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Part I-Sun .. Fab. 11. 1979
MONEY AT BASE
Church-State
Clashes Take
New Channel
BY MICHAEL SEILER
Timas St•ff Writer
Although it may never rank with
the Thomas Beckett or Scopes trials
as a dramatic courtroom confronta
tion between church and state. the
legal difficulties of Herbert W. Arm
strong's Worldwide Church of God
with the California attorney general's
office rais<'s some profoundly difficult
questions and troublesome thoughts
about the nature of the relationsh1r
between religious and secular power.
That is the consensus of a number
of experts on Jaw and religion inter
viewed by The Times in recent days
as the legal maneuvering and public
posturing by both sides continued.
The experts point out that
the
Worldwide Church case is just the
latest 1n a series of church-state con
flicts either now in the courts or ap
proaching that stage.
In fact, they say, the question of
state encroachment upon the power
of the church may be more in ques
tion today than ever before.
But the debate now deals less with
issues of personal conscience and re
ligious doctrine, as ,in the classic
cases, and more with relatively
pedestrian pocketbook matters.
There is a nageing doubt, however.
that the two kinds of issues are sppa -
rable.
"He who controls the purse strings
is going to control the structure (of
the church)," warns Lee Boothby, a
lawyer
for the Washington-based
Americans United for Separation of
Church and State, a national inter
faith organizat10n.
Vw1lcther Boothby is right, the
question involved is coming up in
c-reasingly in the courts.
There are two reasons for this, ob
servers of church-state issues say.
The first is what some perceive as a
natural tendency of government to
flex its muscle, to extend its power to
reh'lllate over church groups and oth
er quasi-religious, nonprofit corpora -
lions.
The second is a hacklash of sorts, a
cynicism. even a fear of the Moonics
and Hare Krishna by middle-class
Americans who have srcn their chil
dren lured away into a value system
beyond their ken. A fear of another
Jonestown.
Of course, the Pasadena-based
Worldwide Church of God bears no
resemblnnce to the Moonics or Jim
Jones· predominantly black, lower
middle-class following.
Al�o. there have been moments in
!he past month whrn it
h1s
h12en hard
to take the Worldwide Church-attor
ney general confrontation very se
riously-for instance, at a recent
press conference ca\\cd by Stanley R.
Rader. Armstrong's chief adviser who
stands accused by the state of siphon-
ing off millions of dollars of church
funds for his personal use.
Rader had finished his standard
plea that the attorney grnera!'s suit
and the resulting receivership placed
on the church constitute a major vio
lation of the church's First Amend
ment rights.
Suddenly, Rader suggested that the
real reason, the unvarnished, honest
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