The death of former WCG legalman Stanley R. Rader
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Stanley R. Rader, age 71, died July 2, 2002 in Pasadena,
California two weeks after having been diagnosed with acute
pancreatic cancer. Stanley Rader came to public prominence
in his role as General Counsel and Treasurer for the Worldwide
Church of God (WCG). He traveled extensively with the WCG's
founder, the late Herbert W. Armstrong (HWA), visiting heads
of state in furtherance of the WCG's mission. He became a
baptized member and later was ordained by Armstrong as a
minister in the WCG. In January 1979, the State of California
placed the Worldwide Church of God in receivership over
allegations of financial impropriety. Stanley Rader's
account of the receivership episode was published in his book
called Against the Gates of Hell.
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Stanley R. Rader
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Stanley Rader and his dealings with the Worldwide Church of God
are mentioned in an article called The Devil And
Stanley Rader, which appeared in the August 1979 issue of
The American Lawyer.
Stanley Rader's role as one of Herbert Armstrong's
closest personal advisors was a source of controversy within the
Worldwide Church of God. Some of Rader's innovations
included the foundation of the critically acclaimed but secular
Quest magazine, and Everest House, a book
publisher in New York. Stanley Rader tried to make his
innovations appear to be excellent, high-class ideas.
Quest magazine was supposedly "dedicated to the
pursuit of excellence," but not everybody was fooled by such talk.
Excellence in publishing requires more than just using good quality
paper and ink. The contents should at least be fit to read. One
might have thought that a Jew like Rader who hung out with
HWA would know about the laws of God and what the Bible teaches about
"the most excellent way."
William F. Dankenbring, as well as many ordinary little
members of the WCG, were disgusted that,
"...millions of dollars were spent to promote and publish a glitzy,
glossy SECULAR magazine called Quest, and other millions were poured
into the creation of a SECULAR publishing house in New York City,
called "Everest House." Both of these publishing vehicles produced
smut, obscenity, and printed foul, ungodly language in books and
magazine articles!"
"For the record, the first issue of Quest contained articles which
were littered with profanity and "cuss words," articles where the
name of God and Christ were used in vain, as well as articles
containing four-letter filthy words concerning sex and excrement!"
"Also, for the record, Everest House Publishing Company began to
publish hardcover books which told homosexuals how to live together
more cheaply, books on the occult, and a book entitled Danse Macabre
by horror author Stephen King, which itself was filled to overflowing
with sexual dirty words, and repeatedly used the names of Almighty
God and Jesus Christ in loud, screaming profanity and searing white
hot BLASPHEMY!"
Wicked people without self-control like to think that going into
demon-inspired fits and misusing God's name is what makes great
literature. However, God said, "You shall
not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold
anyone guiltless who misuses his name" (Exodus 20:7, NIV).
Perverse people try to get around behaving properly by saying that
the abominations they have produced have been "critically acclaimed."
Having one's abominations "critically acclaimed" by other perverse
people supposedly makes them acceptable. God knows all about this and
inspired the Bible to say that, "Those who
forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep the law resist
them" (Proverbs 28:4, NIV). Jesus said,
"What is highly valued among men is
detestable in God's sight" (Luke 16:15, NIV).
The September-October 1978 issue of John Trechak's publication,
called Ambassador Report (AR6), printed the following
letter that had been sent to it complaining about Quest
magazine:
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"You neglected to mention in the Report about that abominable
Quest/78 printing an insane piece of 'intellectual' fiction about
some 'Inventor' who fornicated with a female swine, had a hippie
mistress then midwife the delivery of his 'son,' plus many other
disgusting things, and ended up with God being dead and his eyeballs
decaying in his rotting corpse. This, plus the Vince Lombardi
article with its gratuitous use of blasphemy and obscenities, was
strange indeed for a 'quality' magazine published by 'God's only
true church'! I was later solicited for renewal of a cancelled
subscription with promises of articles by ... and ... one a female
pornographer and the other a homosexual!"
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Producing literary abominations with the WCG's tithe money was
accomplished by deliberately giving editorial control of
Quest magazine to the worst unbelievers around, and
then saying that the WCG had no control over the contents. Some
people rose up in the WCG to high positions, yet didn't believe
anything the church taught. These shakedown artists then tried
to discourage anyone who did believe the good teachings of the Bible.
They actually tried to pass off all sorts of filth and depravity
as being high-class and sophisticated.
Sometimes, even those in the world have no use for all the garbage
that gets produced. When not enough of them bought Quest
magazine to make it profitable, HWA tried to boost circulation
figures by suggesting in his November 22, 1978 letter to WCG members
and co-workers that they might want to subscribe to it, as well as
mention it to their nonmember friends, neighbors, relatives, doctors,
dentists, etc. HWA wrote, "Get some of them to subscribe. See if
they do not respect you highly for it." Initial interest by WCG
members was quickly replaced by disappointment. Later, in his
April 24, 1981 letter to Worldwide Church of God members and
co-workers, Herbert W. Armstrong again wrote about
Quest magazine. This time, HWA rightly observed that,
"I'm sure many of our people will be very happy that we are getting
rid of it." Amen! Later, HWA got rid of Stanley too. Double
amen!!
Even while HWA was alive and in charge
of the WCG, people still had to read the Bible for themselves,
and reject the outrageous evil that came along from time to time.
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