BB-31-a-92
TOS notes in his handwriting re strategy to take in the previous audit we had some years back –
we have original and legal files.
June 5-19-78
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BB-31-a-93
Undated notes in Tim Stoen’s handwriting
To: Claire [Janaro]
In casual conversation: Points to make:
- One of church members I mentioned the audit to did not understand – wrote letter. I told him not to send.
- Do not make us look too large, yet at same time reveal how principled we are – ready to fight for our beliefs, e.g., hundreds picketed K. [Lester Kinsolving], causing him to lose job & making him angry
- The members of the church give to every kind of charity, not just their own church.
- I was talking to a number of members and they mentioned having been harassed for supporting a minister (Presbyterian) on some issue
- The members asked if IRS still did this but the pastor said he didn’t think so.
- The incident of harassment consisted of 70 or so of thechurch members sending a petition to a Federal judge on behalf of a Presbyterian minister who helps people and was trying to do something for prison conditions and about someone getting a fair trial
- All 70 contacted by IRS 2 weeks to the day & audited.
- A number of supporters of anti-IRS Congressional candidate Oscar Klee came to our pastor for support but he said he wouldn’t as of now support him.
- The members of the church have amazing solidarity – they really support one another
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BB-31-a-94, duplicate of BB-31-a-93
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BB-31-a-95, newspaper article about Tim Stoen’s experience in East Germany
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BB-31-a-96
Undated notes by Tim Stoen
excerpted from Trip notes:
I saw things that textbooks and newspapers can’t make vivid. I saw what a police state can do to individual human beings… I will now talk of the most startling and disconcerting experience of my life.
The restrictions of a communist police state are as bad as you read about. At newsstands you buy papers of East Germany only which serve as propaganda only.
… More notes – pages of unreasonable stuff on East Germany and how he was treated whilr under arrest
… “Now I will reveal some information gleaned from a person I met but whose name I can’t reveal because I fear for his safety.
– That each week a person must attend meetings some as often as 2-3 times a week. Meetings can last as long as four hours – what is discussed is Marxist writings and the virtue of a democratic state. The groups are so arranged that they separate friends and people with common interests are separated. My informant told me that the meetings were not too successful in indoctrination because too many people had been to the West.
– He said that if East Berliners and known before the borders were being set up that 40% of them would have left all worldly goods to escape. Less than 10% of them still support the regime.
– It is extremely difficult to have an underground spy system because you can’t trust anybody.
– Even in East Germany Army Saxons had to be brought in from other areas to keep check on the local soldiers because many of the local soldiers had anti-communist sympathies. It was from fear alone that most men carried out orders. One must note that the system of morality is quite simple. The soldiers are told that there are two kinds of Germans, good and bad – good are those who obey communist orders and the bad are to be shot.
– Ending sentence:
“But when you see what people like you and I have to go through. They just want one thing. They want freedom to think and act as they see fit – to be able to choose between alternatives – where to work – and how to live and whom to worship – a state or a God – they couldn’t care less about creature comforts. – All I can do is anguish about the problem and pray to God that it won’t last forever.
TOS
[Marginal handwritten note, likely by Terry Buford: “Very important in seeing TOS perspective –”]
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BB-31-a-97 – a-104, eight pages of illegible notes by Tim Stoen]