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CHURCH SUES TO RETRIEVE CONFIDENTIAL PAPERS FROM GTA
As Mr. Armstrong says in his letter, the Church has filed a lawsuit
asking the courts to force Garner Ted Armstrong to return 15 to 20
boxes of confidential documents and papers to the Church's adminis
trative offices. Since he is disfellowshipped and no longer in the
employ of the Church, Ted Armstrong has no legal right to possess
confidential ecclesiastical material, financial reports, accountings,
ledgers and records--all of which are plainly Church property.
C�der California law an employee has no right to take with
him
the
employer's property when he leaves or is terminated. This statute
is based on the well-known principle of law that forbids an agent
or trustee from using the "trust property" or "powers" conferred on
him for any unauthorized benefit either during or after his employment.
Further, a California court has held that even where a trustee of a
church argued he was improperly removed, the church property in his
possession by virtue of his responsibilities, must be returned to
the church.
THE CHURCH'S OFFER TO GTA WAS TOTALLY PROPER
In a recent newspaper interview Ted Armstrong suggested that the only
document which might be worth anything that he has in his possession
is the letter in which he was offered $50,000 a year "to keep my mouth
shut." He has on previous occasions likened the Work's offer of $50,000
a year to "hush money."
Garner Ted Armstrong has chosen to characterize the generous offer made
"for the good years" as somehow evil and highly irregular. He should
notice a recent article in Time magazine. The "religion" section of
Time told of a large Protestant West German church, the United Evangel
ical Lutheran Church (which includes half that nation's Protestants),
which unfrocked the "Rev." Paul Schultz for heresy. He was a Lutheran
pastor for years in Hamburg. "The church hardly rushed to judgment,"
Time said. "After years of official 'discussions' that proved fruitless,
formal proceedings against him began in 1976."
The Lutheran pastor was forbidden, by the church, to preach or administer
the sacraments. In spite of years of documented heresy and behavior con
trary to one supposed to uphold the beliefs of the church, "He is ex
pected to receive a $12,000-a-year stipend if he shuns anti-church act
ivities" (Time, April 2, 1979, page 89, emphasis ours).
It was noted in the Time article that he had "refused to recognize the
contradiction between his teachings and excercising his office." Never
theless, they were going to give this heretic and former pastor in the
Lutheran church a stipend IF he didn't fight the church in which he had
been a minister! So the offer to Ted Armstrong by God's Church is clearly
not an unheard of gesture--just a little more generous.