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Fischer, no spendthrift, sued the magazine over the article. He is known to have contributed at least $94,000 to the Worldwide Church. A trifling sum, when compared with the generosity of a reported 75,000 church members, many of meager means, who each year give more than a tenth of their gross income to the cause. The fabulous take: $75 million a year, including large donations from Garner Ted's radio-TV fans.
Even so there are reports of ballooning bank debts due to the church's free-spending ways. Dissidents complain of the cost of maintaining church leaders in many mansions, most of them lavishly furnished. A church-related foundation has poured nearly $2 million into Quest magazine. The same foundation will launch a secular book-publishing company, Everest House, with 30 titles this fall.
The main drain is Ambassador College, which costs $20 million a year to maintain. In April, Garner Ted decided to shut down the lavish Pasadena campus and move to Texas. Herbert figured the move was illadvised, rescinded the plan and sacked his son. But Herbert has nearly destroyed the school in order to save it. First he decided to close it completely, but now it will shift from a four-year course to various shorter training programs. The full-time student body is being slashed from 1,120 to 250, the faculty from 177 to 25. Long-sought liberal arts accreditation now appears impossible. While the chips fall, Herbert is buzzing off for a July 8 appearance with British royalty.
Who will eventually succeed the aged and ailing Apostle Herbert? Recent Convert Rader appears all-powerful, but he is not a minister and has numerous enemies. "Many people fear Stan immensely," says a veteran headquarters official. An anonymous "Committee of Twelve" has sent a vicious anti-Rader letter to all Worldwide ministers. Rader's candidate to take over may be the newly installed director of the church's ministry, C. Wayne Cole. But Garner Ted should not be counted out. Says Professor Joseph Hopkins of Pennsylvania's Westminster College, author of a recent book called The Armstrong Empire: "There is nobody around who can take Garner Ted's place as radio-TV money raiser. The Worldwide Church of God has no future without him."