What relationship does this man…
One is a puppet and the other is a puppeteer. You’re about to find out which is which.
In the course of doing some research for an entry on China’s “first lady” Peng Liyuan and China’s central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan, I came across a passage in the Chinese President’s Wikipedia bio that caught my eye…
>>> Xi is now the leader of the People’s Republic’s fifth generation of leadership. He has initiated a renewed campaign against corruption, further market economic reforms, governing with greater emphasis on the law and legal institutions, and a comprehensive national renewal under the neologism “Chinese Dream.” <<<
Curious about the “Chinese dream,” I clicked on the provided link and saw something else that caught my eye…
>>> According to Robert Lawrence Kuhn, who is an international investment banker and the author of “How China’s Leaders Think: The Inside Story of China’s Reform and What This Means for the Future,” the Chinese Dream has four parts: Strong China (economically, politically, diplomatically, scientifically, militarily); Civilized China (equity and fairness, rich culture, high morals); Harmonious China (amity among social classes); Beautiful China (healthy environment, low pollution). <<<
Upon reading this, I thought to myself, “How does this guy know so much about how China’s leaders think? Why is he, a Western “Jew,” defining the Chinese Dream? And is he related to the Kuhn bankster family?”
For those who are unfamiliar with the Kuhn banksters and their Illuminati connections, let’s start our exploration of them with this passage from Fritz Springmeier’s Bloodlines of the Illuminati…
>>> …The Schiffs became Rothschild agents, and like most agents of the Rothschilds they eventually became very rich and powerful. The most prominent of the Schiffs was Jacob Henry Schiff. Jacob was born in Frankfort in 1847, and was sent by the Rothschild/Schiff network to America to make his fortune (Much like the Astors sent John Jacob Astor). Jacob Schiff arrived in New York in 1865. Ten years later he became the partner of the Illuminati firm Kuhn, Loeb & Company. Ten years after that he became Its president. Directing Rothschild and Illuminati affairs from this seat of authority. Jacob Schiff was also on the board of directors of Central Trust Company, Western Union. and Wells Fargo Company… <<<
This Rothschild connection is also mentioned in Jacob Schiff’s bio…
>>> Schiff was born in 1847 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, to Moses and Clara (née Niederhofheim) Schiff, members of a distinguished Ashkenazi Jewish rabbinical family that traced its lineage in Frankfurt back to 1370. His father, Moses Schiff, was a broker for the Rothschilds…
In 1874 Abraham Kuhn of the banking firm of Kuhn, Loeb & Company invited him to return to New York and enter the firm… Schiff accepted Kuhn’s invitation in January 1875… <<<
So the firm of Kuhn, Loeb & Company had Bloodline connections, but is Robert Lawrence Kuhn related to those particular Kuhns? In trying to find the answer to that, I ran into nothing but dead ends. Peculiarly, there was no information on his parents (or even his birthdate) anywhere. All I could find was that he was born in New York in 1944, and if I put that together with the fact that he bears the surname “Kuhn” and is a top-level investment banker, it suggests there is a relation. Since a suggestion is not proof, though, I will have to take a different approach to show his status as an Illuminist: by applying the old Biblical standard of “by their fruits ye shall know them” and looking at what the man has been up to.
If it looks like a phoenix, rises like a phoenix, and quacks like a phoenix, it’s an Illuminist
Let’s begin with a short overview of the man from his Reference.com bio…
>>> Robert Lawrence Kuhn (born 1944, New York) is an international investment banker, corporate strategist, scholar and scientist. With a doctorate in brain research and the author or editor of over twenty-five books, he is a commentator on business, finance, and China; long-time adviser to the Chinese government; Senior Adviser at Citigroup (Global Investment Banking); and the creator and host of the PBS television series Closer To Truth, which presents leading scientists and scholars discussing fundamental issues. The new season of Closer To Truth, which began broadcasting in summer 2008, focuses on Cosmos, Consciousness and God. <<<
So he is an international banker who also teaches about “Cosmos, Consciousness and God.” Knowing the spiritual obsessions of the bankster “elite,” this flags him as a potential Illuminist right off the bat. But let’s go deeper into his specific activities before we make that determination…
1) He has been deeply involved in an “End Times” prophecy cult and the promotion of the New World Religion
Despite being “Jewish,” Robert Lawrence Kuhn was deeply involved in a Christian “End Times” prophecy cult called the Worldwide Church of God (WCG), and the story of what happened within that group is a very sordid tale told from a multiplicity of different perspectives. After sorting through a variety of “he said, she said” narratives from a number of sources, this is what I took away from it…
The WCG was the ministry of a Christian pastor named H.W. Armstrong, who had been amassing a growing following due to his radio broadcasts and prophetic doctrines. It would appear that the Illuminati noticed this and targeted the ministry for a standard infiltration and subversion operation, and it seems that Robert L. Kuhn and a fellow “Jew” named Stanley Rader were tapped for the op. According to Stanley Rader’s bio…
>>> In 1956 Rader met Armstrong, leader of what was then called the Radio Church of God, at its headquarters offices in Pasadena, California. Under contract with the Radio Church of God, Rader worked on improving its accounting system, thereby creating a highly favorable impression with Armstrong, who then urged him to attend law school at Armstrong’s expense…
After coming to terms regarding salary and compensation, in 1969 Rader decided to devote his full-time to the service of Armstrong…
Rader, who still considered himself Jewish, was baptized into WCG by Armstrong in 1975 using a hotel bathtub in the Mandarin Hotel in Hong Kong. This move allowed Rader to reposition himself as a high-ranking church evangelist in an attempt to quell misgivings by many in the ministerial hierarchy, who felt that Rader’s undue influence on Armstrong was troubling. <<<
At some point along the way, Rader was joined in the organization by his reputed close friend Robert Lawrence Kuhn…
>>> Kuhn first came to prominence in 1972 when “Why the Vast Difference between Animal Brain and Human Mind?” appeared in The Plain Truth magazine published by Ambassador College, an institution of the Worldwide Church of God (WCG). The WCG’s Systematic Theology Project was coordinated by Kuhn, but later banned by WCG Founder Herbert W. Armstrong. <<<
After their infiltration of the WCG, Rader and Kuhn became a tag team of subversion within the cult. Rader managed to get control of the Church’s finances, and Kuhn attempted to get control of the Church’s doctrine (through the “Systematic Theology Project” and other efforts). But H.W. Armstrong and many members of the WCG were troubled by all the changes Kuhn was attempting to implement…
>>> Old-time Worldwide Church of God members know what happened in 1974. The doctrinal changes on Pentecost and divorce and remarriage were called “adjustments.” As early as 1977 Robert Kuhn, administrative assistant to Garner Ted Armstrong, admitted to a Christianity Today writer that 29 doctrinal and administrative changes had been made (Christianity Today, April 15, 1977). Most members were not informed of these changes. <<<
All of the internal controversy and division stirred up by Rader and Kuhn led up to a momentous event in the Church’s history…
>>> Stan Rader Attempts to Hijack the Church
Around 1979, with the Church membership smelling a rat over finances and doctrinal changes, Rader decided along with and in cahoots with Robert Kuhn to hatch a plan for having a bunch of the local members to get the California State Attorney-General (a guy named Deukmejian) to launch a lawsuit against the Worldwide Church of God (and Mr. Armstrong). According to one pastor who learned of this, “Robert Kuhn and Stan Rader spoke every night over the phone to each other for up to two to three hours. And they were the ones who were bringing about all these personnel changes to put ‘their personnel in place.’” A Sabbatarian Church of God denomination with an annual budget funded by tithes and offerings in excess of $75,000,000 a year—with a hierarchal form of church government copied from the Catholic Church model—“climb the corporate ladder, Don Rocco.” So what happens? Deukmejian sends it down to a Superior Court in L.A. to a Jewish judge, with a Jewish prosecuting attorney, and a Jewish Receiver. <<<
Here (on page 9) are photos of the two men from that time…
Afterwards, Rader was eased out of the WCG and Kuhn was “disfellowshipped.” And for what reason was he disfellowshipped? For “allegedly for being part of a Satanic conspiracy to destroy the Church.” 🙂
By the way, here is the End Time Scenario promoted by the WCG and Kuhn (as found in the Wikipedia entry of an offshoot of the WCG)…
>>> PCG also has strong apocalyptic teachings inherited from WCG. It teaches a Great Tribulation will soon occur in which a united European power will emerge, composed of ten nations or groups of nations, which will conquer the modern descendants of Israel (the USA, Britain and Israel) and take them into slavery. An alliance of eastern powers (including Russia and China) will gather up its forces and wage war upon the European power. Then Jesus Christ will return and liberate the Israelites and usher in a thousand years of worldwide peace, which is called the world tomorrow. <<<
Does this scenario seem familiar to you somehow? 😉 It is, of course, the exact scenario we see the Illuminati attempting to implement around us right now. According to its narrative…
the “Bad West” (the US, Europe and Israel) which has been enslaved by “evil Nazis/Zionists”
…will be defeated by…
the “Good East” (the BRICS nations) which is led by “the new Champion of Christianity Vladimir Putin” and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
To avoid being taken in by their ruse, it is important to keep a few things in mind…
If your thinking is still contaminated by the Christ/Antichrist spiritual dialectic you were taught as a child, I encourage you to have a look at how the Bible was cobbled together. You’ll find that it was compiled using a very political process by men who were attempting to unite the various religions of the Roman Empire under one universal religion, the Roman Catholic (the word “catholic” means “universal”) Church. And if you reflect carefully upon the “god” versus “devil” dialectic the Bible contains, you realize that the two sides work together to ensure you adhere to their spiritual paradigm. The “devil’s” side is meant to scare you into the arms of “god’s” side, and if you fail to have “faith” in their spiritual paradigm, both sides threaten to destroy you.
With this in mind, you see that there is no real conflict between “Christ” and “Antichrist” in our world; there is merely an engineered conflict between the occultic Right Hand Path (who play the good guys) and Left Hand Path (who play the bad guys) as they attempt to manipulate us into accepting the new Global Roman Empire (the New World Order) and their New World Religion (the Neocatholic Church).
So when you hear people attempting to evaluate the Illuminati agenda from a perspective of Christ versus Antichrist, realize that they are lost in the Biblical paradigm, and that the Illuminati are actually working from both the Christ side and the Antichrist side. Their ultimate aim is to bring about the 1,000 year kingdom of Christ (a religious icon they modified/invented 2,000 years ago in Rome). And if people don’t accept the first Christ they put forward, he/she will be declared the “Antichrist” and someone else will take the throne posing as “the real Christ.”
Since his time in the Worldwide Church of God, Robert Lawrence Kuhn has been very active in promoting the New World Religion through a number of books, associations, and PBS TV programs…
>>> Kuhn is chairman of The Kuhn Foundation, which disseminates knowledge and understanding in science and philosophy through Closer To Truth, the long-running (since 2000) public TV / PBS series that features leading scientists, philosophers, theologians and creative thinkers. The current Closer To Truth, which Dr. Kuhn created, writes and hosts, consists of ~150 TV episodes and >2000 web videos (soon >2500) and focuses on cosmos, consciousness, God: Cosmos (cosmology, fundamental physics, philosophy of cosmology and physics, emergence, science and religion), Consciousness (brain, mind, mind-body problem, free will, personal identity, alien intelligences, critical thinking), and God (philosophy of religion, philosophical theology, critical thinking). New seasons are in production. <<<
The foregoing passage was found in his bio at Deepak Chopra’s Chopra Foundation website…
…It is no surprise to see Kuhn tied in with “Oprah spirituality.”
I also found one of his bios at the “International Society for Science and Religion“…
…Note the New World Religion symbolism in their logo (a Star of David disguised as an atom containing symbols of the religions of the world).
Compared to the primitive religions it is attempting to replace, the New World Religion sounds refreshing, more rational, and much “closer to the truth.” It pays lip service to Source Consciousness and to following our own internal guidance, but it also presents us with a “spiritual hierarchy” and “more evolved beings” who are “attempting to help us” (“so you’d better listen to them”). In doing this, they are using a more subtle method of placing themselves between us and Source than they’ve utilized in the past.
In an old entry titled The Blood Cult and 2014: Welcome to the Global Universal Church and your new “Mother/Father God.” (MFG) , I wrote about their agenda…
…In my own personal model of how Source expresses itself, there is no wannabe god standing between me and my Source. To access the “Our Relationship to Source” series, click here.
2) Kuhn has been involved in the promotion of Bread and Circuses in China
I remember once coming across an account of a conversation someone had with an earlier generation Illuminist. The Illuminist told him that a time would come when grown men would focus their energies on sports instead of politics, and that there would someday be large stadiums filled with many thousands of people watching sporting events. That this prediction came true should be of no surprise to anyone, since the Occulted Powers (OPs) used the same “bread and circuses” approach to distract the people of ancient Rome. Sports and entertainment are tools the OPs use to keep us focused on meaningless things while they tend to the important things.
With that in mind, guess what Robert Lawrence Kuhn has been doing in China (from the Investment Banking section of this bio)…
>>> Kuhn is a partner in the China operations of IMG, the sports, entertainment, and media company which is owned by Forstmann Little and run by the legendary investor, Ted Forstmann. In particular, Kuhn, working with Forstmann, structured a ground-breaking joint venture — “CCTV-IMG Sports Management Company” — to create, develop and promote world-class sporting events and sports programming across China, including Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau. The joint venture has a 20-year term, is exclusive to IMG and CCTV, and intends to bring the best of world sports to China and take the best of China’s sports to the world. The historic partnership will own and produce a series of live sporting events and television/multimedia programming that will serve as a completely new platform for the sports industry in China following the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. <<<
This passage is a little dated because Ted Forstmann died in 2011 and IMG was purchased by William Morris Endeavor in late 2013, but Kuhn’s attempt to turn the Chinese into sports zombies remains. And by the way, William Morris Endeavor is run by Ari Emanuel, brother of former Obama White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.
3) Kuhn has been deeply involved in the mergers and acquisitions racket
The overwhelming obsession of the Illuminati lies in the consolidation of wealth and power, and this manifests in the business world in the form of their compulsive promotion of mergers and acquisitions (M&As). With each one that takes place, wealth and economic power are concentrated into fewer hands, competition is decreased, and monopolization is increased. It is through M&As, for instance, that the mass media in the United States have been consolidated into the hands of just a few megacorporations.
In addition to bringing consolidation, mergers and acquisitions are typically funded by loans from Illuminati banks or bonds from Illuminati financial houses, thus leaving the amalgamated company in deep debt bondage to the banksters. And should the company fail to meet its debt payments, the banksters are able to gain direct control over it. Mergers and acquisitions also have the added “benefit” of frequently resulting in the firing of large numbers of “empty containers” / “useless eaters” / “human resources,” and that suits the Illuminists just fine.
As it turns out, Robert Lawrence Kuhn has been deeply involved in the mergers and acquisitions racket…
>>> Kuhn has more than 30 years of experience in M&A. He was president and co-owner of The Geneva Companies, the largest M&A firm in the US representing middle-market companies (which he sold to Citigroup in 2000). Under his leadership, more than 1,400 M&A transactions were completed, and more than 10,000 corporate evaluations were conducted. <<<
4) Kuhn has had extensive involvement in the deindustialization of America and the rapid industrialization of China
As I pointed out in The Rockefeller Plan for the BRICS New World Order, in their own words, the Illuminati banksters decided back in the late 1950’s to begin the transfer of America’s economic power to other nations such as China. They did so by…
unilaterally disabling America’s trade firewalls and bogging down American companies in vast thickets of regulation
…while simultaneously…
maintaining trade firewalls and sidestepping enforcement of any meaningful environmental or worker safety standards in nations they wished to develop.
Once the fix was in, the transfer of American industry to the “third world” became an inevitability. The American middle class fell…
…while subsistence farmers in the third world became subsistence factory workers in vast, suicide-netted corporate sweatshops…
Mainstream and alternative media propagandists are fond of painting the transfer of industrial power from the US to China as either the natural result of market forces or the engineered result of China’s “Dragon” elite outmaneuvering America’s “Nazionist” elite, but neither view holds any water. As the Rockefellers’ Prospect for America shows, what happened to the US and China was the result of deliberate policy decisions by the Illuminati Globalist Banksters (of which both the “Dragons” and the “Nazionists” are integral components).
Robert Lawrence Kuhn has been a significant participant in the breaking of America and the building of China…
>>> Kuhn advises leading multinational companies, CEOs and C-Suite executives, on formulating and implementing China strategies in a variety of sectors, including science and technology, information technology, energy and resources, industrial, media and entertainment, healthcare / medical / pharmaceuticals, consumer products, financial services. He works with major Chinese companies on capital markets and M&A activities. Kuhn is Senior Advisor to Ernst & Young (Office of the Chairman). <<<
As we have seen over the last few decades, a core component of corporate “China strategies” has been the outsourcing of manufacturing from America to China. So while his Illuminati buddies in the US disarmed our trade barriers and created incentives for outsourcing, Kuhn was busy assisting US companies in getting settled in China.
5) Kuhn has been very deeply involved in China’s governance
Kuhn’s Reference.com bio contains this account of how he got started in China…
>>> In 1989 Dr. Kuhn met Dr. Song Jian, Chairman of the State Science and Technology Commission and State Councilor in the administration of former General Secretary Zhao Ziyang. This contact, and subsequent relationships, created the opportunity for Kuhn to become an adviser to the Chinese government (non-paid) in diverse areas such as economic policy, financial policy, mergers and acquisitions, science and technology, culture and cultural exchange, and international communications and media.
Kuhn has worked with the State Science and Technology Commission (now Ministry of Science and Technology); State Council Research Office; State Council Information Office; State Administration of Radio, Film and Television; China Central Television (CCTV); Chinese Academy of Engineering; State Economic and Trade Commission; State Restructuring Commission; State Property Bureau; Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee; Literature Office of the CPC Central Committee; and Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Kuhn is a frequent contributor to the international and domestic media on the subject of China, particularly its economic developments and policies. He is considered an expert on President Hu Jintao’s political philosophy, and his domestic and international policies, including the meaning and implications of “Harmonious Society” and “Harmonious World.” He has lectured and been interviewed often on the “Scientific Development Perspective” [‘’Kexue Fazhan Guan’’], which encapsulates President Hu’s overarching policy to seek sets of integrated solutions to complex arrays of economic, social and environmental problems (for example in People’s Daily). He is said to be the first foreigner to lecture on the Scientific Development Perspective in China. Between February and August 2005, as media spokesman for China, Kuhn visited nineteen Chinese provinces and thirty two of its cities and met with senior leaders in government and business. Dr. Kuhn is frequently in China, working with senior leaders, ministers and officials in Beijing and Party secretaries and governors in the provinces. <<<
So according to the public version of what happened, Kuhn gained access to all these areas of China’s government by meeting just one man, Dr. Song Jian. If you pause for a moment to think about that, you begin to see how farfetched it is. A more plausible version of what happened is that the Illuminati assigned Kuhn to China in 1989, and because of that, he had access to every area of China’s government he wanted. The reason he was an expert in President Hu’s political philosophy is because he is the one who gave it to Hu. The Illuminati are the ones writing China’s script; politicians like Hu and Xi simply read from it.
When the Illuminati want to change the existing order within any nation or region, they like to start with a revolution. And China’s New Order was ushered in with an “Ordo ab Chao” operation that kicked off in 1966 with the “Cultural Revolution“…
>>> The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution, was a social-political movement that took place in the People’s Republic of China from 1966 until 1976. Set into motion by Mao Zedong, then Chairman of the Communist Party of China, its stated goal was to preserve ‘true’ Communist ideology in the country by purging remnants of capitalist, and traditional elements from Chinese society, and to re-impose Maoist thought as the dominant ideology within the Party. The Revolution marked the return of Mao Zedong to a position of power after the Great Leap Forward. The movement paralyzed China politically and significantly affected the country economically and socially.
The Revolution was launched in May 1966. Mao alleged that bourgeois elements had infiltrated the government and society at large, aiming to restore capitalism. He insisted that these “revisionists” be removed through violent class struggle. China’s youth responded to Mao’s appeal by forming Red Guard groups around the country. The movement spread into the military, urban workers, and the Communist Party leadership itself. It resulted in widespread factional struggles in all walks of life. In the top leadership, it led to a mass purge of senior officials, most notably Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping. During the same period Mao’s personality cult grew to immense proportions.
Millions of people were persecuted in the violent struggles that ensued across the country, and suffered a wide range of abuses including public humiliation, arbitrary imprisonment, torture, sustained harassment, and seizure of property. A large segment of the population was forcibly displaced, most notably the transfer of urban youth to rural regions during the Down to the Countryside Movement. Historical relics and artifacts were destroyed. Cultural and religious sites were ransacked.
Mao officially declared the Cultural Revolution to have ended in 1969, but its active phase lasted until the death of the military leader Lin Biao in 1971. <<<
Having created great chaos in China with the Cultural Revolution, the Illuminati began the process of instituting the New Order in 1971. That was the year Kissinger (who literally “wrote the book” on the New World Order in Prospect for America) made his secret visit to China and met with Chou Enlai (on July 9). Shortly after his visit, Mao’s designated successor, Lin Biao, was killed in a mysterious plane crash (on 9/13/71). After his death, Biao (along with the Gang of Four), was blamed for all the terrible things that happened during the Cultural Revolution, so his death served as an Illuminati scapegoating ritual. With the scapegoat dutifully sacrificed, China’s New Order rose like a phoenix from the ashes of the Revolution (under close Illuminati supervision).
Having seen all this, ask yourself the following question…
Given everything in which Robert Lawrence Kuhn is involved (investment banking, End Times and New World Religion programming, bread and circuses, mergers and acquisitions, and American deindustrialization / Chinese industrialization), as well as his all-access pass to China’s government, does he trigger your Illuminati radar?
He certainly does mine. But this entry isn’t really about Robert Lawrence Kuhn; it’s about pointing out that the Chinese are not the opponents of the Illuminati. Quite to the contrary, modern day China and its leaders are Illuminati creations through and through. Just think about it…
> Was it the Chinese Communist leaders who engineered China’s meteoric rise to economic power? Far from it. If you want to see what the Chicom politicians are really capable of, just look at the incomprehensible stupidity of the Great Leap Forward. Did they magically transform from the world’s biggest fools to the world’s wisest leaders overnight? No way. The Illuminati were the architects of China’s economic rise and global integration.
> Did Chinese manufacturing conquer the world with their notoriously buggy designs and shoddy workmanship? Not a chance. The Illuminati had to pour VAST amounts of Western technology and organizational expertise into China in order to drag them up to speed. Without the Illuminists providing close supervision and easy access to Western markets, Chinese industrialization would have gone nowhere. After all, who in the world really wants to buy anything made in China?
China’s rise, just like the “Chinese Dream“…
…was scripted by the Illuminati, and it has nothing to do with China. It’s all about the Illuminists getting their multilateral/multipolar New World Order. Just look back at the “prophecy” from Kuhn’s days in the Worldwide Church of God: in order for the “Eastern Powers” to challenge the Nazionists who “have enslaved the modern descendants of Israel (the USA, Britain, and Israel),” the East had to be made powerful.
Just like the New China rose from the ashes of the Cultural Revolution, the Illuminati intend that the New World Order Phoenix will rise from the ashes of the current-day chaos of the world. Here we see the phoenix rising at the London Olympics…
…and in the United Nations Security Council chamber…
Like all globalist pipe dreams, the Chinese Dream will turn into a nightmare just like the American Dream before it. We must all, both in the West and East, wake up from the dream if we wish to live conscious human lives.
[Update 1 – 9 December 2014]
More on Kuhn and the Worldwide Church of God
Stanley Rader fleeing a 60 Minutes interview with Mike Wallace…
This entry was posted over on ascensionwithearth.com, and a reader left the following comment…
>>> Robert Kuhn had a background in brain surgery – a PhD in neurology I believe. He wrote a ground breaking article for the Worldwide Church of God that there was a non-physical element in the brain that science could not account for, that gave man intelligence superior to apes.
Kuhn was an intellectual and doctrinally the liberal ally of church heir-apparent Garner Ted Armstrong. Both men seemed to play a role in the attempted coup against the elder Armstrong by initiating the receivership of the church by the state of California. Kuhn was later purged from the ministry as a “liberal” (as was GTA) as the elder Armstrong tried to pre-empt his son’s allegations of incest against his father with Garner Ted’s sister Dorothy. Armstrong later admitted the incest in a Tucson divorce trial transcript with his second wife Ramona.
Stanley R, Rader was never popular with the ministry, evangelist ranked ministers were always jealous of his contract salary which was $500,000 in 1982 dollars and the Aston Martin he drove as Church Legal Counsel and CFO, The average evangelist at that time made $80,000 and had use of church fleet cars and AMEX credit cards… so rumors always abounded about Rader among the upper echelons. There are Armstrong ties to high level Japanese politicians such as Nakasone and Japanese Diet members.
If Kuhn and Rader will allies they were working both sides – and that’s a tough call to make – and there is evidence for either argument. Kuhn first resurfaced when he and WCG church counsel Stanley R. Rader joined forces to sue Steven Spielberg for allegedly stealing their script to make the movie Indiana Jone and the Lost Ark of the Covenant. Armstrong used the Spielberg court case of Rader with Kuhn to disfellowship Rader for associating with a church “marked” and excommunicated ex-minister to facilitate removing Rader from the board (ex-members could not be board members) and install what he believed would be a more compliant treasurer. Rader had refused to sign off on a transfer of a church owned property, a historic Pasadena mansion, to Armstrong’s daughter for below market price (a violation of IRS regulations). Rader continued to receive his full salary for years as required in his contract with the church for early dismissal. The Rader/Kuhn court case with Spielberg was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.
Rader was long rumored within the church to have been a 32nd degree mason but it was never proven. Kuhn’s possible ties were much more ambiguous and difficult to prove and he was not in a fiduciary position. Kuhn and Rader did start the AICF cultural foundation of the church which funded many cultural programs in Israel.
Herbert W. Armstrong had early career ties to Chicago bankers… He was an ad-man. That and more on Kuhn is documented at the Painful Truth web site: http://hwarmstrong.com/ . There was one self-confessed Freemason Marion J. McNair, who declared himself a 32nd degree mason and proud of it… he left the organization in the late 1970s after writing a book “Armstrongism: Religion or Rip-off?”
As to Armstrong’s claim of a Satanic attack on the church, in the light of what data came out on Armstrong’s financial life style and moral choices that should be taken with a huge grain of salt. Sometimes shit just catches up with you. See the web site. The Armstrong empire reached its zenith of income at $250 million per annum in 1982 dollars.
Herbert W. Armstrong taught a British-Israelism theology (Christian-Zionism). He taught Jesus would return in a show of celestial military force and would ENFORCE world peace via a THEOCRACY on the world after a mighty conflict in the middle east. Sound familiar? It should… When the church was reorganized under Joseph Tkach as Grace Communion International it jettisoned its British-Israel teachings and lost many tithe-paying members as a result. <<<
This was my reply…
That’s one interpretation of what happened, but I can’t help but notice that such an interpretation makes Kuhn and Rader look better and H.W. Armstrong look worse. Of course, none of the men who were involved are good guys; it was a cult after all.
As for the hwarmstrong.com site you mentioned, I surveyed it during my research for this entry. Here is what is says about the AICF:
>>> On March 18, 1975, a star was born. In the appropriately plush setting of Perino’s Restaurant in Los Angeles, Stanley R. Rader (Financial Director and Chief Counsel for the Worldwide Church of God), Robert L. Kuhn (Assistant to Rader) and Herbert W. Armstrong (Pastor General of the Worldwide Church of God) unveiled and christened their “prima donna”-the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation (A. I. C. F.)…
Rader and Kuhn, the main promoters of the Foundation, summarized their purposes and goals in a succinct statement:
“…In establishing the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation, we seek to bring the finest cultural events and artists to the greater Los Angeles community, as well as to join with the community in supporting leading charitable, humanitarian, educational and cultural organizations. The Foundation will underwrite all costs of the concerts, thereby enabling all funds generated from the sale of subscription tickets to be donated to participating organizations and institutions. (The foundation itself is being initially funded by the Worldwide Church of God which believes that the performing arts are the highest expression of the human spirit and that the support of charitable and humanitarian activities fulfills its biblical obligations.)”
The founding concepts were incredible: a superb concert series liberally sprinkled with artists such as Horowitz, Menuhin, Sutherland and Pavarotti; all box-office proceeds to be donated to charitable and humanitarian causes; and all expenses to be borne by an eclectic, fundamentalist sect that for nearly forty years had preached isolation from this present Satanic “world”.
Noting all this, Ruth Asheton Taylor, a Los Angeles television reporter, aptly concluded her A.I.C.F. interview with the prophetic remark, “It’s almost too good to be true.” <<<
It goes on to tell how the idea for the AICF got started. Here is an excerpt:
>>> Before long, Stanley Rader and Robert Kuhn conceived a plan that would not only help solve these problems, but would also score a massive political coup in the organization. They would organize and control a completely new entity in the Armstrong Empire-one that would be completely separate from the Church and College in all areas but financing; hence, also facilitating a monolithic consolidation of power around Rader and Kuhn. <<<
In my research, I also came across allegations of embezzlement against Kuhn:
>>> During the time of the Feast, reports began circulating about an embezzlement that had been reported in the Worldwide Church “Pastor’s Report.” It was revealed that Raymond Wright, Vice –President for financial affairs, and Robert Kuhn, had been responsible for the illegal diversion of $219,000 of Church funds. According to the “Pastor’s Report,” this money had been transferred to Environmental Plastics Inc. of Dallas, Texas. This was a small company owned by Wright and Kuhn which dealt in the application of chemical-resistant coatings for chemical processing equipment. Church officials claimed that it was an embezzlement authorized by Garner Ted, and they inferred that he was a pivotal figure in the embezzlement…
Following the announcement of the embezzlement it was interesting to note that the Church never brought criminal charges against the alleged embezzlers in spite of the fiduciary responsibilities of Church officials to do so. The reaction on the past of Robert Kuhn was swift. He threatened to bring suit, as he had not know of any transfers of money until the matter had been published by the Church. He reported that he had been a silent partner, merely an investor in the company with Ray Wright, and knew nothing of the daily operations or financial activity of the business. Wright then confirmed that Kuhn had known nothing of the transfers, and it was necessary for the Church to retract any allegations regarding Kuhn. <<<
And let’s not forget Stanley Rader’s infamous appearance on 60 minutes:
>>> In a 60 Minutes interview with Mike Wallace, Rader defended himself, remarking to Wallace, “I don’t take stupid pills.” Wallace read to Rader a portion of a letter Armstrong was drafting, asking Rader to resign from any church positions that would make him Armstrong’s successor. Wallace then played a tape of Armstrong reading the letter. Rader started to sweat, before finally declaring: “Now I say you’ve acquired this by illegal means. I intend to have my attorneys today not only sue you if you use this. … Mike, look, I think you’d better scrap everything because you’re on my list. Okay? You’re never going to live it down, Mike, I guarantee it. … you’re contemptible. … I’d like you to get out of here, immediately!” Rader then stormed out of the room, and accused the press of distorting the facts. <<<
A short video snippet of that interview can be found at the 2:42 mark here.
Regardless of how one sorts out all the “he said / she said” perspectives on what happened, the fundamental question remains: why did two supposed Jews ingratiate themselves so deeply in a supposedly Christian ministry? H.W. Armstrong may have been a televangelist douchebag, but douchebags of a feather flock together, don’t they? 🙂