SEX ALLEGATIONS FORCE
ARMSTRONG’S RESIGNATION

Charges of sexual assault against Garner Ted Armstrong have led to the televangelist’s resignation as head of the Church of God International. Suerae Robertson, a licensed vocational nurse, said that Armstrong had begun to employ her in spring 1995 for massage therapy and claims that the television preacher made repeated lewd requests, grabbed and bit her, and attempted to force her into satisfying his immoral requests. She filed suit in state court in Tyler, Texas, last Nov. 22 and is seeking unspecified damages from Armstrong and his church.

According to an Associated Press report, the masseuse maintains that during two visits last summer Armstrong “insisted that he receive his therapy in complete nudity” and that she was to “concentrate her therapy on the area of his groin, lower back, inner thighs and buttocks.” Robertson also claims that the televangelist informed her that “his execution of the Lord’s work was so vital that any transgression would be overlooked by God.”

Garner Ted, 64, is the son of Herbert W. Armstrong, the late founder of the Worldwide Church of God. In 1978, the younger Armstrong was excommunicated from the Pasadena-based sect by his father and established his own ministry, the Church of God International, now based in Tyler. His current television broadcast is aired weekly on cable and on approximately 30 other stations.

—MKG

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