Basic HTML Version
PASTOR'S REPORT, July 30, 1979
Page 10
He said, "What do you mean?" And I said, "Well, certainly, you know of
the Jehovah's Witnesses." And he said, "Yes." I continued, "Well, in the
thirties they fought all the battles--freedom of the press, freedom of
speech, freedom of assembly, and most importantly, freedom of religion.
The local state governments and city governments wanted to impose a tax on
the Jehovah's Witnesses who could have very easily paid what was really
tantamount to a token licensing fee. A fee was going to be extracted from
them for the privilege of disseminating their literature, as they still do
today on street corners. And they argued that it would be paying ransom for
their First Amendment rights.
Human government, as I have learned, is clearly an enemy of th� Church.
The brethren have found out that we now neect protection from /oppression
by/ the government at the very time that the government is saying they are
only here to "protect" us. That has always been a fiction; that's always
been a fraud upon the people. God forbid that any of us need protection,
real protection, from the government�
It's one thing to talk about pro
tection when dealing with matters of public safety, and another when we're
dealing with the so-called police powers of the state. But really, our
Constitution was designed so that the power of the state was cut down.
Federal government, for example, is only supposed to defend our shores
from invasion from without, and state governments were not supposed to
rule the lives of the people at the local level.
But you know what has happened over the years. There has been creeping
socialism and creeping bureaucracy to the point now that some fellow who
gets himself a career job with the Attorney General can entertain the notion
that he would like to be able to supervise the Work of the Worldwide Church
of God. He would like to set the standards, he would like to determine what
we should do, when we should do it, how much it should cost us and who ��
should do it. This Mr. Armstrong would never tolerate. None of us would,
knowing that we serve God and live in a land where the Constitution con
firms basic religious rights and freedoms!
Learns He Was Wrong About Government and the Judicial System
I was asked a very good question a few months ago by Michael Jackson, who
is a local radio and televison interviewer. It was a perfect question-
totally impromptu . He asked, "Has this whole affair affected you i -
n any
way? Has it changed you?" He has known me for sometime and he didn't see
any visible changes.
I explained to him, "Well, I was equipped to handle
this type of thing because I had the training for it, and stress doesn't
bother me, and having God on our side makes it all that much easier."
But I said that I have changed in one very important respect.
I said, "For
years I argued with Mr. Armstrong--literally argued with him tooth and nail
--because I thought many of his views about lawyers, judges and government
were immoderate. I always thought he was going a little bit beyond the
pale {beyond the limits or boundaries of reaso�7.
"Now," continuing my answer to Michael Jackson,
11
maybe I was a little
defensive because I was a lawyer by training and a law professor, and I
considered myself as part of the system to that extent, and I wasn't a
church member until just recently. And it was somewhat of a 'putdown.'
And in a nice way, as nice as I could be in the circumstances, I would tell
Mr. Armstrong, 'Well, all the judges aren't bad, Mr. Armstrong, all govern-