I used to watch Garner Ted Armstrong's TV program all the time. He was a lot like that other fellow that wrote all of the books about the end times (name escapes me at the moment), with his prophecies of the "king of the north and king of the south," "Gog and Magog," etc.
I loved how his prophecies would change as America's perceived enemies changed over the years. First Russia, then Iran, then Iraq.
Garner Ted got DF'd from the WWCoG by his dad. Then he went to Texas and set up his own branch, which I think is still active and follows a lot of the old WWCoG beliefs. GTA died a few years ago. He was DF'd by his dad because of infidelity in his marriage and was also accused of misuse of church funds for his personal uses.
I had a co-worker that was a WWCoG member. I remember him telling me that he gave 10% of his GROSS pay to the church, before taxes, med ins, stock plan, etc. He was always borrowing money from the rest of us to buy lunch or to fill his gas tank. He also did not work on Saturday's, so when he was a supervisor at the phone company he had to find a replacement willing to work his weekend duty - and it usually was me.
They were a weird bunch, but like the JWs, fairly dedicated and trying to be good Christians. But it was so obviously a personality cult under Herbert and son Garner Ted. Plain Truth had pages and pages of Herbert shaking hands with Sadat, and DeGaulle and other major world leaders. I think Sun Yun Moon learned and patterned his Moonie religion after HWA and GTA and their approach to world evangelism.
Anyone remember that Bing Crosby's concert career effectively came to an end when he fell off the stage at Ambassador College's concert hall while giving performance?
JV