I cannot have stories on the Rajneesh without including Bill Hulse, County Judge.

Bill grew up in Wasco County outside the small community of Dufur.  He was a wheat rancher and was extremely well-respected.

In November 1982 (election night) I stopped in, while on patrol, at the Wasco County Court house.  I wanted to see who had won in the different positions. 

I saw where Bill had been elected.  I talked to several people then, looking for another person, I found Bill in one of the court rooms surround by friends.  I had never met him, but knew several of the people in the room and started talking with them.

Bill was in his sixty’s and a bit stooped over.  As I shook hands with him, my first thought was “This man is so frail, can he take what the Rajneesh are dealing out?”

During the next two years I didn’t have contact with Bill.  He was in the news because of his position, but he was the County Judge (Administrator) of the County Commission and I was a City Police Officer.  The two entities were in the same town, but my only contact with the county – most of the time – was with the Sheriff’s deputies.

From what I could read in the papers and what I was hearing around town, Bill was holding his own, but he was being hammered by the Rajneesh – as was one of the other Commissioners - every chance they got. 

But, just as I was wrong on my first assessment, so too were the Rajneesh; Bill was a ‘tough old bird’ from pioneer stock.

But Bill was also a gentle soul and one of the most humble men I have ever met. 

After I was elected, I had contacts with Bill on a regular basis, sometimes several times a day.  I soon learned why Bill was so respected.

A quiet man, he spoke with the authority of wisdom, experience and confidence.  He loved people and his desire was to serve the citizens of Wasco County to the best of his ability.  He wanted to treat EVERYONE, including the Rajneesh, equally and it grieved him that they didn’t see that he was genuinely interested in them.

The Rajneesh saw his gentleness as weakness and his patience as a thing to be despised, made fun of and exploited.

Bill didn’t wear his Christianity on his sleeve, but it didn’t take long to see that Christ did indeed live within him.  Christ was his strength as he went through these and other challenges in his terms of office.

I remember one time, not sure how we started the conversation, but he was telling me that he had some bad years as a Wheat Rancher – all farmers can give that same story – one year he had to borrow money from the bank to PAY HIS TITHES.  It was said matter of factly.  No fanfare, boasting or thumping of his chest, just a statement made on how he fulfilled that obligation.

It is hard to explain how that statement impacted me, it wasn’t meant as a lesson, it wasn’t a teaching moment, it was just a statement of fact by a Christian who had Christ living within him to another Christian.

By the time of this conversation, I had learned to appreciate Bill, his wisdom and his service to Christ; but this lifted Bill to a whole new level in my eyes.

Bill tried to work with the Rajneesh, I have already talked about how he tried to help them one day and instead of allowing him to do so, they shoved him aside so they could look in the filing cabinet drawer themselves.

A couple of weeks after the 1985 festival he and I went down to the ranch.  They were supposed to have everything cleaned up and all temporary housing removed, there was still some set up – he looked at me and said, “Now, don’t ‘holler’ at me, but I am giving them additional time.”

He understood when I said, “Bill that is one of the reasons they try and take advantage of you, you give too much leeway.”  The thing is, he was trying to treat them like any other citizen – need extra time, no problem.

The problem, of course, is that you give some people a leash and they run with it and the Rajneesh were famous for that.  You couldn’t let them take the bit between their teeth and run with it.  However, by the next week they had them down.

K.D, aka Krishna Diva, aka David Knapp, had been a thorn in the side of Wasco County ever since he arrived.  Soon after the ranch was purchased, he and a couple of others had sat down – wearing non-Rajneesh attire – with the County planner and told him about all the great agriculture ideas they had – carefully not mentioning the new city they wanted to form.

When they went beyond the laws and were caught in it, they became aggressive doing whatever they could to make the lives of Wasco County Citizens and their elected and appointed official miserable.  K.D. was a ring leader who seemed to take great joy in his role in the disruption.

During the investigations of the ranch, K.D. became a star witness against the other leaders, turned state evidence and went into the witness protection plan.

K.D. was an arrogant person.  He was the Mayor of the ranch when I met with the Chief in 1985.  He had a demeanor about him that showed he thought he was superior to everyone else.  More than once, Bill had been the recipient of K.D.’s sneers and sarcasm.

He was a key figure in the operation of, guidance of, and planning of the violence against the citizens.

One day, a few years after the investigation, he was brought back, to the courthouse to give a deposition.  He was in our basement meeting room with the Marshals, who had brought him, and the state attorneys.

Bill asked me to go with him to see K.D.  I did so.  Nothing was said between the two men. 

Bill knew of the criminal assault against him personally and that on several other people.  He knew that they deliberately put the citizens of Wasco County and many in other parts of Oregon, at risk. Bill knew K.D. was a large part of that illegal operation.

Yet,

As we went back upstairs, Bill said, “Art, I just cannot stand that man.  I have prayed about it for years, but I still cannot stand him.”  This genuinely bothered him, on a level that I still cannot understand – to me it speaks so many volumes about the man.  He didn’t like feeling that way about another person.

That was Bill; that was why I respected his leadership and the life he lived in Christ so much.

John 9:28-34  Then they reviled him, and said, Thou art his disciple; but we are Moses' disciples.

²⁹ We know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is.

³⁰ The man answered and said unto them, Why herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes.

³¹ Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.

³² Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind.

³³ If this man were not of God, he could do nothing.

³⁴ They answered and said unto him, Thou wast altogether born in sins, and dost thou teach us? And they cast him out.

What an interesting dialogue between ‘learned men’ and a pauper who had been blind, but was healed by Jesus.

What I really found interesting was: Thou art his disciple; but we are Moses' disciples.  ²⁹ We know that God spake unto Moses: as for this fellow, we know not from whence he is.

Moses came back into Egypt at the command of God.  It took a while for the people to accept him and that indeed he was from God – however, he had to fight with them until his death to convince them that they needed to focus on God.

They followed him into the wilderness only to build a golden calf within a few days of his being absent.

They were not satisfied with the manna and demanded meat.

What convinced them – whenever they acknowledge it – was the miracles performed by God through Moses.  And still and yet, they rebelled against him and God.

But these ‘righteous people’ were disciples of Moses because they knew God spoke to him.  Yet, here was Jesus, teaching them about God, performing miracles in front of them, yet they didn’t know where Jesus came from....

They refused to accept He could be from God – in doing so they would have to acknowledge that what He taught them was correct.  They would be accountable for not doing what He commanded.

Then there was the man who had been blind, but now could see.  He knew that this man who helped him had to be of God, basically telling them that a man who could heal was a messenger of God and calling them out for their unbelief: 

Why herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes.

³¹ Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.

If a person doesn’t want to believe in Jesus as the Christ and the Lord and Savior of mankind, any excuse will do.  These men had the very evidence to show them who Christ is, but they refused to believe it.

And not only did they not believe, but took offense when this man called them out and they cast him out.

The world doesn’t want to accept Christ.  They don’t want to be told that their behavior is sinful.  They don’t want to accept that there is a God who created them and therefore deserves and can command allegiance.

They are happy in their ignorance which allows them to do whatever they wish to do, without condemnation.

If they can convince others that what God says is sin isn’t, then they can cast out the messenger thus feeling they have won.

When we look at what the world and America has become these past few years as they have cast God out of public life, disallowing even private enterprises from standing for Christ, we can see we are no different.

Satan’s time is short and grows shorter all the time.  He is doubling his efforts to destroy God’s Word and His messengers. 

He doesn’t even have to be subtle anymore; he is making frontal attacks on anything that relates to a person’s faith in God.

Christians worldwide are being persecuted; churches are being destroyed; Christians are being forced from their home and their country as satan’s minions attack them.  Christians are being incarcerated, tortured and killed because they dare to stand for Christ.

Yet, America and much of the world sits back and either ignores it or encourages it. 

The evidence of what happens to a world turning away from God, of denying His Word and condemning those that would preach it is all around us.

Yet, they deny Him still and even more vociferously, and they cast out the messenger.

Things haven’t changed – they could if every Christian stood together for Him – but many of us are too afraid to take up our cross and march forward for Him.

We need to pray that the Holy Spirit gives us guidance and then the strength to do what He tells us.  We need to pray that God will move across America and the rest of the world so that those that would deny Him are shown for the liars of satan that they are.

God’s Word will prevail; we just want to make sure we are on His side when He decides enough is enough.

Later, Art :-)

From the ColumbiaRiverGorgeous
May Our Good Lord Bless and Keep YOU....’til we meet again