In the United States over one hundred churches with over ten thousand saints have been raised up since the Lord’s recovery began there. Although the number is small, those who oppose us as well as those who agree with us admit that we are above everyone else regarding the truth. Many of you know that we won the lawsuits related to the two books called The God-Men and The Mindbenders. The “Statement of Decision” issued by the Superior Court of California in relation to the case against the publisher of The God-Men contains thirty-two pages. I hope you get the opportunity to read it so that you may understand why we initiated the lawsuit.
I bring this matter up because it is related to our history. Those who belong to this generation should be clear about this matter. It is all right to argue concerning the truth in America because America is a country of free speech. It is all right for Christians to say that Buddhism is wrong and vice versa. This kind of argument is not in violation of the law. However, if you attack others by intentionally slandering them or by fabricating lies or twisting the facts with an evil intention to hurt others, then you are committing libel, which is a criminal offense according to the law. We took the legal actions not only to fight for the truth but also to clear our name.
The main target of our litigation was the book called The Mindbenders. The author, who wrote the book in 1977, put numerous false statements, false accusations, and slanderous words against us in the book. Moreover, he fabricated cases accusing us of deceiving people. In 1978 after the members of the People’s Temple committed mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana, the author of The Mindbenders added another chapter to the book concerning this matter, saying that the situation was far more serious in the “Local Churches.” As a result, some of the parents of our younger saints were concerned that their children had joined a deceptive organization. In America there is a profession called “deprogramming.” When a physician certifies that a young person is mentally abnormal, the parents can hire people to force their children to be “deprogrammed.” There was such a case on the East Coast. A couple hired some people to seize their son, who was studying at a medical school in Texas, for “deprogramming.” Fortunately, the people whom they hired did not act foolishly. After some investigation they realized that there was no problem with that young brother, that he was mentally sound, and that the church that he was attending was also very proper. Therefore, they sent him back. There were many more cases like this. Furthermore, the author fabricated lies about us and slandered us to such an extent that we were like poisonous snakes and fierce beasts in people’s eyes. The book damaged us to the extent that some of the brothers and sisters experienced hardship at their jobs and were even fired.
After this book was published, we wrote hundreds of letters to the publisher, asking for an opportunity to clarify the situation. The publisher, however, refused to meet with us. They did not take our phone calls and would not discuss the issue with us. We also sent five American brothers to visit five different publishers, asking them, “If Witness Lee were not a Chinese, would you have done this?” They all said that they would not have done such a thing. Therefore, it is obvious that they did this because I am Chinese. They were not against foreigners; rather, they despised and scorned me because I was an elderly Chinese who had come to America to teach the truth.
For three years I did not take any action. Then in April of 1980 I was visiting the churches in Colorado and New Mexico. The co-workers there told me that it would be impossible for our work to spread as long as these two books—The Mindbenders and The God-Men— existed. They said that whenever we contacted someone, the very next day that person would receive a copy of one of the two books and then would not want to be in contact with us any longer. After some careful consideration, I felt that since we had not been able to obtain a proper response from the publishers, for the sake of the future of the Lord’s recovery we could not allow this damaging situation to continue to spread. Therefore, according to Paul’s principle of appealing to Caesar in Acts, we filed the lawsuits. We all know that originally Paul had been very reluctant about suing his persecutors. However, he had no choice because otherwise he would have been killed, and there would have been no way for the Lord’s word to be completed.
Today it is as if we are driving a car on the road, but someone has put some obstacles in the middle of the road to frustrate our progress. Therefore, we must first stop our car and clear the road before we can get into our car and continue to drive on. Paul’s way of clearing the road was to appeal to Caesar. He did this not merely to file a complaint but to ask for help, because the Jewish officials were corrupt and unrighteous. Felix had hoped that Paul would give him money and therefore asked for Paul to be sent to him frequently. However, Paul did not give him any money and was therefore imprisoned again for two years (24:26-27). Afterward, Festus came to the province as the successor to Felix. The Jews tried to bribe him, entreating him to send Paul from Caesarea to Jerusalem so that they could set an ambush to do away with him on the way (25:1-3). Festus, wanting to gain favor with the Jews, asked Paul if he would be willing to go up to Jerusalem and be judged there. Realizing Festus’s craftiness, Paul said, “I am standing before Caesar’s judgment seat, where I ought to be judged....I appeal to Caesar” (vv. 9-11). After conferring with the council, Festus had no choice but to say, “To Caesar you have appealed; to Caesar you shall go” (v. 12). In this way Paul was able to escape the hands of the Jews.
Paul remained in Rome for two whole years before his case was presented to Caesar Nero, who pronounced him not guilty and therefore released him. During his two years of imprisonment in Rome, Paul wrote Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. Afterward he wrote 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, and Hebrews. Most Bible students know that the most profound and mysterious truths are in these eight Epistles. Therefore, if Paul had not appealed to Caesar and had been killed by the Jews on his way to Jerusalem, then the Scriptures would have only included the first six of Paul’s Epistles—Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, and 1 and 2 Thessalonians—which were written in the initial stage of his ministry. If this had happened, there would have been a great lack in the divine truth.
Based upon Paul’s pattern, we found a way out. Like Paul, we were being greatly persecuted and felt quite helpless, so we had no choice but to “appeal to Caesar.” This may be likened to calling the police to save our lives when we are confronted by robbers. We call the police not to file a complaint but to ask them to rescue us, lest the robbers kill us. Therefore, I told the brothers and sisters that we should either do nothing, or we should do something in a thorough way. First of all, we would have to pursue the lawsuits to their end, even if this required us to pour out everything we had financially. Furthermore, we would have to have ten to twenty co-workers who would specifically take care of this matter. They would be the ones who would go out to collect evidence within the limits allowed by the law and in a definite way.
Due to the large number of cases that were being presented in the American law courts, we had to wait five years before the trial could start. The court spent five days to hear the case. We presented all our reasons and evidence before the judge. Our opposing party had no way to deny the evidence, which had been produced mostly during the depositions of both parties and had been made under oath in the presence of the clerk appointed by the court. Eventually, the verdict was pronounced. The judge enumerated in a clear way the violations that our opposing party had committed and decided that we had won the case.