Ernest Angley is a well-known televangelist based in Cuyahoga Falls, close to where I live, who rails against homosexuality in his ministry. You know what is coming next, don’t you? But you can read all the sordid details for yourself in this two-part expose that just appeared in the Akron Beacon-Journal here and here.
In 1996, internationally known televangelist Ernest Angley admitted to his assistant minister that he had had sexual relations with a man who was employed by their church, Grace Cathedral in Cuyahoga Falls.
The telephone conversation was tape-recorded and made available to the Beacon Journal and Ohio.com last month.
The person who provided the tape did so for a promise of anonymity. That person felt called to action after reading about an exchange of lawsuits between Angley and another former Grace Cathedral pastor, the Rev. Brock Miller. Miller sued Angley in August, claiming that sexual abuse Angley inflicted upon him has caused permanent damage. Angley has countersued for defamation.
The source believed releasing the tape would show that Angley, who has preached vehemently against the “sin” of homosexuality, has a history of sexual abuse involving his employees.
In the second part, there was this.
In individual interviews, 21 former members of the church told the Beacon that Angley is running a dangerous cult where pregnant women are encouraged to have abortions, childless men are encouraged to have vasectomies and Angley personally examines the genitals of the male parishioners before and after their surgeries.
They also said he turns a blind eye to sexual abuse by other members of his church, and consistently threatens and intimidates his flock into following his instructions, bullying them into life-changing decisions that often split up families.
But however many of these people are exposed as utter hypocrites and abusers who use their positions to prey upon others, they still seem to be able to retain many of their following.
Examining your flock’s genitals is a bit of a give-away!
I think I remember hearing him on the radio a couple of times. IIRC he could make one’s skin crawl.
OTOH some of the old time televangists were great fun to listen too. Long, long ago I used to listen to Garner Ted Armstrong. He was better than most stand-up comedians.
And then there was Dr. Gene Scott. I stumbled over him one night while suffering from a bout of insomnia. Generally speaking, he was fantastic. It took me two or three weeks to decide that he was not doing a parody of a telepreacher but was actually running his own church. Come to think of it, he may have been doing a parody that paid the bills.
Sermons based on pyramidolgy complete with a learned discussion of the “pyramid inch” or on aircraft in Atlantis were heartwarming.