The Philadelphia Trumpet

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{{DISPLAYTITLE:''The Philadelphia Trumpet''}}
'''''The Philadelphia Trumpet''''' is a religious magazine that covers world events and traces how they were foretold by the prophets of the [[Bible]].  It does a lot of [[shoehorning]] in order to make the news fit [[Herbert W. Armstrong]]'s prophecies from 50 years ago. The magazine's editor-in-chief is self-appointed [[prophet]], [[fundamentalist]], and [[conservative]] Gerald Flurry {{lived|1935}} of the Philadelphia Church of God (a break-off church of Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God). He also hosts a weekly television show, "The Key of David."  The Philadelphia Church of God is the current publisher of the books of Herbert W. Armstrong, which they make available for free but at the cost of spamming your snail-mail box with the magazine.

=="Notes From the Editor"==
Flurry writes an editorial in each issue of his magazine, detailing his personal values and how the [[United States]] is falling apart because America's youth do not follow his interpretation of God's values. In "Our Educators Have a Dangerous Contempt for Authority," (March 2010) Flurry argued that universities, including Harvard, were responsible for the deterioration of America's values. He went on to write that "American colleges and universities actually encourage people to indulge in SOME OF THE MOST REPUGNANT IMMORALITY IN THE HISTORY OF MAN! We lead the world to sexual immorality" (emphasis all his). Obviously, [[sex]] between consenting individuals at universities represent SOME OF THE MOST IMMORAL ACTS IN HUMAN HISTORY, right after the invention of [[science]] and the [[condom]]. He then goes on to blame this immorality for "the collapse of strong [[marriage]]s and families—and of our nation!" So there you have it, all we have to do is eliminate [[sex]] and America will rise again!

==Twisting logic==
In one issue of ''The Trumpet'', the writers attempted to prove that [[Christianity]] is the one true religion. How? By exclusively defining "Christianity" as religion. Since no other religion thus qualifies as such, Christianity wins by default. It is this kind of logic that can be found everywhere in ''The Trumpet''. However, in the March 2010 issue, ''The Trumpet'' carried an article about the January 2010 earthquake in [[Haiti]] which read, "There are almost as many opinions on God's role as there are religions."  The writer's opinion was that God was responsible for the earthquake. Why did He do it? Because Haitian Christians were not Christian enough. ''The Trumpet'' supposed that an omnipotent God is responsible for everything on earth. So why not have an earthquake in [[Saudi Arabia]] instead of Haiti if God is Christian? Maybe God really is [[Muslim]].

== Conspiracy theories ==
The ''Trumpet'' also deals in [[conspiracy theory]]; a recent favorite is that the [[German]] government is secretly run by [[Nazis]]. Not neo-Nazis, but the old Nazis who survived [[World War II]]. The ''Trumpet''  believes that Germany will play a central role in fulfilling biblical [[prophecy]], and predicts that Germany will become the world's next superpower by conquering [[Europe]] economically, creating an evil, godless empire—just as [[Hitler]] had planned!   

Besides Germany, their other bugaboos are the [[Pope]], [[Muslim]]s and the idea that [[global warming]] is caused by a lack of Christian values.

== Against their own claimed beliefs ==
The Philadelphia Church of God has [[Christian pacifism]] written into their statement of beliefs, in keeping with the [[theology]] of Herbert W. Armstrong.  Don't expect to find anything pro-peace in ''The Philadelphia Trumpet'' though.  Every issue of the magazine is filled with articles advising Western nations to get tougher on the [[War on Terror]], criticizing [[Britain]] and [[France]] for past "appeasements," praising military buildups, and stirring up [[moral panic]] about the Muslim hordes. Like Armstrong, the ''Trumpet'' subscribes to [[British Israelism]], so the UK gets special attention for their Monday-morning military quarterbacking. [[Winston Churchill]] is a frequent subject of praise. They hate [[Wikileaks]].

==External links==
*[http://www.thetrumpet.com/ theTrumpet.com]
*[http://www.pcog.org/ The Philadelphia Church of God]
*[http://www.cogwriter.com/news/cog-news/pcgs-gerald-flurry-arrested/ Church of God News: PCG’s Gerald Flurry Arrested]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Philadelphia Trumpet, The}}
[[Category:Prophets]]
[[Category:Magazines]]
[[Category:Anti-Catholicism]]
[[Category:Chickenhawks]]
[[Category:Conspiracy theorists]]
[[Category:Purity culture]]

Categories: Prophets, Magazines, Anti-Catholicism, Chickenhawks, Conspiracy theorists, Purity culture