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BBC presenter says he receives hate mail from viewers for not crediting God in his nature programmes.
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JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. — An employee of a Johnson City church has been arrested and charged with stealing more than $83,000 from the church.WJHL-TV reported the arrest Thursday night of Charles Bales an…
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Thousands of images of child pornography, investigators said Friday, were found on the computer of a former local youth pastor. –
MSNBC reports Investigators said 36-year-old Joel Price worked as a youth pastor at
New Tribes Mission in Sanford. They said he resigned after undercover
agents busted him looking at and distributing more than 6,000 child
pornography pictures and videos online.
“He was almost relieved to be caught and have this obsession stopped,”
said Gary Davidson, of the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office.
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The foreman of a jury that last week awarded a Maryland man $3.6 million in a case of sexual abuse by a priest says the current Vermont Catholic bishop’s attitude during a videotaped sworn statement may have hurt the church’s case. –
AP reports In the Oct 2 deposition of Bishop Salvatore
Matano, the bishop “showed no remorse. He showed no emotion, no real
regret over what the victims had gone through,” said Andrew Pearson,
foreman of the jury that heard the latest lawsuit against the diocese
alleging priest sex abuse.
Pearson said the jury reached an
“easy consensus” that the diocese was at fault for hiring retired
priest Edward Paquette while knowing he had had a history of abusing
children and allowing him to work in parishes in Rutland, Montpelier
and Burlington before dismissing him.
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A Baptist preacher told the Pontotoc County undersheriff he did not know why he had been molesting two young boys for several months, but it might have something to do with his numerous blood pressure medications. –
newOK.com [OK, USA] reports Kenneth Wayne Huneycutt, 60, pastor of New Hope
Baptist Church in Ada, was charged this week with four counts of lewd
molestation involving a 10-year-old and a 6-year-old boy, according to
court documents.
Huneycutt told Undersheriff Joe Glover that the molestations
began in the spring and happened at least 15 times when the 10-year-old
boy would frequently spend the night at his house, and at least once
when the 6-year-old stayed over.
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Paul Kendrick of Freeport has been banned from the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland, and warned in a letter that if he tries again to contact Portland Bishop Richard Malone he risks losing any right “to participate fully in the sacramental life of the church.” –
AP reports “It’s a not-so-subtle attempt to silence me,” Kendrick said Monday.
“My response is that it’s not about me. It’s about protecting children
today and helping and supporting those who were abused. He will not
silence me from speaking out on those issues.”
Sue Bernard, a
spokeswoman for the Diocese of Portland, said the bishop doesn’t object
to criticism but that Kendrick’s actions have gone far beyond that.
Kendrick
has protested outside churches, inundated the diocese with mail and
e-mail, participated in a public confrontation with Malone and even
showed up at an out-of-state meeting the bishop attended, Bernard said.
She called it a campaign of harassment that ultimately could undermine
Malone’s ministry.
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What the authorities say happened to members of El Camino Church, a gray brick building wedged into a corner of Washington Heights, will not make financial history. No charities will have to close, no endowments will be eviscerated. Millions were not lost, let alone billions. –
The NY Times reports But when the cost is totaled, court papers and interviews suggest,
many of the worshipers at the tiny Christian Evangelical church will
have lost all or part of their savings in a Ponzi scheme that operated far beneath the orbit of the wealthy or well-connected.
Federal
prosecutors in Manhattan have charged that Bryant Rodriguez, 44,
insinuated himself into the congregation last year — he showed up first
for baptism classes — and enticed fellow churchgoers to trust their
money with him. Now, about $600,000 is gone in a scheme prosecutors
call a classic mold of financial grifting — neither sophisticated nor,
in hindsight, difficult to see through.
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Ukraine’s most prominent charismatic pastor, Sunday Adelaja, is at the center of controversy over his alleged involvement in a business venture that some claim bilked investors out of $100 million.
–
Charisma reports Adelaja, pastor of Embassy of the Blessed Kingdom of God for All
Nations in Kiev, was accused in November of being involved in the
dealings of King’s Capital, a financial group led by a member of his
congregation. The company drew many of its investors from the church,
also known as God’s Embassy, promising as much as 60 percent returns on
investments.
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Disgraced evangelical leader Ted Haggard has agreed to help promote a new documentary following his life in exile after a 2006 sex scandal — no longer bound by an agreement with his former church that prohibited him from talking publicly about the events that led to his downfall. –
AP reports “The Trials of Ted Haggard,” directed by Alexandra Pelosi, daughter of
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is set to air next month on HBO.
Haggard has agreed to take part in publicity for the project, HBO said.
The 41-minute documentary “follows Haggard and his family as they
move from houses to motels as the excommunicated pastor tries to redeem
himself and support his loved ones,” it says.
Haggard was not
excommunicated, but rather dismissed as pastor by a church oversight
board. Under a severance deal with New Life Church, Haggard agreed to
leave Colorado Springs and not talk about the scandal publicly, church
officials said. He received a year’s salary, or about $130,000.
AP reports Disgraced evangelical leader Ted Haggard says in a new documentary that
he still struggles with his sexuality yet is committed to his marriage
for the sake of his children.
gaywired.com reports “At this stage in my life, I am a loser,” says Haggard who now sells insurance and in the documentary says he isn’t successful.
Haggard’s wife, Gayle says that she is equally committed to helping her husband.
“I know to restore the honor to our children is to help restore honor to their father,” she says.
AP reports “The reason I kept my personal struggle a secret is because I feared
that my friends would reject me, abandon me and kick me out, and the
church would exile and excommunicate me. And that happened and more,”
he says.
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A Denver pastor has been indicted by a grand jury on theft and forgery charges in connection with an alleged mortgage-fraud scheme. –
The Denver Business Journal reports Harold Joe Hicks, the 64-year-old pastor of Mount Carmel Community Baptist Church,
was indicted on eight felony counts of theft and eight counts of
forgery, the office of Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey
announced Thursday.
The indictment, handed up Wednesday, accuses Hicks of using
surrogate buyers to submit false information to get mortgage loans on
eight rental properties at lower rates. Lenders lost at least $80,000
in the alleged scheme, the indictment said.
Rocky Mountain News reports Hicks allegedly used unwitting parishioners from his church as
surrogate or “straw” buyers to conduct real estate fraud, according to
the indictment and the Rocky investigation.
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Capo Beach Calvary Church’s junior high ministry director was arrested at the church this morning on suspicion of having a “sexual relationship” with a teenage female enrolled in his program. –
ocregister.com reports Daniel J. Pedroza Jr., 28, of San Clemente will be charged with six
felony counts, Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Jim
Amormino said.
“We received a child-abuse report from social
services detailing that a minor female between the ages of 14 and 18
disclosed she had been engaged in a sexual relationship with her youth
pastor,” he said.
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On Dec. 3, U.S. District Judge Barbara Lynn sentenced Cynthia Setser, 51, to five years in prison for her role in a multimillion-dollar pyramid scheme spearheaded by her husband, Gregory Setser. –
The Dallas Morning News reports The scheme, aimed
largely at Christian investors including televangelist Benny Hinn,
bilked hundreds of people from Texas and California out of more than
$170 million before the FBI shut down the Setsers’ sham import company,
IPIC Investments, in 2003. Mr. Setser was sentenced to 40 years in
prison.
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A priest accused of having sexual conversations with teenage boys has been excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix for starting his own ministry. –
AP reports The diocese announced Monday that Monsignor Dale Fushek and another
Catholic priest who helped open the ministry are now prohibited from
receiving church sacraments.
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New Jerusalem Missionary Baptist Church on the North Side, in foreclosure, owes creditors $840,000 after its expansion and stopped paying the retirement of a former longtime pastor. –
The Columbus Dispatch [OH, USA] reports The Rev. Marcus L. Martin and church leaders envisioned a grander
church than the small, aging one from which he preached on Joyce Avenue
on Columbus’ North Side.
Last year, the church added a new sanctuary, giving the people of
Galilee Missionary Baptist Church a more impressive place to worship.
In January, Martin borrowed $723,613 from Huntington National Bank.
But the loans went unpaid. The Columbus-based bank filed for
foreclosure Dec. 2 and, three days later, the church admitted to a
judgment that it owed nearly $750,000.
Scott also has faced foreclosure, on his own home, after the church failed to pay into a retirement package promised him.
He led Mount Galilee Missionary Baptist Church for nearly 30 years.
The church sent him off with a written promise of a $1,100-a-month
retirement payment and other benefits.
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A woman has been arrested after authorities say she took her preschooler to four Levy County churches, falsely claimed that the child needed a kidney transplant and asked for prayer and money to take the child to a specialty hospital for the surgery. –
The Gainsville Sun [FL, USA] reports According to court records, on Nov. 23 Everly went to a church in
Bronson and, while holding her four-year-old child, told the
congregation that the child needed a kidney transplant as a result of
kidney cancer. According to church members, Everly claimed she had
received a phone call from St. Jude’s Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.,
informing her that a child there was on life support and Everly needed
to get her own child to the hospital as soon as possible for the
transplant.
Everly reportedly asked for prayer as well as money
for the trip. After praying for the child, the congregation took up an
offering and gave the $420 collected to Everly.
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The former chief financial officer of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese was sentenced Thursday to a year and a day in prison on tax charges. –
AP reports U.S. District Judge Ann Aldrich
received about 50 letters in support of Joseph H. Smith from his
friends, co-workers, family, neighbors and a priest at the diocese,
said courtroom deputy clerk Vicki Kirkpatrick.
Aldrich noted that it was the largest outpouring of support she had seen in 28 years on the federal bench.
Smith was convicted in July of six tax-related charges, including conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service. A jury acquitted him of more serious charges of mail fraud related to alleged kickbacks.
Aldrich
did not determine restitution at the sentencing but set a range of
$200,000 to $400,000. The restitution will represent what Smith
underreported in taxes.
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The pastor of Trinity Chapel Church of God, Jim Bolin, has been sanctioned by the Church of God for inappropriate behavior and will step down from the leadership of the 7,000-member west Cobb County congregation he founded. –
ajc.com reports Bolin’s son, Jason Bolin, assistant pastor at the Powder Springs
church, spoke to a gathering of the congregation Thursday night to
address the “inappropriate behavior” charge. Neither Jason Bolin nor
members of the congregation would elaborate on what the inappropriate
behavior entailed.
Jason Bolin did say his father had confessed before the Church of God acted on the charge of inappropriate behavior.
The one-hour meeting was devoted to talk of healing for Jim Bolin,
for his wife, Robin Bolin, their family and the church. Jim and Robin
Bolin together lead the congregation.
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A Bloomington minister accused of choking his estranged wife and threatening her with a knife has been found not guilty by reason of insanity. –
The Chicago Tribune reports McLean County Judge Robert Frietag on Wednesday ordered The Rev.
Ted Pierce to continue receiving outpatient mental health treatment
but released him.
Pierce resigned from Second Presbyterian Church in Bloomington
after his arrest.
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A Decatur pastor arrested on forgery charges in Smyrna on Friday pleaded guilty in DeKalb County last month to unrelated theft charges under the first offender statute.
–
ajc.com [GA, USA] reports Maurice Joseph Easley, 37, was given five years probation, ordered
to pay $4,000 in restitution and complete 150 hours of community
service for theft by taking when he was a property manager employed by
NuRock Cos., according to court documents. The case was settled on Nov.
6.
Now the pastor of Sanctuary Church of the Living God in Scottdale,
Easley is accused of funneling nearly $70,000 from a Smyrna apartment
complex where he worked to his church’s checking account.
Police say he took money from residents’ rent payments, security
deposits and other fees from September 2007 to March 2008 while he was
employed as a property manager at Mission Galleria Apartments.
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The Rev. John J. Hunter of First African Methodist Episcopal Church is receiving forgiveness from at least some of his parishioners for failing to pay federal taxes and for using church credit cards to buy personal luxuries. But Hunter and other members of the clergy must remember that Congress and the Internal Revenue Service may be less charitably inclined when preachers stray from the path of fiscal righteousness.
–
The LA Times comments In 2004, Hunter succeeded the legendary Rev. Cecil L. “Chip” Murray at
First AME Church in Los Angeles, a bastion of the “social gospel”
combining faith and good works. The city as a whole benefits from the
church’s efforts to help provide affordable housing, food and legal
services for the poor, and would suffer if Hunter’s financial problems
were to undermine the church’s outreach programs or corrode its
credibility.
So it’s good news that Hunter is negotiating with tax authorities to
resolve his obligations, and that he and church financial officials
have agreed that he will repay more than $100,000 in expenditures
including family vacations, clothes and jewelry. The church also is
instituting stricter accounting policies. Hunter now knows — as other
members of the clergy have discovered, sometimes too late — that even
preachers must render unto Caesar honest and transparent stewardship of
the funds entrusted to them.