A further fundamentalist televangelist sex scandal has emerged in the United States, involving one Tony Alamo (74), who runs an outfit in Fouke and Alma, Arkansas, named Tony Alamo Ministries.

Alamo is a Romanian- Jewish convert. Born in Missouri, he pursued a musical career, before being arrested on a minor firearms charge, and then converted to fundamentalist Christianity. He had an extramarital affair while still married to his first wife, Helen, leading to his second marriage to Susan Lipowitz and the establishment of Tony and Susan Alamo Christian Foundation in 1969. Susan did most of the preaching, while Tony droned in the background with a guitar. On the side, the couple made branded sequined denim jackets, more of which later.

When Susan passed away from cancer in April 1982, Tony went off the rails.  Bizzarely, he claimed she would rise from the dead and kept her body on display for sixteen months while his followers prayed.

Meanwhile, he was also under investigation for filing a false tax claim, and was jailed again in 1985. At the same time, he produced a tract entitled Genocide. He accused then-US President Ronald Reagan and then-Pope John Paul II of being ‘antichrist devils’ and descended further into apparent decay. As time went on, his media appearances started to promote polygamy and sexual relationships with females under the statutory age of consent. However, when he was jailed again in 1994, it was for further tax evasion.

The Tony Alamo Foundation’s tracts routinely consist of warnings of the end of the world, followed by harangues about an alleged conspiracy between the Papacy and US federal government, which resulted in 9/11, Pearl Harbour and the Kennedy assassination.

On September 20th, his Fouke premises were raided, after the FBI was tipped off that he may have been circulating child pornography. There have been longstanding claims of child battery, polygamy and paedophilia from former female cult members. On September 25, Alamo was arrested for transporting (female) minors across the Arkansas border for sex.

For a detailed investigation of the Tony Alamo Foundation cult, I strongly recommend:

Susy Buchanan: “The Ravening Wolf” Southern Poverty Law Centre Intelligence Report 127 (Fall 2007): http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=810