Altho not as extreme as this case... I have a friend (altho the relationship is very very strained at this point) who was the preacher for a small country church. They were raising funds to build a new building... and after awhile folks in the church began to question where all the money was going. His family seemed to be living pretty well on hardly any income, and the building fund should have had $40k - $50 more in it than it did.
They got very defensive about it... people started leaving the church in packs. To the best of my knowledge no one ever took it to the law, but in less than a month everyone was gone except the preacher and his immediate family.
To this day he still has never given an account for where the money went, but his reputation around here is shot.
So what did he do? Moved a couple hours away and started preaching there.
Now, even tho all the signs were there that has led me to believe he did something wrong, I cant say for sure. But the money went somewhere and he tells anyone who asks that it's none of their business... he's the "man of God".
If I was accused of something like that, and I knew I was innocent, you better believe I would be doing everything within my power to proove it.
But the point is... obviously whats most important to him is [b]his[/b] "ministry". His supposed "call to preach". Nevermind he has shamed himself, and disqualified himself from even being in ministry.
And I am considering writing a letter to those in his new church to inform them of the goings on back here in his hometown. I'm putting a lot of prayer into it first tho.
Krispy