The Truth Shall Make You Free: Chapter 12 - Armstrong's Fear of Rader

Chapter 12 Armstrong’s Fear of Rader

(pg 169) During the month of December, while various individuals involved in the lawsuit were buy gathering information and preparing for when the suit would be filed, there were things taking place behind the scenes in Pasadena that few were aware of.

On December 4^th, while Wayne Cole was out to lunch, his secretary took a call from Garner Ted Armstrong. His message was: “Mike Wallace has been hounding me to death; he wants me to go on 60 Minutes. I don’t want to go on and I desperately need to talk to my father about it. Wayne Cole is the only man who can get through to my father.  Please have him call me about this.”  Cole, on receiving this message, felt that he should not call Garner Ted back without first discussing it with Herbert Armstrong.

That same afternoon, he called Armstrong at his home in Tucson.  Cole informed Armstrong of Garner Ted’s call and said: “I felt I should ask you counsel before speaking to Ted or if you even want me to speak to him at all.”  He then went on to relay the entire message regarding Mike Wallace’s persistent efforts to get Garner Ted to appear on a 60 Minutes program.  The specter of his son discussing his ouster on national television apparently was sufficient to convince Armstrong that there should be a dialogue between him and his son and he asked Wayne Cole to be a go between.  He said” “Wayne, I want to give Ted the following message: ‘Ted, I had to do what I did to get the Church back on the (pg 170) track.  It was not a personal attack against you, but I could not let the Church and the college continue to go the way they were going. If you, Ted, will admit that you were wrong in the way that you left us and all you have done, I would be happy to see you back in the Church.  I love you Ted, very much and do not wish to get between you and God and harm your eternal salvation.’”

After discussing further potential unpleasant and perhaps disastrous effects of Garner Ted discussing Church and family problems on national television, Armstrong said to Cole, “Wayne, I’m staying alive by sheer determination and struggle.  I have felt that I need to live to get this straightened out. It would be very easy to sit down and relax, stop struggling and it would not be very long.  I do not think I could be replaced.”

Cole interrupted, “Mr. Armstrong, there should never be any thought of replacing of anyone replacing you.  God has preserved your life and we hope and pray he will allow you to life to finish this Work and be here when Christ returns.”

Armstrong then continued, “But if He doesn’t allow me to remain that long and I have been replaced, I guess it will be up to you, Wayne, to try.”

Whether Armstrong really meant what he said was open to question, as he had often made the same statements to many other leading ministers in the Church.  And even if he felt that way, would it be his decision?  Further events would show that more clearly.

The next day, a call came from Garner Ted.  Cole told him that he had spoken to his father and that he was asked to be a go between in this father-son estrangement. He told Garner Ted that he had a message for him from his father. Garner Ted replied, “How fine. I have a message for my father also, but first let me hear the one he has for me.”  After hearing the message, Garner Ted said: “That’s pretty hard for me to believe to think that he actually believes that he could get between me and God and harm my eternal salvation. I ‘m absolutely horrified at the things he’s been saying about me, comparing me to Jim Jones and inferring that I could lead people off to such tragic end as he did to those people down in Guyana.  I’ll say one thing, though. If my father were to announce that now is the time to sell everything and flee to the place of safety, I wouldn’t be surprised if half the people in the Church would do just that. Give my father all of their money, show up wherever he told them to be, and go off with him to Petra.”

(pg 171) It was evident that Garner Ted was not about to return to the Worldwide Church under conditions that his father had established.  Yet in spite of the fact that he had started the Church of God International, he so fervently wanted to reconcile with his father.  One would wonder if he would have gone back and if so under what conditions and what type of compromise.

After hearing his father’s message and discussing the belief that each thought that the other could lead a group of people off into the wilderness as Jim Jones, he was right with his message for his father.  He said: “Wayne, I want you to give my father the following message. ‘Mike Wallace has called me repeatedly.  On two occasions I have talked with him for approximately three hours.  They have already done their homework and may do a show on the Worldwide Church whether or not I cooperate with them; Mike Wallace has called me an S.O.B. for not already saying I will appear on the show.  I don’t really want to go on 60 Minutes, but unless I hear from my dad then Dottie (Garner Ted’s sister) and I am going to go on the program.  Whatever we’ve had to bear because of my moral problems was absolutely nothing compared to what me and others in the family had borne down through the years because of my father’.”  With a promise from Cole to do whatever he could to urge Herbert Armstrong to call his son, the phone call was concluded.

On the same day, Cole called Herbert Armstrong in Tucson.  Cole conveyed Garner Ted’s message to his father, and Armstrong was quite noticeably affected in an emotional way by the message. He voiced considerable concern as to what his daughter Dottie might want to say on 60 Minutes. Armstrong then said that he was going to call his son and that concluded the conversation with Cole.

One may wonder why there was a concern about what his daughter Dottie might say. She was not a member of the Church, but did receive assistance from the Church, which she considered inadequate, in view of the fact that her husband Vern Mattson had served faithfully as an executive during the early years of the Church.  Perhaps she would say some of the things that she had said to others. She wondered when her father was going to get rid of Stanley Radar and stop him from destroying the Church. She would tell of times when her father‘s phone numbers were being changed and she, his own daughter, wasn’t able to call him for long periods of time. She would tell of those lengthy periods of time (pg 172) when she never heard from her father. She would tell how, when she attempted to make him see how terribly wrong he was ion both the way he treated his son and the way he was so trusting of Rader, he would get angry, refuse to continue the discussion, and hang up on her. Finally, she would say, “I hate to say it, but all these years the only one my father has cared for is himself.  That’s really all that counts to him, just himself.  He’s never really cared about the family.  He doesn’t give a ---- about us and never has.”

This is part of the story that Dottie Mattson would tearfully tell to the world about her father, God’s apostle. With all of the wrong in the Worldwide Church of God, the family tragedy is rally the worst part of it, especially in light of the fact that Herbert Armstrong has often said that the Worldwide Church of God is the fulfillment of the prophecy in Malachi 4 Verse 5 and  6.  He claims that his preaching is the spiritual fulfillment of that prophecy which states: “Behold, I send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hear of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”  The Church was to be a fulfillment of that prophecy, but had failed, and was being smitten with a curse.

Five days went by before there was any further contact between Cole and Armstrong. On December 10^th, Herbert Armstrong called Wayne Cole.  It tuned out that he had never attempted to contact his son and wanted further clarification on what Garner Ted hoped could be accomplished by a call from him.  Cole then told him that it was Garner Ted’s desire that the two of them reach an agreement whereby Armstrong would cease attacking his son constantly or else Garner Ted and Dottie were going to cooperate with Mike Wallace and appear on 60 Minutes.

Armstrong then said, “Has Ted given any indication of the hope of coming back into the Church?”

Cole replied, “No, he hasn’t.  He merely wants to discuss a means of stopping the constant charges and allegations against him or else, 60 Minutes.”

Armstrong then responded, “I will answer him with silence.”

Armstrong was not convinced that Mike Wallace wanted Garner Ted to appear on his program, but thought instead that his son was attempting to convince Mike Wallace to put him on.  One can only understand Armstrong’s reversal and his decision to call his son by (pg 173) realizing who advised him in this matter. Armstrong said:  “Satan tells me that he has spoken to officials in CBS headquarters and was given assurances that there would be no comments made on their network slanderous against me or the Work.  Why, CBS has even shown interest in purchasing Quest Magazine.”  Armstrong had become convinced that there would be no 60 Minutes program on the Church and, with that fear removed, no longer saw any need to effect any reconciliation with his son.

Though all of this, however, Armstrong was becoming more and more cognizant of the fact that radar’s hold on him was getting progressively tighter. The conversation then took a sudden turn away from Garner Ted, and totally surprising Cole, he said: “Wayne, I do have a problem which I would like to discuss with you in the strictest confidence.  Every time I speak to anyone Stan Rader always wants to follow me and speak as well.  I have been told that many of our members do not appreciate this practice, and don’t know what to do about it. He always writes out his own notes and pretty well reads from them in making his comments.  Stan is a very brilliant man in many ways, but he certainly is not an effective speaker or preacher. He has plenty of opportunity to speak and if God were calling him into the ministry, we would have seen his development long before now.”

With a comment such as this coming from Herbert Armstrong, Rader’s motives and ultimate goal were quite apparent.  Armstrong then continued outlining a list of complaints the he had about Rader and Rader’s constant attempts to move into the limelight and place himself in a position of authority before the people.

Armstrong continued, “If I say anything to Stan, even very gently, about his problem, he flies into a rage and screams at me.  He is very sensitive about this. He gets into such a rage that he is opening himself up for a demon at these times.”

Armstrong indicated that he didn’t have the courage to deal with this matter directly and wanted some backup support. He suggested that Cole have the ministry write letters to him indicating their criticism of Rader.  Cole told Armstrong eh thought such a maneuver would not work.  If such a think were done and should Armstrong then change his mind about dealing with the Rader problem, it was obvious that any minister who would have written such a letter would be on the purge list.  The conversation ended with no conclusion having been reached on the Rader problem.  Cole wished (pg 174) him well on his coming trip to Jerusalem.

Armstrong’s trip to Jerusalem was to be his first trip out of the country since his illness the previous year.  He was finally going for the delayed dedication of the Children’s Playground at Liberty Bell Park. Armstrong met with President Navon, Prime Minister Begin, Mayor Teddy Kollek and other top officials.  The Children’s Playground had been sponsored by AICF; in other words, it was essentially paid for with Worldwide Church of God money.  Even though this money was given for the preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, Herbert Armstrong has never taken the chance of offending the Israeli leaders by preaching the Gospel or mentioning the name of Christ.  He was more interested in being known by one of his other self-proclaimed titles, “Ambassador for World Peace.”  Quiet a contrast to the apostle Paul who wrote in Ephesians 6:20 regarding his approach to preaching the gospel: “For which I am an ambassador in bonds that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”  The apostle Paul; was willing to be throw in jail and actually had been imprisoned many times for boldly speaking the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But Herbert Armstrong was more impressed by the opportunity to be honored personally. He had a dinner in his honor, the inauguration was in his honor, and his name was engraved on the name plaque at the entrance to the park.  There was a special program honoring Herbert Armstrong at the ICCY (International Cultural Center For Youth), which is an organization funded by Eleanor Roosevelt and Moshe Koi, Minister of Tourism.  This organization is for the purpose of promoting better relations between Israeli and Arab youth and is almost wholly supported by Ambassador College and the AICF. In other words, supported by the tithe-paying members in the Worldwide Church of God. The Gospel is not preached to these youth, however. Armstrong was proud to have a name plaque placed on a stone marker at the square to the ICCY Building, announcing that it was to be called The Herbert W. Armstrong Square.

Upon conclusion of his visit it Israel, Armstrong and Rader went to London. They arrived early in the week, with Armstrong planning to speak that following Sabbath, December 23^rd, at a special service at the Bricket Wood Campus.  Members were coming in on special buses from various parts of Britain to hear his special sermon.  This was to be the last service at Bricket Wood prior to the vacating of the premises completely.

(pg 175) On December 21^st, Frank Brown, who at this time was Director of the Church affairs in Britain, drove into London to meet Armsrong and Rader at their hotel for breakfast.  On arriving there he was shocked to be told by the chauffer that the entire party had rushed off to the airport and left on the Gulfstream II to return to the States.

Gordon Muir had received word of this sudden departure from a friend of his who was employed at the printing facilities by the Church in England.  Gordon called me with great concern.

He said, “I’m afraid Armstrong and Rader may know about the lawsuit.  I can’t think of any other reason why they would be returning to the States so suddenly.  Somehow the word seems to be out over in England and Frank Brown seems to know about the lawsuit.  Jack Martin has found out from someone else over there that Frank Brown knows about the lawsuit and also knows that I was to the Feast in Jekyll Island and he actually asked Jack what he knows, if anything, about the California attorney general.”

We were panic-stricken.  With rumors all over Pasadena, none of them accurate but all of them in one way or another having their original root in the truth, we were fearful that Rader may be able to take some action to render our efforts ineffective.  At this time we didn’t know of any of the things that had been taking place between Cole and Armstrong.

That same day, Frank Brown called Wayne Cole’s home and told Cole’s wife about Armstrong’s sudden departure.  He also then told her that he had heard about a lawsuit.  Cole thought that he would certainly hear from Armstrong upon his return, for such a sudden change in plans must have been for a very important reason.  Yet by December 26^th, Cole had not yet heard from Armstrong, so he decided to call him and welcome him home. Strangely enough, in that conversation Armstrong gave no reason for his sudden early return.  He bragged on for some length about his visit, his meetings, his dinner, and all of the important people he had met.  Then he said that now that he had seen Begin, he was planning to see Sadat in Cairo in February and then in April was planning to go to Japan.

Coming events were soon to cause him to cancel his trip to Cairo and postpone his trip to Japan.  It does seem very strange, however, that Armstrong would constantly make this three point circuit, (pg 176) Israel, Egypt and Japan.  Many of his trips to these countries seemed to coincide with a time that negotiations may have been going at higher diplomatic levels regarding the Arab/Israel peace initiatives, energy problems, etc.  Could there be something more than meets the eye?

Cole continued his conversation with Armstrong, telling him about the continued and increasing concern on the part of many ministers and members regarding Rader.  Armstrong replied, “I’m afraid so, that’s a problem to me Wayne, and I want to talk privately to you about it.”  Armstrong then said that Rader wanted to bring lawsuits against Garner Ted and also that he wanted to disfellowship John Schroeder, an employee in Britain who said that he had heard rumors about a lawsuit and about Rader, but refused to disclose the source of the rumor.

Of significance here is the fact that Armsrong made no mention of their early return or the reason for it, and was complaining about Rader.  This conversation, of course, proves that Armstrong or at least Rader, knew about the lawsuit rumor, and it would also indicate that Rader sensed urgency to return.  He apparently felt that it was important to return to Pasadena to nail down the source of the rumor that John Schroeder had heard.  He was to be unsuccessful and remained unprepared for the events soon to occur.  The fact that Rader, who was not a minister, felt that he could even suggest removal of someone from the Church to Herbert Armstrong would indicate the true position of power this man actually holds.

Armstrong, continuing on the subject or Rader, then said, “It’s quite a problem because he keeps boring in all the time.  He is one who can just lose his temper and fly into a rage, and I don’t want to upset him.  When he gets angry with me he threatens to bring lawsuits against the Church.  He says that he will tell the world what he knows.  I don’t know what he knows, I don’t know what he can do to harm the Work, but that’s what he said he will do.”

Discussing the matter further Cole said, “My concern is that he is in too prominent a position in the leadership in the Work and that seems to be the biggest concern we have coming in.”

Armstrong interrupted, “That’s right, and he is deliberately trying to put himself there.  I don’t know.  I don’t want to think that anyone has their eyes on 50, 60, 70 million dollars a year, but that is quite a magnet, you know.”

(pg 177) Armstrong then continued voicing his concern for Rader’s constant desire to continue the public dispute with Garner Ted.  Armstrong referred to Garner Ted’s public allegations that his wife Ramona had been giving sexual favors to Rader and to other men, and said that he felt the best answer for that was one of silence.

At the very same time that we were about to file our lawsuit in the hopes of saving the Church from total destruction through corruption and self-dealing, Armstrong was on the verge of alt least partially removing what he considered to be the main source of the problem. , Stanley Rader.  Through the evening of December 26^th, Cole prepared a lengthy letter outlining all of the concerns throughout the Church regarding Rader.  The following day, he discussed it with Dr. Herman Hoeh, one of the evangelists and a professor at Ambassador College.  Hoeh indicated that Cole’s response to Armstrong regarding Rader was in order, and appeared to agree with it.

On December 28^th, Cole flew to Tucson to meet with Herbert Armstrong and hand over his letter to him.  The letter was a written confirmation of all the facts that they had discussed on their previous phone conversations.  After reading the letter Armstrong said, ‘Wayne, I don’t believe that Stan is really converted enough to understand the love that you have expressed for the Church in your letter. He is the most powerful person in the Work right now.  He only speaks from the position he occupies, but also speaks with my authority which he uses as he wishes. Why, he even uses my underground garage and private elevator to the office, and I don’t like that.”

One may wonder if Armstrong is truly concerned about Rader’s honesty and integrity or if his anger was caused more by Rader’s presumptuous use of Armstrong’s exclusive facilities.

Armstrong continued to Cole, “Yes, Wayne, I know that I must remove Stan from all executive and administrative responsibility. He’s giving the impression that he’s trying to take over the Work. I must do something to stop that.”

Having heard more rumors about a lawsuit, Cole thought that he should bring up the subject. He told Armstrong that he had heard sufficient rumors from various sources to believe that there may be some substance to them. He said, however, that according to Ralph Helge, a member of the Church and law partner of Stanly Rader’s, such rumors were just rumors with no basis in fact as there (pg 178) there was no way any kind of lawsuit could be brought against the Church.  Of course, some of the rumors that Cole had to go on were a result of the delicate spoon-feeding of information that he had been receiving from Robert Kuhn so that it would not be a total shock to him when it occurred.  In spite of the fact that this entire matter between Cole and Armstrong was for the purpose of discussing the removal of Rader from executive and administrative positions, Armstrong’s first reaction was, “I’m going to have to talk to Stan about this.”

Would Armstrong really be able to release himself from Rader when at the first signs of alarm, his immediate reaction would be to “call Stan”?  Armstrong wanted to know what kind of claim the suit was going mention, and in spite of the fact Cole really didn’t know, Armstrong continued to press on that point.  Cole then mentioned one rumor that he had heard regarding the fact that Rader on a trip to Monte Carlo rented a large yacht at a cost of $3,000 per day for several days.  All of this was paid for by the Church.  Armstrong remembered such a yacht and that he in fact had had a cruise on it and also had diner aboard.  Armstrong and Cole prayed about the entire situation and then Cole left to Armstrong’s parting words: “Wayne, if you see Stan taking over the Work, I will expect that you will stand up and fight.”

The next day Armstrong phoned Cole and wanted to know more about the possibility of a lawsuit being filed over yacht expenses.  He was very disturbed about such a possibility.  Armstrong said, “I remember we rented a bog boat, a two-story boat with a full crew, on board.  Ramona, Stan and others spent more time aboard than I did.  Maybe if that is going to be a problem, I should reimburse the Work for expenses of the yacht.”  Cole indicated that he didn’t think it was necessary and should not react to rumor, so Armstrong did not send any check in.

It’s interesting to note that Armstrong was fully aware that the yacht was used only for personal purposes, strictly pleasure, and was willing to reimburse the Church for the $30,000 only if it were the source of the problem.  As long as it seemed there would be no problem over such an expenditure, he appeared to have no guilt about not reimbursing the Church for the expense.

At about this same time, I had heard that there was a possibility (pg 179) that Armstrong might be successful in removing Rader from his position of prominence.  There was the possibility, I was told, that Rader would be put on the AICF payroll and that he would remain advisor to Herbert Armstrong, but have no executive duties in the Church.

In discussing this with Gordon Muir, Gordon said, “Maybe you should not have bothered with the lawsuit.  It looks like everything may be getting taken care of anyway.”  We discussed it somewhat and finally agreed that just the presence of Rader, no matter what his official position, was still dangerous. To have in a position of lower authority, as a sop to the members and ministers who were complaining about him, could actually make him more dangerous.  In such a position, he would not be recognized as one having any official authority, yet he would still have his influence and control over Herbert Armstrong, though not in an obvious way.  I felt confident that no matter what, we had to proceed, and in fact even if we didn’t want to proceed, as the entire situation was in the hands of the Attorney General’s office.  As each day went by, we were anxiously awaiting word as to when the suit would be actually filed.  Each day seemed to bring the words, “Maybe tomorrow.”

On January 2, 1979 Cole received a call at his office from Armstrong, who asked him to go to a private phone and call him back.  Armstrong said, ‘I don’t want this call to be overheard by eavesdroppers”.  Although Church officials were later to deny that phones were tapped at Church headquarters, Armstrong’s very own comment in that regard and his concern for privacy would indicate that he was quite aware that the phones were not private.  Armstrong then said that he had written a letter to Rader, and proceeded to read it to Cole.  In the letter he outlined to Rader the concern that many have about Rader trying to take over the Church.  He said, “But you are pushing yourself to take over.  People do look at you as an attorney, experienced in finance, etc., but not as a minister and shepherd over God’s people.  So what I propose is that you resign from the administrative positions in the Church and college, but continue in the AICF and as a personal assistant and advisor to me.”

Armstrong then asked Cole if he knew what Rader’s salary was, to which Cole responded, “No, I’ve heard rumors but I don’t really know what the figure is.”  Armstrong didn’t reply directly at the (pg 180)

Time, but went on to state that he thought it was best to have Rader retained as financial and legal advisor to the Church at a figure of $75,000 a year, plus fees and additional services, and then put Rader on the payroll of the AICF at a $100,000 a year.  Armstrong then said, “That’s the total of what he gets in salary.”  Armstrong then went on to explain that the $100,000 salary from AICF could be kept confidential and that no one need know anything about it.  Armstrong said to Cole, “Keep this quiet, as I want it to be as though Stan volunteered to resign.  I don’t want it to be known that he actually triggered it.  If Stan doesn’t volunteer, then I will force it.  There’s no turning back now.”

Armstrong then went into a discussion about changes in membership of the Board of Directors.  He mentioned the names of some individuals that he would remove and others that he would install on the board.  He said, “I can put people on and off the board as I wish.  It’s really been a dummy board up to now.”  In making this statement, he confirmed what Robert Kuhn had told us at the offices of Cohn and Lifland earlier and also confirmed what the organization was operating in violation of the law under which it was chartered which calls for an elected board.

While these calls between Armstrong and Cole were taking place, we were becoming very uneasy wondering when the complaint would be filed.  It seemed that as we drew toward the end of the year, each day the story from Chodos was that it would be another day or so. We just hoped and prayed that the suit would be filed before anyone would be able to confirm the rumors of the impending action.  Earl Timmons had been telling me that Chodos was going to let him know in advance in order that Earl may show the court officials locations of various offices at Church headquarters.  This would be necessary, as the Attorney General was going to attempt to have a judge rule in favor of an ex parte receivership.  A receivership of this type is one that is imposed without any advance notice to the parties involved.  This was an important factor as it was felt that should any advance notice be given to the defendants, they would have time to shred and dispose of sensitive documents and evidence.  We were on pins and needles waiting day by day, moment by moment.