Archbishop Earl Paulk Jr., A Rabid Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

Archbishop Earl Paulk Jr., A Rabid Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

When my family and I relocated from New York City to Atlanta, we searched around for a church where we could worship and have fellowship with other Christians. We first attended New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, led by Bishop Eddie L. Long, who has been ordered by Senator Grassley to turn over his church's financial records. We were turned off by the constant requests for money and the inaccessibility of Long to his everyday congregants. I saw Bishop Earl Paulk on Trinity Broadcasting Network and I immediately liked his style. We sought out his location and started attending the church. On Sundays, I eagerly attended his church services live or in the Internet when we could not attend. I sowed faithfully into his ministry and liked his message of diversity and acceptance, but little did I know what was simmering in the background.

During the late 1999s a scandal erupted that he had molested a young girl in the church, who was related to one of his pastors. That was quickly silenced and the church settled the matter with the woman. I certainly questioned it, but then I said that it was time to move on because there could have been some falsehood to the accusations. Next came a series of allegations of unfounded proportions. Mona Brewer, a Sunday school teacher and a soloist came forward with her allegations. She said that she had been engaged in a torrid affair with Paulk that began in 1989 to 2003 and he coerced her into the relationship by telling her that it was her only path to salvation. Brewer and her husband are currently suing the archbishop, his brother, Don Paulk and the church. Well, I questioned why in the world did not tell her husband that Paulk had made sexual advances to her, unless, in some way, she wanted it to happen. I am not here to criticize her, but one has to wonder. She sang most of the solos during the Sunday services, and I must say, she has a beautiful voice. The case has been in the court system for some time and I had forgotten about it to some degree.

I thought that this could not get anymore interesting until I visited the Fox News website and saw the headline: "Sex Scandal Rocks Atlanta-Area Megachurch" Archbishop Paulk Jr. was in the news again. The 80 year old leader is guilty of an act that is of biblical proportions-he slept with his brother's wife, Clariece, and fathered a child by her, Donnie Earl Paulk (D. E. Paulk), the current leader of the church and who was always known as his nephew. This news was revealed after members of the family stood in the pulpit of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit Chapel Hill Harvester Church and revealed the secret, which was exposed by a recent court-ordered paternity test, stemming from the Mona and Bobby Brewer case. The allegations are not what could potentially spell trouble for Paulk, but the fact that he lied under oath about the affair with his sister-in-law, could be a criminal act. "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. He said that he did not learn the secret of his parentage until the paternity test. "I was disappointed, and I was surprised," he said.

Since news of the Mona Brewer allegations surfaced, there were rumors that Paulk had fathered other children in the church and was ordered to take paternity tests. There was also the possibility that her two children may, in fact, be his and not her husband's. A judge had ordered the test of D. E. Paulk at the request of the Cobb County district attorney's office and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which is currently investigating Paulk for possible perjury and false-swearing charges stemming from that lawsuit. It was said that in a 2006 deposition the archbishop said under oath that the only woman he had ever had sex with outside of his marriage was Mona Brewer, but paternity tests have said otherwise. D.E. Paulk has said that 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. This is an embarrassment and the sad end to a ministry that was seemingly on track and focused on spreading the word of God. It has also brought me to the realization that Paulk was a wolf, a rabid wolf in sheep's clothing. It seems that today the head of the church may indeed come with more baggage than it is really worth. Religion is coming under attack because of these very actions of deceit and sin.

The church was started in 1960 with just a few dozen members in the Little Five Points neighborhood of Atlanta. It now sits on a 100-acre expanse in Decatur, Georgia, with an impressive array of buildings surrounding a neo-Gothic cathedral. Archbishop Paulk and the church were in the forefront of the civil rights struggle and it admitted black members in the 1960s, ordained women and openly accepted gays. The church claimed about 10,000 members at its peak in the early 1990s, with about 24 ministers and was a force to reckon with in Atlanta. Political leaders, gospel singers and other preachers identified with the ministry and often graced its stage. The church was able to build a Bible college, two schools, a worldwide television ministry and a $12 million sanctuary. Today, it is said that membership is down to about 1,500 with 18 pastors, most of them volunteers. The Bible college and television ministry are now defunct. The downturn has been blamed largely on the constant complaints of alleged sexual transgressions of Paulk and his brother. When the Mona Brewer scandal broke, that was the last time I attended the church. I felt that all those allegations cannot be lies.

Brewer's lawsuit alleges that Paulk required her to have sex with him, "other members of the church community, leaders of other churches as well as his family members and sometimes with other individuals observing the sex acts. Her suit claims that the Paulks and others covered up the sexual abuse in the church. Her husband, Bobby Brewer, has also claimed that he was not repaid after lending $400,000 to Earl Paulk or a church entity in 2001. I learned a few years ago that accusations of sexual misconduct have always followed Paulk, ever since he was accused of adultery in 1960. Church members believed him when he denied allegations of adultery and child molestation and he often said that his accusers were under demonic influence. His accusers also included Cindy Hall, who was the first baby born into the church. In 2003, she burst into tears over dinner and told her husband, Greg, "We have to get out of there." She said Paulk coerced her into an 11-year affair that included having sex with his brother. The bishop's biographer and ghostwriter, Tricia Weeks, said in interviews that she had had a two-year affair with him. Brewer said that Paulk himself set the date for her marriage to one of his closest friends. Two years after the wedding, she said, he betrayed that friend by manipulating her into a sexual relationship that lasted 14 years.

He has always bounced back, denied the charges and sometimes has taken legal action against his accuser, but this time the accusations have stuck and uncovered a web of deceit of biblical proportions.

No church court has investigated the charges against Paulk, mainly because his ministry has been independent of denominational accountability since he left the Church of God more than 40 years ago; he probably deliberately did that to escape scrutiny. To their credit, bishops in a loosely controlled network he had previously led, the International Communion of Charismatic Churches (ICCC) did ask him to step down once the allegations surfaced. This mighty fall by Paulk is starkingly different from the career that brought recognition by three presidents: Ronald Reagan invited him to a prayer breakfast; Jimmy Carter included his church in his ambitious Atlanta Project and George Bush names his public housing ministry one of his thousand points of light.

This is, indeed, the demise of a ministry. "A lot of people rejoice in the demise of the saints," Don Paulk said. "I like to think we have among us true Christians. ... We're not perfect, we make mistakes, but we forgive one another." While we can forgive them for what they have done, no one who has been personally touched or tainted by this ministry will ever forget what Archbishop Earl Paulk Jr. and his family has done. This sheds light on the bigger question of religious leaders and their lifestyles, their interpretation of the Bible and their accountability, or lack thereof.