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PASTOR'S REPORT, April 23, 1979
Page 14
The Church and its leaders have been subjected to frequent IRS audits over
the years. But why? Because people have been provoking these various
agencies to wonder about the allegations told to them. Yellow journalism,
crank letters and dissidents have all contributed over the years to this
hassle God's Church has had to endure. Of course, we always come through
it alright and there has never been a real problem -- until recently when
the State labeled us as wrongdoers and then set about attempting to prove
it so. Unable to do this, they hoped to rummage around until they could
find something somewhere in our records that they can put a slant on or
attach a color of wrong to.
Mr. Rader told of the U.S. Customs Service hounding Mr. Armstrong's en
tourage during their travels for several years. It all started in 1974
when rumors reached them that the Church and its leaders were smuggling
drugs, gold and diamonds into the country. After three years and thousands
of dollars and manhours were spent by the agency, the charges were proven
to be false and we never even got an official apology!
Mr. Rader said that the IRS audits, the occasional lawsuits that Mr. Helge
has faithfully and quietly been winning (God's Work has never lost a case
yet) "is a price you have to pay in order to do the Work of the living
God." Mr. Rader explained, "We just have got to be willing to pay the
price." When a person or an institution is prominent or in the public
eye it will be subjected to the rumors and attacks of this world, espe
cially when it's the very Work of God!
�ature of the Tapes
Mike Wallace has in his possession a "hot potato" in the form of illegally
obtained tapes which may bring him a lawsuit he very well may not win.
The man who recorded it (indisputably C. Wayne Cole) was specifically told
by Mr. Armstrong that one of the telephone conversations he was a party
to was confidential. He surreptitiously taped Mr. Armstrong's conversa
tion anyway on not one, but any number of occasions. At least two tapes
were clipped, edited and spliced to make them seem to say something they
did not. Thus leaving out portions, perhaps rearranging others, gave a
different intent and import to Mr. Armstrong's conversations.
Why We Are Fighting the State's Lawsuit
Mr. Rader said that he and Mr. Helge are fighting very hard to protect the
Church of God from the invasion of its privacy guaranteed by the first
amendment. Nevertheless, he observed that "We have some people in our own
organization who are not able to grasp the problem as they should, espe
cially for the positions which they occupy. But they do damage to the
institution when they do not understand that the first amendment and reli
gious freedom is all we have between us and destruction of the institution.'
Although the Attorney General keeps telling the uninformed public that
all he wants is an audit, the lawsuit plainly says he wants a change in
the board of directors leading to a change in governance. In order to
preserve the rights of God's Church we must preserve the rights and pre
rogatives of the leadership of the Church. Allowed to run its course un
checked this could do away with the government of God in the Church. And
all this to prove that the state has the right to control and supervise
the affairs of all churches in California!