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This information was obtained from IRS Form 990 through Guidestar.<ref>http://www.guidestar.org/organizations/35-1609054/voice-god-recordings.aspx</ref> | This information was obtained from IRS Form 990 through Guidestar.<ref>http://www.guidestar.org/organizations/35-1609054/voice-god-recordings.aspx</ref> | ||
=Public Correspondence= | |||
In a post on the branham.org website dated May 19, 2012, Joseph Branham responded to a news story that was published through a TV station in Jeffersonville, Indiana. Some excerpts from the letter follow: | |||
:''It’s not often that we respond to a negative publication. One of the main reasons is that we rarely receive negative comments or negative press. We do our best to project a Christian attitude in every aspect of our work, and we try to avoid controversy because it rarely ends in a positive outcome. | |||
:''Truly, there is a love among the Bride of Christ that the world cannot understand. | |||
After this begins the actual letter Joseph Branham addresses to WHAS11 News: | |||
:''First of all, blacking out the mysterious guest’s face is a blatant attempt to give the illusion that this man’s life would somehow be in danger if he was identified. In reality, he is an outspoken critic of both my father and all of us who claim to believe his teachings. He makes absolutely no efforts to hide his identity, and you even posted the link to his website that has his name, picture, email address, and his own life story. He plainly says on his website that he is the grandson of Brother Willard Collins, who you interviewed for the story. Do you think the fact that this man is attacking his grandfather might make a difference to your viewers? | |||
:''You also used a quote from Brother Branham and cut his words short of finishing his sentence, making it sound like he falsely predicted the end of the world. Why would you do this, other than to discredit our ministry? Here is his entire sentence: | |||
::''Now, counting the time, we find that we have exactly -Listen- seventeen years left, and we will have the same span of time given to us as God dealing with us in the power of the Holy Spirit since A.D. 33 until 1977, the same span of time of 1954 years. | |||
:''(Reporter) In 1960, Branham predicted the end of the world. | |||
:''(William Branham) Now, counting the time, we find that we have exactly -Listen- seventeen years left. | |||
:''This is NOT objective journalism. In fact, I would say this is a blatant lie to the public. Doing my best to give WHAS the benefit of the doubt, I can only hope that the anonymous guest gave you this truncated quote, gambling that you would not do the proper research. | |||
:''Your reporter said, “Branham predicted he would be alive to see the return of Jesus Christ,” and “Many of his followers don’t expect him to stay inside the grave. People come from all over the world every Easter anticipating that Branham will rise up to foretell the Second Coming of Christ.” This is even more misleading than the previous example. The Bible predicts that the dead in Christ shall rise and meet the Lord in the air (I Thes 4:13-18). All Christians believe they will be alive at the Coming of the Lord, no matter if they die first or not. | |||
:''Your reporter asked why so many local people don’t know about William Branham. Your mysterious guest said, “It’s almost behind closed doors…” If there is a more open ministry than ours, I would like to see it. Take a walk around Jeffersonville and see how many people have heard of William Branham and his ministry. | |||
:''He talked about selling toys and other things for a profit. We do sell a few things, but almost always, the items are sold at or below what we pay for them, and almost all of the material shipped overseas is given away. In fact, over 95% of the material produced by VGR is given away completely free-of-charge. | |||
:''We were not contacted before your story ran. Objective journalism? Why would you publish a story about William Branham and Voice Of God Recordings without contacting Voice Of God Recordings, where both of his sons work? | |||
:''I take personal offense at a comment made by your reporters: “They play the same old tapes, eleven hundred and forty sermons; they listen to them over and over and over again. That they did back in the fifties and sixties.” If my father preached the Word of God, then it should not be called “the same old tapes,” just as no one should say “they (Christians) read the same old 66 books of the Bible over and over and over again.” The 1,200 sermons we have are precious to us, because we believe they were spoken by a prophet of God. | |||
:''Even if WHAS disagrees with us, we still deserve the same respect as any other Christian. | |||
:''I don’t understand why you would disregard the truth and give credibility to a man who hides in the shadows and spouts off slanderous accusations with absolutely no basis in fact. This story by WHAS showed bigotry against a certain group of people who have every right to worship as they please, as long as they follow the laws of these great United States. | |||
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[[Category:The Message]] | [[Category:The Message]] |