Ambassador International Cultural Foundation (AICF) was founded by Herbert W. Armstrong, although it was mainly the product of his attorney Stanley Rader. AICF was created to find a new direction for the Worldwide Church of God following the failed prophecies of the church and sex scandals involving Garner Ted Armstrong.

Brief history

Ambassador International Cultural Foundation (AICF) began life in the wake of the failed prophecies of the Worldwide Church of God as published in the 1956 booklet called 1975 in Prophecy!, written by Herbert W. Armstrong and illustrated by Basil Wolverton. Events were brought to the attention of the general public by the coincidental revelations of sex scandals involving Garner Ted Armstrong.

Cultural achievements

AICF recast Herbert W. Armstrong as the Ambassador for World Peace without portfolio and instead of representing himself as an "American evangelist", he was now portrayed as a diplomat with a quasi_Buddhist message that had in reality been born as the headline of a US News and World Report magazine editorial headline called "A Great Unseen Hand from Someplace". The AICF concept of "God" as delivered by Herbert W. Armstrong, was as this "Great Unseen Hand" who taught two ways of life: the way of giving versus the way of getting. Herbert W. Armstrong was repackaged as the giver who delivered expensive art works as gifts to kings, queens, presidents, prime ministers and other notable persons, in order for him to deliver this new message from the "Great Unseen Hand".

Some of the cultural gifts bestowed by AICF included the funding of the Oscar-winning controversial movie Paper Moon (Tatum O'Neal won Best Supporting Actress); the acclaimed concert series at Ambassador Auditorium (which was hailed as the Carnegie Hall of the West) and located on the campus of Ambassador College in Pasadena, California and the coffee table paid subscription and advertising supported publication known as Quest magazine which shared editorial offices with the AICF Everest House book publishing company at 1133 Avenue of the Americas in New York City.

Clash of cultures

The motto of the Ambassador Colleges which had been founded by the Worldwide Church of God, was "Recapturing True Values", but Paper Moon was stressed a message of how to rear a child as a confidence trickster; the Ambassador Auditorium was being used to promote a secular culture that the church often denounced, and Quest magazine featured values based upon wealth and secularism.

In addition, while Herbert W. Armstrong tried to portray his visits around the world in the company of the many famous people, they were the very sort of people that he had denounced as an evangelist. His message was so watered down from any connection with Christianity that it had more in keeping with a Buddhist message of peace than anything else. In the end this clash of cultures caused more rifts within the church to the point that its growing defections meant that the church could no longer afford to finance the lavish and ambitious plans of the AICF. One by one these activities were curtailed until the AICF itself ceased functioning.

Stanley Rader who had created the Ambassador International Cultural Foundatiion, eventually retired with a "golden handshake" from the Worldwide Church of God.

References

Other articles related to Herbert W. Armstrong, Stanley Rader and the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation can be found in the list below:

External Sources

• Memoir first published in 1979 by Ambassador College student and employee J. Orlin Grabbe (http://www.aci.net/Kalliste/Pasadena_memories.htm)
• Ambassador Report magazine article about the formation of the Ambassador International Cultural Foundation (http://www.herbertwarmstrong.com/ar/AICF.html)
• 1978 letter by Herbert W. Armstrong concerning the future of Quest magazine (http://www.cogiw.streamlinetrial.co.uk/coworker/781122.htm)
• 1981 letter by Herbert W. Armstrong announcing sale of Quest magazine due to editorial conflicts. (http://www.cogiw.streamlinetrial.co.uk/coworker/810424.htm)