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SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Tony_Alamo_Is A Romanian_Jew
BY TONY ALAMO

I took the name of Tony Alamo a lot of years ago as a professional singer. The Italians were all making it as crooners at that time. (If the craze would have been for Oriental singers, my name would probably be Yak Sukiyaki.) I was born Bernie LaZar Hoffman; I am a Jew. My family were not particularly religious people. My father, an immigrant from Romania, kept some of the Jewish tradition when we were very young, but in the part of the States where I was raised, there were very few Jews. We were continuously warned not to say we were Jews, to tell them in school that we were Romanians. My mother and father said they would beat us up. To me, like all other Jews, Jesus Christ was the God of the Gentiles. He was an imposter, and it was because of Him that Jews had been tortured and killed. I was told that the Gentile kids were Christians. That was why they would beat me up if they knew I was a Jew. That they blamed the Jews for killing Him. When I was a child I thought this was strange, since I did not even know Jesus or anything about Him, that I could in a way be responsible for Him. My father was a very talented man. He had been dance instructor for Rudolf Valentino and he also was a very talented artist.

As I grew up some of my friends were Gentiles whom I thought to be Christians. They drank in the same cocktail lounges I drank in, had the same thieving business practices I had, committed the same sins I committed, and if Jesus was their God and hadn’t done any more for them than He had done, then I didn’t need Jesus. I had enough problems of my own. I did not believe in God, much less Jesus Christ. My philosophy of life was, make all the money I could, do what I wanted to do, when I wanted to do it, without any regard for anyone. To me life was vile. The more money I made, the more grief I had. Money never bought me not even one moment of peace. The more I had, the more miserable I was.


I had absolutely no respect for women at all. All I had met or been associated with were ungodly in hundreds of different ways (Eccl. 7:28). Some of them even thought they were men. (I was never associated with that kind). Many men are as bad. They think that they are women. Some let women support them: they stay home pretending they are housewives. They do the cooking, change the baby’s diapers, and do housework. Their wives are the bread winners. How ungodly! No effeminate man shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven (I Cor. 6:9-10).


I know Jesus Christ is real. I know He is the Messiah. I know He is coming back to earth again. I know it because God told me so. Jesus was so far removed from my life; my sins were as the sands of the sea.
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I went from being a big band crooner to being an executive in the health club business. I was the executive vice-president of the world’s largest health club chain. We had seventy-five health clubs in the United States, several in Canada, and several in the United Kingdom. I ducked in and out of the motion picture and music industry through the years, cutting my own records to fit whatever the current trend of music was. I put together “Oldie but Goodie” albums, bought radio and television time, and made a fortune out of the albums. I managed the careers of top motion picture stars and recording artists. I also took unknowns and developed them into stars in the movies, in television, and in the recording industry.

Later, when I became popular at this, I was asked by the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Doors, Buffalo Springfield, P.J. Proby, Pete Best, the original drummer with the Beatles, and many other solo singers and groups if I would manage them. Later, after I was saved, I was asked to engineer Eddie Fisher, Lena Horn, Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme back into popularity, not to mention hundreds of others.


Jimmy Bowen, from Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, asked Billy Strange, one of Frank Sinatra’s music arrangers and the head of the Frank and Nancy Sinatra Publishing Company, if I would do the promotions for Jim Ed Brown, Helen Cornelius, and an entire host of other country/western singers produced by Billy Strange. But I’m no longer available for such things. I’m a pastor, an evangelist and a scribe in the full-time gospel field. However, I do record gospel music.


It was on or during one of these big promotional extravaganzas that I met Jesus of Nazareth, my Lord. My mind was so far removed from anything concerning God the day He turned my whole world upside down. I had picked up a boy singer, a complete unknown, and did a gigantic promotion on him. I had him booked to all the top television shows.


I was driving around town in a chauffeur-driven limousine with a police escort and an entourage of seventeen people, putting the world on a trip. I had a barber, a bodyguard, a nurse, and all sorts of “yes” men. If I went to a hot dog stand or a motion picture premiere, I went with the limousines, chauffeurs, cops, and the whole regalia. The bodyguard would open the door, throw down a big velvet pillow; we would step into the velvet pillow. The barber would comb our hair, the nurse take our pulse. One of the fellows would spray us with cologne, another strew flowers in our path, and the cops would stand at attention. Where did I get the cops, the chauffeurs and the limousines? I rented them from a funeral parlor for a hundred bucks a day.


I had spent so much money on promotional ads and on keeping the entourage of seventeen people that my expenses were running into thousands of dollars a day, and I needed money. My attorney told me some of the superstars had invested money in a holding firm and they were interested in investing money in my campaign. Would I meet with them and their attorneys? At first I said, “No. I have a hit record, the record distributors owe me money. Within thirty to forty-five days I will have all the money I need.” My attorney said, “Tony, the way you spend money, there is no way you can survive thirty to forty-five days.” I ranted and raved. “Sure they will put up the dough. I have the star made. I’ve done all the work. Why wouldn’t they take the frosted cake for a million bucks?” “Well, Tony,” he reasoned, “don’t sell half of him.” I agreed to see them and offer five percent for fifty thousand. Little did I know what was waiting for me that day.


The black limousines lined up, the police escort went into formation, and we cruised down the streets with motorists and pedestrians gaping, wondering who the dignitaries were. We cruised over to the attorney’s office. The police lined up the limousines, the chauffeurs opened the doors, and we got out of the limos and went up one flight of stairs to the attorney’s offices in Beverly Hills. The offices were packed. The motion picture stars were there, their attorneys and, of course, my seventeen people.


The attorney representing the investment firm was a little Jewish man. He came forward rubbing his hands and smiling. “Tony Alamo,” he said, “I have been wanting to meet you. This is the greatest promotion I have ever seen in all my years in the industry. It is an extravaganza,” he exclaimed, sweeping the wall with a gesture, and I saw he had the whole promotion laid out on his wall, still rubbing his hands and smiling as we sat down. “Now,” he said, “I understand you boys need money.” I was getting ready to haggle with him, and I thought to myself, “I have one up on him. He thinks I am Italian, and I know he is Jewish.” I answered him with, “Well, I don’t need as much money as you had originally offered.”


Suddenly my ears went completely deaf. I could not hear any noise from the crowd in the room. We were only one floor up, yet I could not hear any noise from the street. I looked at the people in the room. Some of their mouths were moving, but I could not hear anything they were saying. Suddenly I heard a voice, a voice that came from every direction. It was all around me. It was going through every fiber of my being. My head, my arms, my legs; it was all around me. The voice said, “I AM THE LORD THY GOD. STAND UP ON YOUR FEET AND TELL THE PEOPLE IN THIS ROOM THAT JESUS CHRIST IS COMING BACK TO EARTH, OR THOU SHALT SURELY DIE.”


I looked around the room to see if someone was putting me on some kind of a trip, and they were all looking at me. I felt as if I were sealed into some sort of gigantic vacuum. I thought, “I am going crazy. I’m losing my mind. Yes, that’s it, I’m cracking up.” People had told me I was a genius, and geniuses often cracked up, so that was it. So I would get out of here before I made a fool of myself.


I stood to my feet and said, “I am ill.” The giant pressure that was upon me forced me back into my seat, and the voice as many waters flooded all around and through me again. “I AM THE LORD THY GOD. STAND UP ON YOUR FEET AND TELL THE PEOPLE IN THIS ROOM THAT JESUS CHRIST IS COMING BACK TO EARTH AGAIN, OR THOU SHALT SURELY DIE.”


I struggled to my feet again and took one step. As I did, God started playing with my soul like a yo-yo. He would pull it half out of me, and then put it back. My heart was palpitating so hard it felt as if it was going to jump out of my body, and suddenly a revelation came to me, so real I was astounded that I had not always known it. I knew there was a Heaven and a Hell. I started screaming to the top of my lungs, “No, God, no! Please don’t kill me… I’ll tell them! I’ll tell them! I’ll tell them!” The breath went back into my body, and my heart stopped jumping.


I said, “God, You don’t know these people like I do. They won’t believe me. But I’ll tell them. I’ll call them all on the phone, send them telegrams, anything. But please don’t make me do it here, they will think I’m crazy.” Again He started pulling the soul out of me. My heart was jumping out of my body. I was gasping for breath. “No, God, no…please,” I began screaming, “I’ll do it, I’ll do it. I’ll tell them.” Again my breath went back in my body, my heart stopped thumping.


I looked at the people in the room. They were all staring at me with eyes as big as owls. “I know you won’t believe me,” I said, “but God is telling me to tell you that Jesus Christ is coming back to earth.” Now, I said to myself, I said it. Oops, again my soul started going in and out, again, gasping for breath. “What’s the matter, God? I said it, I told them.” Suddenly every promotion I had ever done in my life was laid out before me in block form. The enthusiasm I had built and sold a star or a product with. And the Lord said, “NOW THAT YOU KNOW I AM HERE, IS THAT THE BEST YOU CAN DO FOR ME?” “I know you won’t believe me, but Jesus Christ is coming back to earth again.” This time when I looked at the group of people, they all looked so small to me, and I really wound up with all enthusiasm. “Repent,” I screamed. “Jesus is coming!” I had never read a Bible scripture in my life. I had seen the picture, “Elmer Gantry,” and I commanded everyone in the room to get down on their knees and repent immediately, that Jesus was coming. I thought that if I did not do a good job, they would all disintegrate before my eyes and I would disintegrate for not doing a good enough job.


The vacuum around me began to lift, and my hearing was returning, and the Lord said, “THAT’S ENOUGH.” My attorney grabbed one of my swinging arms and said, “Tony, Tony, what’s the matter with you?” The little Jewish attorney almost backed out of the window. Papers were flying all over the room (I had knocked his spindle off the desk). “Get him out of here,” he screamed, “He’s nuts!” I thought for a moment, how can I blame him? If someone had come into my office and done the same thing I had just done, I possibly would have thrown them out of the window.


I walked out of the office with all of my entourage following me. My bodyguard (who later went with Sonny and Cher) was laughing so hard he was falling down the hall. “Tony,” he said, “what’s the matter? Didn’t you dig the cat? Man, he’ll wind up in a straight jacket over that scene.” The more I tried to explain to them that God had talked to me, the more they laughed. “Come on, Tony, put them on a trip, but, man, don’t try to put us on it.” As I got to the foot of the stairs, there were the funeral limousines lined up. “Oh, my God,” I thought, “the last thing I want to see is this mess.” I made them all get in the cars.


I wanted to walk. I wanted to be alone. As I walked along, I looked up into the sky. “Dear God,” I said, “now that I know You are there, just tell me what You want me to do. I will do anything You say.” No answers. I thought, “Maybe God wants me to go to church. Yes, that’s it. I will go to church.”


I picked the biggest one. I thought the biggest one should know the most. I went in and talked to the priest. I told him what happened to me. The priest said to just keep it in my heart to be baptized. This infuriated me. To think that God had told me that Jesus was coming, and here is a man of God telling me to keep it in my heart to be baptized. “Look,” I said, “I am a promoter, I know my business. If you ask me how to promote a product, I will give you a positive way to promote it. You are supposed to be a man of God. You tell me about God.” This priest was later filled with the Spirit and is now preaching the gospel, but he had no answers for me then.


I went from one church to another, but found no one preaching the powerful message that God had given to me. One by one I left each church more depressed than I had been before. I felt that I was the only person in the world that knew the truth, that Jesus was really coming.


I had left all my business, I was broke. I took what money that came in and paid off debts. I couldn’t work. I was afraid that God would come down on me again in front of people. I was desperate, and I was confused. I did not know what to do; I went to my room. There was an old Gideon Bible laying on my bookshelf. I opened it and read, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled”(Matt. 5:6). “Oh, God,” I cried, “that’s me. I am hungry for truth.” “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5). “Oh, God,” I cried, “I have never been meek, but now I am broke. Now I am in this shabby room. Maybe I qualify now.” As I read the words of the Bible, I knew every word of it was truth. I felt the same Spirit I felt that day in the office, and I knew that God had come down on the prophets, the disciples, the apostles, in the same way He had come down on me in that office that day, by the power of the Holy Spirit, and told them what to write.


I felt the power of the Holy Spirit deep in my heart and soul. I found the plan of salvation, how we must ask God for forgiveness of our sins and ask Jesus to come into our hearts. I cried out to God to forgive me of my sins. My life had been so filled with sin. I asked Jesus to come into my heart and make me a new creature. God gave me a vision of Hell. I cried out, “God, don’t let me go there.” Then He gave me a vision of Heaven. I saw myself little, naked, kneeling before God. I was so peaceful I never wanted to leave. There I was, at His feet. I was afraid to open my eyes. I knew if I did, I would be looking into the face of Jesus, and I was afraid to look Him in the face. Then I saw a large illuminated cross and stars bursting, thousands of them, and angels singing. The Spirit of God entered into my body, and I knew beyond any shadow of doubt I passed from death into life. God broke my heart into a million pieces, and I lay on the floor with tears streaming down my face, and my body rocking in sobs, but I knew I was saved. Bernie LaZar Hoffman, a.k.a. Tony Alamo, was a changed creature. I took a shower, changed my clothes, and walked out into the rain. How wonderful it felt. The skies were different, the world had changed. I had peace for the first time in my life. Peace that money could not buy.


I walked for hours in the rain, then I walked into a restaurant. My Susan was sitting there. Susie and I had known each other for years, but she wouldn’t have anything to do with me. The most she would ever say to me was hello and goodbye. I had tried to talk to her before, but she wouldn’t talk to me. I always knew there was something very different about her. I walked over to the booth where she was sitting and asked her if I could sit with her. To my surprise she said yes. I sat down and ordered my coffee. She looked straight across the table at me with those big, black eyes and said, “Tony, do you know that the Lord Jesus Christ is coming back to earth again?” “Susie, Susie,” I said, “did you say that? Are there more of us? Are we supposed to meet somewhere? How did you know? Did God come and tell you, too?” “Tony,” she said, “it says it all the way through the Bible.” “Show it to me.”


Susan began reading the Bible to me ten, twelve, fourteen hours a day, and explaining it to me as she read. I could not hear enough. I was like a sponge. “Please, Tony,” she would beg me, “go home, I am so tired, I must sleep.” I would go back to my room and just wait for her to sleep so I could go back. When I thought my Bible teacher had slept enough, I went over and rang the bell until she got up. Then I started gathering all the people I could find to take with me to learn about God also.


Susie took me with her when she went to churches to preach. I began to realize that I was desperately and completely in love with my teacher. I began to cry out to God from the depths of my heart and soul for God to give her to me. “Oh, God, please,” I begged, “I have made such a mess out of my life. This is the only woman I have ever loved in my life. Please God, please give her to me.” Sue obviously didn’t know I was living. She paid no attention to me whatsoever, other than by Bible lessons and going to church, and that was always in a group. I was so miserable. I was so afraid she would catch me looking at her and know I was in love with her and tell me not to come back.


Susie was fasting and praying for God to send a great revival. I started fasting and praying even harder for God to give me Susie, and God spoke to Susie’s heart in a very supernatural way, and she became my wife. The minister who married us said, “I have been in the ministry for many years, and I have married a lot of couples, but I have never felt the Spirit of God as powerfully as I felt it with you two. God has something great ahead for you.”


I went back and did another big promotion in the world. I believe God allowed me to do it to prove to the industry that I was not crazy. After that scene in the office, it had circulated through the industry like wildfire that Alamo had cracked up. The Lord let me prove to the world that I had all my mental faculties. I took a classical singer who was earning ninety bucks a week, a complete unknown, during a hard rock phase of music. Ninety days later he was a superstar, booked into the Dunes Hotel at $15,000 a week, on a graduating scale.


I bought a home in Malibu. Susan begged me not to buy it. “Tony,” she would say, “people are dying by the thousands, and they are lost. Please, let’s just give up everything and go out and preach the gospel.” “Look, Honey,” I said, “God gave me a brain, let me use it. Let me make money. I’ll buy radio and television time. We will get the gospel out.” Susan would say, “Tony, God doesn’t want your money, He wants your heart.”


Every time we would drive up Hollywood Boulevard or Sunset Boulevard Susie would look at the hippie kids roaming the streets. “Look, Tony,” she would say, “there they are. There is the harvest field. It is ripe, but no one will go. No one will take the position of the lowly Nazarene.” “Look,” I said, “you don’t know about those kinds of kids. They are so spaced out, they wouldn’t know what you were saying.” “No,” she would say, “but I know Jesus.” The hippies became a barb between us, and I tried to avoid the Strip or the Boulevard as much as possible. I tried to reason with her, “Look, Honey,” I said, “everything you want to do is wrong, believe me. Do you think any of the people I have promoted would ever have made it if I had stood on a corner with a little handful of papers, handing them out? Believe me, it won’t work. Let me make money, and I will show you how to get the gospel out.”


Susie began to pray for me to go broke, and I began to lose everything I had. If I started to the bank to make a deposit, it cost me money before I got there. It didn’t bother Susie at all. Every time I mentioned that I was going broke, she said, “Praise the Lord!” Finally I figured it out. She was praying for me to go broke! She hated that house in Malibu, she hated the new expensive furniture in it. She wanted to go out into the streets with the hippies, and that was that.


One evening, coming home from a service, she delivered an ultimatum to me. She was going out into the streets to the hippies, and I could go or stay. I knew she meant what she said. I begged, I used persuasion, I tried to reason; she paid no attention to anything. She went and got some little gospel tracts, marked them with our telephone number, called a group of kids we had won for Christ and said, “Saturday night we are going to the streets.” What could I do? I could not see her go out there alone. She might get killed. I begged. “God, please Lord, show her how wrong she is. Don’t let her do this.” But every time I took it to God something was happening. God wasn’t telling her she was wrong, He was telling me I was wrong.


So we went to the streets, me very reluctantly, and here is where the Jesus Movement began. You hear a lot today of where the Jesus Movement started. I can tell you all about it. Many people have tried to take the credit for the great revival that has swept the world, but believe me, there was no one else in the streets when Susan and I first went out there. The kids were singing songs that God was dead, “burn down the churches,” “kill the pigs,” “kill the establishment.”


At first we had no church. We financed our own ministry. We took the kids home with us, fed them. Many of them were half-dead, dying of drug addiction and malnutrition. We led them to Christ Jesus, saw them filled with the Spirit, and grounded them in the Word of God.


Since the Lord anointed our work, we have seen many other youth groups spring up. Maybe some of them were good, but most of them that we know of are very evil because much of their doctrine is false. Most of them are Roman anti-Christ “counterfeit Christians.” They say they are Christians, but they literally hate the part of God’s Word which states that God is a terrorist to unrepentant sinners. We can only be saved, that is, live forever in the Kingdom of Heaven by reading “every Word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4). But these false Christians will not receive the many verses of scripture in the Word of God, which tell us that God hates sinners who refuse to repent. He also hates Satan, the Antichrist, the false prophet, the beast, the mouth of the beast, and all those who hate His Word. They also hate the wrath part of God’s Word and the part of God’s Word which tells that He has prepared the lake of fire to eternally torment all those who oppose Him, His Word, and all those who preach the infallible Word of God. “They received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved [that they might become Christians, members of Christ’s body. And because of this] God shall send them strong delusion [and when God says strong, He means strong], that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (II Thes. 2:10-12). The design of these people who love not the truth of God’s Word is to destroy the faith of the youth in God, teaching young people that they can smoke pot, drop acid, commit adultery, fornication, abortion, do their own thing.


They all operate under the banner of “God is Love.” Beware of the “God is Love” movement. What they are really saying is that God is permissive. Grace to these groups means sin. We teach our young people that God is a holy God and when they speak of Him, to do so with all reverence. To compare the Spirit of God to an acid or pot trip is blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. Check carefully into the Jesus Movements before you become involved. Opportunists have gotten in like they get into every move of God to pervert the gospel and make merchandise of it. As Susie says, “You don’t buy a gospel work, you build it up on that solid rock, Christ Jesus.”


The Jesus Movement did not just happen. It was not started by some youth with psychedelic lights flashing in his head. The price has been high. Oh, my God, so high. Higher than human flesh wants to pay. It came with blood, sweat, and tears. I am glad that the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the eternal everlasting keeper of the Lamb’s Book of Life, knows where and when and how the Jesus Movement began and that He saw my sweetheart, as she went into the streets with cancer eating through her body and took the gospel to the hippies.


You know something? Susie is so smart! She was right! Jesus is the greatest promoter in the world. He said, “If I be lifted up from the earth, [I, Jesus] will draw all men unto Me” (John 12:32). Yes, even with paper bags filled with little gospel tracts.


Jesus wants to draw you near to Him right now, and you can know Christ like Susie and I do. Yes, this very moment all you have to do is repeat this prayer to God, and you’ll feel the Spirit of God enter your mortal body. Say it right now, and you’ll see that He will.





Prayer

My Lord and my God, have mercy upon my soul, a sinner. 1 I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God. 2 I believe that He died on the cross and shed His precious blood for the forgiveness of all my sins. 3 I believe that God raised Jesus from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit 4 and that He sits on the right hand of God at this moment, hearing my confession of sin and this prayer. 5 I open up the door of my heart and I invite You into my heart, Lord Jesus. 6 Wash all of my filthy sins away in the precious blood that You shed in my place on the cross at Calvary. 7 You will not turn me away, Lord Jesus, You will forgive my sins and save my soul. I know because Your Word, the Bible says so. 8 Your Word says that You will turn no one away, and that includes me. 9 Therefore, I know that You have heard me, and I know that You have answered me, and I know that I am saved. 10 And I thank You, Lord Jesus, for saving my soul, and I will show my thankfulness by doing as You command and sin no more. 11

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You've just completed the first step in a series of five steps which are necessary to receive salvation. Your second step is to deny yourself and take up the cross daily for the purpose of mortifying yourself, that is, for putting to death your own will, your soulful self, and the world with all of its lusts. All these must be baptized into the death of Christ.

Step three is your resurrection from the satanic life of Adam unto the sinless life of Christ. Step four is your ascension into a position of authority to reign for God on earth, and the fifth step is to reign for God on earth to the end for the purpose of bringing about the kingdom of Heaven on earth. You must learn the Word of God, then submit yourself and do what the Word says, so that the Church and the world may see evidence of your submission to God's Word, His order, and His authority in and by you.

Praise the Lord. May God reward you abundantly.

Pastor Tony Alamo


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Our church receives much mail with thousands of requests for Bibles and literature. Much of our literature is printed in Hebrew, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Romanian, Polish, Czech, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Albanian, Serbian, Telugu, Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Nepali, and Arabic. Pastor Alamo’s ninety-one page book, The Messiah, is currently available in English, Hebrew, Spanish, French, Italian, Russian, Chinese, Telugu, Korean, and German. Distributors for Alamo literature are on the increase every day throughout the world.




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Tony Alamo, World Pastor
Tony Alamo Christian Ministries
P. O. Box 6467
Texarkana, Texas 75505
Twenty-four hour prayer and information line: (479) 782-7370 / FAX (479) 782-7406
Visit us on the web at: http://www.alamoministries.com



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The Alamo Christian Church provides a place to live with all the things necessary for life to all those who truly want serve the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Services held every evening at 8 P.M. and Sunday at 3 P.M. and 8 P.M. at the following locations:


13136 Sierra Hwy., Canyon Country, CA 91390, 4401 Windsor Dr., Fort Smith, AR 72904


Services are also held in Elizabeth, NJ, and fifteen minutes south of Texarkana, AR. Call for locations.

MEALS SERVED AFTER EACH SERVICE

Free transportation to and from services provided at the corner of Hollywood Blvd. & Highland Ave., Hollywood, CA, daily at 6:30 P.M., Sundays at 1:30 P.M. and 6:30 P.M.


Ask for Pastor Alamo’s book, The Messiah, showing Christ from the Old Testament revealed in over three hundred thirty-three prophecies.

Taped messages are available as well.

CHRIST, THE WORD OF GOD, IS THE ONLY WAY, TRUTH, AND ETERNAL LIFE. 12 PASTOR ALAMO IS INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED FOR USING THE WORD OF GOD ONLY TO PRESENT IT. THIS LITERATURE CARRIES THAT TRUE PLAN OF SALVATION. 13 DO NOT THROW IT AWAY, PASS IT ON TO ANOTHER.

Those of you who are in other countries, we encourage you to translate this literature into your native language.

If you do reprint, please include this copyright and registration:

The Tony Alamo Christian Ministries Worldwide is a division of Music Square Church, Inc.

© Copyright 1984 All rights reserved World Pastor Tony Alamo ® Registered 1984





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"Prayer" Footnotes: return to top

1. Psa. 51:5, Rom. 3:10-12, 23 return

2. Matt. 26:63-64, 27:54, Luke 1:30-33, John 9:35-37, Rom. 1:3-4 return

3. Acts 4:12, 20:28, Rom. 3:25, I John 1:7, Rev. 5:9 return

4. Psa. 16:9-10, Matt. 28:5-7, Mark 16:9, 12, 14, John 2:19, 21, 10:17-18, 11:25, Acts 2:24, 3:15, Rom. 8:11, I Cor. 15:3-7 return

5. Luke 22:69, Acts 2:25-36, Heb. 10:12-13 return

6. I Cor. 3:16, Rev. 3:20 return

7. Eph. 2:13-22, Heb. 9:22, 13:12, 20-21, I John 1:7, Rev. 1:5, 7:14 return

8. Matt. 26:28, Acts 2:21, 4:12, Eph. 1:7, Col. 1:14 return

9. Matt. 21:22, John 6:35, 37-40, Rom. 10:13 return

10. Heb. 11:6 return

11. John 5:14, 8:11, Rom. 6:4, I Cor. 15:10, Rev. 7:14, 22:14 return

12. John 14:6 return

13. Acts 4:12 return

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Tony Alamo (born Bernie LaZar Hoffman, September 20, 1934 in Joplin, Missouri[1][2]) is an American preacher, singer, entrepreneur, and religious evangelist. He and his then-wife Susan are best known as the founders of a radical fundamentalist organization currently known as Tony Alamo Christian Ministries. The organization is based in and around Fouke and Alma, Arkansas, United States,[3] and has been referred to as a cult.[2][4][5][6]

Contents [hide]
1 Biography
2 Controversies
2.1 Suffrage
2.2 Allegations of child abuse at ministry
3 References
4 External links



[edit] Biography
Hoffman was born in Missouri to Jewish-Romanian parents in 1934.[7] As a child he moved with his family to Montana, where he was briefly employed as a delivery boy for Helena's Independent Record newspaper.[8]

In the early 1960s, Hoffman moved to Los Angeles, California. He assumed the names Marcus Abad and Mark Hoffman and pursued a career in music. He was briefly incarcerated for a weapon-related offense.[2] Hoffman married Helen Hagan (Born Helen Alice Muller in New York, New York) in 1961. On May 25, 1964, the couple had a son, Mark Anthony Hoffman. While married to Helen, he met aspiring actress Susan Lipowitz (born Edith Opal Horn in Dyer, Arkansas[7]), a Jewish convert to evangelical Christianity who was nine years older than Hoffman and married to a man whom Hoffman would later describe as a "small time Los Angeles hood".[8] After both Hoffman's and Lipowitz' divorces, Lipowitz and Hoffman married in a 1966 Las Vegas, Nevada ceremony, and the couple legally changed their names to Tony and Susan Alamo.[2]

Together, the couple established the Tony and Susan Alamo Christian Foundation in 1969 in Hollywood, California.[7] They also manufactured and sold a line of "Tony Alamo" brand sequined denim jackets, a business that would eventually land Alamo in prison for tax evasion.[9]

Susan delivered the sermons on the Alamos' syndicated TV program during the 1970s while Tony appeared to sing a gospel song. When Susan died of cancer on April 8, 1982, Alamo claimed she would be resurrected and kept her body on display for six months while their followers prayed. It would be 16 years before her body was returned to her family. [10]

In 1984 Alamo married Birgetta Oyllenhammer, owner of a clothing design and manufacturing company in Southern California.

In 1985 Alamo targeted the Pope and then-president Ronald Reagan. "Did you know that the Pope and Ronald Reagan are a couple of Anti-Christ Devils and that they are selling us all down the drain?" asked a tract entitled Genocide. A federal grand jury in Memphis, Tennessee, charged Alamo with filing a false income tax return in 1985 and he failed to file returns during the following three years.

He then married Elizabeth Amrhein. After a custody battle, they lost control of her children.

For a time Alamo had a retail store in Nashville, Tennessee, called The Alamo of Nashville.

In February 1991 Alamo ordered his followers to bring along his second wife's body when they evacuated the Tony and Susan Alamo Christian Foundation compound in Crawford County, Arkansas. The compound was about to be raided by federal marshals in the wake of a civil lawsuit against Alamo.

Alamo was ultimately arrested on tax-related charges and was convicted in 1994. He completed a prison sentence, and was released on December 8, 1998.[11] He then went to a halfway house in Texarkana.


Tony Alamo Christian Ministries' leaflet placed on an automobile windshieldAlamo's followers sometimes distribute his writings publicly. The tracts -- often in the form of a six "page" trifold pamphlet filled with relatively small type, have been found placed in the windshields of cars in shopping centers, for instance. The tracts predict impending doom and Armageddon and invite the reader to accept Jesus as his or her savior while condemning Catholicism, the Pope and the American government as a Satanic conspiracy behind events such as 9/11, Pearl Harbor and the Kennedy assassination. Tracts currently being distributed include a picture of Alamo circa 1986.

In a tract distributed shortly before the siege of the Branch Davidian establishment in Waco, Texas, Alamo protested the media's use of the word "compound" to describe the "campus" of his "seminary", and the word "cult" to describe his "ministry".


[edit] Controversies

[edit] Suffrage
Alamo voted in the 2006 runoff election in Fouke, Arkansas (12 miles (19 km) southeast of Texarkana) in support of incumbent Cecil Smith. This vote was challenged by Miller County Clerk Ann Nicholas on the grounds that Alamo is a convicted felon. Alamo presented a signed letter from probation officer John C. Mooney Jr., stating that Alamo's term of supervision had ended on December 7, 1999. The letter did not explicitly state that Alamo's suffrage had been restored.

The Arkansas Secretary of State's office issued a statement saying that the county clerk did not have the authority to challenge a ballot on those grounds, and Alamo's ballot was ultimately accepted. However, Smith was defeated by candidate Terry Purvis with a tally of 216-151.[12][1]


[edit] Allegations of child abuse at ministry
Wikinews has related news:
Controversial evangelist leader Tony Alamo arrested in child sex investigationOn September 20, 2008, federal and state investigative agents raided the Arkansas headquarters of the ministry as part of a child pornography investigation.[13][14] This investigation involved allegations of physical abuse, sexual abuse and allegations of polygamy and underage marriage. According to Terry Purvis, mayor of Fouke, Arkansas, his office has received complaints from former ministry members about allegations of child abuse, sexual abuse and polygamy since the ministry established itself in the area. In turn, Purvis turned over information about the allegations to the FBI.[15] Alamo denied the child abuse allegations.[16] On September 25, 2008, Alamo was arrested by Arizona police and FBI agents on charges that he transported minors over state lines for sexual activity in violation of the Mann Act.[17]


[edit] References
 

Tony Alamo F/k/a Bernie Lazar Hoffman, and Alamo Christianchurch, Appellants, v. Jasper R. Clay, Jr., et al., Appellees
United States Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit. - 137 F.3d 1366
Argued Jan. 21, 1998.Decided March 17, 1998
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (No. 96cv01446).

Harry Kresky, New York City, argued the cause and filed the briefs for appellants. [329 U.S.App.D.C. 129] Daniel E. Ellenbogen, Washington, DC, and Tony Alamo, appearing pro se, entered appearances.

R. Craig Lawrence, Assistant U.S. Attorney, Washington, DC, argued the cause for appellees, with whom Mary Lou Leary, U.S. Attorney, Washington, DC, at the time the brief was filed, was on the brief. Sherri E. Harris, Assistant U.S. Attorney, entered an appearance.

Before: EDWARDS, Chief Judge, WALD and ROGERS, Circuit Judges.

EDWARDS, Chief Judge:

1
In this case, the wrong claim was brought by the wrong party in the wrong jurisdiction. Appellant Alamo Church asserts a claim under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act challenging the United States Parole Commission's decision denying parole to its pastor. It is well settled that a parole decision can be challenged only by the individual denied parole through a habeas action brought in the jurisdiction in which he is incarcerated. In any case, we find that the injuries alleged by the church--loss of the services of its pastor and damage to its reputation--fail to satisfy the requirements for standing under Article III of the U.S. Constitution.

2
Tony Alamo is founder and pastor of the Christian Church of Alamo ("Alamo Church" or "the church"). In September 1994, Alamo was sentenced by the Federal District Court for the Western District of Tennessee to six years in prison for one count of filing a false income tax return and three counts of failing to file. He is incarcerated in a federal correctional institution in Texarkana, Texas. In June 1995, a parole examiner recommended that Alamo be paroled. In March 1996, the United States Parole Commission ("the Commission") denied Alamo's request for parole. See Bernie Hoffman, Reg. No. 305-112 (U.S. Parole Comm'n Mar. 14, 1996) (notice of action on appeal), reprinted in Appendix ("App.") 29-30 (hereinafter "Comm'n Decision").

3
Alamo and the church then brought suit under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, 42 U.S.C. § 2000bb-1 to -4 (1994) ("RFRA"), claiming that the denial of Alamo's parole substantially burdened their exercise of religion and was not justified by a compelling government interest. They sought a declaration that the Commission's determination was illegal and an order directing Alamo's release based upon the parole examiner's recommendation.

4
The District Court dismissed the complaint in its entirety. The court reasoned that, although Plaintiffs' complaint was framed as an action under the RFRA, the real purpose of their claims is to challenge the duration of Tony Alamo's sentence, a matter which is delegated solely to the discretion of the Parole Commission and cannot be decided by the district court. Alamo v. United States Parole Comm'n, No. 96-01446, slip. op. (D.D.C. June 30, 1996). Moreover, the trial court held that a federal prisoner challenging the determination of parole eligibility is required to bring his claim as a habeas action in the jurisdiction in which he is incarcerated. Id. (citing Chatman-Bey v. Thornburgh, 864 F.2d 804, 808-09 (D.C.Cir.1988) (en banc); 28 U.S.C. § 2241).

5
The church alleges that the Parole Commission's decision violated its rights under the RFRA and the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment--not just Tony Alamo's individual rights. Essentially, the church argues that the Commission's decision was significantly influenced by its discriminatory views of Alamo Church, causing the church reputational injury as well as depriving it of the services of its pastor. To redress these injuries, the church seeks an order directing the Commission to adopt the parole examiner's recommendation that Alamo be paroled. Alternatively, it requests a declaratory judgment stating that the Commission impermissibly based its decision on derogatory views of Alamo Church in violation of the RFRA and the First Amendment and ordering the Commission to reconsider Alamo's parole without taint of religious discrimination.

6
The Government moved for summary affirmance of the District Court's decision. A [329 U.S.App.D.C. 130] motions panel affirmed the District Court's decision as to Tony Alamo's claim, on the ground that the only avenue through which a prisoner can challenge the Parole Commission's determination of his parole eligibility is through a habeas action brought in the jurisdiction in which he is incarcerated. The motions panel also acknowledged that Alamo Church cannot bring a habeas action on Alamo's behalf but deferred to the merits panel the question of whether the church presents a valid claim under the RFRA or the First Amendment for which relief can be granted. See Alamo v. Clay, No. 96-5259, slip op. (D.C.Cir. Apr. 22, 1997) (order granting summary affirmance in part and denying it in part).

7
As enacted, the RFRA prohibits any "branch, department, agency, instrumentality, [or] official" of federal or state government "or other persons acting under color of [federal or state] law" from "substantially burden[ing] a person's exercise of religion" unless the government can demonstrate that the burden "(1) is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest; and (2) is the least restrictive means of furthering that ... interest." 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000bb-1, 2000bb-2(1) (1994). In City of Boerne v. Flores, --- U.S. ----, 117 S.Ct. 2157, 138 L.Ed.2d 624 (1997), the Supreme Court held that the RFRA exceeds Congress' enforcement powers under section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment. Appellants submit that the RFRA still applies to federal agencies. See Appellants' Opening Brief at 28. The Government does not contest this claim. For the purposes of this appeal, we assume, without deciding, that the RFRA applies to the federal government, notwithstanding the Supreme Court's decision in City of Boerne.

8
We review the District Court's dismissal of Appellants' complaint de novo. National Taxpayers Union, Inc. v. United States, 68 F.3d 1428, 1432 (D.C.Cir.1995).

9
Although the church pleads this case under the RFRA, it is essentially challenging the duration of Tony Alamo's sentence. It is well settled that a parole decision can be challenged only by the individual denied parole through a habeas action brought in the jurisdiction in which he is incarcerated. See 28 U.S.C. § 2241 (1994); Chatman-Bey v. Thornburgh, 864 F.2d 804, 808-09 (D.C.Cir.1988) (en banc) (citing Preiser v. Rodriguez, 411 U.S. 475, 93 S.Ct. 1827, 36 L.Ed.2d 439 (1973)). In such an action, a prisoner may assert the claim alleged here--i.e., that the Commission's decision was based upon an impermissible factor. Even if a court considering such a claim were to find that the Commission's decision was impermissibly influenced by religious discrimination, however, at most it could order the Commission to reconsider Alamo's parole in a manner that does not violate the RFRA or the First Amendment. The sole power to grant or deny parole lies within the Commission's discretion; neither this court nor the District Court has authority to grant parole. See 18 U.S.C.A. §§ 4203(b), 4218(d) (West Supp.1997); Guerra v. Meese, 786 F.2d 414, 418 (D.C.Cir.1986) (citing Billiteri v. United States Bd. of Parole, 541 F.2d 938, 944 (2d Cir.1976)).

10
There is a long history of habeas review of parole decisions. See Chatman-Bey, 864 F.2d at 807-08. Appellants point to nothing in the statutory framework or in case law governing the review of parole decisions to demonstrate that a third party such as the church can challenge a decision of the Parole Commission. Instead, Alamo Church attempts to get around this jurisdictional barrier by suggesting that the Commission's decision has caused the church--not just Tony Alamo--cognizable injuries, and that these injuries provide the church with a basis for a cause of action under the RFRA. However, Appellants do not identify any previous RFRA cases involving a third-party challenge to an administrative decision or offer argument specifically addressing why the RFRA should be construed to provide a cause of action in such an unusual posture. Thus, we decline to read into the RFRA a congressional intent to upset the long-standing framework limiting review of parole decisions.

11
Even if the RFRA or the Free Exercise Clause could be construed to provide a [329 U.S.App.D.C. 131] third party with a basis for challenging the Commission's decision, however, the complaint would nevertheless be dismissed, because the injuries alleged by Alamo Church fail to satisfy the well-established requirements for standing under Article III of the U.S. Constitution. "In order to satisfy the irreducible constitutional minimum of standing, a litigant must demonstrate that it has suffered a concrete and particularized injury that is: (1) actual or imminent; (2) caused by, or fairly traceable to, an act that the litigant challenges in the instant litigation; and (3) redressable by the court." Florida Audubon Soc'y v. Bentsen, 94 F.3d 658, 663 (D.C.Cir.1996) (en banc) (internal quotes and citations omitted).

12
Alamo Church lost the services of its pastor as a consequence of Tony Alamo's criminal conduct, for which he was convicted and sentenced to jail. A convicted prisoner has no absolute right to parole; rather, the issue of parole is delegated to the Commission's discretion. See 18 U.S.C.A. §§ 4206, 4218(d) (West Supp.1997). Thus, the church's alleged injury was caused by Alamo's criminal conduct for which he was convicted, not by the Commission's subsequent decision denying him parole. Accordingly, the church's loss of its pastor's services is not fairly traceable to the Commission's allegedly illegal parole decision. Florida Audubon Soc'y, 94 F.3d at 663 (in analyzing the "causation" element of constitutional standing, this court asks whether the challenged acts of the defendant--as opposed to the acts of a third party--caused the plaintiff's particularized injury).

13
The church asserts, however, that the continued absence of Alamo's pastoral services is a separate, cognizable injury following from the Commission's denial of parole. It is true that the denial of parole has perpetuated the consequences of Alamo's criminal conduct by causing him to remain in custody, whereas a grant of parole would have released him from custody. As we have already explained, however, judicial review of the Parole Commission's decision is a remedy for Alamo to pursue through a habeas action. Casting Alamo's continued incarceration in terms of its effect on the church is a specious attempt to get around case law limiting the review of parole decisions to habeas actions.

14
In any case, if we construe the continued absence of Alamo's pastoral services following the Commission's denial of parole as a separate injury, this injury still fails to satisfy the requirements of Article III. As we asserted earlier, this court has no power to grant parole, and, moreover, even if the Commission were to grant Alamo's request for parole, it has no control over whether, following his release, Alamo would return to his former role as pastor of Alamo Church. Although it is plain that Alamo's conviction initially disrupted his pastoral relationship with Alamo Church, the church simply presumes (and implicitly asks the court to presume) that a grant of parole would restore it. See Appellants' Reply Brief at 3. The burden rests on the plaintiff to "allege specific, concrete facts demonstrating that the challenged practices harm him, and that he personally would benefit in a tangible way from the court's intervention." Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. 490, 508, 95 S.Ct. 2197, 2210, 45 L.Ed.2d 343 (1975). The church has failed to meet this burden here. Because it is purely speculative whether, following his release on parole, Tony Alamo would return as pastor of Alamo Church, a third-party causation problem remains. Cf. Allen v. Wright, 468 U.S. 737, 757-58, 104 S.Ct. 3315, 3327-28, 82 L.Ed.2d 556 (1984) (parents of black public school children charging that the IRS had not fulfilled its obligation to deny tax-exempt status to racially discriminatory schools lacked standing because "it is entirely speculative ... whether withdrawal of a tax exemption from any particular school would lead the school to change its policies"); Simon v. Eastern Kentucky Welfare Rights Org., 426 U.S. 26, 42-43, 96 S.Ct. 1917, 1926-27, 48 L.Ed.2d 450 (1976) (indigents injured by denial of hospital services challenging an IRS decision to exempt hospitals from taxation without regard to whether they provided care to indigents lacked standing because the connection between plaintiff's injuries and the IRS ruling was "speculative" where the hospitals' denials of service could "result from decisions made by the hospitals without regard to the tax implications"). Even if we had specific information addressing Alamo's [329 U.S.App.D.C. 132] intentions after his release from prison, we doubt that this would amount to cognizable injury sufficient to overcome jurisdictional objections to the church's law suit. We need not tarry on this point, however, for it is clear here that the church has failed to cite specific, concrete facts to support its claim.

15
Alamo Church also asserts that it was stigmatized by the Commission's decision denying Tony Alamo parole. Although injury to an organization's reputation is sufficient in some circumstances to support standing, see, e.g., Southern Mut. Help Ass'n, Inc. v. Califano, 574 F.2d 518, 524 (D.C.Cir.1977), the church's claim of reputational injury fails, on several grounds, to provide a basis for Article III standing in the instant case. First, we cannot find anything in the Commission's actions supporting the church's claim that the Commission's decision stigmatized the church. The Commission expressly stated that its decision was "made without regard to the issue of whether or not [Tony Alamo's] religious organization is accurately described as a 'cult'." Comm'n Decision, App. 29. Indeed, the Commission distinguished between the church itself and Tony Alamo's exploitation of the church and its members in furtherance of the criminal conduct for which he was convicted, holding that "[a]lthough the religious organization [Tony Alamo] headed was clearly genuine, and provided a real benefit to the community," its decision was warranted "because of [Tony Alamo's] corrupt conduct in the exploitation (financial, personal, and sexual) of [his] religious followers, and [his] sophisticated effort to use this religious organization as a cover to defraud the IRS." Id.

16
Not only does the challenged decision appear to lack any stigmatizing content on its face, but the church has failed to show that any stigma which might be read into the Commission's decision would actually have any detrimental consequences for Alamo Church. Purely speculative or conclusory assertions of the consequences of the alleged stigma do not satisfy the Supreme Court's requirement for specific, concrete facts demonstrating a particularized injury. See Block v. Meese, 793 F.2d 1303, 1308 (D.C.Cir.1986) (citing Warth v. Seldin, 422 U.S. at 508, 95 S.Ct. at 2210).

17
In addition, the Supreme Court has made clear that reputational injury "accords a basis for standing only to those persons who are personally denied equal treatment by the challenged discriminatory conduct." Allen v. Wright, 468 U.S. at 755-56, 104 S.Ct. at 3326-27 (internal quotes and citation omitted). Under this rule, only Tony Alamo, whom Appellants argue was denied parole due to the Commission's allegedly discriminatory decision, could assert reputational injury as a basis for standing. Alamo Church's suggestion that any stigmatization of Tony Alamo's relationship to his church also stigmatizes the church itself and all of its members by virtue of their relationship or common membership in the same group does not provide the church with a basis for standing to challenge the Commission's purportedly discriminatory treatment of Tony Alamo. "If [such an] abstract stigmatic injury were cognizable, standing would extend" beyond all reasonable limits. Id. at 755-56, 104 S.Ct. at 3327.

18
For the reasons explained above, the District Court's decision dismissing the complaint is

19
Affirmed.
 

Tony Alamo (1934–)
aka: Tony Alamo Christian Ministries


Tony Alamo is a well-known evangelist who, after a radical conversion to Christianity, founded what is now called Tony Alamo Christian Ministries with his wife, Susan, later establishing its headquarters in Dyer (Crawford County). Widely regarded as a cult, Tony Alamo Christian Ministries has been at the center of a number of lawsuits and government actions, and its leader has been jailed on a variety of charges, including income tax evasion and the theft of his late wife’s body.

Jews_early_years

Much of the information on Alamo’s early, pre-conversion life is spurious at best, on account of Alamo’s constant exaggerations of his importance and/or sinfulness. He was born Bernie Lazar Hoffman on September 20, 1934, in Joplin, Missouri. His father was a Jewish immigrant from Romania who, Alamo claims, had been dance instructor for Rudolf Valentino. When he was a teenager, Alamo left Joplin for the West Coast. He apparently adopted the name Marcus Abad for some time and achieved some modicum of success as a “big band crooner” in Los Angeles, California. Alamo went on to own a health club and work in the music industry. He claims that he recorded a hit record single in the early 1960s, “Little Yankee Girl,” and that he was asked to manage musical acts including the Beatles, the Doors, and the Rolling Stones; there is no evidence for any of this.

Weapon's_Charge

In 1966, after serving jail time for a weapons charge, Alamo married Edith Opal Horn from Alma (Crawford County), also of Jewish descent. Nine years his senior, Edith Horn, a two-time divorcée who already had a daughter, had moved to Hollywood to become an actress but ended up supporting herself partly by scamming churches into believing her to be a missionary in need of money. Some sources say that they changed their names to Tony and Susan Alamo after their marriage, though Tony Alamo has claimed that he changed his own name earlier to mimic the Italian-American singers who were popular at the time.

According to Alamo, while he was in a meeting at a Beverly Hills investment firm, Jesus came to him and told him to preach the second coming of Christ. After both he and Susan converted to Christianity, they established the Music Square Church and began a Hollywood street ministry, passing out religious tracts and preaching especially to drug addicts, alcoholics, and prostitutes. Their ministry was part of the “Jesus People” movement, in which many of those involved in the counterculture of the 1960s began proclaiming a spiritual transformation and an allegiance to Jesus.

Alamo’s Pentecostal theology includes a virulent paranoia and extreme anti-Catholicism that places the Vatican as the real power broker behind the White House, the United Nations, and the media. The various publications his ministry offers, such as The Vatican Moscow Washington Alliance, detail his conspiracy theories. Alamo has also claimed that UFOs are divine messengers from heaven and signs of the end times.

Communal living was a staple of the Music Square Church. The church quickly expanded its holdings, buying several businesses and establishing a compound in nearby Saugus. Members usually lived in a commune and worked at an Alamo-owned business, turning over much of their salaries to the church. With the labor of their followers, the Alamos turned their church into a hefty financial empire, even as many members had to scavenge food from supermarket dumpsters and were forbidden from flushing the toilets more than every two or three days.

In 1975, the Alamos purchased land in Dyer, near Alma, and there established the main branch of the Music Square Church, which later was called the Holy Alamo Christian Church Consecrated before its present name was adopted. At one time, Alamo owned as many as twenty-nine businesses in nearby Alma, including Alamo Western Wear, as well as Alamo Restaurant and Alamo Discount Grocery. Again, followers worked in these businesses for practically nothing. Soon, the organization established yet another compound in Nashville, Tennessee.
 

Jew_was_sued_byLabor_Dept

In 1976, the U.S. Department of Labor brought charges against Alamo for violations of the Fair Labor Standard Act. Alamo had not been issuing checks to his employees and offered only the most menial financial recompense, leading some disgruntled followers to begin reporting his activities. He lost the suit as well as an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1985, the same year that the IRS retroactively revoked the tax exempt status for his church for the years 1977 to 1980. Alamo’s attorneys kept the issue before the courts from 1985 to 1992, arguing that church-owned enterprises were exempt from federal income taxes because they were churches in disguise. Special Trial Judge Larry L. Nameroff ruled, however, that the organization was essentially “operated for Tony’s and Susan’s private benefit,” and the IRS siezed some of the church property for an auction. On June 8, 1994, he was convicted on one charge of filing a false income tax return and three charges of failing to file a tax return; testimony during the trial revealed that the church had a total income on $9 million during the three years when Alamo paid no taxes. In addition, the judgment against Alamo showed him owing another $5 million to former church members for unpaid work. Alamo quickly declared bankruptcy, and his related businesses collapsed. In September 1994, Alamo was sentenced by the Federal District Court for the Western District of Tennessee to six years in the Federal Correctional Institution in Texarkana (Miller County). In July 1998, he was transferred to a Texarkana halfway house, from which he was released on December 8 of the same year.

While Alamo was tied up in the courts on federal tax evasion charges, other allegations were levied against him from various quarters. Acting upon reports of child abuse, on March 25, 1988, sheriff’s deputies raided the Saugus, California, compound in order to reunite three boys with their natural fathers; the fathers had been members of the Arkansas compound but had been excommunicated. Their wives had remarried more loyal subjects of Alamo, and their families had relocated to California. U.S. District Judge Morris Arnold, finding that they had indeed been abused, later awarded damages to the boys in question. Alamo claimed that he and his followers had no assets and were living “hand to mouth”; he also apparently issued a death threat against Arnold, though he was later acquitted of that charge.

Jew_embezzled

One of the fathers, Robert Miller, had previously overseen the church’s trucking company and alleged that Alamo had embezzled $100,000 from it. In 1990, Alamo failed to appear in court to answer these charges and was ruled guilty in default.

Probably the strangest incident surrounding Tony Alamo Christian Ministries has to do with the body of Susan Alamo, who died of cancer on April 8, 1982. Tony Alamo quickly predicted that she would be resurrected and kept her embalmed body on display at the Arkansas compound for approximately six months before placing it in a mausoleum. In February 1991, Alamo ordered his followers to vacate the Arkansas compound prior to a federal raid and to bring along the body of Susan Alamo. A chancery court judge ordered Alamo to return the body in 1995 in response to a suit filed by Christhiaon Coie, Susan Alamo’s estranged daughter. On July 23, 1998, after a three-year legal battle, his followers brought the body to a funeral home in Van Buren (Crawford County). The following month, Susan Alamo was re-interred in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Alamo’s various marriages are controversial and difficult to number. Following Susan’s death, rumors spread that he had taken two fifteen-year-old girls as “wives.” On June 23, 1984, he married Swedish native Birgitta Gyllenhammar in Las Vegas, Nevada, though this marriage ended two years later; she later claimed that Alamo wanted her to have plastic surgery to look like Susan and that he regularly beat and drugged her. In the midst of his supposed third marriage, a 1986 Arkansas Gazette report concluded that Gyllenhammar had actually been Alamo’s sixth wife, as he had apparently been married four times prior to Susan. Between 1986 and 1990, the preacher remarried twice.

When Alamo was released from federal prison in 1998, he quickly reassumed his status as the head of a now smaller Tony Alamo Christian Ministries, which is currently headquartered in Miller County, with branches in Fort Smith (Sebastian County) and Los Angeles. He currently can be heard on over a dozen radio stations in the U.S. and more in Africa, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines. He has claimed that the government actions against him were merely the machinations of Satan, and his followers still attract controversy for distributing his printed literature across the U.S. and beyond.


In October 2007, Tony Alamo Christian Ministries was listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center on account of its anti-Catholic rhetoric. On September 20, 2008, state and federal officials raided Alamo’s Fouke compound as part of a two-year investigation into allegations of child abuse and child pornography.


For additional information:


Buchanan, Susy. “The Daughter’s Tale: Anti-Catholic Cult Leaders’ Child Recounts Abuse.” Intelligence Report, Spring 2008. Online at http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=881 (accessed April 7, 2008).

———. “The Ravening Wolf.” Intelligence Report, Fall 2007. Online at http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=810 (accessed October 23, 2007).



Enriquez, Sam. “Alamo Christian Ministries: Is He a Prophet, Promoter, or Profiteer?” Los Angeles Times. July 11, 1993. Online at http://www.religionnewsblog.com/8506 (accessed July 8, 2006).
Fisher, G. Richard, with M. Kurt Goedelman. “‘Remember the Alamo!’ The Second Coming of Tony Alamo.” Personal Freedom Outreach. http://www.pfo.org/rememberalamo.htm (accessed July 8, 2006).


Flippo, Chet. “Siege of the Alamos.” People Weekly, June 13, 1983, pp. 28–33.

Franke, Eric W. “A Brief History of the Alamo Christian Foundation.” New England Institute of Religious Research. http://neirr.org/alamohist.htm (accessed July 8, 2006).

Hughes, Dave. “Alamo to Return Body of Wife after 7 Years.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. July 24, 1998, pp. 1A, 10A.

McNeil, Betsy. “Nailing Tony Alamo.” This Rock 1 (October 1990). Online at http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/1990/9010fea1.asp (accessed July 8, 2006).
Tony Alamo Christian Ministries. http://www.alamoministries.com/ (accessed July 15, 2006).

Welsh, Adam. “Families Torn by Their Loved Ones’ Faith in Tony Alamo.” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. June 11, 2000, pp. 1A, 11A.


Williams, John. “Alamo Ministry Resurrected.” Arkansas Times. November 29, 2007, pp. 14–16, 18. Online at http://arktimes.com/Articles/ArticleViewer.aspx?ArticleID=5871eb36-3643-467d-8009-48e1a5ff050c (accessed November 29, 2007).



Tony Alamo Christian Ministries home page
The
Tony Alamo Story

By Nancy Ross

THE FOUNDING OF ALAMO'S MINISTRY

In the early 1960's, Alamo and his late wife Susan, went out on the streets of Hollywood and West Hollywood, California and preached the Word of God to young street people, including drug addicts, alcoholics, criminals and prostitutes. They were the first of the "Jesus movement," and their street preaching attracted thousands. The Alamos' beliefs followed a strict adherence to the King James Version of the Bible, and were so popular that their first church was ironically a transformed former drug den in Hollywood. The ministry grew quickly, and soon moved to larger headquarters in West Hollywood and then to Saugus, California.

In the late 1970's, the ministry expanded to Georgia Ridge (near Fort Smith, Van Buren, Alma, and Dyer), Arkansas, where Susan Alamo was born. Soon ministries were founded in Tennessee, Arizona, Florida, Oklahoma and New York. They began modestly, by preparing meals, providing clothing and a place to sleep for their followers and anyone in need. As the congregation grew, they built housing for families, schools, nurseries, medical and recreational facilities. They developed workshops1 which provided job training for their followers, many of whom had never worked before. Through these workshops they opened a grocery store, restaurant, service station, hog farm, and trucking firm. They began manufacturing clothing, and Tony Alamo's fashions became a major success. His "glitzy" denim jackets were sold in department stores, in the most fashionable boutiques throughout the U.S. and Europe. The "Alamo of Nashville" store became world famous for its western, continental, and rock'n roll fashions. Clothes were made for Elvis Presley, Bruce Springsteen, James Brown, and countless others.

The church developed a complex social and religious environment, which one must understand to have an accurate assessment of its practices and mores. The church followed an orthodox fundamentalist tradition. Church followers lived in an extended community and dedicated their labor, money, and time to expand the church in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whether a church member worked in a church-run workshop or in an outside job, salaries were contributed, and all personal necessities, all bills and expenses including housing, medical care, food, clothing, and schooling, were met by the church.

The primary commitment of church members was to spreading the gospel, winning new converts and building their church--not in receiving high salaries. With every restaurant meal served, every gallon of gas pumped, every jacket sold, the customer was sure to receive a church brochure, and if they chose, be "witnessed" to.

Throughout the 1970's, Alamo and the church received strong praise from government officials and the media. In 1972, Herb Ellingswood, an aid to Governor Ronald Reagan came to the Saugus community to present a commendation from the government to Tony and Sue for their work. Press from throughout the world, including the French Paris Match and German Der Stern, wrote praises about Alamo and the church. Neil Young, for Warner Brothers, recorded the Holy Alamo Christian Choir singing the "Hallelujah Chorus" and the Alamo orchestra playing "King of Kings" for the motion picture "Journey Through the Past."

THE CULT AWARENESS NETWORK

SEES AN OPPORTUNITY

The church's enormous growth and success also attracted the attention of the Cult Awareness Network (CAN). CAN has a significant ideological and financial interest in the destruction of churches and so-called "new religions" they unlawfully deem illegitimate, particularly those which demonstrate success in attracting large numbers of converts among young people. CAN-related deprogrammers prey on the pain of families to convince them they can cure their child of their faith, which CAN terms "brainwashing." These deprogrammers charge these parents tens of thousands of dollars, and use such "tactics" as kidnapping, coercion, and physical abuse. They subject them to sleep and food deprivation, humiliate and ridicule them, deprive them of privacy, and have even used sex--all to deprogram a "believer."

CAN went after Mr. Alamo and his ministry in the worst tradition of the Salem witch hunts, the 19th century attacks on the Mormons, and other examples of religious intolerance. CAN's campaign of demonization against Alamo lasted 25 years, during which they disseminated and distorted misleading interpretations of church practices and false information to the media, and instigated investigations by government agencies -- from the Labor Department to the I.R.S.

Several qualified religious scholars have studied Alamo’s church, and have regarded it as a legitimate fundamentalist religion. However, these scholarly opinions have been drowned out by the "cult hysteria" whipped up and unlawfully manipulated by CAN. It is this latter interpretation that has most influenced the media and the courts. Although the consensus of the psychology profession is that the concepts of "brainwashing" and "mind control" are entirely without scientific merit, the media adopted CAN's allegations that Alamo "brainwashed" his congregation. CAN pseudo-psychologists recently lost a major law suit which has permanently ended their financially beneficial practice of testifying in court that so-called "cult leaders" could "brainwash" people to act against their will. But Tony Alamo was attacked before these theories were debunked, and these phony psychologists were allowed to peddle their bogus theories against Alamo in court. They portrayed him as having total control over his congregation, and compared church workshops to sweat shops whose workers were forced to hand over all their earnings to the Tony and Susan Alamo Foundation (TSAF). Thus the image of a "cult" leader was firmly ingrained in the public's perception of Pastor Alamo; and once demonized with this label, Alamo, like the Branch Davidians, became less than human in their eyes. The successful and good work of the church, of helping people overcome crime, drug and alcohol problems, of providing stable livings and jobs, and of giving people faith in God and a reason to live, were completely ignored.

ALAMO'S TRIALS BEGIN

Between 1976 and 1994, Alamo faced a multitude of lawsuits, many of them fomented by CAN. In 1976, the U.S. Labor Department filed a lawsuit against the Tony and Susan Alamo Foundation (TSAF), alleging that it was subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), and that its members had to be classified as employees rather than volunteers. Church members countered that they did not expect a salary per se. They were volunteers working for the Lord and the goals of the church, and were working to pay their own bills as well as church bills. The church provided them with housing, food, all their necessities, spending money, and they were using additional money to build homes for new followers and other community facilities. The case went to the Supreme Court, which ruled in 1985 that people working in church-related businesses were subject to the minimum wage and FLSA regulations.

In January of 1988, Tony Alamo was accused of child abuse, of allegedly directing--over the telephone--the beating of 11 year old Jeremiah Justin Miller. At the time, the child was at the center of a custody battle between his mother, a member of Alamo’s church, and his father, Carey Miller who had left the church and joined CAN. Miller had abandoned the mother and the child, and according to the church, had embezzled church funds. Nonetheless, the father's accusations prompted a March of 1988 raid on the Saugus community, in which 60 Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies took the child and confiscated church property to be used as evidence. The raid turned up no evidence and the prosecutors initially declined to file charges. However, the charges were reinstated in April of 1989, when father and son, under the "guidance" of CAN-associated attorney Peter Georgiades, agreed to testify against the church. (Justin later became a ward of the state.) This case was never brought to trial, and recently, the California district attorney formally dropped the charges.

In October of 1988,nine months after the child abuse charge, Justin's father, Carey and his brother Robert Miller, filed a suit against Alamo, TSAF and Music Square Church, falsely charging Alamo with stealing their trucking business, and asserting there was no distinction between Alamo and the church. The Church claims that in fact, it was the Millers who stole $100,000 and the trucking business from the church. (The Millers used church drivers, who were never paid, as well as church administrative officers, trucks, and the church's credit rating.)

Georgiades, the Millers' attorney, claimed they tried to serve Alamo with a summons, but they couldn't find him. Even though the Millers knew Alamo was in California, they convinced the court to serve Alamo in Arkansas. The court finally effected service in an obscure Arkansas newspaper, and then charged Alamo with unlawful flight. Alamo denies this, pointing out that during the three years the government asserted he was fugitive, he was seen in pictures with Hulk Hogan, Mr. T, (now congressman) Sonny Bono and his wife, martial artist Benny the Jet Uriquidez, and George Albert of Cash Box Magazine, who were all modeling his trademark jackets. He did photo sessions with Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, the mayors of Las Vegas and Jersey City; did numerous radio interviews, including several with his brother Dan Hoffman, a well-known talk show host in Nashville; attended clothing trade shows in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas; did business with several Las Vegas casinos; and had dinner with the Wynn family, owner of the Golden Nugget, Dunes and Mirage Hotels and Casinos. At one point he even spoke with the LA Sheriff’s office.

Despite Alamo's obvious visibility, Judge Morris Arnold adopted the Millers' claim that Alamo was nowhere to be found, and proceeded with the case. In April of 1990 Arnold ruled in a default judgment against Alamo, and awarded Carey and Robert Miller $1.466 million in damages. The judge ruled that Alamo had fraudulently transferred assets to avoid a judgment, and that Alamo, the TSAF and Music Square Church were all the same--"alter egos" of each other. Neither Alamo or other church witnesses were allowed to testify at the trial, and no evidence was allowed on behalf of the church. It is clear from the judge's statement, that the case was highly colored by CAN's inflammatory charges. After issuing the judgment, he said, "No feeling person could fail to be moved by the testimony in this case or be reviled by the cold-blooded and calculated manner in which the [abusive spanking] punishment was carried out."

On July 5, 1991, Alamo was "captured" in Tampa, Florida where he and other church members openly operated a hardware store and family-style restaurant. He was charged with threatening to kidnap Judge Morris Arnold. In September of 1991, a Ft. Smith, Arkansas jury acquitted Alamo of these charges.

In April of 1982, Susan Alamo died of cancer, and was buried at Georgia Ridge. In 1991, after the government confiscated the church's Georgia Ridge property and there were threats that the mausoleum was going to be desecrated, her body was taken from the Georgia Ridge mausoleum. In March of 1992, Christhiaon Coie, Susan Alamo's estranged daughter whom she had disowned, filed a lawsuit inspired by CAN against Alamo accusing him of stealing her mother's body. Coie hadn’t seen her mother in over twenty years, including during the time she was dying. (She has even denied that her mother died of cancer.) But neither Coie or CAN could miss the opportunity of a potential financial reward from characterizing the removal of the body, a felony in Arkansas, as a "theft." The judge fined Alamo $100,000 and ordered his imprisonment unless he reveals the whereabouts of the body. While Alamo denies knowledge of where the body lies, he points out that according to Arkansas law, the body belongs to the spouse and not to the child. The case is on appeal.

REVOCATION OF THE CHURCH’S TAX

EXEMPT STATUS

During this same period, the IRS began to move against Alamo and the churches. In 1985, prodded by CAN members, they revoked the church’s tax-exempt status retroactively for the years 1977 to 1980. Despite the church’s attempts to reverse this ruling, it was upheld in 1992. The IRS simultaneously opened a criminal investigation against Alamo, thus effectively denying him the right to testify in the tax exempt case.

Jew_never_paid Taxes

In 1990, the IRS filed liens of $7.9 million against church-run workshops (businesses) for taxes it claimed were due in six states -- Tennessee, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Oklahoma and Florida. The IRS then issued a (jeopardy) assessment against Alamo claiming he owed $745,000 in personal income taxes for the years 1977 through 1980, and that Alamo-related companies owed another $5 million in corporate income tax, and $1.6 million in unpaid employees withholding taxes.

These charges, coupled with the default judgment in the Miller case, gave the IRS license to seize church property. In July of 1990, two dozen IRS agents raided the "Alamo of Nashville" store, seizing all of its merchandise and equipment. In October of 1991, the jeopardy assessment was abated by Federal Judge Thomas Weisman, who stated that the IRS had acted illegally. Eventually, the IRS and CAN attorney Georgiades, succeeded in getting another judge to allow them to re-seize the property.

In February of 1991, sixty U.S. Marshal Service agents, with weapons drawn, stormed the Alma and Georgia Ridge, Arkansas communities of more than 200 families. They confiscated their homes, businesses, and personal possessions, took scores of designer jackets ready for market, industrial sewing machines, dozens of cars and trucks, and over $8,000 in cash. They cut off phone and electrical lines, and closed the cafeteria, throwing the families out of their homes in the dead of the winter, and guaranteeing they wouldn't return. In addition, they took all the financial records, depriving Alamo of any means of defense in the tax violations cases. At least six separate court pleas in federal courts for return of the financial records were denied. Other seizures took place in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida and Oklahoma.

THE POWER OF THE "CULT" LABEL

Meanwhile, the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles "cult" division, in a CAN-related campaign, launched a successful boycott to get stores to stop carrying Alamo fashions. They echoed the Millers' false child abuse charges against Alamo, and even arranged media interviews for the Millers. Even though these charges were unproven and later dropped, the department stores did not want to get caught up in a controversy, and Alamo lost contracts with Bullocks, Macy's, Neiman Marcus, and many others. These contracts projected enough income to pay all back taxes the IRS claimed Alamo owed.

In February of 1993, a Memphis grand jury indicted Alamo on charges of filing a false income tax return for 1985, and failing to file tax returns for the years of 1986, 1987 and 1988. In April of 1993, Alamo was arrested, and one year later, in May of 1994, his trial began before U.S. District Judge Jon P. McCalla. On June 8, 1994, Alamo was convicted of all four tax charges and sentenced to six years in prison.

Once again, Alamo was convicted by CAN-orchestrated slanders. When Judge McCalla ordered Alamo jailed, he expressed concern about the "very great control Mr. Alamo has over a number of people." While Alamo was not on trial for such bogus charges, it is clear that his conviction for tax fraud was influenced by this and other slanderous charges, which were given full play in the media.

Within a month, in July of 1994, Alamo filed a motion for a new trial, after discovering that his attorney, Jeffrey Dickstein, had been operating under a serious conflict of interest, making his defense ineffective. The government was considering charging Dickstein with tax fraud, and a bankruptcy judge had reported Dickstein for possible criminal prosecution for money paid to him in cash on behalf of Alamo. Alamo, who was largely unaware of these charges, was a potential government witness against Dickstein. In addition, Dickstein was facing a disbarment charge in California.

Dickstein's failure to provide a competent defense, and his propensity to alienate judge and jury alike, worked against Alamo. With the exception of a few government agents who testified, the remaining witnesses were disgruntled ex-church members who were aligned with CAN. Dickstein either refused to cross-examine these witnesses, or his examination was so lackluster that he allowed these witnesses to introduce slanders damaging to Alamo's character. The trial lasted three weeks, and despite Dickstein's feeble defense, it still took the jury three days to render a verdict.

It took eighteen months after Alamo's sentence for the judge to rule against his motion for a new trial. An appeal is pending.

Beginning in April of 1991, the U.S. Marshal Service, on behalf of the Millers and Georgiades, began auctioning off church properties and personal items to supposedly "satisfy" the debt. The IRS held simultaneous auctions which included real estate holdings in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Tennessee. Meanwhile, through these auctions, Georgiades was able to purchase church properties for pennies on the dollar which he then resold at a hefty profit. The church has not been able to get an accounting either from the U.S. Marshal Service or from the IRS as to the worth of their confiscated properties and goods. While the church estimates their value at over $100 million, the real value will never be known. Besides the loss of property, there were several cases of Alamo fashions being sold illegally. For example, in 1992, a Ft. Smith police officer, employed by the U. S. Marshal Service, was charged and convicted of stealing Alamo jackets. There are other similar stories of stolen church goods illegally sold for individual profit.

In February and March of 1995, a court hearing was held on seven more civil tax cases against Alamo and the churches. The IRS, Alamo and the churches agreed to resolve the issues in an "offer in compromise" which is presently under discussion.

In July of 1995, Alamo filed a (2255) double jeopardy motion claiming he had been punished twice. Alamo's liability by the government was assessed at $765,009. But between 1990 and 1991 over $52 million in property and goods were seized to satisfy this tax liability. Even if the government disputed the figures, there is no question that the seizure was excessive. Alamo also filed a motion claiming the government had indicted him 254 days after the expiration of the Statute of Limitations on the first two tax counts. Alamo noted that the government waited until after they had seized his financial records to charge him, effectively stymieing his ability to defend himself. The government counter-charged that the Statute of Limitations didn't apply since they refused to count the time Alamo was a supposed "fugitive." In reality, the government waited two years until after Alamo was arrested before they even indicted him.

CAN INTERFERES IN PAROLE HEARING

On June 5, 1995, Colorado Parole Examiner Robertson conducted a parole hearing at Federal Corrections Institution in Colorado and recommended Alamo for parole. He noted that Alamo was a model prisoner.

On October 30, 1995, the U.S. Regional Parole Commission in Kansas City, Missouri overturned the recommendation and denied parole. The Commission chose to ignore the Parole Examiner and over 400 letters in favor of his release, and instead relied on letters from disgruntled former church members, all allied with CAN. These letters were initially kept secret from Alamo's attorney, and only two, both heavily redacted, have since been released. But their content was unmistakably CAN slanders, and it was based on these slanders, taken as fact, that the acting Regional Commissioner Michael Gaines made his decision. He referred to Mr. Alamo's church as "a cult in the truest sense... [L]etters from victims are sufficient for a reasonable conclusion that subject committed his scheme by exerting unusually strong control over very vulnerable religious followers of his... He used destitute people, unwed young mothers and children to bring in money in exchange for living in subject's religious compound." The Regional Parole Commission adopted CAN's explicitly ideological anti-First Amendment terminology, which has been soundly rejected by reputable religious scholars.

The Commissioners seem unaware that CAN is a religious hate group whose "brainwashing" theories have been completely debunked and are inadmissible in court. They also seem totally unaware of the First Amendment, including its prohibition of government on the free exercise of religion. With total prejudice, the Commissioners do not recognize that these so-called "destitute people" and "unwed mothers" have the right to join any church they desire.

The parole decision is presently on appeal before the U.S. Parole Commission in Washington. Tony Alamo was denied due process. He, like all American citizens, has the right to have his case tried on the merits, in a trial free of the taint of officially sanctioned religious prejudice.

PRO-FIRST AMENDMENT VICTORIES

There are some hopeful signals that CAN's tactics and practices are now being called into question by the judicial system. Since the Waco tragedy, many Americans have become more aware of the deadly consequences of CAN's anti-religious rhetoric. At least one CAN practice has been stopped. As mentioned above, in October of 1995, CAN psychologists Margaret Singer and Richard Ofshe lost a major suit against the American Psychological Association (APA). They had sued because the APA had refused to endorse a report on "brainwashing" prepared by Dr. Singer, thus depriving her and Dr. Ofshe of their lucrative employment as "expert witnesses" in legal cases where the existence of "brainwashing" was at issue. The APA concluded that her report lacked scientific rigor, and that there was no empirical evidence to support a belief in "brainwashing." The court concurred, and ruled that their pseudo-scientific "brainwashing" theories were unsubstantiated opinions, rather than the professional consensus, and therefore, were not admissible as testimony under the Frye principle.

In March of 1992, the Emery Wilson Corporation d/b/a Sterling Management Systems, a company associated with the Scientologists, was awarded over a million dollars in a suit against CAN attorney Peter Georgiades for defamation of character and slander. In September of 1995, a jury awarded a member of the Seattle United Pentecostal Church $5 million in damages against CAN. The church member had charged CAN and their deprogrammer Rick Ross with depriving him of his religious freedom, by abducting him, holding him against his will, and trying to coerce him into giving up his religious beliefs. This past December, in another victory against an anti-religious witch hunt, a reverend and his wife from Wenatchee, Washington were found not guilty of leading a child sex ring.

These small victories must be extended to insure religious liberty and freedom for all Americans. The term "cult" and all hate language must be permanently stripped from our judicial system. All Americans have the right to the freedom of association, freedom of speech and freedom of religion.
We must preserve and guarantee our Constitutional rights.

Ross & Green
435 West 57th Street, Suite 8-F, New York, New York 10019;
(212) 246-2488, Fax: (212) 246-2384
e-mail: nross00@aol.com




 

seizes 20 more children from Alamo group

2 hours ago

TEXARKANA, Ark. (AP) — State officials have taken into protective custody 20 more children associated with the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries, alleging they had been abused and neglected.

The children — 11 boys and 9 girls ranging in age from 1 to 17_ were taken into state care Tuesday while hearings were being conducted on whether six girls seized in September should remain under state protection or be returned to their parents, Department of Human Services spokeswoman Julie Munsell said .

The department initially said 21 children were seized but revised the number down to 20 late Tuesday.

The court order that authorized the seizure of the 20 children said there were allegations of neglect and physical abuse. Munsell would not detail the allegations.

Alamo was arrested in September, days after his compound in Fouke was raided by state and federal agents. The six girls, between ages 10 and 17, were seized for their own protection.

Alamo has pleaded not guilty to federal charges of transporting minors across state lines for sex.

Alamo has preached that the Bible allows girls to marry once they reach puberty but has said he didn't adopt the practice.

However, witness testimony and assertions from prosecutors indicate otherwise.

The hearings this week are to determine whether the girls should be returned to their parents or be placed under continued care arranged by the state.

Alamo's trial is set for February.

His lawyer, John Wesley Hall Jr., questioned whether his client will be able to get a fair trial in Texarkana considering the news coverage of the case. Hall said Alamo is an easy target in the child welfare hearings.

"Tony Alamo is not able to be there to defend himself, not able to cross-examine these people, which is a fundamental right," Hall said.

20 more kids seized

17 children removed during traffic stop near Alamo compound in Fouke; 3 taken in courtroom

By: Lynn LaRowe and Jim Williamson Published: 11/19/2008

　Jew_transporting_kids_to Another_sex_farm

Staff photo by Tanner Spendley Arkansas State Police and Arkansas Human Services employees congregate Tuesday afternoon in front of the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries compound in Fouke, Ark. The compound was raided for a third time since September. Twenty children who lived at the compound were removed Tuesday. The Arkansas State Police stopped two Ford sport utility vehicles Tuesday inside the city limits of Texarkana, Ark., as they carried 17 children from the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries compound in Fouke, Ark. The Arkansas State Police were watching for the two black cars traveling westbound on Loop 245 near the intersection of Arkansas Highway 549 after receiving a tip. Court orders were issued Monday to remove the children living on Alamo properties in Fouke and Fort Smith, Ark. "The state police received information and were aware the children in the vans were th...

You might interested in an article from the Southern Poverty Law Center, The Ravening Wolf, on the Tony Alamo cult that I've just posted on my blog at http://religiouschildabuse.blogspot.com/ The article is rather long so here's a few excerpts for those in a hurry:

"Alamo, who has three children by three different, current "wives," also has been justifying sex with underage girls over the radio waves in recent years. It's hard not to be reminded of similar attitudes among other cult leaders, from Warren Jeffs, the jailed leader of the polygamist Fundamentalist Latter-Day Saints, to David Koresh, the late apocalyptic chief of the Branch Davidian sect in Waco, Texas, and a man Alamo says was "like a brother to me." Both Jeffs and Koresh have been accused of having sex with children."
 

Jew_impregnantes_pre_teens

"Alamo argues that girls should marry once they start menstruating — even if they are as young as 10. In one September 2006 broadcast, he put it like this: "God impregnated Mary when she was about 11 years old. So the government idiots, the people that don't know the Bible, what you're going to have to do is get a hold of God now, you're going to have to get up there and 'cuff him and send him to prison for statutory rape." 'Alamo took several more "wives" while he was "married" to Jael, she says, including a 9- and a 10-year-old girl." "Alamo was calculated and adept when he began to groom young girls, Jael says."

"They informed their first handful of converts — and the thousands who came later — that anyone who left the church would burn in hell. Without the holy protection of the Alamos, the devil would kill them, turn them into homosexuals or make them insane."

"We were taught, and we taught our kids, that this is Papa Tony, he's a prophet of God," recalled Sue Balsley, a member from 1971 through 1989. "You were taught to shut off what you felt and believe what they said."

"He believed he and Susan to be the two witnesses of the Book of Revelation — immortal prophets — and was convinced Susan would rise from the dead." [she didn't]

"Alamo didn't spoil the children of his cult and he didn't spare the rod. Stories of brutal beatings are commonplace, according to ex-cultists' online accounts and interviews with the Intelligence Report.

"At the Saugus, Calif., compound in January 1988, for instance, 11-year-old Justin Miller wore a leather scarf without permission and asked a science question during history class — two infractions promptly reported to Alamo. The punishment Alamo dictated via speakerphone was 140 blows with the heavy perforated paddle that Alamo had designed and named "the board of education," while his classmates looked on.

"He said I was a goat among sheep and he was going to have to beat the devil out of me," Justin testified later. The boy was held down by four men and walloped until his buttocks bled.