This notice appears in the latest issue of The Journal: News of the Churches of God.Dorothy Mattson, nee Armstrong, was an unintentionally significant figure in the story of her father's sect, the Worldwide Church of God (previously the Radio Church of God),though she kept a low profile over many years. Mrs Mattson kept a dignified silence about moral allegations against her father, a self-proclaimed "End Time Apostle", that surfaced very publicly in David Robinson's 1981 book Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web, and were later widely repeated in many media.
As far as I am aware, none of Herbert Armstrong's descendents are today associated with the church he established (recently rebranded as Grace Communion International) although one grandson, Mark, leads a minor splinter ministry that relies heavily on the reputation and resources produced by his father, the late Garner Ted Armstrong, Herbert's estranged son.
Front and back pages of The Journal are available as a PDF download.
Dedicated to Herbert W. Armstrong and the Worldwide (nee Radio) Church of God.
ReplyDeleteI met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
For the record, Mrs Mattson (peace be upon her) was also preceded in death by her daughter Carole Ann Mattson (aged 17) back in 1966. Herbert W. Armstrong’s Personal in the November 1966 issue of The Plain Truth recounts some of the background. A sad story, which also gives some insight into the impact on his own family of HWA's understanding in the late 1940s of the role that medical science should play in the life of a Christian.
ReplyDeleteWhile it is sad to see her death, both she and her sister have been on the take from WCG for decades. Herb paid for homes and furniture for them both. They received money too. Yet, they both knew the kind of degenerate they had for a father and while privately shunning him, never spoke out publicly against him. Money always seems to keep people silent in the face of corruption.
ReplyDeleteI have set up both hers and the rest of the Herbert W Armstrong etc family tree on the Geni.com genealogy website social networking site.
ReplyDelete