List of scandals involving American evangelical Christians

This is a list of scandals related to American evangelical Christians. (Roman Catholic clergy and high-profile leaders from New Religious Movements are not within the scope of this list.)

List of American evangelical Christians involved in scandals

Aimee Semple McPherson, 1920s–1940s

Main article: Aimee Semple McPherson

One of the most famous evangelist scandals involved Canadian-born Aimee Semple McPherson in the 1920s, who was charged with faking her own death. She claimed that she had been kidnapped. A lengthy investigation by the prosecution to prove she instead ran off with a lover were dropped; but not before newspapers blared headlines for several months about her supposed indiscretions. McPherson married a third time; though her first husband died, the second still lived, and thus she violated a tenet of her church by re-marrying. They divorced three years later. Because of bitter administrative disagreements, she also become estranged from her mother and later her daughter,. with both of whom she was once very close. In 1944 Aimee Semple McPherson died from complications due to kidney failure and an accidental overdose of barbiturates.

Lonnie Frisbee, 1970s–1980s

Main article: Lonnie Frisbee

Lonnie Frisbee was an American Pentecostal evangelist and self-described "seeing prophet" in the late 1960s and 1970s who despite his "hippie" appearance had notable success as a minister and evangelist. Frisbee was a key figure in the Jesus Movement and was involved in the rise of two worldwide denominations (Calvary Chapel and the Vineyard Movement). Both churches later disowned him because he struggled with homosexuality, which he always taught was sin, removing him first from leadership positions, then ultimately firing him. He died of AIDS-related complications in 1993.

Marjoe Gortner, early 1970s

Main article: Marjoe Gortner

Gortner rose to fame in the late 1940s as a child preacher, but he had simply been trained to do this by his parents and he had no personal faith. He was able to perform "miracles" and received large amounts of money in donations. After suffering a crisis of conscience, he invited a film crew to accompany him on a final preaching tour. The resulting film, Marjoe, mixes footage of revival meetings with Gortner's explanations of how evangelists manipulate their audiences. It won the 1972 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, but was not shown widely in the Southern United States due to fears that it would cause outrage in the Bible Belt.

Billy James Hargis, early 1970s

Main article: Billy James Hargis

Hargis was a prolific author and radio evangelist. Hargis formed American Christian College in 1971 to teach fundamentalist Christian principles. However, a sex scandal erupted at the College, involving claims that Hargis had sex with male and female students. Hargis was forced out of American Christian College's presidency as a result. Further scandals erupted when members of Hargis' youth choir, the "All American Kids", accused Hargis of sexual misconduct as well. The college eventually closed down in the mid-1970s. Hargis denied the allegations publicly.

Neville Johnson, 1983

Main article: Neville Johnson

Neville Johnson is a former Missionary and Pastor in the Assemblies of God church in New Zealand. For most of the 1970s his church was the largest Pentecostal church in Australasia. He currently runs a ministry called The Living Word Foundation. On 27 April 1983 at a special members' meeting at the Queen Street Assembly it was announced that Johnson had resigned, having admitted charges of misuse of office, and immoral, improper and deceitful conduct. His credentials were withdrawn, and such was the potential effect on the denomination as a whole, General Superintendent Jim Williams sent a message to all A/G pastors. Efforts were made to assist in his restoration, but he resigned from the denomination in February 1984.

Many of the details of these events are unclear. What can be surmised is that Johnson had for some time believed that he had special revelation from God regarding the fact that his wife would be taken from him and he would be allowed to re-marry. To this end he felt he had special grace which allowed him to engage in several affairs over several years. When those involved came forward, and Johnson was confronted, he refused to be corrected regarding the nature of his self-imposed deception. In the 1990s Johnson founded a church in Perth, Australia. He has since moved on from this and now runs The Academy of Light.

Jimmy Swaggart, Marvin Gorman, Jim and Tammy Bakker, 1986 and 1991

Main articles: Jimmy Swaggart and Jim Bakker

In 1986, evangelist Jimmy Swaggart began on-screen attacks against fellow televangelists Marvin Gorman and Jim Bakker. He uncovered Gorman's affair with a member of Gorman's congregation, and also helped expose Bakker's infidelity with Jessica Hahn (which was arranged by a colleague while on an out-of-state trip). These exposures received widespread media coverage. Gorman retaliated in kind by hiring a private investigator to uncover Swaggart's own adulterous indiscretions with a prostitute. Swaggart was subsequently forced to step down from his pulpit for a year and made a tearful televised apology in February 1988 to his congregation, saying "I have sinned against you, my Lord, and I would ask that your precious blood would wash and cleanse every stain until it is in the seas of God's forgiveness."

Swaggart was caught again by California police three years later in 1991 with another prostitute, Rosemary Garcia, who was riding with him in his car when he was stopped for driving on the wrong side of the road. When asked why she was with Swaggart, she replied, "He asked me for sex. I mean, that's why he stopped me. That's what I do. I'm a prostitute."

Peter Popoff, 1987

Main article: Peter Popoff

A self-proclaimed prophet and faith healer in the 1980s, Popoff's ministry went bankrupt in 1987 after magician and skeptic James Randi and Steve Shaw debunked his methods by showing that instead of receiving information about audience members from supernatural sources, he received it through an in-ear receiver.

Morris Cerullo, 1990s

Main article: Morris Cerullo

A number of incidents involving California-based televangelist Morris Cerullo caused outrage in the United Kingdom during the 1990s. Cerullo's claims of faith healing were the focus of particular concern. At a London crusade in 1992, he pronounced a child cancer sufferer to be healed, yet the girl died two months later. Multiple complaints were upheld against satellite television channels transmitting Cerullo's claims of faith-healing, and a panel of doctors concluded that Cerullo's claims of miraculous healing powers could not be substantiated. Cerullo also produced fund-raising material which was condemned as unethical by a number of religious leaders, as it implied that giving money to his organisation would result in family members becoming Christians.

Mike Warnke, 1991

Main article: Mike Warnke

Warnke was a popular Christian evangelist and comedian during the 1970s and 1980s. He claimed in his autobiography, The Satan Seller (1973), that he had once been deeply involved in a Satanic cult and was a Satanic priest before converting to Christianity. In 1991, Cornerstone magazine launched an investigation into Warnke's life and testimony. It investigated Warnke's life, from interviews with over one hundred personal friends and acquaintances, to his ministry's tax receipts. Its investigation turned up damaging evidence of fraud and deceit. The investigation also revealed the unflattering circumstances surrounding Warnke's multiple marriages, affairs, and divorces. Most critically, however, the investigation showed how Warnke could not possibly have done the many things he claimed to have done throughout his nine-month tenure as a Satanist, much less become a drug-addicted dealer or become a Satanic high priest.

Robert Tilton, 1991

Main article: Robert Tilton

Tilton is an American televangelist who achieved notoriety in the 1980s and early 1990s through his paid television program Success-N-Life. At its peak, it aired in all 235 American TV markets. In 1991, Diane Sawyer and ABC News conducted an investigation of Tilton. The investigation, broadcast on ABC's Primetime Live on 21 November 1991, found that Tilton's ministry threw away prayer requests without reading them, keeping only the money or valuables sent to them by viewers, garnering his ministry an estimated $80 million US$ a year. In the original investigation, one of Tilton's former prayer hotline operators claimed that the ministry cared little for desperate followers who called for prayer, saying that Tilton had a computer installed in July 1989 to make sure that the phone operators were off the line in seven minutes. Tilton sued ABC for libel in 1992, but the case was dismissed in 1993, and Tilton's show was off the air by 30 October 1993.

Melissa Scott, 1992

Main article: Melissa Scott (pastor)

Melissa Scott (known then as Melissa Pastore) married in Las Vegas her first husband, Paul J. Pastore, where they lived in Hollywood. She starred in pornographic movies with the name Barbie Bridges in affiliation with Vivid Entertainment. Later married to television preacher and pastor Gene Scott, who died from prostate cancer five years after, she received his large amounts of assets and continued his ministry. She appears to have employed legal means to reduce the circulation of particular images and videos depicting her, denying that she had ever been a pornographic actress.

Jim Williams, 1994

Main article: Jim_Williams_(pastor)

Sydney James (Jim) Williams is a former pastor and leader of one of the most influential churches in the Assemblies of God in New Zealand. He is a published author and a former General Superintendent of the NZ Assemblies of God. Williams left for Australia in March 1989 and served in what was then known as the Garden City Church in Brisbane.

In 1994 the Executive of the NZ A/G received a letter from the Australian Assemblies stating that Williams had been guilty of adultery while pastor at the Hamilton Assembly.

At this time Williams was pastoring in Australia. He lost his Australian credentials, but these were returned after a time of counseling. However he remained barred from ministry in the New Zealand A/G due to a failure to make any efforts to put the matter right in New Zealand. In 2000 it became apparent that the extent of his sexual impropriety was much greater than he had admitted to the Australian body. His credentials in New Zealand were permanently revoked for "adulterous offences and other indiscretions involving different women over an extended period of years".

W. V. Grant, 1996 and 2003

Main article: W. V. Grant

Grant was investigated by James Randi regarding his faith healing claims. He was also investigated on the same ABC Primetime Live episode as Robert Tilton (see above; the episode also featured a third prominent area pastor, Larry Lea of Church on the Rock in Rockwall, Texas). Grant was then imprisoned for tax evasion in 1996 (having sold his church facility to T.D. Jakes). After restarting his ministry upon release, TV news investigations in Atlanta, Georgia, and Richmond, Virginia, investigated his revival meetings and concluded his healing claims were false. A 2010 program on the British Channel 4 station also concluded that Grant's claimed supernatural abilities were fake.

Bob Moorehead, 1998

Moorehead, pastor of the Overlake Christian Church from the 1970s to June 1998 was arrested in July 1996 on a charge of indecent exposure in a public restroom in Daytona Beach, Florida. He stepped down amid allegations of molestation of adult members during baptism and wedding ceremonies that went as far back as 20 years earlier.

John Paulk, 2000

Main article: John Paulk

John Paulk (no relation to Earl Paulk) is a former leader of Focus on the Family's Love Won Out conference and former chairman of the board for Exodus International North America. His claimed shedding of homosexuality is also the subject of his autobiography Not Afraid to Change. In September 2000, Paulk was found and photographed in a Washington, D.C. gay bar, and accused by opponents of flirting with male patrons at the bar. Later questioned by gay rights activist Wayne Besen, Paulk denied being in the bar despite photographic proof to the contrary. Initially, FoF's Dr. James Dobson sided with Paulk and supported his claims. Subsequently, Paulk, who himself had written about his habit of lying while he openly lived as a homosexual, confessed to being in the bar, but claimed he entered the establishment for reasons other than sexual pursuits. Paulk retained his Board seat for Exodus, however he did so while on probation. Paulk did not run again for chairman of the board of Exodus when his term expired.

Roberts Liardon, 2001

Pastor and Pentecostal historian Roberts Liardon is the founder of Embassy Christian Center and Spirit Life Bible College in Irvine, California stepped out as pastor of his congregation after admitting to a moral failure involving a short term homosexual relationship with his church youth minister, John Carette. Liardon took a three-month leave of absence from Roberts Liardon Ministries to seek counseling and undergo a process of restoration. The scandal devastated many of Liardon's followers, students and missionaries who left the church, bible college and ministry.

Paul Crouch, 2004

Main article: Paul Crouch

Paul Crouch is the founder and president of the Trinity Broadcasting Network, or TBN, the world's largest evangelical Christian television network, as well as the former host of TBN's flagship variety show, Praise the Lord. In September 2004, the Los Angeles Times published a series of articles raising questions about the fundraising practices and financial transparency of TBN, as well as the allegations of a former ministry employee, Enoch Lonnie Ford, that he had a homosexual affair with Crouch during the 1990s. TBN denied the allegations, claiming that Ford's claims were part of an extortion scheme and that the Times was a "left-wing and anti-Christian newspaper." In 2005, Ford appeared at the taping of the ION Television show Lie Detector. The show's producers decided not to air the show, and the outcome of the lie detector test was never released. Consequently, none of the allegations were substantiated.

Paul Cain, 2005

Main article: Paul Cain (minister)

Paul Cain is a Pentecostal Christian minister and considered by many as a prophetic legend has been exposed as an alcoholic and a homosexual. He admitted so and was placed under disciple and process of restoration under the oversight of three ministers (Rick Joyner, Jack Deere and Mike Bickle). While the initial restoration team admitted that they failed, in a 2007 letter from the Board and restoration team of Reclaiming the Valley Ministries, an organization that covers 250 ministries and churches worldwide based in Pasadena, California whom Paul has submitted himself for accountability stated that Paul's restoration has progressed to a point that he has been encouraged to return to limited ministry.

Kent Hovind, 2006

Main article: Kent Hovind

Kent Hovind is an American Baptist minister and Young Earth creationist. He is most famous for "creation science" seminars, in which he argues for Young Earth creationism, using his self-formulated "Hovind Theory." He has been criticized by both the mainstream scientific community and other creationists. In 2006, Hovind, who also has a reputation as a tax protestor, was charged with falsely declaring bankruptcy, making threats against federal officials, filing false complaints, failing to get necessary building permits, and various tax-related charges. He was convicted of 58 federal tax offenses and related charges, for which he is currently serving a ten-year sentence.

Ted Haggard, 2006

Main article: Ted Haggard

Ted Haggard was the pastor of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado and was the president of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) from 2003 until November 2006. Haggard's position allowed him occasional access to President George W. Bush. In 2006 it was alleged that Haggard had been regularly visiting a male prostitute who also provided him with methamphetamine. Haggard admitted his wrongdoing and resigned as pastor of New Life church and as president of the NAE. The high-profile case was significant also because it immediately preceded the 2006 mid-term elections. In January 2009, Haggard admitted to a second homosexual relationship with a male church member on CNN and other national media, and when asked, would not directly answer a question about his other possible homosexual relationships. Ted Haggard has recently started a new church.

Paul Barnes, 2006

Main article: Paul Barnes

Paul Barnes is the founder and former senior minister of the evangelical church Grace Chapel in Douglas County, Colorado. He confessed his homosexual activity to the church board, and his resignation was accepted on 7 December 2006. He started the church in his basement and watched it reach a membership of 2,100 in his 28 years of leadership. This scandal was notable because it was similar to Ted Haggard's (above), it occurred in the same state (Colorado) and around the same time (late 2006).

Lonnie Latham, 2006

Main article: Lonnie Latham

In 2006, Latham, the senior pastor of South Tulsa Baptist Church and a member of the powerful Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, was arrested for "offering to engage in an act of lewdness" with a male undercover police officer.

Earl Paulk, 2007

Main article: Earl Paulk

Earl Paulk (no relation to John Paulk) was the founder and head pastor of Chapel Hill Harvester Church in Decatur, Georgia from 1960 until the 1990s. A number of women from the congregation came forward during the 1990s and 2000s, claiming that Paulk had sexual relations with them; charges of child molestation were also made. Some of these claims have subsequently been proven correct. Moreover, Donnie Earl Paulk, the current senior pastor of the church and nephew of Earl Paulk, had a court-ordered DNA test in 2007 which showed that he was Earl's son, not his nephew, which means that Earl and his sister-in-law had had a sexual relationship which led to Donnie's birth.

Coy Privette, 2007

Main article: Coy Privette

Privette is a Baptist pastor, conservative activist, and politician in the US state of North Carolina. Privette was president of the Christian Action League and a prominent figure in North Carolina moral battles. In 2007, Privette resigned as president of North Carolina's Christian Action League and from the Board of Directors of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina, following revelations on 19 July that he had been charged with six counts of aiding and abetting prostitution.

Thomas Wesley Weeks, III, 2007

Main article: Thomas Wesley Weeks, III

Weeks married fellow evangelist Juanita Bynum in 2002, but they separated in May 2007. In August 2007, Weeks physically assaulted Bynum in a hotel parking lot and was convicted of the crime in March 2008. The couple divorced in June 2008 and Weeks remarried in October 2009.

Joe Barron, 2008

Joe Barron, one of the 40 ministers at Prestonwood Baptist Church, one of the largest churches in the United States with 26,000 members, was arrested on 15 May 2008 for solicitation of a minor after driving from the Dallas area to Bryan, Texas, in order to allegedly engage in sexual relations with what he thought to be a 13 year-old girl he had met online. Barron's online communications had in fact been with undercover law enforcement official. Prestonwood fired Barron days later. In September 2009, Barron was sentenced to seven years in jail.

Todd Bentley, 2008

Main article: Todd Bentley

Canadian Todd Bentley rose to prominence as the evangelist at the Lakeland Revival in Florida, which began in April 2008. Bentley claimed that tens of thousands of people were healed at the revival. However, in August 2008, he stepped down permanently when it was revealed he was separating from his wife, Shonnah, and was in a relationship with Jessa Hasbrook, a member of his staff.

Ergun Caner, 2010

Main article: Ergun Caner

Ergun Caner grew up in suburban Ohio, but after 9/11, presented himself to churches and other organizations as having been raised and trained in Turkey and Egypt as a militant jihadi to wage war in the US. He and his brother Emir authored books explaining Islam to evangelicals containing many basic mistakes, displaying a rudimentary rather than expert understanding of the religion. Ergun's prominence and popularity propelled him to the position of dean at the Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary and Graduate School of Liberty University. In early 2010, Reformed apologist James White questioned Caner's claims to have debated Muslim scholars and representatives of virtually all religions on college campuses across the country. Legal documents located by Christian and Muslim bloggers demonstrated the fraudulence of Caner's constructed life narrative. Sound clips from his preaching contained supposed quotes in Arabic that turned out to be gibberish. Liberty's subsequent investigation resulted in Caner's not having his contract renewed for the position of dean in the summer of 2010, demoting him to professor. He took up a new post at Arlington Baptist College in 2011.

George Alan Rekers, 2010

Main article: George Alan Rekers

Penn Bullock and Brandon K. Thorp of the Miami New Times reported on 4 May 2010, that on 13 April 2010, Christian leader George Alan Rekers was photographed at Miami International Airport returning from an extended overseas trip with a twenty-year-old "rent boy", or gay male prostitute, known as "Lucien" (later identified as Jo-Vanni Roman). Given his opinion on homosexuals and homosexual behavior, the scandal surrounds Rekers' decision to employ a homosexual escort as a traveling companion, and how that runs contrary to Rekers' public stances on such issues.

Rekers claimed that Lucien was there to help carry Rekers' luggage as Rekers had allegedly had recent surgery, yet Rekers was seen carrying his own luggage when he and Lucien were spotted at the airport. On his blog, Rekers denied having sex with the man. In subsequent interviews, Roman said Rekers had paid him to provide nude massages daily, which included genital touching.

Eddie L. Long, 2010

Main article: Eddie L. Long

In September 2010 several civil complaints were filed against Bishop Eddie L. Long by men that stated Mr. Long used his position as the church leader to entice or coerce the men into consensual sexual relationships in exchange for money, travel and goods. At a press event on 26 September 2010 Bishop Long stated he would fight the civil complaints in court and would not comment on the allegations. On 27 May 2011, Bishop Long settled the matter out of court. The Canadian documentary series Sex Scandals in Religion covered the Long case.

Marcus Lamb, 2010

In November 2010, televangelist Marcus Lamb, the founder of the Daystar Television Network, admitted on television that he had been involved in an extramarital affair several years previously. He further alleged an extortion scheme against him. In late 2010 and early 2011, three former Daystar employees filed a series of lawsuits against Lamb and his wife, Joni, making allegations ranging from financial mismanagement in relation to the affair, to sexual harassment, and to wrongful termination.

Lamb and Daystar were vindicated in 2011 following an October decision by a Dallas court after a contested hearing to throw out all employment law claims by one of the employees. By December 2011, that employee had dropped her other claims based on defamation, and the other two other employees had dropped their cases. Daystar subsequently dismissed its countersuits against each of the women. In connection with these matters, none of the parties received any financial compensation, either individually or for attorney fees, and have no right to re-file.

Vaughn Reeves, 2010

Special Judge Dena Martin ordered former pastor Vaughn Reeves to serve consecutive six-year terms for each of nine fraud counts, in a scheme that cost about 2,900 investors $13.1 million. Among aggravating factors, Martin found Reeves targeted people over age 65 and used religion to influence them. Reeves’ attorney plans to appeal.

Investigators said Reeves and his three sons used their now-defunct company, Alanar, to trick about 11,000 investors into buying bonds worth $120 million secured by mortgages on church construction projects.

Instead, Reeves and his sons diverted money from new investments to pay off previous investors, pocketing $6 million and buying luxuries.

John Langworthy, 2011

In August 2011, John Langworthy, the youth music minister at Morrison Heights Baptist Church in Clinton, Mississippi, confessed from the pulpit to "sexual indiscresions with younger men" in the 1980s in both Mississippi and Texas. In January 2013, Langworthy plead guilty to eight counts of "sexual gratification of lust" for his abuse of at least five Mississippi boys between the ages of eight and 12, receiving a suspended sentence. In his confession, Langworthy stated that he had abused boys while music minister at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas. According to a church statement, Prestonwood fired Langworthy in summer 1989 in response to allegations that he "had acted inappropriately with a teenage student." However, following Langworthy's confession, questions were raised by SNAP as to the number of victims at Prestonwood, how the church reacted, and whether or not police were appropriately informed.

Senate probe

In 2007, Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) opened a probe into the finances of six televangelists who preach a "prosperity gospel". The probe investigated reports of lavish lifestyles by televangelists including: fleets of Rolls Royces, palatial mansions, private jets and other expensive items purportedly paid for by television viewers who donate due to the ministries' encouragement of offerings. The six that were investigated are:

• Kenneth and Gloria Copeland of Kenneth Copeland Ministries of Newark, Texas;

• Creflo Dollar and Taffi Dollar of World Changers Church International and Creflo Dollar Ministries of College Park, Ga;

• Benny Hinn of World Healing Center Church Inc. and Benny Hinn Ministries of Grapevine, Texas;

• Eddie L. Long of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church and Bishop Eddie Long Ministries of Lithonia, Ga; DocuSeries – SEX SCANDALS and RELIGION did a 2011 investigative episode on his alleged sexual misconduct

• Joyce Meyer and David Meyer of Joyce Meyer Ministries of Fenton, Mo (exonerated); and

• Randy White and ex-wife Paula White of the Without Walls International Church and Paula White Ministries of Tampa.

On 6 January 2011 Senator Grassley released his review of the six ministries response to his inquiry. He called for a further congressional review of tax-exemption laws for religious groups.

See also

• Elmer Gantry
• Televangelism
• List of convicted religious leaders

References

• Ian G. Clark Pentecost at the Ends of the Earth: The History of the Assemblies of God in New Zealand (1927-2003)