Does Patrick remember the Alamo?

Metroplex radio listeners who tune in to state Sen. Dan Patrick’s KVCE-AM (1160) can hear the program “Living with Joy,” financial planner Ray Lucia, former Houston talk-show host Sam Malone, Patrick himself for two hours daily – and, until a couple of days ago, Tony Alamo Christian Ministries, from 11 p.m. until midnight every weekday night.

You remember the Alamo, right? He’s the one-time street preacher who built a multi-million-dollar ministry based most recently in Arkansas and who’s now serving 175 years in prison for taking girls as young as 9 across state lines for sex.

What Alamo (accent on the second syllable) was doing on Patrick’s station, which bills itself “the new conservative voice of Dallas and Fort Worth,” the Houston Republican and ardent defender of family values couldn’t say. He’s out of the country on vacation, station manager Bonnie English said, and was unreachable by cell phone.

English said it was purely coincidental that the station dropped the program after the Chronicle began inquiring about it. “The programmer made some decisions to stop carrying the program,” she said. “It’s something we do periodically, always trying to get the right mix.”

English said she had never heard the program and had never heard of Alamo. “If you check on every single program, you know. . . .”

With a little checking, English would have discovered one of the most bizarre characters in the world of cultdom this side of David Koresh. Now 75, Alamo’s been preaching since the 1960s that polygamous unions between older men and young girls is the will of God. [ALAMO DIDN'T START PREACHING ABOUT POLYGAMY UNTIL 1993 WHEN HE HIMSELF STARTED TAKING MULTIPLE WOMEN]

Born Bernie Lazar Hoffman in Joplin, Mo., he moved to Los Angeles in the 1960s and, according to a 2008 Associated Press report, married his first wife, [ACTUALLY, SHE WAS HIS 4TH WIFE], a chain-smoking would-be actress named Susan Lipowitz. They established a ministry to hippies, junkies, drifters and street people who hung out on Hollywood Blvd.,[ALSO MIDDLE CLASS CHURCH GOERS AND COLLEGE STUDENTS], and provided free food and lodging in return for unpaid labor in one of the couple’s many business ventures. The best known was Alamo Designs, manufacturer of rhinestone-studded jean jackets that were popular with Dolly Parton, Brooke Shields, Mr. T and other celebrities.

When Susan died from lung cancer in 1982, Alamo displayed her embalmed body in a glass coffee table [NO GLASS COFFEE TABLE OR CASKET, SHE WAS IN A NORMAL CASKET]and ordered his Hollywood congregants to pray for her resurrection. With Susan Alamo still under glass [NO GLASS], members began fleeing the cult with tales of corporal punishment, forced marriages and being refused food for days. The Los Angeles district attorney’s office charged Tony Alamo with felony child abuse and the FBI launched a manhunt. He served four years in federal prison on tax charges in the early 1990s [1994-1998].

When prison gates swung open, he moved to tiny Fouke, Ark., near Texarkana, and established a 15-acre compound with upwards of 300 followers. He still preached that the end of the world was nigh, that the Catholic Church was a conspiracy responsible for everything from World War II to 9-11 and that young girls – some as young as 8 – made the best wives. (He contends that Mary was 6 when she conceived Jesus.)

Alamo was arrested again in September 2008 and convicted a year later on charges of taking his underage “wives” across state lines as early as 1994, violations of the Mann Act. He’s serving his sentence in the high-security U.S. Penitentiary near Tucson, Ariz..

Metroplex radio listeners who miss Alamo’s message on KVCE — sister station to Houston’s KSEV-AM (700) — can now find taped Alamo shows on Dallas station KKGM-AM (1630), or they can go to his website, Tony Alamo Christian Ministries. There they’ll find the answer to the question “some demonic newspapers are asking” – namely, if Alamo is in jail why is the ministry continuing?

The answer: “Pastor Alamo is in jail, but Jesus isn’t. Jesus is watching all of you, and no matter how hard you try, you’re going to stand in judgment before Him because you know that Pastor Alamo is innocent, as Jesus was innocent, and the Apostle Paul was innocent. But Jesus is watching this whole scene, and He knows all of you. You don’t believe in Him now, but you will.”

Last week, Houston attorney Don Ervin filed court documents on Alamo’s behalf, claiming that statements by U.S. District Judge Harry Barnes at sentencing show that the judge “imposed his own sense of religiosity” when he gave the preacher the maximum sentence on each of 10 counts listed in the indictment. Ervin’s court filing accused Barnes of allowing his own religious beliefs to color his judgment when he said, “Mr. Alamo, one day you will face a higher and greater judge than me. May he have mercy on your soul.” The longtime Houston attorney says he successfully used the same complaint against a judge when he represented defrocked televangelist Jimmy Bakker.

Ervin also contends that the government never proved its basic charge against Alamo – that he violated the Mann Act by taking underage girls across state lines for the “dominant purpose” of having sex with them. He and fellow lawyer John Wesley Hall, of Little Rock, Ark., argue that the sex was “incidental.”

Top Ten Fraudulent Religious Leaders

Sadly but not surprisingly, researchers find no shortage of candidates for this list. Compiling this list, researchers defined “fraud” in reasonably strict legal terms, setting aside all questions of doctrine and faith. In most cases, religious leaders duped their followers into believing in their righteousness; and they subsequently were exposed as pious hypocrites. Fraudulent leaders’ sexual exploits typically were the source of their undoing. Some faced criminal charges; all endured severe public humiliation, and none ever rebuilt a ministry after his exposure.

1. Jim Jones

Shortly after leading nearly 1000 of the faithful to establish a colony in Guyana, Jim Jones, founder of The People’s Temple, became the object of a Congressional investigation late in 1978. Deborah Layton, a Jonestown defector, and concerned relatives of Jonestown pilgrims alleged Jones had bilked his followers of all their assets and was holding them captive at the Guyana settlement. Layton disclosed The People’s Temple controlled millions of dollars in offshore accounts, and she detailed the deceptive practices by which Jones had secured their transfer. Other concerned relatives detailed their allegations that messages of family indicated Jones and his lieutenants held them against their will.

2. Warren Jeffs

In another much-publicized case, Warren Jeffs, a “descendant of the Prophet and leader of the Fundamentalist “LDS” Church, went to trial on charges of rape as an accomplice, because former members of his flock testified he had married them to church elders while they still were in their early teens. Jeff’s Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints openly practiced polygamy, housing all its members on a huge, well-fortified compound that straddled the Utah-Arizona border. According to testimony in the case, Jeffs and the elders banished teen-aged boys and claimed eligible teen-aged girls as their wives. Witnesses testified some elders had as many as seven wives, and some wives were as young as twelve years old. For a brief period, state officials took all the children from Jeff’s compound, making them temporary wards of the state. In court proceedings separate from Jeffs’s trial, FLDS officials won restoration of their parental rights, but a variety of criminal investigations continue.

3. Jimmy Swaggart

In a vivid illustration of a New Testament parable, Jimmy Swaggart threw stones—hard, fast, and repeatedly—before he took stock of his own sins. Third among the top three 1980s televangelists, Swaggart systematically took out his rivals, exposing Jim Gorman’s affair with a member of his congregation, and then trapping Jim Bakker and revealing his infidelity. Both exposes received extensive media coverage. Adapting the old principle “an eye for an eye” to the modern media world, Gorman retaliated, hiring a private investigator who found Swaggart in flagrante with a prostitute. In an impassioned, tear-filled confession, an icon of the televangelist age, Swaggart admitted between sobs, “I have sinned against you, my Lord.” The confession still attracts lots of hits on YouTube.

4. Jim Bakker

Arguably the best known and most successful among televangelists of the late seventies and early eighties, Jim Bakker and his wife Tammy Faye first came to prominence in Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network. The Bakkers later moved their popular “Praise the Lord” television show to Paul Crouch’s Trinity Broadcasting Network, contributing substantially to its nationwide success. In the mid-seventies, the Bakkers launched their own network and evangelical enterprise; by 1978 they controlled a satellite network with more than thirteen million regular viewers. They also operated “Heritage USA,” a surprisingly successful evangelical theme park in Fort Mill, South Carolina. In 1987, Bakker suddenly resigned his position, admitting he had an affair with Jessica Hahn, a “PTL” church secretary, who later became Playboy founder Hugh Hefner’s frequent friend and companion. Bakker confessed paying Hahn “hush money,” and further investigation revealed he had started a ponzi-like scheme with investors in Heritage USA. Bakker served five years in a federal prison. During his term, Tammy Faye divorced him and became a popular guest on television talk shows.

5. Ted Haggard

Between 2003 and 2006, Ted Haggard served as President of the influential National Association of Evangelicals while he continued his ministry at New Life Church, a huge and politically active congregation in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Handsome, articulate, and charismatic, Haggard emerged as one of the poster boys for America’s “religious right,” and he consulted with President George Bush on faith-based initiatives and social policy. Just before the 2006 mid-term elections, CNN and several other major media outlets reported Haggard regularly had visited with a male prostitute, who, in addition to providing sexual services, introduced Haggard to methamphetamine. Haggard resigned his posts, but many pundits believe the scandal influenced voters’ choices in the mid-term elections, when the Democrats scored significant gains in Congress, state legislatures, and key gubernatorial races.

6. Tony Alamo

Currently awaiting sentencing after conviction on ten counts of transporting minors across state lines for sexual purposes, Alamo faces a jail term of more than 100 years. In September, 2008, at the behest of city officials in Fouke, Arkansas, FBI agents raided the headquarters of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries. Former members of Alamo’s congregation alleged child pornography, child abuse, other sexual abuse, and polygamy. Agents collected more than enough evidence to charge and convict Alamo, including hours of videotaped interviews with children living on Alamo’s compound.

7. Joe Barron

Among the most recent American evangelical escapades, Joe Barron made news in May, 2008, after he was arrested for soliciting sex with a minor. At the time, Barron numbered among forty ministers at prestigious Prestonwood Baptist Church—one of the nation’s largest and most profitable, counting 26,000 regularly tithing members. Police nabbed Barron after he drove from suburban Dallas to Bryan, Texas, where he expected to have sex with a thirteen-year-old girl. Police based their probable cause for the arrest on dozens of transcripts detailing explicit sexual dialogues between Barron and “the girl.” Reminiscent of investigative programs on NBC, the Bryan police used one of their own undercover detectives as the lure.

8. Paul Crouch

Was in it for the money. Founder and CEO of the world’s largest evangelical broadcasting company, Crouch hosted Trinity Broadcasting Network’s wildly popular variety show, “Praise the Lord.” In September, 2004, investigative reporters at the Los Angeles Times broke a series of stories about financial improprieties at TBN. Although the reporters found nothing criminal in the network’s fundraising and accounting practices, they did find a long list of unethical and deceptive procedures. During the investigation, a former employee also came forward, alleging he and Crouch had a long-term homosexual affair. The humiliation drove Crouch and TBN off the air.

9. John Paulk

First achieved widespread notoriety with his best-selling autobiography Not Afraid to Change. In the book, Paulk credited his conversion to Christianity as “the cure” for his homosexuality, and he immediately became the darling and big-time crony of James Dobson and associates, movers and shakers in “Focus on the Family.” In September, 2000, at the peak of his popularity and influence, Paulk saw himself splashed across front pages and television screens as he drank-up and flirted wildly with other male cruisers at a D.C. gay bar. After a few vain, silly attempts at denying the photos and charges, Paulk retreated quietly into obscurity.

10. Robert Tilton

Linking religion with success and wealth, Robert Tilton drew millions of viewers to his weekly broadcasts. In 1990, at the peak of its popularity, “Success-N-Life” commanded big ratings in all 235 American television markets, earning approximately $80 million per year. In 1991, ABC investigative reporter Diane Sawyer exposed a long list of Tilton’s shady practices, none of which were criminal but all of which were dishonest, crass, and decidedly unholy. By the end of 1993, Tilton and his show were off the air everywhere.

Fox News reports today that former preacher Tony Alamo has been sentenced to 175 years in prison for the sexual abuse of children. In this case he preyed on the daughters of the people who followed him, taking child brides as young as 8 years of age.

The trial of Alamo is already over; it was followed by a sentencing hearing in which some of his “brides” expressed their opinions now that they are adults and out of his reach. Those who testified against him also alleged that he threatened these children with loss of their salvation if they or their families refused his advances.

One of his victims responded to his plea for clemency (based on his age of 75) this way: “You have the audacity to ask for mercy. What mercy did you show us?” A moment later she asked, “What kind of man of God does what you have done?”

Another victim said, “Maybe the real God, not the God you made up, will have mercy on your soul.”

So we see what the bottom line is. By abusing these little girls, the only thing that Alamo really did–besides have sex with children–was to destroy their faith. Do you think that these young women have a lot of confidence in the church that stood aside just like their intimidated parents, and failed to protect them from a dirty old man? I don’t think they are going to be pushing the crowds aside to get into a church this coming Sunday, although I pray that they do seek out some sane religion as time goes by.

Think about this in regard stricly to yourself. Ask yourself: what would you say to one of these women? Would you have a really good reason for her to go to church? Can you explain the abuse that she suffered in such a way that she could understand and relate to? If you learned that a friend of yours had been abused, do you have words to comfort them and tell them that they can find support in the Church?

If you feel inadequate, you aren’t alone. But we all need to be ready for the walking wounded who might turn to us if they perceive that we care and we can be trusted. Think about this and be ready, for the time to draw upon your resources of compassion could be nearer than you think.

Tony Alamo, the disgraced preacher, has been sentenced to 175 years in prison as a result of his abuse of young girls, crucifying Jesus again in their flesh by sexual degradation and humiliation. He shamed them in private, violating their bodies, and in public, where they were paraded before the congregation as his “brides.”

One of them asked him, “What kind of a man of God does what you have done?” That is the question we are hoping to answer today. To do that we must consider the theological issue called the Nature of God.

Alamo’s victim has passed from one level of understanding to another. She now realizes that when Alamo demanded her body, he was wrong to do so. When he invoked the power of God’s name and salvation given or withheld, he was wrong.

Why did he get away with it, then? I believe that he had his followers convinced of a false premise. There are two ways to look at God. One of them is, whatever God says is right because God said it.

The other way, which I believe, is that God never does (or asks for) anything but good. We must make up our minds about what we believe about God. Who is God–what does he want? What does God want with each of us?

We don’t have to ask someone else to show us what is right and wrong. We have the capacity to make that decision ourselves. Because of that, parents protect their children and prepare them for adulthood in a sensible and nurturing way. So why did the parents of these girls give them up to Alamo’s depraved appetite?

The answer is simple: Alamo told them that it was God’s will that he rape their children. Remember, outside this cult, we have civil codes that say a little boy or girl cannot be violated sexually without penalty of law (which is what Alamo is facing now). Alamo found a way to get around the laws, at least temporarily, by persuading the parents of these little girls that it was OK because God said it was OK.

This leads us back to the nature of God. I can tell you that if some dirty old guy told me that I should surrender my daughter to him, it wouldn’t happen. My belief about God does not permit me to agree with that proposition–in other words, I disagree with his premise that God would approve.

The minute that you acquire the power to say no to a preacher–or a church–or a Pope–or the Bible–because they do not reflect an adequate concept of the nature of God, you have broken the power of the false Church to abuse you. So the idea that “anything is OK if God says it is” simply is not true.

God never does anything but good. God does not will anything but good. God wants us to do good and we fear that we will be punished if we do evil, even in God’s name–because it is impossible to do evil with God’s consent.

As the trial judge Henry F. Barnes said to Alamo, “Mr. Alamo, one day you will face a higher, a greater judge than me; may he have mercy on your soul.”

An Arkansas judge has sentenced evangelist Tony Alamo to 175 years in prison Friday on charges that included taking minors across state lines for sex, according to media reports Saturday.

“Mr. Alamo, one day you will face a higher, a greater judge than me,” Judge Barnes said. “May he have mercy on your soul.”

The evangelist offered a brief statement to the court praising God, then adding, “I’m glad I’m me and not the deceived people in the world.”

One woman who Alamo took as a child bride at the age of eight, spoke out in court on Friday.

“You preyed on innocent children,” she said, staring down Mr. Alamo, who wore yellow prison scrubs and a windbreaker for the hearing.

“You have the audacity to ask for mercy,” she said. “What mercy did you show us?”

On July 24, 2009 Alamo was convicted in the Federal District Court for the Western District of Arkansas, sitting in Texarkana, Arkansas, on 10 counts of Interstate Transportation of Minors for Illegal Sexual Purposes, Rape, Sexual Assault and Contributing to the Delinquency of Minors, according to Wikipedia.

Was justice served?

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