Frank’s letter to the IRS

In 1995 and 1996, as part of his apprenticeship with Frank, Corey Nicholl recorded a box full of cassette tapes titled, “The Frank Moore History Tapes”. Because Corey had studied history in college, Frank set Corey to the task of writing Frank’s biography. These tapes were recorded as the source material for that biography. Needless to say it was never written. About 75% of the tapes were transcribed around the time they were recorded and we are now in the process of transcribing the remainder. We are also digitizing all of the tapes to eventually be uploaded to Frank’s collection on The Internet Archive. We are going to publish the raw transcripts as a multi-volume set of very small run hardcover books.

As we go through them, there are many gems …. Here is one from FRANK MOORE HISTORY TAPES – VOLUME 1, pg.  27.

Frank’s letter to Jean Gessey (sp.) showing that that Inter-Relations qualifies as a Church …

I, as the Church representative, am frankly confused by your letter denying the Church of Inter-Relations Church classification. You stated that our doctrines are not religious because there is no “parallel to that filled by god in traditional religion.” I do not know by what standards you are basing this statement. I can only state as clearly as I can the beliefs that I and the other 30 church members live by. If the following does not satisfy you that the Church of Inter-Relations more than meets the threshold requirement for classification as a Church, then I for the Church protest such a ruling and request a conference in your San Francisco office.

Human melting/personal closeness is the ultimate motivation in my and the church members lives, therefore human melting/personal closeness is the ultimate force in our lives. That manifests itself in our lives as the center theme, the highest priority, the deepest need. This is proved by the enclosed statements by many church members. In traditional religions there is the statement, “God is love.” We have the same concept, but we have pulled it down into the concrete plane. We believe the supreme force is the ever deepening closeness. We devote our lives to that closeness. We put that before anything else, before jobs, before personal ambitions, before petty wants. We have committed ourselves to fulfill one another’s needs and to get close to anyone who is willing to get close. Hence we are directed, not by our own personal judgments, but by that unromantic willingness and devotion to closeness …