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of people, and otherwise carrying out the Work of the Church; in the
last five years, for example, Mr. Armstrong and Mr. Rader have averaged
approximately 200 travel days per year.
(2) Numerous publications such as Quest magazine, The Plain Truth,
The Worldwide News, The Good News, and books published by Church-owned
Gateway Publishing,Inc.
(3) A multitude of television and radio broadcasts spreading the
Gospel, for which the Church spends approximately $5 million annually.
(4) The operation of Ambassador College, an institution which
primarily trains students for the ministry but which also educates them
in all areas.
(5) Concerts, opera, theater and other cultural activities funded
by the Church and conducted through Ambassador International Cultural
Foundation.
(6) Numerous other charitable, educational, scientific, and
religious projects.
Mr. Armstrong's personal advisor, Stanley R. Rader, is a lawyer
and accountant who has been involved with the Church for approximately
20 years. Prior to 1975, Mr. Rader was an independent contractor and
outside consultant who was not even a Church member.
In 1975, he
became an officer, director and member of the Church. Mr. Armstrong
feels that Mr. Rader has been invaluable in making the Church finan
cially successful, thereby enabling it to more effectively carry out
:its Work.
For a number of years prior to 1978, Mr. Armstrong's son, Garner
Ted, also worked for the Church. A rather charismatic, well-spoken
man, Garner Ted Armstrong was widely regarded as the man most likely
to succeed his father as leader of the Church. However, Garner Ted
Armstrong's personal misconduct, as well as theological and philoso
phical differences with his father and, perhaps, his desire to take
over leadership of the Church immediately, led to Mr. Armstrong's"dis
fellowshipping" (i.e., excommunicating) him in 1978. Since that time,
Garner Ted Armstrong has formed his own Church of God, Universal
(based in Tyler, Texas) with the support of former members of the
Church, and has attempted to induce members to leave the Worldwide
Church of God and join his new organization. For some reason--perhaps
jealousy because his father trusted and relied upon Mr. Rader more
than on his own son--Garner Ted Armstrong intensely dislikes Stanley
Rader and has expressed this hatred publically, calling Mr. Rader "an
evil man" and otherwise reviling and disparaging him.
Sometime prior to January 2, 1979 (how much prior to this date
is not known but, judging from subsequent events, it appears to have
been at least a period of weeks), a small group of dissident former
Church members apparently contacted a Beverly Hills attorney, Hillel
Chodos, and sought advice regarding what could be done to disgrace,
discredit Herbert W. Armstrong and Stanley Rader and remove them from
their positions in the Church based on trumped-up alleged improprieties
vituperatively referred to as "siphoning of funds for personal use";