Editing Grace Communion International (section)

=== Receivership crisis ===
Several members in good standing with the WCG prompted the State of California to investigate charges of [[malfeasance]] by Rader and Herbert W. Armstrong. A coalition of six ex-ministers brought accusations of misappropriation of funds against Herbert W. Armstrong and Stanley Rader to the [[Attorney General of California]], contending that the two men were siphoning millions of dollars for their personal indulgences. In 1979, [[California Attorney General]] [[George Deukmejian]] placed the church campus in Pasadena into financial [[receivership]] for a half year.<ref>{{Cite web |title=First Amendment Center &#124; Freedom Forum Institute |url=http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/madison/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/vol1ch5.pdf |access-date=April 13, 2016 |archive-date=September 9, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160909030700/http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/madison/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/vol1ch5.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref> 

The matter gained the attention of [[Mike Wallace]] who investigated the church in a report for ''[[60 Minutes]]''. Wallace alleged that there had been lavish secret expenditures, conflict of interest, insider deals, posh homes and lifestyles in the higher ranks, and the heavy involvement of Stanley Rader in financial manipulation.{{Citation needed|date=February 2013}} No legal charges were leveled against Herbert W. Armstrong, Stanley Rader, or the WCG. Wallace invited Rader to appear on ''60 Minutes'' on April 15, 1979. Wallace showed Rader a secret tape recording in which Herbert Armstrong clearly stated to C. Wayne Cole, who was made temporary acting head of the church by Herbert Armstrong, that Rader was attempting to take over the church after Armstrong's death, reasoning that the donated tithe money was the incentive and quite a "magnet" to Stan Rader. Rader abruptly ended the interview.<ref>{{cite web |title=Stanley Rader on "Sixty Minutes" with Mike Wallace |url=http://hwarmstrong.com/stanley-rader-interview.htm |access-date=15 September 2012 |work=60 Minutes |publisher=The Painful Truth}}</ref> This tape was made during a conversation about Stanley Rader by Herbert W. Armstrong, and C. Wayne Cole. Wayne Cole gave the tape to ''60 Minutes'' for use in its exposé of Rader. In the meantime, Herbert Armstrong switched the WCG Inc. corporations to "corporate sole" status, making him the sole officer and responsible party for the affairs of the corporations. All income, tithes and checks were then made payable to the personal name of Herbert W. Armstrong and sent to his home in [[Tucson|Tucson, Arizona]]. In referring to the investigation of the California Attorney General, Rader wrote ''Against the Gates of Hell: The Threat to Religious Freedom in America'' in 1980, in which he contended that his fight with the Attorney General was solely about the government's circumventing religious freedoms rather than about abuse of public trust or fraudulent misappropriation of tithe funds.{{cn|date=April 2024}}

The California Second Court of Appeals overturned the decision on procedural grounds and added as [[:wikt:dictum|dicta]], "We are of the opinion that the underlying action [i.e., the state-imposed receivership] and its attendant provisional remedy of receivership were from the inception constitutionally infirm and predestined to failure."<ref>{{cite court|litigants=People ex rel. Deukmejian v. Worldwide Church of God|court=Court of Appeals of California, Second Appellate District, Division Two|reporter=CA3d|vol=127|opinion=547|date=December 9, 1981b|url=http://online.ceb.com/calcases/CA3/127CA3d547.htm}}</ref>

Stanley Rader left his positions within the church in 1981. While remaining a member, he left the public spotlight as an attorney, retired, but continued to receive payments from the WCG on his lifetime contract, $300,000 per year, until his death from acute pancreatic cancer on July 2, 2002.{{cn|date=April 2024}}