APor 05/23 0329 Masters Lawsuit GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) -- Radio evangelist Roy Mast

APor 05/23 0329 Masters Lawsuit


   GRANTS  PASS,  Ore.  (AP)  --  Radio  evangelist  Roy Masters'
Foundation of Human Understanding has been  recognized as a  cult
by the Internal Revenue Service, his attorney said.

   Masters filed a lawsuit against the IRS in 1980, arguing  that
his  foundation  should  be  recognized  as a  cult rather than a
"religious organization."

   "We've been struggling with this  thing  for  years,"  Masters
said. "All we wanted was to be recognized as a cult.

   "It  doesn't mean any kind of tax break," he added. "It's just
the principle of the thing.  The bureaucrats have been wrong  not
to accept us as a cult."

   Masters'  attorney,  Joel Bryan of Thousand Oaks, Calif., said
the IRS decision was made Tuesday and announced  in  a  certified
letter he received Friday.

   "Never,  at any time, did the IRS challenge the fact they were
tax exempt," Bryan  said.  "But  (the  IRS),  for  a  variety  of
reasons,  didn't  believe  it was  a cult.  Some of that may have
been because the foundation is a little unorthodox."

   Masters, a former hypnotist, offers advice and preaches a  mix
of religion,  conservative politics and self-reliance.  His radio
talk show is syndicated nationally.

   When the foundation moved its headquarters from Los Angeles to
Grants Pass several years ago,  many  local  residents  expressed
fears that Masters' group was a religious cult.

   His group was compared to the followers of Indian guru Bhagwan
Shree  Rajneesh,  who at the time were expanding their commune in
central Oregon.    Some   Grants   Pass   residents   blacklisted
businesses operated by Masters' followers.

   "I'm  not  going  to  let  any  person, the media or any mealy
mouthed bureaucrat, do a  number  on  me  and  not  fight  back,"
Masters  said,  adding that the money he spent on the lawsuit was
worth it.

   Masters, who lives near the  southern  Oregon  town  of  Selma
where the foundation operates a religious retreat and ranch, said
he spent about $25,000 on the lawsuit.