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WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD
WORLD HEADQUARTERS
PASADENA, CALIFORNIA
HERBERT W. ARMSTRONG
PRESIDENT and PASTOR
March 20, 1970
Dear Brethren of God's Church:
GREETINGS in the service of the living Christ! By now, most
of you have heard, through your local pastors, of the shocking loss
to God's Work by mail thefts.
I do not want to give the impression that the United States
mails are unsafe. I'm sure they ARE safe under all ordinary
circumstances. But in our case the circumstances have been
different. We at Headquarters are by far the largest customer of
the Pasadena Post Office. We receive around 150,000 letters
monthly -- averaging 5,000 or more per day, seven days a week.
All tithe and offering funds have come in these letters. Certain
employees in the postal service -- possibly in Pasadena, possibly
in Los Angeles channels through which mail flows from trains and
airport to Pasadena -- long ago became aware that our heavy mail
contains MONEY. The very FACT of the mail being so heavy tempts
a thief to believe he can take a couple hundred letters or so
UNNOTICED.
There have been several cases of thefts from our mail in the
past few years. And, as crime and immorality have increased, so
have thefts of our mail bags. Postal authorities have done their
best to stop this. They have repeatedly set traps, and have
actually caught the guilty employees on two or three occasions.
They are, I understand, now in the penitentiary.
But in most cases the thief has not been caught. We have ways
of getting a fairly close estimate on the amount of God's money
stolen. This has been tabulated and figured through our giant
computer. The facts indicate the amount stolen may have reached
upwards of a million dollars a year! That amount of loss would pay
for getting the Gospel out to ADDITIONAL MILLIONS of people.
This is no little or small matter. WE MUST TAKE IMMEDIATE
STEPS TO STOP THIS LOSS! I know you will all cooperate completely.
BUT, there is a very real possibility of YET ADDITIONAL DAMAGE
to God's Work. IF many of you have been made fearful of sending in
tithes and offerings through the mails because of the announcements
made by your local pastors, IF you have been simply hanging on to
God's tithe and your offerings, waiting for future direction, THIS
COULD HARM THE WORK GREATLY.
We cannot "WAIT" until the Work of the living GOD stops! I
am putting a new plan into effect IMMEDIATELY -- as of N O W! We
are beginning a Church-wide plan immediately -- AS OF NOW! -- to
THWART these lurking criminals. Read carefully -- HERE IS THE