Basic HTML Version
PASTOR'S REPORT, May 14, 1979
Page 21
objects--anyone know anything about it? Let's try to get them back.
They "know" they're gone. At_least now we know that �e can't blame the
whole thing on Mr. Atkinson /the receiver's assistant/. I thought he
made the whole thing up out of whole cloth. Do you follow me? That
this was just one more wild rumor about gold buillion and gold objects.
And I was willing to condemn him totally (you follow?) for making up the
entire thing out of whole cloth.
Now I have to say to myself, "Well, suppose someone told him that there
were gold objects and art objects?" You see, I have to temper my
feelings about him a little bit. He was here for no good purpose, by the
way, but nonetheless I can't blame him 100%, can I, any more--not after
reading this? How would he know that there was no substance to it? If
someone said, "Oh, Yeah, but I can tell you so many things you don't know
about." That's what we were confronted with. Thank God that we had the
support of the Living God and Mr. ;\rmstrong and the members during this
struggle.
Mr. Helge and I and the others, Mr. �1cNair and Mr. LaRavia and our lawyers,
did not do that much to bring this thing into shape. It was the
ving
God who wanted it done, as I've said before, and it was Mr. Armstrong's
inspired leadership--strong, powerful, firm leadership--that's what,
coupled with our resources that God gave us over a period of 46 years,
plus the brethren and the ministers who were leading those brethren. That
instant support, that's what did it.
But now we're going into a period where, to a certain extent (as Mr.
Armstrong said himself yesterday) it's going to be a little bit on the
back burner, so to speak. The problem is still there. The fight still
goes on. But the state has been stopped. It has been thwarted. It
has been frustrated. Any other plaintiff would have left the field.
They would have dismissed, and hoped that they were dismissed without
being responsible for damages.
The state came to us, as I said, and they wanted to sett
out of court
if they could, but they didn't want to be "emasculated." That was their
own expression. We can't let them lift themselves up by their bootstraps.
And this is a war. It's a war between God and the Work of the Living
God on one hand and (if you want to couch it in those terms) the anti
Christ on the other. And it's a war we can'� lose; we can't
ford to
lose it. That's not why we've been called. We haven't been called to
lose this battle. We will win it.
And it's not what I would consider as a distraction or a preoccupation.
It now makes everything that we're doinq relevant. Mr. Arrnstronq's latest
copy for his latest ads have very powerful headlines--ARE v-IE LOSING OUR
CIVIL LIBERTIES?
(I think he says) and JUST WHAT IS THE WORLDWIDE CHURCH
OF GOD? And now he's beginning to preach the Gospe in the ads. In
other words, he's building. He has the public's attention. Not only
about the case but about us, and now he's getting the Gospel message
right into it. So it's not a preoccupation. It is not a distraction.
It's THE THING--it's all part of getting the Work done.
Now we have peoples' attention at long last. Everything we say out there
has some relevance to some people. So the job is now getting done as
never before. The costs of the litigation are another way of getting out
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