General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAnyone want to read about a famous televangelist falling fast from his pulpit?
I'm from Akron, OH...home of the infamous toupee wearing televangelist Ernest Angley. His empire is huge. He even owns his own Boeing 747. But this week the Akron Beacon Journal is providing a daily in-depth article about years of extremely disturbing mental, emotional, and sexual abuse within the church.
The Articles are called Falling from Grace and can be found here at www.Ohio.com
Here's a small piece from the first article:
Former members of Grace Cathedral say televangelist Ernest Angley has turned a blind eye to sexual abuse they reported to him.
Shane McCabe is among those who told the Beacon Journal they were molested in the Cuyahoga Falls church.
I was sexually abused there, said McCabe, who has since moved to Florida with his wife for a new start.
McCabe said the abuse began at age 15 at the hands of a close Angley associate who was frequently in and out of town. It happened several times over the course of a year, he said.
liberal N proud
(60,336 posts)And still people didn't see that he was nuts.
marble falls
(57,112 posts)"million dollar room" to simulate a room in heaven. Actually been to one of his services in '73. It was like a scene from "Day of the Locusts".
Whiskeytide
(4,461 posts)marble falls
(57,112 posts)http://www.ohio.com/polopoly_fs/1.531077.1413111449!/image/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_500/day1-esther2.jpg
These are from '66.
http://www.ohio.com/polopoly_fs/1.531084.1413109774!/image/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_500/day1-8esther.jpg
Whiskeytide
(4,461 posts)marble falls
(57,112 posts)Whiskeytide
(4,461 posts)... I just never knew the wife's name. Or at least didn't remember it. As I said in another reply, we watched him every Sunday evening when we had a poker game in the early 80s. It turned into a drinking game based on his antics. Just hearing his name after all these years brought back great memories.
marble falls
(57,112 posts)saw what I knew in '73 was a service guy and his wife maybe not even 21 holding their Downs Syndrome child waiting in line for their miracle. The entire service from the River Jordan baptismal pool to the full tilt weirdness when I left was quite an experience. The part where he auctioned off miracles was where I really got the sniff of unmitigated greed and unbridled evil. Watching the ushers drag someone down when the good Rev whammed them with the spirit was good for some comedy relief.
My thought always was if he was able to cure his own liver cancer why couldn't whatever spirit was leading him help him find a good toupee.
TlalocW
(15,384 posts)Randi didn't spend as much time on him as others, but it was obvious that he - like all of them - are scumbags. I have to say though that the whole vasectomy/abortion thing is strange to me just because there are proven better ways to insure the money keeps rolling in. Rhema Bible College in Broken Arrown, OK, (suburb of Tulsa), for instance encourages their students to start up bible studies which then become basement churches which then become storefront churches which then become regular churches. That creates ties in the community and combined with nearly bankrupting their students ($85 for a required 20 page book written by the college's founder for example), means the student-turned-minister won't be going anywhere meaning one more church that encourages its flock to donate and send their kids to Rhema.
Angley's vision was pretty short-sighted.
TlalocW
titaniumsalute
(4,742 posts)He never had kids so he doesn't give two shits about the next generation...
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)nt
titaniumsalute
(4,742 posts)Nut as you can read Ernest isn't in the category of normal.
Skittles
(153,169 posts)yup
merrily
(45,251 posts)93 years of abstinence, including during his marriage to his beloved Angel? Not buying it.
titaniumsalute
(4,742 posts)In addition, it has been rumored for years he is gay.
merrily
(45,251 posts)Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)Are there any?
merrily
(45,251 posts)Or, at least we assume so, when another story hits the press. We forget about the many thousands we never hear a story or a rumor about.
edhopper
(33,590 posts)or preachers in general?
Because if it's the former, they are all scam artists in one way or another.
merrily
(45,251 posts)The poster is intelligent and I did not question that he or she said what s/he meant. If you are not sure whether the poster really meant televangelist, I am not the one to ask.
edhopper
(33,590 posts)which you explained, thanks.
edhopper
(33,590 posts)or televangelists?
titaniumsalute
(4,742 posts)Whiskeytide
(4,461 posts)For the Earnest Angley Hour. Everytime he said "be heeeaaald", you had to kill your beer. Man, I got really ripped on Sunday evenings.
Tom Ripley
(4,945 posts)hfojvt
(37,573 posts)sic transit gloria mundi
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)More proof that Barnum was right, and that there is absolutely no easier way to fleece people senseless than idiot jebus-talk.
titaniumsalute
(4,742 posts)It sits at the Akron-Canton airport. Mostly smaller regional flights and private planes...then this HUGE 747 is parked out on the Tarmac.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)is a lot more lucrative than even I thought, but in the gawd-biz I guess you never, ever run out of suckers to shear to the skin. Pfft, Led Zeppelin only had a leased 727 back in the 1970s and I thought they were rich.
titaniumsalute
(4,742 posts)But still even to operate a 747 for a flight from point x to point Y is probably hundreds of thousands of dollars. Four jet engines = a LOT of fuel. Insurance, at least 3 pilots to fly it and if international double the crew. A few people at least to staff the plane. Maintenance. Parking fees. Sheesh.
marble falls
(57,112 posts)tower that was to hold a revolving studio and restaurant. When Rex got shutdown by the SEC for selling unsecured securities (he also owned most of Mackinac Island with its bra factory and bible college and the fudge factory) the construction was stopped and left a $1,000/hr crane on top of what what became known as "Rex's big erection" and the "big dick in the sky". The crane was left up there for over 10 years. It had to be demo'ed to get it down. Now the big dick making money as the biggest cell tower on the one of the highest points in Summit County.
In the seventies when they outgrew their tractor trailor TV broad cast rigs for remote broadcasts, ABC Wide Wprld of Sports bought it. Angley bought a double set of rigs. Akron has a lot of these "evangelists" and their stories would make a fun book.
titaniumsalute
(4,742 posts)Here's a little Akron tidbit...
When Stan Hywet Hall was built there were three "vistas" that were created from the manor house. The house, of course, sits at a very high elevation and to the west and north are the valleys. They had one vista looking due west, one looking northwest towards the Coliseum, and one was due north. The north vista has that stupid-assed Rex's erection right in the middle of it. So when you look down birch alley to the north you get almost a telescope look at that structure.
marble falls
(57,112 posts)back north but to Tiffin Ohio this time.
titaniumsalute
(4,742 posts)merrily
(45,251 posts)death, after a moment, whereupon they will be blissfully reunited with their deceased loved ones (only even better than before). Also that someone omniscient and omnipotent is in charge of seemingly senseless stuff like tsunamis, even if we mortals cannot discern the divine plan and explanations from fools like Pat Robertson don't seem quite right, either. Oh, and God will take care of them in this life if they have faith and donate.
Not surprising.
spanone
(135,846 posts)eridani
(51,907 posts)Embattled Mars Hill Pastor Mark Driscoll resigns
http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2014/10/mars-hill-pastor-mark-driscoll-resigns/
Controversial Mars Hill Pastor Mark Driscoll has resigned, according to the churchs website.
In a Tuesday letter written by Driscoll and printed on Religion News Service Wednesday, the controversial pastor said:
By Gods grace I have pastored Mars Hill Church for 18 years. Today, also by Gods grace, and with the full support of my wife Grace, I resign my position as pastor and elder of Mars Hill. I do so with profound sadness, but also with complete peace.
Driscoll took a leave of absence on Aug. 24 while elders conducted a formal review of charges made against him.
Driscoll had stepped aside in August so church leaders could investigate whether he was fit to lead, following accusations that he bullied members, threatened opponents, lied and oversaw mismanagement of church funds.
The church noted that Driscoll was not asked to resign.
Mars Hill grew to 15 branches in five states with 13,000 visitors on Sundays. Driscoll appeared on Nightline, preached at Seahawks stadium, threw out the first pitch at a Mariners game, and founded a network of evangelical leaders who started hundreds of other churches.
But after 18 years of stunning growth, an escalating string of bad news finally started driving churchgoers away. Mars Hill leaders recently said attendance and giving had plummeted so fast that it would have to close several Seattle branches and cut its staff 30 to 40 percent
titaniumsalute
(4,742 posts)eridani
(51,907 posts)ProdigalJunkMail
(12,017 posts)sullies the word. he was a grifter and an abuser... scum of the earth with a special place reserved in hell (if you believe in such things)
sP
madokie
(51,076 posts)stay as far away from a preacher as you can get. Stay far enough to be out of earshot for sure, touch, damn sure
jen63
(813 posts)Initech
(100,081 posts)Monk06
(7,675 posts)wyldwolf
(43,867 posts)My dad and I watched him when I was a kid (to make fun of him) - HEEEEEEEEEAL!