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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, July 11, 1980
Page 21
been exposed to the Church. I've even told all of our lawyers they had
better read the book and I'm going to start quizzing them on it. Some of
them don't learn all about the Church at the same rate; they don't learn
quite as much about it as I would like them to. It's only after they
read some of the more important aspects of the book that they will feel
closer to us. And I believe once they do they will do even a better job."
Mark 13:11--a Promise of Help
Mr. Rader mentioned that people have commented to him about his appear
ances on TV and radio talk ihows. He stressed how a particular verse of
the Bible had been so convincingly proven to himself through these experi
ences: "I'm referring to Mark 13:11 where it says, 'But when they shall
lead you and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall
speak, neither do ye premeditate. But whatsoever shall be given you in
that hour, that speak ye: for it is not ye that speak, but the Holy [Spirit].'
"That's very true," he acknowledged. "I cannot plan what I'm going to
say. I cannot take the time to even hesitate in response to a question.
If I were to do that the answers would not have that spontaneous quality
and they would not have that quality of candor which is so essential in
this particular type of setting. And so I just simply say whatever comes
to my mind at that moment.... And it's this type of thing that makes it
possible for us all to do a very good job...and try to use what we have
learned."
Persecution Definitely Not Over
Mr. Rader took this opportunity to remind the brethren that the persecution
the Church has been experiencing is not over. "I know that the Attorney
General is a desperate man," he said. "He is an evil man.... There is
no way for me to underscore it more· for you.... They lie repeatedly.
They lie at every opportunity. They invent at every opportunity to do
so. They lie to the courts, they lie to the newspapers, they lie to the
public, they are lying right now, as Dr. Scott has been saying on his TV
program for days. They are lying to the assemblymen in the state legis
lature [about the Petris bill, and about churches]. They lie on things
which are so fundamentally untrue that there is no way for them to sub
stantiate to the slightest degree the things that they are lying about.
I'm not talking about differences of opinion."
Mr. Rader proceeded to relate an example of just what he was talking about:
"They are still saying today in their latest briefs, in their latest
arguments, that we are still destroying our documents. We are destroying
them in pursuance of a nefarious scheme to carry out our wanton, fraudu
lent misappropriation of Church assets. They say that in writing," Mr.
Rader explained, "they put it in their briefs, and they submit it to the
highest courts of the land [and] in the state. That's pure evil because
they know there is no way for the court that they are addrP-ssing that
memo to, or that brief--there is no way for that court to determine the
truth or falsity of the statement. [At this point] the court is not being
asked to determine the truth or falsity of that statement. Do you all
understand that? They make the statement although they don't have to make
it. They make it in order to try to influence the court.