PCG Loses

The Painful Truth About The Worldwide Church of God

Philadelphia Church of God Loses on Appeal
Regarding Mystery of the Ages Book
Filed September 18, 2000

The undisputed facts establish as a matter of law that PCG is not entitled to claim fair use. Because infringement by PCG of Worldwide Church of God's copyright is undisputed, barring fair use, Worldwide Church of God is entitled to a permanent injunction against the reproduction and distribution by PCG of MOA. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment for PCG in Nos. 99-55934 and 99-56489, and the denial of Worldwide Church of God's motion for a preliminary injunction in No. 99-55850, dismiss the appeal from the denial of Worldwide Church of God's motion for an injunction pending appeal in No. 99-56005 as moot, and remand for entry of a preliminary injunction pending a trial of any damages and final adjudication.

The article on "The Mystery of the Ages," was certainly most informative. It's not the first time that cults have fought over copyright. But sadly, in the early 20th century, today's copyright laws were not as tough as they are today. And so Apostle Herbie, himself, ripped off pamphlets, teachings, and writings from the Church of God Seventh Day (CG7), of which he WAS a member. The whole booklet "Has Time Been Lost" (HTBL), was stolen from CG7 intact, having been written by one of CG7's own ministers in 1917. I have the paperwork to prove it. The big problem was that CG7 never copyrighted its work, so Herbie stole whatever he could. And he copyrighted other people's work under his own name. Thankfully, this could not happen with today's laws.

In later years, Worldwide Church of God went back to CG7 (via Ralph Helge's office) and demanded that CG7 remove their original HTBL booklet because, they said, it now belonged to HWA. (This was after we'd showed the Worldwide Church of God leadership in the late 70's that HTBL was plagiarized by Herbie.) So Worldwide Church of God reacted to cover the lie, and pressured CG7. Then CG7 produced the proof that HTBL was written long before Herbie's "conversion." The Worldwide Church of God bully was at work.

During his later years, Apostle Herbie had ghost writers and editors. Much of the time, he was apparently too wasted or inebriated to write anything. Among his ghost writers was reportedly Mary Ellen Dalgren, a Rader confidant, and Herbie's secretary. I was told personally from someone inside the camp that she was writing all the co-worker letters, especially at the time of the 1979 receivership crisis. When people were told to "sell all," "give like never before," etc., this then was her work, as the Apostle was somewhat "indisposed." Members were bounced around and fooled by a bunch of ghost writers, and nothing more.

I understand that son, Teddy, had the same format. He (from AR) had John Schroeder as his ghost writer. So, while father Herbie and son Teddy yelled righteousness from the pulpit, they had lackeys fill in the fine print.

This is why I question the authorship of MOA. It may be copyrighted in Herbie's name, but who wrote it? His "Incredible Human Potential," was simply a mish-mash of ancient PT articles and ghost writings and editings. Yet, he claimed to have worked "long hours into the night," to finish this pile of drivelish, fragmented garbage.

Since the flustered Flurry group claim that Herbie worked on MOA till the time of his death, it makes me wonder if someone else didn't really rehash old articles, edit them, and copyright them under Herbie's name. In his later years, Herbie was said to be too sick and smashed to do much of anything. But, I understand he took the time at night to have a young bed companion to keep him "warm." This was much like the perverted King David that had a cute teen keep him company in bed during his old age - just to keep him warm. Yeah! Right!.

An almost catatonic Herbie was seen driving around Tucson in his latter years - as observed a few times by ex-members and through the front window of his limo - attended by oxygen, and administered by a young, cute, blonde nurse.

As far as I'm concerned, the Flurry claim that Apostle Herbie worked on MOA until his death is a bunch of lies, and hallucinogenic propaganda. Herbie, as many of us heard, was simply "out of it" for the best part of his last ten years. Next thing, I presume, Flurry will want to beatify Herbie, and then canonize him.

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