Fooled into Thinking: Dylan, the Sixties, and the End of the World

A fifteen-year-old struggles to make sense as the nation is thrown into shock and turmoil by the assassination of John F. Kennedy. His helps: the songs of Bob Dylan and the publications of an apocalyptic sect, the Worldwide Church of God. Over the next few years, he oscillates between these two influences as they help shape his identity. In the process, he struggles with his ambivalent feelings toward his heritage, one-half German immigrant in a world haunted by the ghosts of Auschwitz, the other Southern white at a time when the civil rights movement shattered self-satisfied notions of justice and equality. Music-making, first romances, travel to his father’s homeland (still in the process of rebuilding), and grappling with what it means to live a life of faith intertwine against the background of a society in upheaval, when it was easy to believe that the end of the world was imminent.

Sturcke, Henry

Religion & Spirituality

Henry Sturcke

Those Elusive True Values: Journey to the Center of the Armstrong World

Product Description 
Like many boomers, Henry Sturcke headed to California as a youth. While others sought sun and surf or hoped to break into the music or movie industries, he sought spiritual enlightenment. Not at the feet of an oriental swami or a psychedelic guru, but from a purveyor of fundamentalist doom and hope. Henry entered Ambassador College, although he had already graduated from a leading university. Ambassador was the educational arm of the Worldwide Church of God, both founded by Herbert Armstrong, one of the most colorful figures in the history of American religion. While there, Henry experienced the disconfirmation Worldwide's expectation of an imminent end-time as well as scandal surrounding Armstrong's flamboyant son, televangelist Garner Ted. Yet Henry remained a true believer in the church's calling and soon began making his own contributions to its media outreach. 
 About the Author 
Henry Sturcke, born in New Jersey, studied photojournalism at Boston University and theology at Ambassador College, Pasadena. After stints as a correspondent in Brussels and Washington, he was ordained as a minister of the Worldwide Church of God, a strict fundamentalist sect living in expectation of the imminent end of the world. He served congregations in Canada, the U.S., Germany, and Switzerland before resigning and earning a Th.D. at the University of Zürich, after which he entered the ministry of the Reformed Church in Switzerland.

History

World

Biographies & Memoirs

Leaders & Notable People

What if this isn't the end of the world? Henry Sturcke suppressed this question as long as he could. For good reason: he was a pastor in a strict church that expected the imminent return of Jesus Christ to establish the wonderful world tomorrow on earth. 
Wrestling with questions while failing to live up to his expectations of a good pastor, Henry battled burn-out. Meanwhile, the denomination he served, the Worldwide Church of God, was wracked by upheaval. Soon after the expulsion of its public face, pioneering televangelist Garner Ted Armstrong, Worldwide became embroiled in a landmark church-state legal confrontation. Then Herbert Armstrong, Worldwide's autocratic founder, died. The fragmentation of Worldwide that followed took a surprising turn: Armstrong's successors repudiated much that he had taught, while myriad breakaways vied for the claim to convey his legacy faithfully. 
By this time, Henry had begun to face his doubts. As a self-prescribed therapy for a renewed bout of depression, he enrolled in theology courses at a nearby university, leading after years of uncertainty to a surprising continuation of his ministry. 
On Second Thought is the third book in a trilogy. The first book, Fooled into Thinking: Dylan, the Sixties, and the End of the World, tells of Henry's first exposure to Worldwide's apocalyptic message. The second book, Those Elusive True Values: Journey to the Heart of the Armstrong World, covers his study at Ambassador College, Worldwide's educational arm.

On Second Thought: From a Sect Called Worldwide to a Wider World Community

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Books by Henry Sturcke