"Garner Ted Armstrong, where are you?" The familiar pitchman's voice wasted no time answering itself: "I'm alive and well and on the air on this radio station!" So he was, on stations across the country, once again softselling the messages of the Worldwide Church of God. Earlier this year Garner Ted Armstrong had slipped mysteriously into exile, apparently having committed some nameless disgrace before his church and its founder, his imperious father, Herbert W. Armstrong (TIME, May 15). Now he has eased back onto the scene, staying out of sight in the church's home base, Pasadena, Calif., but resuming his popular radio and TV messages.
The W.C.G. membership was informed of Garner Ted's return at the end of May in a pair of letters from father and son. The senior Armstrong promised that the "work of God" would now take "the greatest lunge forward [it] has ever taken," particularly in Garner Ted's TV broadcasts, which would have "a wholly new format" stressing prophecy and repentance. Garner Ted, sounding properly contrite, acknowledged that he had been spending the past several months in an A-frame in the Colorado mountains with his wife.
No one has yet revealed what Garner Ted's sin was, but even unfriendly sources now doubt that it was some moral transgression like adultery. Some speculate that it was a disagreement with his father on a few of the W.C.G.'s more arcane beliefs. Others suggest that Garner Ted all along wanted to switch his shows from documentary format to more direct preaching and that he has actually won the battle with his father.
A recent issue of Christianity Today reports that W.C.G. income may have dropped as much as 40% since Garner Ted's departure. Herbert Armstrong's letter denied any actual loss in revenue, but acknowledged that 1972 receipts have not grown as much as expected. In announcing Garner Ted's new campaign, Herbert told members that the W.C.G. was in "serious financial need" and asked them to dig deep to support the great lunge forward.