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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, June 27, 1980
Page 11
MR. RADER INTERVIEWED IN CALIFORNIA STATE CAPITAL
An increasing number of invitations are coming to Mr. Rader from radio and
television stations to discuss the State's invasion of God's Church. These
opportunities present the Work with a means to introduce the Church to
many new people, as well as explain the present danger to religious lib
erty in California posed by the State's ongoing lawsuit against the Church�
Marc Segall, church pastor in Chico, California sent in the following two
reports on a recent flurry of interviews in Sacramento and San Francisco.
* * *
* * *
On Tuesday, July 17, 1980, history was made in the capital city of the
most populous state in the nation. Mr. Stanley R. Rader, the Work's
Treasurer, General Counsel and an Evangelist, traveled here as a result
of two invitations to appear as the special guest on leading news and
talk shows.
KGNR-radio, an ABC affiliate,has a daily afternoon interview show hosted
by local radio personality Mary Jane Popp. She had been reading about
the state of California's shocking attempt to seize control of and
dominate the Worldwide Church of God. Then after hearing of the Supreme
Court's decision to refrain from listening to the Church's plea for relief,
coupled with the "60 minutes" telecast which she viewed, she invited Mr.
Rader to be on her show. There, ironically within a few miles of the
State Capital buildings and the Attorney General's office, she proceeded
to ask Mr. Rader questions live before a large listening audience.
Ms. Popp's initial questions about the allegations against Mr. Rader set
the tone for most of the interview, which was something less than friendly.
Nevertheless, she seemed visibly impressed as she listened to Mr. Rader
openly and honestly discuss the real truth concerning his remuneration
by, and relationship with, the Worldwide Church of God. Her other ques
tions concerning the overseas trips that Mr. Armstrong and Mr. Rader have
made were evidently designed to embarrass Mr. Rader, especially as she
referred to various expenses and bills. However, Mr. Rader brilliantly
turned her questions around and used them as powerful springboards to
launch into a complete explanation of the Church's "Great Commission."
Although this is a radio program where the listening audience is en
couraged to telephone in questions, Ms. Popp was so impressed by Mr.
Rader's answers to her own ''hard" questions that during the entire 90
minutes Mr. Rader was on the air she allowed only a half dozen questions
to be asked by her listeners! This worked out for the best because it
allowed Mr. Rader to more thoroughly answer the questions without
interruption. Since at one point in her interview she seemed to demon
strate a rather shallow understanding, Mr. Rader challenged her and the
media to educate themselves on the vital constitutional issues and the
fight for the protection of all American's religious liberties (which
fight God's Church is in the vanguard).
Mr. Rader was asked to be the special guest that same evening on the very
popular 10 p.m. news report on KXTL-TV, Channel 40 Sacramento. KXTL-TV
is the most powerful and widely viewed UHF station on the West Coast. It