Top 10 Christian Conservatives And/or Evangelists Caught in Scandals

I'm 30, so let's start back in the 80's when I was growing up and this type of thing was still *shocking*.

1. Jimmy Swaggart. I don't even know where to start with this guy. Essentially, he spent his entire life as a Pentecostal preacher in the South. He was known to say pretty much retarded stuff like "I'm gonna be blunt and plain, if one ever looks at me like that (in a homosexual way) I'm gonna kill him and tell God he died. " So, clearly the guy had some bizarre issues. Anyway, he was caught on two occasions with female prostitutes, once in 1986 and again in 1991. In the first instance, said prostitute revealed that Swaggart had expressed interest in her 13 year old daughter. Yes, quite the *Man of God*. On an interesting note, it is believed that Swaggart was the initial *exposer* of the actions of our #2 Reverend Jim Bakker.

2. Jim Bakker was the founder of PTL ministries. Back in 1966, Jim and his wife, Tammy Faye, worked with Pat Robertson on CBN. Together Jim and Tammy built a multi-million dollar ministry that went down in flaming hellfire ash due to rape accusations brought against Mr. Bakker. Anyone remember Jessica Hahn? Consequently, Jim was indicted on federal charges of fraud, tax evasion, and racketeering and sentenced to 45 years in federal prison. (He served 5.)

3. Father John J. Geoghan, deceased Catholic Priest, was accused by 130 people of sexual abuse and child molestation over a 30 year period. After being defrocked in 1998, Father Geoghan was charged with indecent assault and battery after fondling a 10 year old boy in a community swimming pool. he was sentenced to 9 years in prison and was murdered by another inmate.

4. *Unnamed Louisiana Pastor and Wife*, (names not released due to the fact that many victims shared a family name with the adult defendants), were arrested and charged with aggravated rape of a child under 13. Allegedly up to 24 children, ranging from toddlers to teens, were raped by the pastor and other adult parishioners of Hosanna Church. Also, one charge of crimes against humanity was brought against said pastor for alleged sexual acts with animals.

5. Parker J. Bena, Conservative Republican activist and very important figure in getting GWB elected as President, plead guilty to charges of possessing child pornography and lying to the FBI. Bena reported that he had been emailed images of child porn, but after investigation authorities found Bena had entered CP sites and downloaded the images himself. (Some of the images involved toddlers.) Bena was sentenced to 30 months in Federal prison.

6. Rep. Bob Allen of Florida. Not really sure if he's Evangelical, but certainly *conservative*, I'm adding him to the list because Mr. Allen's actions were not only skeezy, but racist as well. You see, Allen was arrested after allegedly offering an male undercover officer $20 to perform oral sex on him in a men's restroom. Mr. Allen's explanation was that he was *afraid* of the "burly black guy" and that he didn't want to "become another statistic". Ironically, Allen is now a statistic in the list closeted homosexuals getting their rocks off in public bathrooms.

7. Congressman Ken Calvert of California was a major force in the Christian Coalition organization. Not only was Calvert accused of not paying child support to his ex-wife, he was busted by police receiving oral sex from a prostitute in his car, after which he tried to flee the scene.

8. Congressman Mark Foley, a Catholic Republican resigned over a scandal in which he was sending sexually suggestive emails and instant messages to young boys acting as Congressional pages. Mr. Foley entered rehab the same year, citing that he *was not a pedophile, but an alcoholic*, and said communications between himself and the underage boys were made when he was under the influence of alcohol.

9. Trinity Broadcasting Network's founder, Evangelist Paul Crouch, reached a settlement with a young man who claims to have had sexual relations with the Pastor. After the man, a former employee of TBN went public with his claims of a relationship with Crouch, he was fired from TBN, and paid $425,000.00 to not discuss the situation any further. Crouch was 70 years old at the time of the allegations.

10. Everyone's favorite, Reverend Ted Haggard. Haggard was the founder of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs. A *charismatic* pastor, Haggard was vocal about his anti-homosexual ideals, well, that is until he was outed by a male prostitute. Said prostitute and masseur, Mike Jones, was involved with Rev. Haggard for 3 years, during which time he was paid to have sex with Haggard. Jones also claimed that Haggard was a user of Crystal Meth, and that the drug was often present at the time of their meetings.

Certainly, there are a lot more where that came from. Also, it should be noted that several liberal or Democratic politicians and Pastors have been involved in sex scandals, i.e. Governer Jim McGreevy, president Bill Clinton, etc. In no way am I suggesting that these scandals were less controversial.