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Title: Sex Scandal Hits Atlanta-Area Megachurch
Source:
Associated Press
URL Source: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8T1D0TG3&show_article=1
Published: Nov 20, 2007
Author: DORIE TURNER
Post Date: 2007-11-20 13:06:07 by Horse
Keywords: None
Views: 212
Comments: 6
DECATUR, Ga. (AP) - The 80-year-old leader of a suburban Atlanta megachurch is at the center of a sex scandal of biblical dimensions: He slept with his brother's wife and fathered a child by her. Members of Archbishop Earl Paulk's family stood at the pulpit of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit at Chapel Hill Harvester Church a few Sundays ago and revealed the secret exposed by a recent court-ordered paternity test. In truth, this is not the first—or even the second—sex scandal to engulf Paulk and the independent, charismatic church. But this time, he could be in trouble with the law for lying under oath about the affair. The living proof of that lie is 34-year-old D.E. Paulk, who for years was known publicly as Earl Paulk's nephew. "I am so very sorry for the collateral damage it's caused our family and the families hurt by the removing of the veil that hid our humanity and our sinfulness," said D.E. Paulk, who received the mantle of head pastor a year and a half ago. D.E. Paulk said he did not learn the secret of his parentage until the paternity test. "I was disappointed, and I was surprised," he said. Earl Paulk, his brother, Don, and his sister-in-law, Clariece, did not return calls for comment. A judge ordered the test at the request of the Cobb County district attorney's office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which are investigating Earl Paulk for possible perjury and false-swearing charges stemming from a lawsuit. The archbishop, his brother and the church are being sued by former church employee Mona Brewer, who says Earl Paulk manipulated her into an affair from 1989 to 2003 by telling her it was her only path to salvation. Earl Paulk admitted to the affair in front of the church last January. In a 2006 deposition stemming from the lawsuit, the archbishop said under oath that the only woman he had ever had sex with outside of his marriage was Brewer. But the paternity test said otherwise. So far no charges have been filed against Earl Paulk. District Attorney Pat Head and GBI spokesman John Bankhead would not comment. The shocking results of the paternity test are speeding up a transformation already under way in the church after more than a decade of sex scandals and lawsuits involving the Paulks, D.E. Paulk said. "It was a necessary evil to bring us back to a God-consciousness," said the younger Paulk, explaining that the church had become too personality-driven and prone to pastor worship. The flashy megachurch began in 1960 with just a few dozen members in the Little Five Points neighborhood of Atlanta. Now, it is in the suburbs on a 100-acre expanse, a collection of buildings surrounding a neo-Gothic cathedral. For years the church was at the forefront of many social movements—admitting black members in the 1960s, ordaining women and opening its doors to gays. At its peak in the early 1990s, it claimed about 10,000 members and 24 pastors and was a media powerhouse. By soliciting tithes of 10 percent from each member's income, the church was able to build a Bible college, two schools, a worldwide TV ministry and a $12 million sanctuary the size of a fortress. Today, though, membership is down to about 1,500, the church has 18 pastors, most of them volunteers, and the Bible college and TV ministry have shuttered—a downturn blamed largely on complaints about the alleged sexual transgressions of the elder Paulks. In 1992, a church member claimed she was pressured into a sexual relationship with Don Paulk. Other women also claimed they had been coerced into sex with Earl Paulk and other members of the church's administration. The church countered with a $24 million libel suit against seven former church members. The lawsuit was later dropped. Jan Royston, who left the church in 1992, started an online support group for former members to discuss their crushed faith and hurt feelings. "This is a cult. And you escape from a cult," she said. "We all escaped." These days, Earl Paulk has a much-reduced role at the cathedral, giving 10-minute lectures as part of Sunday morning worship each week. "My uncle is 100 percent guilty, but his accusers are guilty as well," D.E. Paulk said, declining to talk further about the lawsuits. ___ On the Net: http://www.mycathedral.org
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#1. To: Horse (#0)
Just more dumb dumb goo blobs doing what they do best- getting fleeced and bamboozled.
Praise the lord!
how in the world do you fall for a line like that? financial salvation or other earthly rewards I can understand. but an affair as a path to heaven? and over a 14 year period, no less. I don't know who's more pathetic, mona for being stupid or earl for taking advantage of it.
former church employee Mona Brewer, who says Earl Paulk manipulated her into an affair from 1989 to 2003 by telling her it was her only path to salvation . . . how in the world do you fall for a line like that? They are nothing more than skin sacks of walking goop who exist to consume things and may as well have themselves been made in a factory. They are creatures of pop culture and the ether of the moment- so the first scammer who comes along to fill up their meaningless goo blob lives with some semblance of a coherent life ethic can pretty much get them to do or believe anything. Witness reich wingers.
creepy
Ron Paul for President - Join a Ron Paul Meetup group today!
Oh good gawd.. Earl Paulk is the preacher that started the "Kingdom Theology" .. truth of course mixed with falsehood.. one example from Apostasy Alert: This happened in the case of so-called prophetess Juanita Bynum (pictured below). She was new to the landscape, but got into Earl Paulk’s favor and he presented her as a prophet to his church at Chapel Hill. Then she got the attention of TBN who found that she was a good money-raiser. During the Fall Praise-a-Thon on November 6, 2003, Paulk instructed the TBN viewers to obey Bynum, who ordered people to empty their checking accounts, in exchange for a cloth that she would walk upon. "Before Juanita leaves, I’ve got to say this about the prophetess. A few weeks ago I was really earnestly seeking the face of God. The Lord said to me that there would be some unusual deaths and I watched two teenagers at our church go up; I watched a lady go down to an altar by television and kill the pastor. And that was unusual. I kept saying, ‘God, what is going to be so unusual to touch people around the world?’ Tonight when you (Juanita) started out, I felt like the cold water of the Holy Ghost just poured over me. This is that unusual miracle and if you hear what God is saying tonight, this isn’t some just play thing. And if you will respond to what God is saying, wherever this cloth has been and the Bible has said, ‘they took their garments, some of them, handkerchiefs, and said to folk, "This is not something unusual or something we have never heard about.’ But it’s unusual for this day for a prophetess to walk on some cloth and send it out to you. I suggest you don’t wait. God is speaking to you tonight...’" Earl Paulk timeline The Atlanta Jurnal-Constitution May 30, 1927: Earl Pearly Paulk Jr., is born in Appling County, Ga., to a prominent minister in the Church of God. 1952-1960: Paulk graduates from Emory University's Candler School of Theology and pastors Hemphill Church of God, now Mount Paran Church of God. 1960: Paulk and his family leave Hemphill under a cloud of scandal. Paulk later admits that he had an extramarital sexual encounter. Paulk returns later in the year to found Gospel Harvester Church in Inman Park. 1973: Paulk's church moves to south DeKalb County as Chapel Hill Harvester Church. 1982: Paulk is anointed a bishop by Bishop Bob McAlister, a visiting clergyman from Brazil. Oct. 13, 1991: The church opens its new neo-Gothic worship building, the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit. Feb. 29, 1992: President George Bush meets Earl Paulk to honor his church as a "point of light" for its social work. May 1992: The Rev. Don Paulk, senior pastor of the church and brother of Earl Paulk, confesses to sexual indiscretions. Earl Paulk says his brother will begin "restoration." Three weeks later, Don Paulk says, "I have risen and I am here to fight again." June 1992: The church is suffering loss in members and income, and lays off 34 members of its 157-member staff. Many other staff members and church members leave. November-December 1992: Six women come forward to say they have had secret sexual relationships with married ministers in the Paulk family. One, a former ghostwriter and biographer for Earl Paulk, said she was sexually intimate with him for two years. March 1999: Fire guts Earl Paulk's home at 1000 Cathedral Place. Pastor Bobby Brewer receives a citation from the DeKalb Fire Department for saving the life of Norma Paulk, Earl's wife. February 2000: The Georgia Senate commends Earl Paulk for his "extraordinary work for God and his community." April 2001: Lifelong church member Jessica Battle files suit in DeKalb County State Court charging that Earl Paulk fondled her beginning when she was 7 years old and later had sexual intercourse with her. 2003: Jessica Battle's case is settled for an undisclosed amount of money. Aug. 31, 2005: Mona Brewer and her husband, Bobby, a former pastor, file suit accusing Earl Paulk of manipulating her into a 14-year sexual relationship. Bobby Brewer also claims he let Paulk borrow $400,000 to pay part of the Battle settlement. Paulk denies the allegations, but his lawyer admits the bishop had a sexual relationship with Mona Brewer. October 2005: Cindy Hall, the first baby born into Paulk's church, says she was coerced into having an affair with Paulk. Nov. 11, 2005: Paulk undergoes 15 hours of cancer-related surgery. Aug. 31, 2006: DeKalb Superior Court Judge Mark Anthony Scott rules that Earl Paulk must give a deposition, answering questions from the Brewers' attorney. Nov 20, 2006: Judge Scott schedule the trial for early April of 2007. March 5, 2007: Just before Judge Scott is to rule on a motion to dismiss filed by Paulk's lawyers, the Brewers drop the suit. By doing so prior to the Judge's ruling they can file another suit making the same charges at a later date. June 19, 2007: The Brewers file suit against Earl Paulk, Chapel Hill Harvester Church, Inc and Harvester Communities Inc. September 4, 2007: Bobby Brewer files a separate suit against Earl Paulk, Chapel Hill Harvester Church, Inc and Harvester Communities Inc. Compiled by Gayle White and Richard Hallman / Staff function fnInformRArticles() { var imSiteId = '6801'; var imPageURL = 'www.ajc.com:80/coxWebApp/cgiconnect'; var imToken = ''; var imKey = 'true'; var goodurl = ''; var fullpath = location.pathname; var fullhref = location.href; var firstindex = 0; var lastindex = 0; if(imToken == 'true' || imKey == 'true') { var xmlHttpReq = false; var response = ""; var self = this; firstindex = fullhref.indexOf('/content') + 8; lastindex = fullhref.indexOf('html') + 4; goodurl = fullhref.substring(firstindex, lastindex); var strURL = '/metro/webservice_client/webservice_clientclass/inform/portal_related_articles.jsp'; var path="informSiteId="+imSiteId+"&informPageURL="+goodurl; if (window.XMLHttpRequest) {// Mozilla/Safari/IE7 self.xmlHttpReq = new XMLHttpRequest(); } else if (window.ActiveXObject ) { // other IE Versions self.xmlHttpReq = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP"); } self.xmlHttpReq.open('POST', strURL, true); self.xmlHttpReq.setRequestHeader('Content-Type', 'application/x-www-form-urlencoded'); self.xmlHttpReq.send(path); self.xmlHttpReq.onreadystatechange = function() { if (self.xmlHttpReq.readyState == 4) { response = self.xmlHttpReq.responseText; document.getElementById("informRelatedLink").innerHTML=response; } } } } fnInformRArticles() apply_behaviours(); Sexual molestation accusation...
At its peak in the early 1990s, it claimed about 10,000 members and 24 pastors and was a media powerhouse. By soliciting tithes of 10 percent from each member's income, the church was able to build a Bible college, two schools, a worldwide TV ministry and a $12 million sanctuary the size of a fortress.
#2. To: (#0)
#3. To: Horse (#0)
former church employee Mona Brewer, who says Earl Paulk manipulated her into an affair from 1989 to 2003 by telling her it was her only path to salvation
#4. To: kiki (#3)
#5. To: Horse (#0)
"This is a cult. And you escape from a cult," she said. "We all escaped."
#6. To: Horse (#0)
(Edited)
n a 2006 deposition stemming from the lawsuit, the archbishop said under oath that the only woman he had ever had sex with outside of his marriage was Brewer. But the paternity test said otherwise.
Published on: 11/20/07
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