Religious broadcaster Armstrong dead at 73

TYLER, Texas — Garner Ted Armstrong, a religious broadcaster who split from his father’s Worldwide Church of God, died Sept. 15, his son, Mark Armstrong, announced. The Assoc­iated Press reported that Armstrong, 73, had suffered from pneumonia. Armstrong was president of the Intercontinental Church of God in Tyler, Texas, and the Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association in Flint, Texas. He founded those organizations after splitting from his father, Herbert Armstrong, whose Worldwide Church of God was known for Old Testament practices and unorthodox theology. Armstrong was the voice of “The World Tomorrow” radio program, becoming its full-time speaker in 1957. The program reached more than 300 radio stations worldwide and was rebroadcast in five languages. By the 1970s, Armstrong aired on more than 165 television stations.