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The spirit of competition and conflict is present at all times, even
if it is sometimes concealed just below the surface. And the more
grand the business (in scope or in size), the more capable the people
are in concealing all of these things which can be summed up in
terms of conflict and competition. It truly is an adversary setting
and may the "best man" win. They are trained to have an iron fist
within the velvet glove.
Now that doesn't mean we're softies at the Worldwide Church of
God headquarters or Ambassador College -- not at all. Sometjmes Mr.
Armstrong has said, "If you believe in God and people know it,
people think you're soft and weak." Well, that isn't the case
after they have been dealing with us. They know that we're not.
They just simply know that we are different in the right way, and as
a consequence they do more for us. We can walk away with pride and
a sense of accomplishment in seeing to it that each person who has
worked for us, in whatever capacity, has walked away knc',wing that he
has received the benefit of his bargain and consequently has done
his best work on that particular occasion.
So this approach was a very valuable thing for Mr. Armstrong to
impart to me very early in our relationship. Otherwise, if he hadn't
said it, I would probably, in the process of representing the Work,
have gone about quietly but firmly doing what everyone else in business
was doing. That is, trying to maximize on every single occasion the
benefits for the church to the disadvantage of the other side. And
now I don't feel that that would have been what the Work needed. Of
course, Mr. Armstrong didn't either. I don't think we would have
built the kind of community relationships that we have nor the kind
of worldwide relationships that we have ••••
Now that same principle could be applied to solve most of the problems
which you read about when you pick up the newspapers or you turn on
your television set and watch your evening news. There doesn't seem
to be, for example, any way to halt rising prices. There doesn't seem
to be any way to halt inflation. There doesn't seem to be any way to
stop the unions from grabbing more or to stop the employers from
raising prices. The unions blame the people who own the big businesses,
the big businesses blame the unions, and they both blame the govern
ment and the government blames each of them. We know that. And yet
I'm positive that if Mr. Armstrong's approach, which comes right from
the Bible, were to be applied by President Carter and by the George
Meanys of this world, and the Henry Fords, then we would have an
amicable and fair solution for all.
Naturally the Bible doesn't give us any detailed, specific information
as to how these problems would be solved. It doesn't tell us exactly
how full employment, economic growth, price stability, favorable
trade balances can all be simultaneously achieved. So it would appear
to the uninformed that supply and demand and foreign markets, foreign
money markets; all of these various economic principles seem to have
a life and a force of their own. But if people for a moment would
not follow the carnal principle that I talked about before where each
and every person enters into the struggle -- which is simply a struggle
for power -- trying to exploit others as far as possible to his own