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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, May 9, 1980
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Mr. Rader further observed, "I feel that this battle between the state of
California on the one hand trying to destroy this Church, and the Church
and its brethren worldwide defending ... will go down in the annals of
Constitutional law in such storied form by the time it is through that
as long as there are books dealing with things in this world, people will
not forget it."
TV Documentary to Be Aired Around the D.S.
Mr. Rader was asked about the local TV station that repeatedly ran a
retraction under threat of a lawsuit by several of the men of influence
who were named in our TV documentary. Would this prevent future airing
across the nation, some have wondered. "No," Mr. Rader replied, assuring
everyone that we have already bought other air time. He explained that
KCOP-TV has already been in trouble with the FCC in Washington and then
this threat of a lawsuit was another burden. So they found it rather easy
to simply retract, since we are not regular customers of theirs.
In fact, Mr. Rader explained, all they really had to do to protect them
selves in the first place would have been to run a disclaimer before and
after the showing, stating that the program did not reflect their views.
But as he further pointed out, they had no right to retract because it
wasn't their proqram, it was ours. But to make matters worse they made
misstatements of fact in their retraction that our lawyers are addressing
themselves to. We will go to the FCC if necessary to have our opportunity
to correct the record. And so we should be having another opportunity in
the future to get our point ac1.oss
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that. station!
In spite of the retraction it is Mr. Rader's feeling that the average
person was much more affected by what he heard and saw in the documentary
than by what he may have heard in the retraction. From Mr. Rader's own
experience in talking to informed people in the community, it is a very
compelling film. These people could see and understand that we were
totally within our rights and we were absolutely correct in taking the
position we did, he said.
Current Status of the 7000 Church Documents
Mr. Rader was asked about the 7000 Church documents that the court is now
handing over to the Attorney General by order of the L.A. Superior Court,
since Justice Rehnquist of the U.S. Supreme Court recently denied a stay
of that order. The turning over of the documents signals, "unless it is
corrected, a very dangerous erosion of the rights that American citizens
have, or thought they had, and it could be the beginning of a really
totalitarian state," Mr. Rader warned.
He continued, "All you have to do is look at the history in other places.
They never take all the rights away at one time. Never. They find their
soft spots and they take away a right here and they take away a right
there, and before you know it they have infringed on everything and there
are no more rights.
"That's why basically these [other churches and rights organizations] have
come in on our side. That's the real danger. We've been protecting a
principle here from the beginning. I obviously would not have turned over
documents to the IRS, waiving all of my rights, if I thought there was
something there that would hurt me. And we have cooperated with other
agencies in the same fashion.