9/22/08 – Tex. Gazette: Alamo Answers ‘They’re just making all this up’
Texarkana Gazette
September 22, 2008
By: Susan Lindsey
Alamo answers: ‘They’re just making all this up’
In a phone interview Sunday, Tony Alamo gave his stance on the activities at his Tony Alamo Christian Ministries in Fouke, Ark., Click for Alamo Interview Saturday night, when federal and state agents raided the facility, executed search warrants and questioned young children about allegations of child pornography and sexual abuse.
“They’re just making all this up … They ransacked my house, my room. They went through everything—no pornography. They’re trying to make me out to look like some kind of pornographer and a pimp taking kids across country.”
Alamo believes the charges stem from the fact that he has been speaking out against the Vatican and sex education in public schools for many years. Alamo equates investigators involved in the search at his compound with being children of the devil and pawns of the Vatican.
“The Vatican is in charge of all the world government … The government is a very evil, evil organization. They murdered the people in Waco, took part in the blowing up of the federal building in Oklahoma City, and they certainly took part in the blowing up of the World Trade Center.”
Some Fouke residents do not like or want Alamo and his followers in the area. They say they do not feel comfortable having the group’s guards on public streets.
“People shouldn’t be stopped on public streets,” said the Rev. Doyle House, a Fouke resident.
Sherry Potts and her daughter were among some of the many who have been stopped by guards on Circle Drive, a road paved and owned by the city.
“We just kept right on driving. We’re not going to be scared off by those people.”
The Partnership Against Cult Activity, an active group in Fouke, has been vocal in its opposition to the ministries.
In a previous story published in the Texarkana Gazette, Alamo said he had offered residents the opportunity to visit the facilities.
“I’ve invited the whole town to go swimming. If they want to have a birthday party for their kids, I’ve invited them to come up here … I’ve been trying to be friends with the people here since I’ve been here.”
However, in the interview Sunday, he stated that the people of Fouke are nothing but a bunch of “hillbillies and I’m not enthralled with them, either.”
“They’re there because the federal government stirred up a bunch of stuff with a bunch of people that are not that bright … Ku Klux Klan is what it is, another division of the Vatican.”
Alamo added that there have been threats made against himself and his followers by citizens, and gunshots fired into his facilities. But the group has no intentions of leaving Fouke.
“We don’t run away from devils. Devils run away from us.”
Alamo does refuse to allow reporters and photographers to attend a religious service or enter the compound facilities to photograph or speak to followers.
“I don’t give a damn about these phony rumors from this sick federal government. They’re not going to come in nosing around our place … you’re not going to come in here, you’re not welcome.”
Saturday’s raid was the result of a two-year investigation into the abuse allegations. The warrants are sealed and the information into the cause for investigation is not being discussed outside of agents involved in the investigation.
Presently no arrests have been made, but six children were taken from the Alamo compound by van Saturday night after being interviewed. No further information is known as to whether any arrests are pending.
Alamo served four years of an six-year term in federal prison after being found guilty of tax evasion in 1994. He served his sentence at Federal Correctional Institution in Texarkana.
Alamo began a ministry with his wife, Susan, the Tony and Susan Alamo Christian Foundation, in 1969 while in Beverly Hills, Calif. In 1975, they moved their ministries to Dyer, Ark., near Alma. After his release from prison, he and his followers relocated to Fouke. There are also branches of the church in Fort Smith, Ark., and Los Angeles.
Tony Alamo Christian Ministries was listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center in October 2007 because of its anti-Catholic messages in print and on air.
Intreview with Tony Alamo continues in another article HERE/below
Tony Alamo
Controversial pastor says he knows who is behind raid on compound
| Published: 09/23/2008 |
It’s all a plot, of course.
“They’re just making all this up … They ransacked my house, my room. They went through everything—no pornography. They’re trying to make me out to look like some kind of pornographer and a pimp taking kids across country,” said Tony Alamo, leader of the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries in Fouke, Ark., and around the world.
Alamo was speaking Sunday to a Texarkana Gazette reporter about the raid Saturday night on his group’s compound in Fouke. Federal and state authorities swarmed the compound, executing search warrants on allegations of child pornography and sexual abuse. The raid was the result of a two-year investigation.
Alamo, soon to be 74 years old and currently in Los Angeles, said the allegations were false. But he knew the forces behind them, according to an interview Saturday with an Associated Press reporter:
“Where do these allegations stem from? The anti-Christ government. The Catholics don’t like me because I have cut their congregation in half. They hate true Christianity.”
Alamo expanded on the theme in the phone conversation with the Gazette reporter Sunday evening.
“The Vatican is in charge of all the world government … The government is a very evil, evil organization. They murdered the people in Waco, took part in the blowing up of the federal building in Oklahoma City, and they certainly took part in the blowing up of the World Trade Center,” Alamo said.
He went on:
“They’re there because the federal government stirred up a bunch of stuff with a bunch of people that are not that bright … Ku Klux Klan is what it is, another division of the Vatican.”
Alamo’s screed against the Roman Catholic Church and his charges against the U.S. government are nothing new to anyone familiar with his ministry over the years. Anti-Catholic and anti-government rhetoric is business as usual for Alamo. The sad thing is that some misguided souls actually take them seriously—even some outside of his ministry.
Authorities are still investigating the charges, and children removed from the compound Saturday have been interviewed—The Associated Press reported Sunday that Alamo said the age of consent for sex is “puberty”—but so far the feds are keeping mum and no arrests have been made.
When all is said and done, Alamo and his group could be cleared of these charges. Or not. In any case, we’ll report it.
In the meantime, the Alamo group is hunkered down behind locked gates in Fouke, doing their best to avoid media attention. There has been no word so far about when or whether their leader will join them.
Alamo seems not too taken with Fouke these days. He characterized his neighbors as “hillbillies” when talking Sunday with the Gazette reporter.
We feel it important to remind Alamo that, although it was the federal government that brought him to our area when he was a guest of the correctional system, it was he who chose to remain.
Alamo chose us. We most certainly did not choose him.
Of course, Alamo and his followers have the right to live wherever he decides they will live. And it looks like he has decided to stay put.
“We don’t run away from devils. Devils run away from us,” Alamo said Sunday.
Clear enough. But if the hillbillies in this part of the world get to be too much for you, Pastor Alamo, remember the door is always open and the highways lead out in all directions.