Against the Gates of Hell Against the Gates of Hell The Threat to Religious Freedom in America By: Stanley R. Rader Everest House Copyright © 1980 Additional Programs and Literature available at: hwalibrary.com | 1 Against the Gates of Hell Table of Contents: Chapter 1: The Coup Chapter 2: A Man Called Armstrong Chapter 3: A Faith Is Born Chapter 4: Our Paths Cross Chapter 5: Star Chamber Chapter 6: Conspiracy Chapter 7: Fighting the Yoke Chapter 8: Defiant Human Wall Chapter 9: Spiritual Odyssey Chapter 10: Behind the Bamboo Curtain Chapter 11: Ambassadors for Culture Chapter 12: A Mountain Is Moved Chapter 13: The Plain Truth About "Sixty Minutes" Chapter 14: God and the State Additional Programs and Literature available at: hwalibrary.com | 2 Against the Gates of Hell Chapter 1: The Coup The Warning Shortly after 7:00 A.M. on the third day of January 1979, I drove down broad Colorado Boulevard in the small California city of Pasadena. The sun, which had shone with a dazzling brightness only two days before on the Tournament of Roses parade along the same thoroughfare, had disappeared. In its place had come a brooding grayness, chilling and ominous. On New Year's Day, there had been lightness and a heart delighting beauty when the ingenious floral displays, followed by the football game in the Rose Bowl near the western end of this California town, had riveted the nation's attention. Now, just forty-eight hours later, the sixty-one floats were jammed together like abandoned automobiles in Victory Park, a few square blocks of greenery where the three-hour parade had ended. The lovely blooms woven into them so cleverly were fading rapidly; their frisky costumed riders who had charmed the throngs along the sidewalks were gone. A few thousand city residents and visitors had come to view them for the last time before the flowers were stripped off and the motorized carcasses driven away. The mood of the city had changed sharply. Some debris still lay un-swept along the parade route; a dispirit seemed to have descended upon the residents of Pasadena who were on their way to work, coats buttoned against the rising wind. A "party is over" air hung over the community. In the darkening sky there was a strong hint of a gathering storm that, from time to time, can lash this usually weather — calm, sunny community. That storm never broke. But another one struck with a suddenness and fury just ninety minutes later that morning. It was far more dangerous, more brutal, and more potentially destructive to our American way of life than any tempest that can come from clashing clouds. This is the story of what was set in motion that fateful morning. It is the story, at once terrible and inspiring, of a church under siege; terrible because of an infamous attack against the right of God-fearing people to control their own religious organization; inspiring because of how those people, usually gentle and peaceable in the way they conduct their lives, rose in defiance against those who would take from them the guarantee carved into the very foundation stones of our country — freedom of worship. And yet it is even more. It is also a warning that no religious group in the country can ignore. For Church (and I use that term in its broad meaning) and State are on a collision course, and what happened to one great spiritual organization headquartered in Pasadena can befall others throughout the land. The Entry Additional Programs and Literature available at: hwalibrary.com | 3 Against the Gates of Hell Usually, I am at my desk on the fourth floor of the Hall of Administration of Ambassador College at 8:00 A.M. or earlier. The hall, a four-story glass and granite structure, is on the serenely beautiful campus of the college, a coeducational institution founded in 1947 by the Worldwide Church of God. Just off West Green Street in west Pasadena, it houses the business and administrative offices of the college and Church. That morning, despite the lowering skies, I felt a new sense of freedom. On my desk at home lay a letter that, I was certain, would cut through a Gordian knot of problems. It had arrived from Tucson, Arizona by special messenger late in the evening of New Year's Day, and was from Herbert W. Armstrong, founder and Pastor General of the Worldwide Church of God. Typewritten by Mr. Armstrong himself, it charted a new future for me. And, much more important, it was intended to put an end, once and for all time, to a charge that, though wildly illogical and even ludicrous, was nonetheless having a divisive effect upon the Church. I had been associated with Herbert Armstrong and the Church for more than two decades, first as a financial consultant shortly after I began the practice of accountancy, then also as legal adviser. As the years passed, I found myself becoming increasingly involved, at Mr. Armstrong's request — and his urging when I demurred — in the day-to-day operations of the Church. The religious organization he brought into being had been growing by quantum leaps and Herbert Armstrong flattered me by insisting he needed my help and counsel. As millions around the world have discovered, Armstrong can urge very persuasively. So by mid-1975, I had become an officer and director and found myself in a full-time job of administration, having given up all my other business and professional activities. Twelve-hour days devoted to handling the Church's far-flung, diverse activities were routine, post-midnight telephone calls from all over the country and the world not uncommon. In 1971, as my own involvement was increasing, a problem that was as sad as it was serious came into the open. Differences arose between Mr. Armstrong and his son, Garner Ted, who was then forty-one years old. Garner Ted, a handsome young man to whom one might apply that much-abused adjective, charismatic, had been associated with the Church in a high capacity and was conducting with considerable success a program called "The World Tomorrow" on about 400 radio and 100 television Mr. Armstrong loved his son, and loves him still; but disagreements between them were basic. They involved theological and philosophical issues and there had also been questions concerning Garner Ted's personal conduct. A series of internal arguments, some of which seeped out into the media, followed, culminating in the summer of 1978 when the — elder Armstrong, in a move that caused him great personal anguish, ordered the disfellowship, or excommunication, of his son. In his father's words, Garner Ted had used his authority "totally contrary to the way Christ had led me." Thus Garner Ted who some considered to be the anointed heir to the Church's leadership, was heir no longer, nor was he connected in any way with the Church. Additional Programs and Literature available at: hwalibrary.com | 4 Against the Gates of Hell During this unhappy time, King Lear's words came to me often: "Blow, blow, thou winter wind, 'Thou art not so unkind' as man's ingratitude.... For Garner Ted, having been removed from the Church began attacking it. One of his charges was that his father, then eighty-six, had become close to senile he was describing the elder Armstrong as a kind of Howard Hughes, ill, unable to care for himself — much less the complex affairs of the Church — and totally under the control of a Richelieu — like character named Stanley Rader. Rader and his group, Garner Ted was claiming, were deliberately hiding, his father in a secluded residence down in Tucson, telling him what to do and when to do it. All this, he said, had a sinister purpose: to place that same Stanley Rader in a position of strong authority so that, were the elder Armstrong to die, Rader would be able to move quickly into the seat of power and run the Church and all its work. That, in short, was Garner Ted's thesis. It was, of course, totally absurd. First, Herbert W. Armstrong, far from being "senile" and thus incapable of thought and action, was a busy, active, and productive man. After recovering from a heart attack in early 1978 he traveled extensively, was writing no less than five books at one time, and had participated in several dozen television programs; hardly signs of mental deterioration! I talked with him daily; he was bursting with plans and ideas that he communicated to me at great length and with his usual force and cogency. Second, the claim that some dark and devious plot was hatching in the recesses of my mind to assume control of the Church made no sense whatever. Although I was a Church member, my position with Mr. Armstrong was quite like that of a Catholic lawyer working in a community for the Catholic Church or some arm of it, but at the same time standing apart from the ecclesiastical hierarchy. Despite widespread speculation, fueled by Garner Ted, that I was Herbert Armstrong's "heir apparent," the Pastor General could no more name me as his successor than the spiritual ruler of the Roman Catholic Church could designate the next pope before he dies. A conclave of the College of Cardinals selects the person who will sit upon the throne of Saint Peter. In the Worldwide Church of God, it is God alone who chooses in His own way and in His own time. Nevertheless, an untruth repeated often enough can convince some people.