Raising the Ruins (19 page)

It’s almost comical, were it not so gut-wrenchingly tragic for tens of thousands of people whose lives have been ruined by Tkachism.

“You shall know them by their fruits.”

–
Jesus Christ

Joseph Tkach Jr. introduced the final chapter of his book, “The Enigma of Herbert W. Armstrong,” with an “advisory” addressed to former and current members of the Worldwide Church of God. He said, “This chapter is not written to attack or belittle Herbert Armstrong in any way.”
¹
He then proceeded to attack Mr. Armstrong and to imply that all the allegations of critics were true
.

The “enigma” chapter is where he quotes Mr. Armstrong as supposedly saying, “I am Elijah.”
²
It’s where he made the “absolute power corrupts absolutely” comment and then followed up by saying “there weren’t many who would challenge” Mr. Armstrong.
³
He said, “As the Worldwide Church of God has been dramatically changed and as we have faced the emotional upheaval of finding out much of what we believed was wrong, we have also had to
FACE
allegations about Herbert W. Armstrong
and his son.”
⁴

Allegations? Garner Ted was suspended from the church more than once during the 1970s for his sexual improprieties and later disfellowshiped for attempting to overthrow his father. But why would Tkach Jr. lump
Herbert Armstrong
in with his son throughout the “enigma” chapter? To assign
GUILT BY ASSOCIATION
—that’s why. According to Tkach, because of these allegations about Mr. Armstrong
and his son,
“I felt the need to apologize and ask forgiveness about our past unbiblical teaching
and behavior.”
⁵
It wasn’t just Garner Ted’s behavior he felt he needed to apologize for—
Herbert Armstrong’s too.

And all this is not meant to be an attack against Mr. Armstrong in
any
way? “God has not asked us to be the judge of Mr. Armstrong,” Tkach said right before leveling the same judgmental charge against Mr. Armstrong that Garner Ted did in 1979.
⁶

“We neither have nor promote an extravagant lifestyle,” Tkach wrote. “We have divested ourselves, and continue to, of those things that are opulent and do not befit a church.”
⁷

And so the Tkaches sold off all the festival sites used by church brethren. They sold the campsites Mr. Armstrong built for teenagers. They shut down the college campuses Mr. Armstrong raised up for the work and for the young people. They sold the property and all the buildings used for preaching the gospel to the world. They sold the airplane Mr. Armstrong used to visit the brethren and world leaders. They auctioned off equipment, paintings, sculptures and personal gifts world leaders had given to Mr. Armstrong. They sold literature, libraries, instruments, pianos, chandeliers, candelabra and furniture.

And now Tkach Jr. points to their financial demise as proof of how sincere their intent was to transform the church. “At any time in the past several years we could have called a halt to the changes, turned back the clock, confessed that we were wrong, and tried to woo back disaffected members (along with their pocketbooks).”
⁸
They counted the cost, he says, and were willing to abolish Mr. Armstrong’s ministry and work, even when they knew it would result in steep financial losses.

The facts, figures and time frame, however, paint a completely different picture.

A Shocking Difference in Priorities

As we have already seen in this volume, Tkachism’s intent to change major doctrines began just as soon as Mr. Armstrong died—even before. Together with the deceitful way they introduced changes, they also acted swiftly to slash several successful programs Mr. Armstrong had started.

For example, in September 1986, Tkach Sr. capped
Plain Truth
circulation at 7 million.
⁹
So within
eight months
of Mr. Armstrong’s death, Mr. Tkach decided to slash the magazine’s reach by more than 16 percent. Mr. Tkach explained, “We could very easily have a worldwide
Plain Truth
circulation of 15 million by this time next year. But would that be wise stewardship?”
¹⁰
He wrote,

“Now maybe there are some in God’s church who think I should just let the
Plain Truth
magazine circulation increase as fast as we can possibly make it do so, and then trust God to send us the money to back that up. Maybe some think we should just go on more and more television stations, any time a new opportunity comes available.”
¹¹

How
RADICALLY
different that line of thinking was from his predecessor’s. Eight months before died, Mr. Armstrong said “the way is now open to increase the
Plain Truth
circulation past eight million and upward to
twenty or more million
subscribers .…”
¹²
Yet he was realistic and wise in his stewardship. He said the church “could not afford to take advantage of these doors”
unless the income increased
—which is
precisely
what happened after he died.

But Tkach made it clear from the very beginning that they weren’t about to put additional income toward the church’s first commission. Spending money on the work of the church—a work it had been doing for
decades
—in their view, was a huge waste.

Downsize

Three months after he put a ceiling on
Plain Truth
circulation, in December 1986, Mr. Tkach decided to reduce the
Good News
and
Youth
magazines to six issues per year, instead of 10. The church’s newspaper, the
Worldwide News,
would continue to be published every two weeks, but at eight pages per issue, as opposed to 12.
¹³

Mr. Tkach offered this odd explanation for the reduction in the church’s periodic literature:

I have been quite concerned for some time that many of God’s people simply are not reading the
Good News
as they should and as a result are missing a wealth of the spiritual, Christian-living instruction about the application of God’s law of love in their lives that they vitally need!”
¹⁴

Four years later, Mr. Tkach discontinued the
Good News
altogether, making it even easier for members to keep up with their reading.

But back to 1986. Tkach cut
Good News
and
Youth
production by 40 percent,
Worldwide News
content by one third, and
Plain Truth
circulation by 16 percent—
all in his first year.
“God’s Word is filled with principles about living within our means,” he wrote, “of counting the cost and of careful consideration of a matter in prayer before making a decision.”
¹⁵

Yet even as Tkach was slashing programs, the residual impact of Mr. Armstrong’s work was still making its mark on Pasadena. For example, nearly 2 million people telephoned the
WCG
in 1986, which was a 78 percent increase over 1985.
¹⁶
The church’s income also grew, finishing 11.2 percent above 1985—at just over $182 million.
¹⁷

In 1987, this same dual theme played out—cutting programs even as revenues increased. In May, Larry Salyer told ministers that “Mr. Tkach continues to review and evaluate the procedures and techniques we use in doing God’s work. … Under his leadership and with the improved communication and cooperation of the operation managers, the work is moving forward on many fronts.”
¹⁸
Mr. Salyer went on to explain how they were working on a five-year plan that would facilitate “greater efficiency and productivity” in the work.

Yet that same month,
Plain Truth
circulation slipped to 6.9 million.
¹⁹
The following month, in June, they stopped printing the circulation figure in the table of contents. In its place, it said, “Over 20,000,000
readers
in seven languages.”
²⁰
By the end of the year, even that line disappeared.

They also made a number of “design changes” in the
Plain Truth
over the last half of 1987. These changes, supposedly intended to give the magazine a “more modern, up-to-date appearance,” also happened to “cut costs significantly.”
²¹
In other words, they downgraded the quality.

At the end of 1987, Mr. Tkach wrote, “I have often said that we should strive to work smarter, not just harder. As faithful stewards, we should always be on the lookout for a better way—a wiser, more efficient or more productive way—to get any job done.” We heard a lot about
five-year plans, working smarter
and being
wise stewards
during the late 1980s—all of it implying that Mr. Armstrong mismanaged the church’s revenue.

Mr. Tkach, we were told, was an expert when it came to management and working with employees. One
WCG
minister even remarked, “Mr. Tkach is a manager. Mr. Armstrong was not a manager. Mr. Armstrong was an entrepreneur—traveled all the time. He didn’t like big meetings. Mr. Tkach thrives on them, meeting after meeting after meeting, day after day.”
²³

Due to his management skills, Mr. Tkach supposedly saved tons of money during those years. In actual fact, the membership and revenue increased during those years, mainly due to the fruit from Mr. Armstrong’s labor. By the end of 1987, church membership had climbed to 88,455
²⁴
and the income increased another 5.5 percent to a record-high $192 million.
²⁵

The following year, at a regional directors’ conference in Pasadena in June 1988, Mr. Tkach told the leading ministers in the church that he was “trimming the fat” in the work in order to increase efficiency and effectiveness.
²⁶

The thing is, in 1988 the church’s revenue topped out at
$201 million
.
²⁷
It was the first time ever to exceed $200 million and represented 4.8 percent growth over 1987. According to the church’s treasurer, Leroy Neff, during 1988 they had “almost eliminated all long-term debt” and were on course to “pay as you go.”
²⁸

Yet, by the end of 1988, Mr. Armstrong’s three major books—
Mystery of the Ages
,
The Incredible Human Potential
and
The United States and Britain in Prophecy
—had all disappeared from circulation. The
Plain Truth
circulation had been pared down to about 6.5 million,
²⁹
even though the church’s worldwide membership had grown to 91,685
³⁰
and its revenue was 23 percent higher than it was three years earlier, during Mr. Armstrong’s last full year at the helm.

The Entourage

Tkachism began 1989 by selling off the church’s airplane, the Gulfstream iii, for $12.5 million.
³¹
The year before, Tkach chartered a Boeing 727 for a trip to Australasia in order to see if it would be feasible to fly in a less-expensive aircraft. He wrote,

As I have often explained, we are continually looking for ways to make the various operations of the work more streamlined and efficient. It appears that there may be a significant financial advantage to selling the
G-III
and buying a used, but well-maintained Boeing 727.
³²

Later in 1988, after unsuccessfully locating a 727 he liked, Mr. Tkach settled for the British-made
BAC 1
-11. It was only $3.4 million, a price tag he said would immediately “benefit” God’s work. He wrote, “Also, the
BAC 1
-11 has room for all our necessary
TV
equipment and personnel, as well as any additional necessary personnel. The
G-III
, as many of you know, was extremely limited in seating and storage capacity.”
³³
But for an administration determined to “trim the fat,” it seems like the smaller, more fuel-efficient
G-III
would have better suited their needs—especially since it was already paid for.

In looking at the size of Mr. Tkach’s entourage, however, it’s no wonder they needed to “save” money by purchasing a used, gas-guzzling commercial airliner with about four times the cabin space as the
G-III
. For the Australasian trip, when they chartered the 727, Mr. Tkach’s traveling party included:

Joseph Locke, his personal assistant; James Peoples, operation manager of the computer information systems, purchasing and travel departments, and his wife, Linda; Ellen Escat, the pastor general’s administrative assistant; Michael Rasmussen, executive office aide, and his wife, Juli; Julie Stocker, an administrative assistant in Communications & Public Affairs; and Ross Jutsum, director of the music department in Pasadena, his wife, Tammara, and daughters, Heidi and Lisa.

Also traveling on the 727 were Mr. Tkach’s Gulfstream iii crew: Captain Ken Hopke, co-captain Lawrence Dietrich, maintenance chief Dean Mohr and steward Jay Brothers.

The church’s television crew included Mr. Halford and his wife, Patricia; cameraman Gary Werings and his wife, Gloria; and Steve Bergstrom, cameraman and remote operations engineer.
³⁴

Counting Mr. Tkach,
that’s 21 people,
for a 21-day tour through Australia, New Zealand, Thailand and Sri Lanka—to
visit church areas
. After their first stop in Melbourne, the entourage picked up another four adults and two children to accompany them for the next leg of the trip.
³⁵
Might as well
—there was plenty of room on the airliner.

Compare that with Mr. Armstrong’s six-day trip to Japan in March of 1985. He took Ellis La Ravia and Aaron Dean, their wives and his personal nurse, as well as the two pilots. Mr. Armstrong was 92 years old at the time—and blind. He had been pastor general of the church for more than 50 years. And on one of the last international trips of his ministry, he took
seven
people with him, counting the pilots.