JERALD Walker knew he was different from his mates – because they told him it was weird that he was not allowed to celebrate his birthday or Christmas.
But what his friends and neighbours didn’t know is that he was part of a white supremacist doomsday cult.
And what’s even stranger is Jerald is black.
His blind parents had been convinced that TV evangelist Herbert W. Armstrong was the new Messiah and that he was going to save them.
They were not alone.
At its height in the 1970s the Worldwide Church of God had over 100,000 members and was pulling in over £60 million in donations from followers.
Armstrong convinced his followers that going to a hospital was a sin, that they shouldn’t listen to pop music and that black people should serve white ones.
According to his teachings, even heaven would be racially segregated.
But when judgement day came the chosen ones, no matter their race, would be taken to a “safe place” where they would be protected from drought, burning skies and pestilence.
In return, Jerald’s school counsellor dad was giving almost a third of his wages to the church which helped to fund Armstrong’s private jets and limousines.
When the “messiah” was exposed as a fraud in April 1979 on the 60 Minutes TV show in the US, Jerald realised he had been “duped.”
Feeling he had little to live for, he turned to drink, drugs and “petty crime” before nearly being shot by a robber convinced him to shun that lifestyle.
Jerald, 60, went back to college and is now a professor and author, whose latest book is titled Magically Black And Other Essays.
But the terrible damage the church, which has now changed its name and beliefs, did to thousands of members remains.
Jerald, who also wrote The World in Flames: A Black Boyhood in a White Supremacist Doomsday Cult, blames the cult for the death of his older brother Tim.
Speaking to The Sun, he reveals: “People are still really struggling with the aftermath of being part of this cult as I am myself.
“It was hard to write about. I hated reliving that past.
“You find you are that eight-year-old again crying at midnight because you are terrified of the thunder storm that you think may in fact be the skies burning and Christ returning.”
Private jets and Prime Ministers
Advertising salesman Armstrong was one of the first christian evangelists to take advantage of TV and radio.
Originally he set up the Radio Church of God in the early 1930s, which by the 1960s was reaching as far abroad as Britain and Australia.
Jerald’s parents, who lived in a housing project in Chicago and had seven children, had both lost their sight during childhood.
They joined Armstrong’s congregation in 1960, before he renamed it the Worldwide Church of God in 1968.
His prophecies included a world war between Europe and the US, resulting in Armageddon.
We couldn’t celebrate birthdays, we couldn’t celebrate Christmas, we couldn’t celebrate Halloween.
Jerald Walker
Members of the religion were expected to send a “tithe” to the church.
Jerald explains: “His job was to save as many people as possible. It was our job to assist him in saving those people by funding his efforts.”
Armstrong did not hide his incredible wealth, which included a white, gold and purple Gulfstream jet.
He claimed he needed it to meet world leaders, such as the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the former emperor of Japan, Hirohito.
Jerald recalls: “The God of the Worldwide Church of God was not a poor God.
“He was a God of affluence and wealth, he was a God of success.
“We were proud to have a leader of our church who wore the finest clothes, who entertained dignitaries from around the world.”
Armstrong was openly racist as well.
The Walkers were part of a 200 to 300 strong all-black Worldwide Church of God congregation that met every Saturday in a school in Chicago.
Black and white followers segregated
The black and white followers only met up a few times a year at special gatherings.
They were kept apart during these events and black cult members were not allowed to marry white ones.
Jerald remembers: “We all knew that whites were in fact at the top of the hierarchy and that was not a problem for any of us because we thought it was biblically ordained.”
As the civil rights movement grew in the US in the 1960s and 1970s more and more black followers started to question the church’s racist teachings.
Many of them were thrown out.
‘Thought we were witches’
Members of the church were not supposed to mix socially with people outside of the cult, but that rule was tough to follow for Jerald because he went to a regular state school.
It was his classmates’ questions that made him realise how different the church was.
Jerald says: “They did not know much about the tenets of the church but they did know we were weird to be participants in it.
“We went to church on Saturday when most people went on Sundays. We had many prohibitions, we couldn’t celebrate birthdays, we couldn’t celebrate Christmas, we couldn’t celebrate Halloween, we couldn’t eat pork.
Infamous cults
Inside the most infamous cults in the world...
The NXIVM Cult – Pronounced “nexium,” this New York cult, led by Keith Raniere, claimed to be a self-help group. However, women and girls as young as 15 were emotionally and sexually abused, trafficked and subjected to forced labour, and referred to as sex slaves. They were also permanently branded with Raniere’s initials. Raniere is currently serving a 120-year sentence for sex trafficking and racketeering charges. He was also ordered to pay a $1,750,000 fine. His deputy Clare Bronfman was sentenced to seven years in prison.
Manson Family – Charles Manson predicted a violent race war, and planned to have his Manson Family hide out during this before emerging to take control when it was over. To help instigate this race war, Manson ordered his followers to carry out murders, intending them to be blamed on black people. In August 1968, family members repeatedly stabbed several people to death, including actress Sharon Tate. Manson and his cohorts were sentenced to death, but got life in prison. Manson died in prison in 2017.
Order of the Solar Temple – Joseph Di Mambro and Luc Jouret founded the Order of the Solar Temple in Geneva in 1984, with Jouret claiming to be both Christ and the reincarnation of one member of the 14th century order. In 1994, Di Mambro and Jouret said the end was near and in order to enter a higher spiritual plane, 53 members of the order committed suicide or were murdered in Canada and Switzerland. The buildings they owned were also set on fire after the deaths, and Di Mambro and Jouret’s remains were found. It was later revealed that Di Mambro had recently ordered the murder of an infant he believed to be the anti-Christ.
Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God – Founded by four ex-Roman Catholic priests, two ex-nuns and one ex-prostitute, MRTCG predicted the apocalypse would occur on Dec. 31, 1999. However, when the end of the world didn’t come that day, the leaders quickly altered their prediction to March 17, 2000. When the day arrived, police discovered an explosion and fire had killed hundreds of the group’s members. Although at first this was assumed to be a mass suicide, the evidence and subsequent uncovering of more bodies at other sites soon pointed to murder. It was never determined whether the leaders killed themselves or fled the country
Angel’s Landing – Led by Lou Castro, who claimed to be a “centuries-old angel” who could see the future and cure diseases. He convinced a lot of his followers that he had to have sex with young girls (usually their daughters) in order to remain alive. Over a period of seven years, six “accidental” deaths resulted in steep insurance payments – which funded the commune. Castro was arrested in 2010 and charged with multiple rape counts, first-degree murder, criminal sodomy, aggravated assault, and sexual exploitation of a child, among other charges. He was eventually convicted on all counts and sentenced to two life terms, with an additional 46 months added on.
“Some thought we were witches, some thought we were Jews, some thought we were Jehovah’s Witnesses.”
Fortunately, his parents were also more relaxed when it came to following the church’s doctrine on receiving medical treatment and listening to pop music.
Like Jehovah’s Witnesses, The Worldwide Church of God named a date for the end of the world.
Jesus Christ was to return on New Year’s Day 1972 and for the next three years, humankind would suffer “droughts, hailstorms, lakes of fire.”
Jerald says: “By the time I was ten years old I was convinced there was something wrong with our family, but I was split because our family had been chosen and once the prophecies had been fulfilled I’d have the last laugh.”
I declined to [go to high school] because it sounded highly suspicious. I could see the hand of the devil at work.
Jerald Walker
But that date passed without incident as did several others prophesied by Armstrong.
Rows at the top of the church, including one involving Herbert’s son Garner Ted being suspended for allegedly cheating on his wife, led to more disquiet.
The Walkers’ steadfast belief in Armstrong’s prophecies led to Jerald turning down the chance to go to a high school for bright students when he was aged 12.
He recalls: “I declined to do this because it sounded highly suspicious, I could see the hand of the devil at work.”
All that changed in 1979 when Jerald watched the 60 Minutes report on the CBS TV channel, which revealed that Armstrong was funnelling cash into his own private accounts rather than just church ones.
Jerald says: “It was devastating. This came after repeated dates not being fulfilled. By then we were primed to have the blindfold pulled off of us.”
Drugs spiral
Armstrong, who died in 1986 aged 93, denied wrongdoing and was not convicted of any crime.
Jerald “went off the rails” very quickly after realising he was not a “Chosen One.”
He says: “When it was clear it was a hoax, I decided to mask my pain and confusion with drugs and alcohol, which I did for the next eight years.”
When he was aged 22 an armed robber threatened to shoot him as he went to collect some cannabis from a friend.
Jerald had no money, so the assailant let him go. But his friend, the drug dealer, wasn’t so fortunate.
He says: “A short while later I got a call from my brother that my friend had been shot six times in the head at the very spot where the robber had put the gun to my head.
Some thought we were witches, some thought we were Jews, some thought we were Jehovah’s Witnesses
Jerald Walker
“It didn’t take me much to conclude that the man who had shot my friend had elected not to shoot me.
“I had to decide whether I wanted to have a similar fate or to take my chances and see what else could come of my life.”
Jerald gave up drinking, drugs and cut off contact with friends who abused illegal substances.
He got a job cleaning human waste from test tubes at a hospital for the next two years before studying different courses at a community college.
Jerald says: “I took a class in creative writing and I wrote about some of what I’d been through and my teacher said ‘you have talent, you should be a writer.’
“It was the first time in a long time someone had shown belief in me.”
Blames cult for brother’s death
His older brother Tim, though, could not escape his past.
Jerald explains: “I am certain the cult took his life. Tim was the most devout follower of Armstrong in our entire family.
“It hit him the hardest when he realised we had been duped. He had been a college student.
“He was going to be a mathematician, he was a chess champion.
“He concluded this was the way of the world, there were people who were con men and there were people who were conned.
“He decided to be a conman. He sold drugs and did whatever illegal activity he could do.”
Tim died from a heart attack aged 47 but Jerald thinks it was probably “drug induced.”
Jerald, who has been married for 29 years and has two sons aged 22 and 24, has been lecturing since 2001.
He believes there are plenty of cults and fake saviours operating today that are leading people astray.
Jerald concludes: “Everything is constantly repeated. We are in a spin cycle. They may be repackaged or renamed, but it is often the same old tale over and over again.
“Donald Trump is Herbert W. Armstrong reincarnated. They operate from the same playbook. They trade on fear.”
Magically Black And Other Essays by Jerald Walker is published by Amistad on September 26.
