40 years ago: The raid on Ambassador College

On January 3, 1979, California state officials raided Ambassador College in Pasadena, California, and put the pseudo-Christian organization known as the Worldwide Church of God into receivership, much to the displeasure of the church's founder and leader, Herbert W. Armstrong. This blogger isn't aware of exactly what words were exchanged, but I think it can be assumed that Mr. Armstrong didn't offer his usual salutation of "Well, greetings, friends!"

The raid took place just six weeks after the Jonestown, Guyana mass suicide/murder, and alternative religious movements, popularly known as "cults,", were no longer viewed as harmless, and were attracting closer scrutiny, especially in California. Several weeks after Jonestown, the Los Angeles Times published a series of front page articles on the drug rehabilitation organization Synanon, and the California government raid on the WCG's main college campus took place a few weeks after this.

14 years after these events, a U.S. government raid on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas turned violent, initially resulting in the deaths of four U.S. government agents, and ultimately resulting in the deaths of everyone in the compound. This blogger predicts that it's only a matter of time before government forces enact violent raids on true Christian churches and organizations. Such occurrences are likely to occur in Trudeaupia Canada before they occur in the U.S.A., so Americans would do well to pay attention to what's going on to the north of them.

For more information, see my posts:

30 years ago: Synanon founder Charles Dederich pleads no contest in murder plot (July 15, 2010)

25 years ago: Herbert W. Armstrong, founder of the Worldwide Church of God, goes to the "wonderful World Tomorrow" (January 15, 2011)

10 years ago: Garner Ted Armstrong goes to the "wonderful World Tomorrow" (September 16, 2013)