Raising the Ruins (37 page)

Helge’s Late Career Move

During the deposition, Helge said he had been told by the
WCG
he would soon retire and be replaced by Bernie Schnippert. It sounded like his final job assignment would be this lawsuit. Mark Helm asked him about the e-publishing project and how that got started. Helge said he got the idea sometime in 2001 while reading a magazine over lunch. “I just started to read it and it just clicked, hey, this is something to investigate.”
⁴⁶

In looking at the timeline, however, the decision to e-publish appears to have been much more calculated than Helge indicated. On February 13, 2001, Mark Helm informed
WCG
attorneys that we intended to amend our counterclaim to allege that it would be futile for us to seek the
WCG
’s permission to reprint Mr. Armstrong’s works. We wanted to add this to our brief because the Ninth Circuit, even in ruling against us, did leave the door open slightly for us to possibly rely on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. And for
RFRA
to be added to our counterclaim, we had to show how futile it would have been to obtain a license for the works.

On February 16, 2001, Ralph Helge contacted Zondervan Publishing for its evaluation on “the licensing fee or sales price for copyrighted literature owned by the church.”
⁴⁷
This means that just
three days
after we told them about the futility amendment,
they started contacting publishers about the procedures and fees for licensing their literature
. It was yet another made-for-litigation ploy.

Later during the summer is when they stated in court filings that they would have considered all along to license the works to us. Around this time is when the e-publishing idea “clicked” with Ralph Helge. At the deposition, Mark asked if there was anyone else at the
WCG
involved in the e-publishing project. “Not to my knowledge,” Helge responded.
⁴⁸
Later, after we asked who was in charge of coordinating promotion for the sale of Mr. Armstrong’s books over the Internet, Helge answered, “I’m the man.”
⁴⁹

So here was an elderly man on the verge of retirement, who had worked in the
WCG
’s
legal
department for most of his adult life, given charge of the church’s new e-publishing “department,” established solely in order to undermine our futility claim and to “prove” they had never intended to suppress Mr. Armstrong’s works at all.

It’s pathetic, I know. But at the same time, it’s fascinating history because it shows how much we had acquired in fighting for the truth—even after losing at the Ninth Circuit. As much as they hated the idea,
they knew
that to prevail on the merits in court, they
HAD
to convince a judge that they were still using Mr. Armstrong’s material. So they lied about an annotated project and won at the Ninth Circuit. And in order to defeat our counterclaim, their in-house
attorney
established a new branch in the church’s
PUBLISHING
department, even on the eve of his retirement.

These are supposedly religious men—and yet willing to do or say just about
anything
as long as it helped them win in court.

At the same time, look at what we forced them to do by simply confronting them. At the beginning of the case, remember, Tkach Jr. arrogantly asserted that the reason they filed this suit was to “block the republication of
Mystery of the Ages
.
”
Their
duty
as Christians was to keep this book out of print because they believed “Mr. Armstrong’s doctrinal errors are better left out of circulation.” Two years later, even though it was a lie, they talked about using Mr. Armstrong’s material again. Two years after that, they inquired about licensing and followed that up by making Mr. Armstrong’s literature available on demand through e-publishing. True, the literature had to be prefaced by Feazell’s attack, which we weren’t about to accept. But still,
they were forced to do things they never would have dreamed of doing at the start,
simply because we were willing to fight for Mr. Armstrong’s legacy.

My father’s faithful determination was beginning to wear them down.

Bernard Schnippert

As the
WCG
’s director of finance and planning, Bernie Schnippert made some interesting comments about the relationship between the church’s income and its distribution of literature. With Mr. Armstrong, Schnippert said, distributing free literature was designed to hook people into a well-orchestrated fundraising scheme. “If you’re going to move someone to your state of mind, you begin at a place you think will interest them and you take them where you want them to go. … The progression of topics is a type of psychology.”
⁵⁰
Later, he said, “Mr. Armstrong’s books, when given, tend to create donations. … [W]e discontinued
Mystery of the Ages
in spite of the fact that we knew it was, to be crass, a money-maker.”
⁵¹

Quite a difference from the party line in 1989—that they discontinued the book
because of
its expense.

Schnippert also elaborated on the
WCG
’s new approach under Tkachism—charging subscription fees for church literature instead of distributing it freely. He said, “[W]hen you give free literature and the person is told they must tithe, in the end you’ve taken more money out of them in some ways less honestly than if you just charged them in the first place.”
⁵²
Of course, as Schnippert well knows, no one ever forced people to voluntarily give donations to the
WCG
. But that’s certainly the way they love to portray Mr. Armstrong’s followers—mindless dupes brainwashed into giving money to—
OF ALL THINGS
—
a church!

Tkachism’s approach, of course—even though it triggered a precipitous decline in church membership and donations—is much more
honest,
in Schnippert’s view. They charged people up front for
new
literature and retired the flawed material so as to “not use it disingenuously” to make money when they “didn’t believe it.”
⁵³
Yet now that they were in the midst of a legal struggle over the “flawed” stuff, they had no problem disingenuously making money off Mr. Armstrong’s literature,
so long as the e-publishing scheme helped them win the case
. Schnippert said they could now justify profiting from Mr. Armstrong’s works so long as the writings contained a “disclaimer that plainly tells everyone that we don’t agree with it.”
⁵⁴
So he not only revealed the rank hypocrisy behind their supposedly courageous move to retire money-makers in 1989, he admitted that they
WOULD NOT
make Mr. Armstrong’s writings available without a derogatory preface attached. This was another huge admission for us.

Later, in discussing the preface, Schnippert said they worded it as carefully as possible in order “to be respectful of Mr. Armstrong and anyone who were to read it.”
⁵⁵
So Mark went through several statements from the preface, giving Schnippert an opportunity to explain what he meant by “respectful.” We asked him if he thought using phrases like “personal bias” and “advertising hook” were complimentary toward Mr. Armstrong. “Do you believe that Mr. Armstrong’s views were the result of a personal bias?” Mark asked.
⁵⁶

W
CG
attorney Miles Feldman objected to the question and asked how Schnippert’s personal views were relevant to the case. But
they were the ones trying to inject this preface into the litigation
, we maintained.

A lengthy exchange then followed with Miles threatening to call the court magistrate to settle the dispute and Mark complaining that Miles was wasting time. “This is a serious matter,” Miles said, raising his voice. “And if you’re going to accuse me of bad faith, I’m suggesting right now let’s get the magistrate on the phone and we’ll get to the bottom of this.”
⁵⁷

After Miles cooled off, Mark turned to Schnippert:

Suppose that the
WCG
literature had a preface which said that the doctrines of that church under Joseph Tkach Jr. were biblically unsound, he was an uneducated dictator with crackpot ideas, that his views were of interest only as a historical curiosity. … Do you think that would be an effective marketing tool for your literature?”
⁵⁸

Miles went ballistic.

But this was all
their
doing.
They
were the ones who introduced the preface and then insisted it be attached to every publication they supposedly offered as a “benefit” to us.
They
were the ones who made the preface
CENTRAL
to the case. So we took them to task on the preface and exposed the fact that they were guilty of the very things they accused Mr. Armstrong of. And when called upon to answer for their self-righteous hypocrisy, they ran for cover like cowards, hiding behind their lawyer’s objections:
Inappropriate! Argumentative! Irrelevant! Invasion of privacy!

But we weren’t about to let them off the hook.

One might think both sides in this battle were being driven further apart in the summer of 2002—hardened by the grueling deposition warfare that took place over the course of two months. And from what we saw on the surface,
WCG
officials were getting angrier and more defiant by the day.

But on the inside, they were deeply conflicted.
They had the copyrights to Mr. Armstrong’s literature
and they burned with anger at the thought of our little church—their nemesis—obtaining rights to distribute these works, especially after we tried to “steal” them.

On the other hand, they did not want to be exposed.

The
WCG
’s preface turned out to be a tremendous opportunity for us. Our forceful response to it, my father said at the beginning of the summer, was the only way we could win.

And he was right.

“We are pleased to announce that the Worldwide Church of God … has reached a successful conclusion in its lawsuit against the Philadelphia Church of God.”

— Ralph Helge

Worldwide News, April 2003

At the height of the depositions in August 2002, Ralph Helge wrote to Bob Ardis in an effort to give “accurate information” about the court case. Ardis, a minister disfellowshiped from the
PCG
in 1997, copied Helge’s letter and sent it to his entire mailing list, comprised mostly of
PCG
members.

In the letter, Mr. Helge accused
Gerald Flurry
of “pirating”
Mystery of the Ages
,
of misinforming and misleading
PCG
members, of disobeying and disregarding the laws of the land, of using nearly every trick in the book to disrupt the legal process, among other things. He explained how we initially won at the district court level. Judge Letts said we had a right to distribute
Mystery
because, in Helge’s own words, “
WCG
was
not publishing it at the time,
and because it was allegedly central to
PCG
’s religion .…”
¹

Exactly!
If there is one thing the
WCG
learned during the lawsuit, it’s that they
could not use their copyrights to suppress Mr. Armstrong’s written works
. For all their screaming at the outset of the case—we were “stealing”; we “broke the law”—it turns out that they were the ones misapplying the copyright law. That’s what Helge indirectly admitted to Ardis. We won the first round, he said, only because they were not publishing
Mystery of the Ages
“at the time.” In fact, they had a “Christian duty” not to. But once they realized they couldn’t use a copyright to suppress written works, they concocted a plan to publish them.

Helge told Ardis that the three-judge panel at the Ninth Circuit reversed Judge Letts’s ruling. He failed to mention why—because they developed “plans” to publish—in the form of an annotated version.

Helge then made this astonishing comment:

… Mr. Flurry has made representations to the
PCG
members, giving the misimpression that there is still the possibility in the case that the court is going to award
PCG
the right to pirate the
MOA
. This is simply, again, misinformation. The case has been finally decided and concluded regarding
MOA
, and Mr. Flurry, out of sheer desperation, has exhausted all legal remedies available to him. Any attempt of
PCG
to acquire any court ordered right to print the
MOA
is over, done, finished. Legally there is
NO PLACE ELSE FOR HIM TO GO ON THIS ISSUE
. I don’t know how else I can say it. P
CG
’s only “right” is to stand before the bar of justice and have damages assessed against them and attorney’s fees for the wrong that it has committed.
²

In quick response, our lead attorney drafted a letter to Helge on September 18, saying, “Any competent lawyer knows that these statements are undeniably false, and you in particular know that they are. It is beyond any dispute that the Ninth Circuit’s September 2000 decision did not constitute a final judgment.”
³

Even at my own deposition in 2002,
WCG
attorney Allan Browne wanted me to acknowledge that we lost the court case and were therefore found guilty of breaking the law. “[A]re you of the understanding that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that, in terms of
Mystery of the Ages
,
we, the Worldwide Church of God, are entitled to damages?
”
⁴
I told him I understood that, but that it was a decision that could be appealed. “Well, are you aware that your counsel filed a petition … in the United States Supreme Court on that issue and that it was turned down …?” he asked.

Flurry: Right. And I’m also aware that we have the right to do that yet again.

Browne: Well, after the damages trial is held, is that what you mean?

Flurry: Yes.

Browne: Okay.

Flurry: Is that not true?

Browne: Well, I’m not answering questions here today, you are.

Mark Helm: He knows it is true. So he won’t answer.
⁵

It was as if they expected us to lay down our weapons and surrender after one setback. The damages trial hadn’t even started yet. And we certainly intended to appeal after that. On top of that, the counterclaim had not yet been decided at the district level, let alone the court of appeals or at the Supreme Court.

Yet, in the summer of 2002, Ralph Helge concluded that we had “exhausted
all
legal remedies”—that there was nowhere else for us to go. I think the underlying message in Helge’s attempt to misinform was this:
Why won’t these guys just give up?
He just wanted all of this to be over, and he boiled over at the fact that we intended to fight them—to take advantage of every possible legal option at our disposal. To Helge, exercising all
our
options was some kind of technical maneuvering intended to thwart the judicial process. He obviously felt much different about exercising all legal options if it benefited
them
, even if it was dubious and dishonest—like when they dismissed their lawsuit in California three weeks after filing in early 1997 because Judge Letts wouldn’t grant their request for a temporary restraining order, hoping a lawsuit filed in Oklahoma would render better results. Or after they realized they were losing at the district level and floated the idea that they would publish an annotated
Mystery of the Ages
—a technical maneuver intended to thwart the judicial process. And later, when the e-publishing scheme was established—not by
WCG
’s publishing department or Plain Truth Ministries or
ANYTHING
having to do with literature, but
by Ralph Helge’s legal department,
and for the admitted purpose of undermining our argument that Mr. Armstrong’s works were unavailable.

All of this, spearheaded by a man who then accused
us
of thwarting the judicial process.

Television Cuts

Just days before Helge’s letter landed in the mailboxes of many
PCG
members, my dad called for an Advisory Council of Elders meeting at our headquarters facility in Edmond on September 11. During this meeting with leading ministers of the church, he announced that we would be cutting all of our television stations, except for the cable channel
WGN
, because of the court case. He said that we were now in the heat of the battle and that our time, energies and finances needed to flow in that direction. He reassured the ministry that if we had the faith of the Prophet Habakkuk, God would eventually give us Mr. Armstrong’s material.

While the decision to cut television costs certainly helped increase the work’s cash flow, it wasn’t made for that reason alone. As our television audience had grown through the years, we were being contacted by an increasing number of respondents who knew very little or nothing about Herbert Armstrong—let alone his teachings. Without Mr. Armstrong’s literature, we felt these new contacts could not be spiritually nurtured until we had a breakthrough in the court case. It is difficult to grasp the full depth of our own literature without the foundational teachings of Mr. Armstrong. The idea was,
let’s win the court battle first, and then concentrate on taking our message to the largest audience possible.
My father also admonished us to educate our members as to why we were involved in this legal battle. He said, “Maybe God wants to teach the whole church how vital these works are.” To win this battle, every member had to do his part.

A week and a half later,
PCG
members from all over the world convened at various locations to celebrate our annual fall festival—the Feast of Tabernacles. During the Feast, my dad delivered two messages that were broadcast live, via satellite, to most of the
PCG
’s worldwide membership. In his first message, on September 22, he said he didn’t think he would ever give a more important message because of what was happening in our work. He went on to discuss the meaning of the court case—saying it was a test for us, but that if we had faith, God would revive this work and give us that literature somehow—some way. To obtain those works, though, he said we had to be willing to fight to the end—willing to do whatever God required of us.

He concluded the sermon by quoting from Helge’s letter to Bob Ardis. Regarding Helge’s comment that we had “pirated” Mr. Armstrong’s works, my dad said it was
WCG
leaders who had in fact pirated an
ENTIRE CHURCH
.
⁶

In his second live sermon, on September 27, my dad explained that one reason this trial might be dragging on is because God wants us to
EXPOSE
the
WCG
. He told the membership that we intended to press forward, fully intent on exposing them every step of the way.

At the end of the sermon, he announced the
TV
cuts he had made at the September 11 meeting. He told the membership that our message to the world could not be truly effective until we acquired the right to publish Mr. Armstrong’s works. “We must go all out in this court case,” he said.
⁷

About Face

Two weeks after our fall festival ended, on October 14 (the trial had been pushed back to early December), events took yet another dramatic turn: The
WCG
offered to sell us
Mystery of the Ages
for $4 million. It left us in a state of shock. We thought the price was far too high for just one book, but still, that
WCG
now wanted to sell it outright—with no restrictive license—was unbelievable.

Why—after all the rhetoric about annotation and e-publishing, after Morgan’s ridicule of our March offer to license, after Helge’s scathing editorial about
PCG
’s hopeless position (“the case has been finally decided and concluded”; “legally there is no place else for [the
PCG
] to go”; “
PCG
’s only ‘right’ is to stand before the bar of justice and have damages assessed against them and attorney’s fees for the wrong that it has committed”)—would
WCG
now
ask us
to settle?

This breakthrough was
HUGE
.

We felt like we had finally worn them down. Our first thought was to get
all
the works—
Mystery of the Ages
and the 18 we were seeking in the counterclaim. Our second thought was about finances. At the time, we only had about $1 million cash on hand, in reserve.

So on Monday, October 21, we offered the
WCG
$825,000 for
all
the copyrights and first right of refusal to buy any other Armstrong literature they might later sell. They were insulted by the offer and said if we heard laughter coming from Pasadena that night, we would know why. But we were now convinced they didn’t want to go to trial with this. They feared the negative publicity it would bring. It was clear they wanted to cut and run and were hoping to get as much as possible from us in return.

They came back with a $3.5 million offer to grant us perpetual licenses for
all
19 works. On the one hand, we were ecstatic because they dropped from $4 million for
Mystery
to $3.5 million for
everything
we wanted. But instead of selling them outright, they would be licensed. We were understandably wary of any settlement offer that allowed the
WCG
to interfere with our plans. But they assured us that we would have control over the literature and that the licenses would be permanent. In researching the matter further, we discovered that a perpetual license was far better than anything we could have obtained from the courts—even if we fought to the end and won in the Supreme Court. In that scenario, the Court would have simply ruled that what we did between 1997 and 2000—copying and distributing Mr. Armstrong’s literature—was
NOT
a violation of the copyright law. But it would not have granted us a perpetual license.

About the only thing we couldn’t do with a license is sell the works to someone else, which we wouldn’t do anyway. But still, we wouldn’t
own
the works. And for as hard as we fought, anything other than “© Philadelphia Church of God” inside the front cover of those books just didn’t seem right. We also didn’t like the idea of any lingering association with the
WCG
after a six-year lawsuit.

We bumped our original offer up to $950,000, with the same requests—all 19 copyrights and first right of refusal on anything else.

Helge Lashes Out Again

Meanwhile, Ralph Helge wouldn’t stop spouting off. The
Journal,
a newspaper reporting on the news of
WCG
and its many splinter groups, interviewed Helge on October 29. The article that was published in the October 31 issue was loaded with Helgeisms: “In various court rulings over the years, the
WCG
’s arguments … have
overwhelmingly
prevailed” and
WCG
“seeks to recover costs for attorneys’ fees plus damages from the
PCG
for
illegally
printing
Mystery.”
⁸

Helge informed the
Journal
that the
WCG
was now electronically publishing the very works we were seeking in this case. Even the
Journal
expressed skepticism about the sincerity of such a move, wondering if it was simply a strategy employed to undermine the
PCG
’s position. “Mr. Helge insists the church’s real motive is to make the works of Mr. Armstrong available to the public and that removing the
PCG
’s legal claim that these works are unavailable is of only secondary importance.”
⁹