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Herbert W. Armstrong Post Office Box 431, Tucson, Arizona, 85702
July 28, 1980
Dear Co-Workers and Brethren in Christ:
Last night on TV Channel 4, Los Angeles, during the evening news, the
newscaster held up, so the viewing audience could read the large-type headlines,
my full-page ad. These full-page ads are appearing weekly in the Los Angeles
Times, New York Times and other metropolitan newspapers over the United
States.
The newscaster, Jess Marlow of NBC, was interviewing the attorney general
of California. The advertisement headline was addressed: "MR. ATTORNEY
GENERAL OF CALIFORNIA." Mr. Marlow asked the attorney general (as reported
to me by telephone) WHY he had picked on the WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF
GOD in the state's massive lawsuit to gain control, ownership and operation
of all churches in California.
The attorney general gave his stock answer to this question: his
contention
that "all charitable trusts ought to be supervised to protect the public." There
is no one else, he contends, to protect the public on how the public's money
is being handled. Therefore he says it is the duty of the attorney general to
manage and supervise the expenditures of all funds of public charitable trusts.
Mr. Marlow then asked if the attorney general thought expenditures for
this advertising in the nation's leading mass-circulation newspapers was
mishandling public funds. The attorney general, I was told by telephone, was
then a little confused and had no direct reply.
I reply, first of all, the WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD is N O T a "charitable
trust." It is not a public CHARITY! It is a CHURCH!
Second, we do not handle the PUBLIC'S money! We never do--NEVER
DID--solicit the public for money.
We do not solicit or receive the public's money. Therefore we are not
responsible TO the public. We ask nothing from the public. We receive nothing
from the public. We do not have, receive or handle and expend the PUBLIC
money. Therefore we owe NOTHING to the public except love, and upstanding
law-abiding individual citizenship and good neighborliness!
WHAT IS a CHARITY--in the public sense? Webster's dictionary defines
it: "Charity: an institution engaged in relief of the poor; public provision for
the relief of the needy."
WHAT IS a CHURCH? Jesus Christ said, "I will build my Church." The
CHURCH was built by JESUS CHRIST--not by the public! The first place the
word "church" appears in the Bible is quoted above from Matthew 16:18. In
Acts 2:47, "The Lord added to the church daily." It is that Body of believers
to which THE LORD adds members! The Church is the spiritual organism (NOT
a secular or political or public ORGANIZATION). The CHURCH is subject
to Christ--not to the political attorney general of California!
WHO is the HEAD of the Church? Your Bible says CHRIST is the Head