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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, March 13, 1980
Page 5
Organizations in Support of the Church
1. National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
2. Synagogue Council of America
3. Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs
4. Lutheran Church in America
5. Association of Evangelical Luthe�an Churches
6. Board of Church and Society, the United Methodist Church
7. William P. Thompson, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the
United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.
8. National Association of Evangelicals
9. Northern.California Ecumenical Council
10. American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California
11. Americans United for Separation of Church and State Fund, Inc.
12. Institute for the Study of American Religion
13. Berkeley Area Interfaith Council
14. Christian Legal Society
15. Methodist Federation Fund
16. Committee to Defend the First Amendment Research Institute
17. Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity
18. Alliance for the Preservation of Religious Liberty
Newspaper Coverage
The press conference brought national exposure to the cause as it was
announced and disseminated around the country. Here is a home-town
version as seen in the March 8th Pasadena Star-News.
Worldwide
church gets
new support
By DAN MEYERS
Knight-Ridder Sewspaper
WASHINGTON - The National
Council of the Churches of Christ.
representing 32 religious groups
followed by 40 million Ameri
cans, has joined a Supreme Court
battle on the side of the Pasade
na-based Worldwide Church of
Cod.
At issue. according
to
a "friend
of the court" brief filed Friday,
are "not just the rights of the
Worldwide Church of
God
and its
memQers .. . but those of everv
religious body and every Ameri
can."
The S t a te of Ca l i f o r ni a,
through the attorney general, has
dC'manded numerous church
documents on the basis of accus
t ions bv six former members of
the church that its leader. Her-
bt!rt W. Armstrong. and treasur
er. St an l�y Rader. misused
church funds.
The Worldwide Church of God
has lost attempts in lower courts
to block the state from obtaining
its records. Its Supreme Court
appeal was filed Monday.
Last January the church was
placed in receivership - literally
put under the custody of the
state. The receivership ended
when church members posted a
$3.4 million bond.
The attorney general has ar
gued that the church is a licensed
California corporation that legal
ly can be regarded as a charita
ble organization. As such, the
qate has the obligation to make
sure the money is handled prop
erly, attorneys for the state said.
But organizations ranging from
the American Civil Liberties
Union to the National Council of
Churches of Christ have dis
agreed, charging that the attor
ney general is violating Ute sepa
ration between church and state.
"What we are really alarmed
d
bout.'· council spokesman Dean
Kelley said Friday, "is not just
this single case - appalling as it
is - but the theory on which the
attorney general is proceeding:
that the contributions made to a
church create a charitable trust.
which the state has the right and
obligation to oversee.
··It
is hard to believe it has
been enunicated in the United
States
rather than in Iran or
China or the Soviet Union."
Kelley stressed that his group
is judging not whether Rader and
Armstrong in fact misused funds,
only whether the· state acted
proper ly i n taking over the
church rather than prosecuting
individual officers of the church.
· ·our support of its appeal is
no t an endorsement of th at
church or its leadership as such,··
Kelley said.
Attorney Laurence Tribe, who
represents the Worldwide Church
of God, said that the appeal for a
Supreme Court 'review of the
state's demand for the church's
papers is the last legal recourse
the church has to keep its records
private.
Also joining as "friends of the
court" are 17 other religious and
ci vii rights groups who say the
State of California has gone too
far with the Worldwide Church of
God.