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It's generally some very fringe, marginal group or one that has such
way-out ideas that I would assume that any responsible member of the
community might have some reasonable questions in their mind as to
their social utility, their value to society. And therefore, they
might become the legitimate targets of interest for those groups that
tend to involve themselves in the activities of any organization which
might be hostile to that which the overwhelming majority of the people
in this country stand for, or should stand for. If we find a group
that uses intimidation of one kind or another--coercion and the like
--to bring people into their group, or to keep them against their will,
that type of thing tends to leak out.
No one in the entire history of this work has ever linked us with any
organization of that sort. I've done my best over the years to make
it plain to everyone that we are not anything but a respectable insti
tution in every sense of that word, or those words, with a particular
belief that we feel we have a duty in the form of a commission to pro
mulgate worldwide; that our college institution is not some organiza
tion that simply calls itself a college, but is one with a faculty
in attendance, a curriculum and student body. And over a period of
time we have managed, I'd say since the middle 50s when I became in
volved, to separate ourselves quite nicely from these other groups.
And we've never really been treated that way anywhere.·
If we've had problems, it has been, as Mr. Armstrong said here, because
of the operations of a few individuals, as differentiated from an aber
ration of the institution itself. Does that answer the question?
Naturally, we are always subjected to inquiries that are routine and
normal because, although our rights are many as a Church, there are
also duties. So we fulfill those duties and, in the process of fulfil
ling those duties, we also ma.nage to protect and broaden our basic,
underlying rights.
QUESTION: As mentioned in Mr. Armstrong's letter fread by Mr. Rader
at the beginning!, could you comment further on your present health?
RADER: Oh, it's good. It's not really very, very bad. It's just
that I have been working very, very hard over a very, very long period
of time. And I've been told, you know, that it would be better that
I didn't work that hard. The things that afflict most of us human
beings, unfortunately, can even begin to afflict me. I had always
assumed, like most of us when we're young, that we're immortal. And
I've always acted as though I were. And then when I met Mr. Armstrong
I naturally assumed I was operating from that day forward under a spe
cial type of umbrella--a protection. I had all kinds of shields against
bad health, airplane accidents and what have you. And seeing all the
places he and I have gone and the things we've done, I guess that um
brella shield has been pretty good at that. But it isn't good, really,
to work 15 and 16 hours every day, and be on call 24 hours a day, seven
days a week. I think anybody could tell you that.
And my blood pressure has been finally affected. And I was told that
it would be better if I could cut down on those activities, and cut
them down quite substantially to something more normal. And at the
time that I wrote the letter to Mr. Armstrong I was also, in addition