What do you think?
Rate this book
The Fragmentation of a Sect: Schism in the Worldwide Church of God
In the mid-1930s Herbert W. Armstrong, an unsuccessful American advertising executive, founded a millennialist Sabbatarian Christian sect with a heterodox theology. Over the next half century, despite a number of setbacks, scandals, criticisms, and attacks from former members and anti-cultists, Armstrong's organization, the Worldwide Church of God, grew to around 100,000 baptized members with a world circulation of over six million for its flagship monthly magazine Plain Truth . In January 1986, Armstrong died. His successor changed most of the church's distinctive doctrines, leading it towards an increasing convergence with mainstream Evangelical Christianity. This created a massive cognitive dissonance in ministers and should they accept or reject the authority of the church leadership which had abandoned the authority of the founder's teachings? Groups of ministers left the religion to form new churches, taking tens of thousands of members with them. These schismatic
churches in turn faced continuing schism, resulting in over 400 offshoot churches within little more than a decade.
In this major study David V. Barrett tells the story of the Worldwide Church of God. He examines the processes involved in schism and the varying forms of legitimation of authority within both the original church and its range of offshoots, from hardline to comparatively liberal. His book extends the concepts of rational choice theory when applied to complex religious choices. He also offers a new typological model for categorizing how movements can change after their founder's death, and explores the usefulness of this model by applying it not only to the Worldwide Church of God but also to a wide variety of other religions.
churches in turn faced continuing schism, resulting in over 400 offshoot churches within little more than a decade.
In this major study David V. Barrett tells the story of the Worldwide Church of God. He examines the processes involved in schism and the varying forms of legitimation of authority within both the original church and its range of offshoots, from hardline to comparatively liberal. His book extends the concepts of rational choice theory when applied to complex religious choices. He also offers a new typological model for categorizing how movements can change after their founder's death, and explores the usefulness of this model by applying it not only to the Worldwide Church of God but also to a wide variety of other religions.
302 pages, Hardcover
First published December 19, 2012
2 people are currently reading
26 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 24, 2013
This book isn't going to have much interest for people who aren't interested in religious studies, sociology, psychology, and all those other "-ologies" that explain why people do what they do. It is of interest to those studying comparative religions, or people who belonged to Worldwide Church of God, like me, in 1986, when Mr. Armstrong died.
As a study, by an unbiased observer, who, in his own words, had "no ax to grind," it explains what happened to Worldwide between 1986 and 1995, and examines "who went where, and why."
Dr. Barrett also examined what was the big thing, the last straw, that made people decide they had to leave WCG. I could have told him: it was doctrine. Being told that everything we'd proven to ourselves about the law of God, the Sabbath, the Holy Days, the food laws, had been thrown out the window was a step too far. I also could have told Dr. Barrett what made us choose one church over another: not friends and family (I think he was surprised that friends and family didn't have all that much influence over which church we each chose) it was doctrine and leadership.
For me, though, who started out in Worldwide Church of God, and ended up in United Church of God, the big question is still unanswered: Why in the WORLD did Joe Tkach, Jr., and Michael Feazell think that the rank and file membership of the church would be okay with turning all the doctrines we'd accepted on their heads, and turning WCG into just another evangelical church? Because we weren't okay with it. We left. It is pointed out that the tactic taken by the leadership of the WCG was tantamount to the Archbishop of Canterbury trying to take the Church of England to Catholicism.
Dr. Barrett stated a couple of times that he was examining this history as an unbiased observer; he suspended judgment and just gathered information and tried to separate facts from their bias. He quickly discovered that one event can sound like two different occurrences, depending on who's telling the story. He was surprised by how different the accounts were.
In Dr. Barrett's search for the truth of what happened - and is still happening - to the people who used to be in WCG, he contacted as many of the offshoot churches as possible, and attended services with Living and United - the only ones who would let him visit as a true outsider.
Dr. Barrett is fair and honest in his appraisal of the happenings of those who used to be the Worldwide Church of God. He states no opinions on what happened, or why; nor does he give any opinions about the various offshoots of the church. He is as unbiased as an outsider, who may or may not have a belief in God, can be.
As a study, by an unbiased observer, who, in his own words, had "no ax to grind," it explains what happened to Worldwide between 1986 and 1995, and examines "who went where, and why."
Dr. Barrett also examined what was the big thing, the last straw, that made people decide they had to leave WCG. I could have told him: it was doctrine. Being told that everything we'd proven to ourselves about the law of God, the Sabbath, the Holy Days, the food laws, had been thrown out the window was a step too far. I also could have told Dr. Barrett what made us choose one church over another: not friends and family (I think he was surprised that friends and family didn't have all that much influence over which church we each chose) it was doctrine and leadership.
For me, though, who started out in Worldwide Church of God, and ended up in United Church of God, the big question is still unanswered: Why in the WORLD did Joe Tkach, Jr., and Michael Feazell think that the rank and file membership of the church would be okay with turning all the doctrines we'd accepted on their heads, and turning WCG into just another evangelical church? Because we weren't okay with it. We left. It is pointed out that the tactic taken by the leadership of the WCG was tantamount to the Archbishop of Canterbury trying to take the Church of England to Catholicism.
Dr. Barrett stated a couple of times that he was examining this history as an unbiased observer; he suspended judgment and just gathered information and tried to separate facts from their bias. He quickly discovered that one event can sound like two different occurrences, depending on who's telling the story. He was surprised by how different the accounts were.
In Dr. Barrett's search for the truth of what happened - and is still happening - to the people who used to be in WCG, he contacted as many of the offshoot churches as possible, and attended services with Living and United - the only ones who would let him visit as a true outsider.
Dr. Barrett is fair and honest in his appraisal of the happenings of those who used to be the Worldwide Church of God. He states no opinions on what happened, or why; nor does he give any opinions about the various offshoots of the church. He is as unbiased as an outsider, who may or may not have a belief in God, can be.
April 19, 2013
This is the first truly scholarly study of the Worldwide Church of God and its various offshoots I've ever come across. As such, it was rather fascinating to read about the church of my birth and my continuing fellowship. Barrett isn't an evangelical with an ax to grind (though I did get the sense that he might be Episcopal or of some vaguely mainstream Christian sect); rather, he's a sociologist, one interested in why people make the decisions that they make. The study essentially applies rational choice theory to the religious choices that people make, based on who went where and why after the Worldwide Church of God (WCG) radically changed its doctrines in the mid-1990s.
WCG was a Sabbath-keeping church whose major tenets also included the celebration of the biblical (Hebrew) holy days, adherence to biblical food laws, a binitarian concept of God, tithing, and an adherence to a British-Israelite worldview of history and prophecy. In 1986, its pastor general Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA) died, passing on power in the church to Joseph W. Tkach, who over the course of the next decade would oversee the church's transformation to mainstream evangelicalism. In the process, the church would fragment into various offshoots--four hundred and counting at present--the three major ones being Philadelphia Church of God, Global Church of God (the bulk of which later would become Living Church of God), and United Church of God. Each group would hold similar doctrines. So how did people make their decision about where to attend?
After a brief introduction laying out the theory behind the study, the book provides a brief summary of the church's doctrines and then of its history. The author seems largely objective with regard to laying out the doctrines, rather than skewing them as most evangelically based studies have done in the past.
His account of the history is a bit more biting, but understandably so. As he notes throughout, it is almost impossible to find history on the church and its various pastor generals that is not either ridiculously hagiographic or ridiculously slanderous. He chooses to present elements of both views, since the differing viewpoints themselves have much to say about the nature of the choices that people have made.
Still an adherent to much of what HWA taught, I tend to think some of the more scandalous claims about him are probably rumors created by people with hateful agendas. Yet, having grown up in the church and knowing how the church tended (in the spirit of trying to avoid ruining people's reputations) to hide bad things from view, I also know that "truth" when it comes to much of what has gone on in WCG or its offshoots is sometimes hard to come by. Sometimes, a minister might be on a pedestal one day, and the next day, he might be gone and all mention of him swept aside as if he never existed. The reasons might remain a mystery or they might be revealed by someone with a particular agenda, and that someone might not be telling the truth either.
After a discussion of the church's history, its struggles in the 1970s, and then its transformation in the early 1990s, Barrett turns to his analysis. The first part of his analysis focuses on church government, which turns out to be of great importance to his eventual conclusion. WCG was, in its later days, run hierarchically. As such, people were expected to fall in line with the ministers above them, and the ministers to fall in line with the ministers above them. So what happens when the doctrines that those above no longer match with the doctrines that were formerly espoused, save in the matter of the doctrine of government? Does one hang on to the government, or does one let go of said doctrine to hold to the other doctrines? Barrett nicely even explores, though briefly, those who have stayed in WCG despite not believing in most of the doctrinal changes, precisely because of this belief.
Barrett's discussion at this point widens a bit. He talks about what can happen with a religion's founder dies. Essentially, it can move from a charismatic leadership style to a rational one, and it can remain stable. Or in the process, it can lose steam and although stable eventually dissolve. It can also change or reform, but in that process, it might also divide. He shows examples from various religions.
Finally, Barrett gets to a chapter based on an albeit sadly too small survey of members that explores among other things how and why people made the choices they did: what finally compelled them to leave, where they went, how, and why. The two basic factors, Barrett says, that previous researchers would point to would be family/friends and doctrine, but Barrett points out a third factor that would influence where people went: leadership (which he terms a "moral" choice as opposed to a "religious" or "social" choice). Interestingly, people's choices were much less likely to be based on friends and family. However, just as interestingly, their choices were almost as likely to be based on the leader/minister as on the doctrine. That's right: people follow their ministers. I was reminded of my attendance with the church in Fort Worth after the 1995 split. One congregation had left with UCG, as that minister had left; one congregation had stayed with WCG, as that minister had stayed. (Both ministers adhered to the same doctrines, as the minister who stayed did not abide by the new WCG teachings, so leaving was not a matter of "religion.") Very few members transferred from one congregation to the other--and thus one organization to the other--when this happened. Similarly, in a recent split in my local congregation, probably 80 percent of the congregation followed the minister into a new group. We really do just follow the leader, it seems.
And some of us get tired, as is evident in the survey as well. While many initially left WCG with one of the various offshoots, quite a few people have since become stay-at-home believers, sick of the political power games that so-called ministers play in an attempt to garner followings for themselves.
WCG was a Sabbath-keeping church whose major tenets also included the celebration of the biblical (Hebrew) holy days, adherence to biblical food laws, a binitarian concept of God, tithing, and an adherence to a British-Israelite worldview of history and prophecy. In 1986, its pastor general Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA) died, passing on power in the church to Joseph W. Tkach, who over the course of the next decade would oversee the church's transformation to mainstream evangelicalism. In the process, the church would fragment into various offshoots--four hundred and counting at present--the three major ones being Philadelphia Church of God, Global Church of God (the bulk of which later would become Living Church of God), and United Church of God. Each group would hold similar doctrines. So how did people make their decision about where to attend?
After a brief introduction laying out the theory behind the study, the book provides a brief summary of the church's doctrines and then of its history. The author seems largely objective with regard to laying out the doctrines, rather than skewing them as most evangelically based studies have done in the past.
His account of the history is a bit more biting, but understandably so. As he notes throughout, it is almost impossible to find history on the church and its various pastor generals that is not either ridiculously hagiographic or ridiculously slanderous. He chooses to present elements of both views, since the differing viewpoints themselves have much to say about the nature of the choices that people have made.
Still an adherent to much of what HWA taught, I tend to think some of the more scandalous claims about him are probably rumors created by people with hateful agendas. Yet, having grown up in the church and knowing how the church tended (in the spirit of trying to avoid ruining people's reputations) to hide bad things from view, I also know that "truth" when it comes to much of what has gone on in WCG or its offshoots is sometimes hard to come by. Sometimes, a minister might be on a pedestal one day, and the next day, he might be gone and all mention of him swept aside as if he never existed. The reasons might remain a mystery or they might be revealed by someone with a particular agenda, and that someone might not be telling the truth either.
After a discussion of the church's history, its struggles in the 1970s, and then its transformation in the early 1990s, Barrett turns to his analysis. The first part of his analysis focuses on church government, which turns out to be of great importance to his eventual conclusion. WCG was, in its later days, run hierarchically. As such, people were expected to fall in line with the ministers above them, and the ministers to fall in line with the ministers above them. So what happens when the doctrines that those above no longer match with the doctrines that were formerly espoused, save in the matter of the doctrine of government? Does one hang on to the government, or does one let go of said doctrine to hold to the other doctrines? Barrett nicely even explores, though briefly, those who have stayed in WCG despite not believing in most of the doctrinal changes, precisely because of this belief.
Barrett's discussion at this point widens a bit. He talks about what can happen with a religion's founder dies. Essentially, it can move from a charismatic leadership style to a rational one, and it can remain stable. Or in the process, it can lose steam and although stable eventually dissolve. It can also change or reform, but in that process, it might also divide. He shows examples from various religions.
Finally, Barrett gets to a chapter based on an albeit sadly too small survey of members that explores among other things how and why people made the choices they did: what finally compelled them to leave, where they went, how, and why. The two basic factors, Barrett says, that previous researchers would point to would be family/friends and doctrine, but Barrett points out a third factor that would influence where people went: leadership (which he terms a "moral" choice as opposed to a "religious" or "social" choice). Interestingly, people's choices were much less likely to be based on friends and family. However, just as interestingly, their choices were almost as likely to be based on the leader/minister as on the doctrine. That's right: people follow their ministers. I was reminded of my attendance with the church in Fort Worth after the 1995 split. One congregation had left with UCG, as that minister had left; one congregation had stayed with WCG, as that minister had stayed. (Both ministers adhered to the same doctrines, as the minister who stayed did not abide by the new WCG teachings, so leaving was not a matter of "religion.") Very few members transferred from one congregation to the other--and thus one organization to the other--when this happened. Similarly, in a recent split in my local congregation, probably 80 percent of the congregation followed the minister into a new group. We really do just follow the leader, it seems.
And some of us get tired, as is evident in the survey as well. While many initially left WCG with one of the various offshoots, quite a few people have since become stay-at-home believers, sick of the political power games that so-called ministers play in an attempt to garner followings for themselves.
Read
June 5, 2019I am not rating or reviewing this book because the author is my partner, so it would not be appropriate. I am happy to discuss it privately.
March 21, 2021
An excellent investigation and analysis of a church that attempted to reform many of its teachings and shattered in the process.
Read
December 23, 2022soci 300 : research on the worldwide church of god
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews