas, of the people from Big Sandy who tions when it has released private cor- ing up in the 1965-68. His wife, Nancy, recently had so deeply impacted each other respondence and other embarrassing Radio/World- Mr. Grabbe politically was a liber- built and now the Williamses admin- in their youth. information to newspapers and the wide Church of tarian and anarchist and, in later years ister the first social Web site espe- In March 2011, after many years general public. God who felt the from his home in Costa Rica (where cially for AC Big Sandy students of wanting to have a really big re- As a teenager in 1966 James Orlin call to apply for he had moved in 1998), maintained a who attended 1965-1977. It’s at www. union, my wait was over and the Grabbe traveled from his West Texas J. Orlin Grabbe admission to an popular Web site. It featured his own ambassadorbigsandyalumni.com. planning finally begun. home to Pasadena, Calif., to enroll as “obscure private writings and links to other articles and We decided to aim it specifically a freshman at Ambassador College. college,” as he described it. posts on science, political intrigue, Mr. Grabbe, who in print usually philosophy, conspiracy theories, quan- By Tom Williams at Big Sandy alumni with special Mathematical interests ACEYS SPRING, Ala.— emphasis on the classes I knew best: styled his name as “J. Orlin,” died tum physics and metaphysics. Since 2002 I had tried to the pioneering students of Ambassa- unexpectedly in 2008 in his residence Between Ambassador and Harvard, He edited a weekly online newspa- locate all of the kids from dor College, Big Sandy, Texas, who in San José, Costa Rica. He was 60. Mr. Grabbe pursued his interests in per, The Laissez Faire Electronic Times, L for two years beginning in 2002. Ambassador began their study at Big Sandy from Between his years growing up in science, especially mathematics. Ac- College, Big 1965 to 1969. Hale County, Texas, to his death in cording to an article about him at See OPPOSITION TO TYRANTS, page 4 Sandy, in hopes John Dickerson set the date, Sat- that we could urday, June 25, 2011, and the Dou- come together ble Tree DFW, Irving, Texas, was for a once-in-a- the place. The race was on. HQ construction to Reports say Church of lifetime reunion. It was now time for me to recon- For years I tact and reconnect with the ACBS have researched, students I had found and connected begin in 2012 on April 1 God minister indicted scoured the In- with over the years and turn up the ternet, called ev- heat to find all I hadn’t so far. ADSWORTH, Ohio—David C. Pack, pastor INCINNATI, Ohio—News outlets including a eryone I could Tom Williams Over the next four months it was general of the Restored Church of God (RCG), Fox News–affiliated television station reported find and followed up on each new endless days of E-mails, letters, Wannounced plans for his church to build a C in November 2011 that a federal grand jury in lead, trying to find every one of my calls, cajoling and pleadings. “magnificent World Headquarters” in Covington, Ky., indicted a Church of college classmates. With the help of many other exc- Wadsworth starting April 1, 2012. God minister, Ronald E. Weinland. During that time I discovered that ited Big Sandy students, more than A press release at the RCG’s Web The 62-year-old elder is accused of John Dickerson, Russell Bettis and 450 former ACBS folks were con- site said the headquarters will consist attempting to evade income taxes in Phil Arnold, all from the Class of ’70, tacted and urged to sign up and head of a “state-of-the-art complex, remi- the amount of $357,065 over several had met for many years with a few on down for a Texas-sized get- niscent of the Worldwide Church of years beginning in 2005.