In the early days of Armstrongism the Church of God had a "love/hate" relationship with blacks in the church.
While many of the COG's had black members in attendance at weekly services, when it came time for the Feast they were relegated to Big Sandy. Nothing like sending church members deep into the South where the Clan was still very active!
For many years in the church few blacks were ordained. Yes there were one or two black evangelists, but they were definitely in the minority in the church.
This issue had and still has its roots deeply entrenched in the British-Israelism malarkey that the church promoted. British-Israelism created a lot of racist attitudes in the church.
Race issues have always been a huge issue in the Church of God over the decades, yet there have always been a group of COGers that claim there never was an issue. Here are a few quotes from Raymond McNair's ministerial notes. The points below are still upheld by many in the COG.
A quote from page 5 of McNair's notes, from Jan. 17, 1972 -- apparently, HWA giving "Pastoral Instruction":
In the Millennium God will cause the Coloured peoples to return to their heritage - in Africa. Blacks in the US are guests here."This is modern Israel. We do not know any Bible example where Blacks were put over Whites - over Israel. Israel were to have a King of their own people.In the US Blacks are the best-off financially of any Blacks in the world.
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