found their way into career service within the A Perilous Spiritual Journey: Armstrong empire. I was an ordained minis- ter of the Worldwide Church of God, found- ed by Armstrong some 40 years earlier. As a Forty Miles of Bad Road minister and faculty member I administered rules and policies for students, some of which I did not adhere to in my own life. That irony, indeed that hypocrisy, would hit me like a ton of bricks in a few more years. by Greg Albrecht, There were many rules in the one true edited by Tal Brooke church of Armstrongism: No pork or shellfish. No Christmas or Easter. No birthdays. No makeup or cosmetics. No voting or service on a jury. No involvement in politics. No “world- ly” friends (as a young man I found ways to get around this one). No participation or involvement in work or sports on Friday night or Saturday. During these 24 hours of “holy time” virtually noth- ing could be done, except go to church. No My mother...was profoundly sorry that she had introduced me to what later became known as Armstrongism, the legalistic and cultic teachings of Herbert W. Armstrong. shopping. No television. No secular reading. No cooking. In early Armstrongism some people didn’t even make their beds on Satur- day, a restriction that would have been fine with the young Greg Albrecht, but my Ger- manic mother never bought into that one. Armstrongism demanded three tithes: one tenth went directly to the church, another tenth was for families to save in order to observe the Armstrong version of the Hebrew holy day calendar, and the final tenth was given to the church every third year to pro- I considered myself a more astute judge than my mother, so I comforted her and assured her that we were in the true y mother was pouring her heart out to me, fearing that she had unwittingly been trapped by a convo- church—the “one and only true church.” M luted, agonizing religious disaster. She tearfully apologized for introducing me to what later became vide for its poor. It was largely because of these tithes that known as Armstrongism, the legalistic and cultic teachings my mother and stepfather never owned a house. They of Herbert W. Armstrong. never felt that they could maintain the mortgage pay- It was the 1980’s, and I was a devout follower of Arm- ments in addition to their financial support of Arm- strongism, rapidly climbing the organizational ladder of strongism. They always rented, and in their later years his Worldwide Church of God. I was in my early 30’s, mar- they lived in an apartment. ried, and with two children in school. Many people “in As a young man I was taught that I was a special and the world” thought Armstrongism was a cult, but I knew unique kind of Christian. All other Christians were “so- better. I considered myself a more astute judge than my called” Christians. But my Lutheran family back in Kansas, mother, so I comforted her and assured her that we were and the few childhood friends I managed to make outside in the true church—the “one and only true church.” of Armstrongism were confused. It seemed to them that At the time my mother was tearfully confiding in me, I many of the restrictions and rituals in my life fell in the was the Dean of Students of Ambassador College in Jewish tradition. Looking back now, I understand that my Pasadena, California. I taught classes and served as the religion of Armstrongism was a cult based upon modified pastor of 500 college students, many of whom eventually Judaism, all in the name of Jesus Christ. My journey to RP021 A PERILOUS SPIRITUAL JOURNEY PAGE 1 ing me the high honor of helping Once it was decided that we had them chop and pick cotton. paid our dues, we were transferred Although I was only in second back to the world headquarters in grade, I was very much aware of my California in order for me to assume extended family’s disapproval of the much-envied position of faculty Armstrongism. My relatives were member at Ambassador College. As a always tactful about my mother and young couple with two preschool- step-father’s strange new beliefs, but aged children, we were seen as role even as a seven-year-old boy I could models who would encourage others sense their displeasure and sadness. to follow in our footsteps and be I spent the next 35 years of my soldiers for the cause. Baby Greg Albrecht and his parents, 1948 life up to my neck in this specific Apart from its devotion to old religious swamp, in what I have covenant Jewish requirements, its now come to see, by God’s grace, as eclectic teachings about the nature of 40 Miles of Bad Road (with apologies God, the myth of British-Israelism, this realization was a profound and to Duane Eddy, who back in the day and a host of other fables and heretical arduous one. had a hit record by the same name). I notions, the legalistic requirements of Armstrongism held many similarities The Long Detour attended second and third grade in Rosenberg, Texas, and then we moved to American Protestant fundamental- As I was just beginning elementary to Pasadena, California to be at the ism. A potent strain of the holiness school, my widowed mother was world headquarters of Armstrongism movement influenced Herbert Arm- looking for a husband for herself and and its Ambassador College. I grew up strong, convincing him that righteous- a father for me, but more than that, in southern California, receiving the ness could be obtained by virtue of she was looking for context and spiri- best indoctrination Armstrongism personal effort and achievement. tual identity. I was in second grade could give, in both elementary and For all of its deviation from histori- when she married Lewis Greenwood, secondary school as well as Ambassa- cal Christianity, the most toxic of all who became my stepfather. We all dor College. of the teachings of Armstrongism is took a long detour from Christianity Assigned as a student to Armstrong’s legalism. One can never be good into the swamps of cultic religion. college campus in England, I met and enough in Armstrongism—there is Armstrongism proved to be a rigid later married my wife Karen, whose always another rule to obey, another and remote outpost in the badlands family has its own story of becoming task to accomplish, more character to of religion that gave me some haunt- hijacked by Armstrongism. Our wed- build, and another personal problem ing experiences in legalism, all in the ding ceremony, at our request, was or secret sin to overcome. Never good name of Christianity and the Bible. personally officiated by the cult’s enough—it’s the theme song of Bad After their wedding, Mom and leader, Herbert Armstrong. News Religion. In England, the rules-happy cam- Lewis became members of Herbert The True Believer Armstrong’s church, then called the pus experience Karen and I endured Radio Church of God. We moved to was an alternative reality. We, along Legalism is the common virus that south Texas to be closer to a cher- with a number of fellow students at affects all of Bad News Religion— ished family that had “adopted” my Armstrong’s English campus, were whether it is a cultic movement that marching down 40 Miles of claims to be Christian, a Christian Bad Road and deeper into church that adheres to the essential the bonds of legalism. teachings of Christianity, or a religion After graduation, Karen that claims no affiliation to Jesus and I married and were as- Christ whatsoever. Legalism is the signed into “the work” of common ingredient. Be more right- Armstrongism. Our service, eous. Be better. Work harder. Give. much like that of the mili- Serve. Qualify. Improve. Do more. tary, was appointed, without Where the gospel of Good News of- regard for our preference. fers hope and redemption, Bad News We remained in England, Religion supports self-condemnation partially because, as I discov- and despair. ered later, several senior My experience with cultic legalism Loma and Herbert Armstrong in the early days of “The leaders in the English has heightened my sensitivity to this World Tomorrow,” his Radio Church of God radio program. branch of the movement watering down of the gospel, this pol- weren’t finished with me lution of God’s amazing grace. Why yet. They were, in their own do so many continue to fall for the way, fond of us. In their trap of legalism? Bad News Religion mother and me: my mother’s oldest hard-headed legalistic and cultic is both popular and successful because sister Esther, her husband Alvin, and thinking, they felt that Karen and I legalism is a part of the human condi- their four children. My cousins needed “further training”—boot tion. It causes us to obsess about being shared the endless adventures avail- camp would have been a more accu- right. The more we are convinced that able on their farm with me, even giv- rate description. we are right, we gradually change the PAGE 2 PTM RESOURCE emphasis of the gospel from vious to me that I would “change me” to “change have to leave Armstrongism. them.” It’s the default to Herbert Armstrong was dead which we humans revert. —the one person who had so It’s the way we are pro- controlled my life and who grammed.