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So then a big event occurred. We went down to court to have the
Receiver removed. We were going to battle to protect our records and
to get them back in our fold so we could surely protect them. We are
not saying, "You can't look at them, Attorney General." We are saying,
"We want the records in our possession, and we want your Receiver out
insofar as running the Church and the temporal affairs of the Church
are concerned. But we don't want you signing the checks to the ministry.
We don't want you saying we can't buy tapes." He had stopped payment
of checks to pay for tapes for the broadcast to go out. And he admitted
in his testimony last night the fact that he was going to make decisions
about the broadcast and everything else. Understandably, we didn't
want that.
So we are at court now and what's the first thing the attorney for the
dissidents pulls out? He says, "We have here, your Honor, a letter
from Mr. Wayne Cole. He has been appointed as head of the Church, and
he has confirmed the Receiver running the Church. Therefore, the
Receiver (seeing he's in charge of the Church with Mr. Wayne Cole)
does not want these men--Mr. Rader, Mr. Helge, this other attorney
(Mr.Browne)--to have any authority to represent the Church or to try
to put the Receiver out."
Do you see what that ruse would have done? That would have effectively
put Mr. Herbert Armstrong out of authority in God's Church for good.
It would have put the Receiver in charge of everything, and Mr. Wayne
Cole in charge of everything, along with certain others. And by limiting
us we could not even have spoken in court to say what the people, let
alone God's apostle, wanted. We would have been effectively barred
from all that. But with the help of God, that case didn't go to trial
there because it kept being juggled around before one judge and another
judge. And the time began to be eaten up until finally they said, "No,
we have to hear it tomorrow." And that gave us more time for Mr.
Armstrong to learn more of the conspiracy and then change a document
he had been forced to sign so that he could be represented. If only I
had time to tell you the many different things that had to fall into
place.
All of a sudden, while we're busy working, we get word, "Somebody has
gone into the computer department, and they're trying to get the computer
cranked up." I could just see that they were going to go ahead and
send a letter out to the membership saying somebody else was in charge
of the Church, that Mr. Herbert Armstrong was out, and so on.
I tried to call the police immediately. I said, "There is a break-in.
Get someone down there." He said, "Oh, I know you people are having
trouble over there. But I don't think I want to go."
Then I said,
"Look. I happen to be the Secretary of that Church and I'm the attorney
for it, and I'm telling you to get down there." He said, "Well, I
know about the trouble." So I said, "Look, I don't care what trouble
you've heard about. Does that make us fair game for a bunch of burglars?"
He replied, "Well, okay, I'll send somebody down. But if I send some
body down and there's no break-in--that they went in with a key--no
literal break-in, I'm not going to do anything."
I said, "But they have access to a membership list that is worth
millions of dollars." By the time I called Mr. Dickinson and he had
run out there, they had already gone. Ghastly, I thought. Look what