Megachurch Scandal

[Doug]

DOUG
An archbishop, but not Catholic. It looks like an independent, cultish kind of church.

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DECATUR, Ga. — 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.

...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....

[Barbara Fitzpatrick]

The RCs are just an easy target - especially since the fundy versions of christianity have been teaching/taught that the pope's the anti-christ (wrong - GWB is the anti-christ) since they split off from the more traditional versions of protestantism. The offshoot, dare I say "cult", fundy group leaders are the REAL hypocrits. Money and power (and all the sins associated with same, including but not restricted to sexual ones) are what they are after and they are SO good at convincing their poor "flock" that, after the fleecing, what they are smelling isn't mutton for dinner.