From financial fraud to sexual misconduct, religious institutions have faced their share of controversies. Join us as we explore the most shocking scandals that have rocked faith communities worldwide. Our countdown includes cases of abuse, corruption, and hypocrisy that have shaken believers and non-believers alike.
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00:00It could be just a cruel place, and so you have to know how to really stick up for yourself.
00:04You know, you're a little kid.
00:06You don't have any adults to protect you.
00:08Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we'll be counting down our picks
00:11for the most shocking, headline-grabbing controversies involving religious leaders and institutions.
00:17It would have been kinder for these men to assassinate us than to do what they've done to us.
00:24Number 30, Ravi Zacharias, posthumous accusations.
00:28If I am creating misery for people around me, and I'm roughing people's lives up,
00:34you know what that tells people?
00:36I am the one who's messed up inside.
00:38It tells me more about myself than about that person.
00:42It wasn't until the death of Christian author and minister Ravi Zacharias in 2020
00:47that the true scope of his sexual assault allegations were revealed.
00:50This was in addition to the accusations that Zacharias falsified his educational background in his biography.
00:56Multiple women claimed the evangelical minister assaulted them
01:00while they worked at the Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.
01:03Other female employees at his chain of day spas also accused him of sexual harassment.
01:08Their statements included allegations that Zacharias routinely demanded sex from these employees.
01:14One accuser even claimed the spa owner pleasured himself in front of her an astonishing 50 times.
01:21The vitriol, the invective, the poisonous barbs and statements,
01:27we can't seem to disagree without bringing the person down.
01:31Number 29, Pastor Carl Lentz, sexual misconduct allegations.
01:36He said, among you there must not even be a hint of sexual immorality
01:41or any kind of impurity or any kind of greed because these are improper for God's holy people.
01:47The very phrase celebrity pastor seems oxymoronic, like a pitch for a bad and tasteless reality show.
01:53Yet that's exactly the professional space Carl Lentz occupied during his tenure
01:57as a spiritual advisor to entertainers like Justin Bieber.
02:00His time in that position didn't last forever though,
02:03and not because Lentz carried himself with a similar sort of rock star swagger.
02:07I had deep brokenness that manifests itself in a lot of different ways.
02:13Do you want to change?
02:14I'm changing.
02:15Instead, Lentz was relieved of his membership to Australia's Hillsong Church
02:19after it was revealed he'd been unfaithful to his wife.
02:22Additionally, his former nanny, Leona Kimes, who was also a wife to another Hillsong pastor,
02:28accused Lentz of manipulation and sexual assault during their affair.
02:32I just broke down. It felt like just wave after wave, just being hit.
02:39Number 28, Paul Barnes is outed.
02:42The scandal at the centre of Paul Barnes' ministry isn't so much connected to the pastor's identity as a gay man,
02:48but rather the reaction to him coming out.
02:51The founder of Colorado's Grace Chapel Church was outed by an anonymous caller to his parish,
02:56and the revelation ultimately resulted in him resigning from his position.
03:00In a subsequent statement, Barnes stated that he struggled with his sexuality,
03:05and spent nights, quote, begging God to take this away.
03:09The question can then be asked, will there be a point when religious institutions accept a broader definition of sexuality,
03:15or will certain demographics continue to be ousted from their ranks as a result?
03:19So would you please come? Would you check out our church?
03:22And if we're not the right church for you, we'll help you find the right church,
03:25but I think you're going to find in us biblical convictions that lead us to be the church God wants us to be.
03:31Number 27, Lonnie Latham solicitation scandal.
03:34This is another situation with differing viewpoints and reactions,
03:38especially with the benefit of hindsight.
03:40The Reverend Dr. Lonnie Latham was an influential and active minister within the South Tulsa Baptist Church,
03:46a man with opinions about faith, sexuality, and law.
03:50Yet, Latham was arrested in 2006 for sexual solicitation of an undercover male police officer.
03:56The resulting scandal led to the pastor's resignation from the church.
03:59Latham was eventually acquitted of the criminal charges,
04:02but various LGBTQIA plus groups pointed out the hypocrisy of him previously defaming gay causes.
04:10They argued that if Latham had been free to embrace his true identity while serving his congregation,
04:15he might never have resorted to such behavior.
04:18Number 26, Coy Privet arrest and resignation.
04:21Privet was brought to the magistrate's office in Salisbury this morning,
04:24charged and released on a written promise to appear in court.
04:28After his arrest in 2007, critics were quick to point out the hypocrisy of North Carolina lawmaker Coy Privet,
04:35who was a staunch opponent of alcohol sales and legalized lotteries.
04:39Privet had been picked up for soliciting a sex worker,
04:42a case which was discovered by chance while police were investigating a different crime.
04:47In addition to being a conservative politician, Privet was also a retired Baptist pastor
04:52and the president of the Christian Action League of North Carolina,
04:55a position he relinquished after the charges came to light.
04:58However, he refused to resign from his role as a Carabas County commissioner,
05:02holding on to the position for another three years, despite calls from his Republican colleagues to step down.
05:09Privet was the group's president the last six years.
05:11Before that, he served as its executive director for 15 years.
05:15Crit says he considers Privet a mentor and a friend.
05:19Number 25, Tony Alamo and the Alamo Christian Foundation.
05:23And there's just a set of basic rules.
05:25They're told when they come in, no drugs, no sex, no pairing off.
05:31The life of this religious cult leader took some strange detours.
05:35Tony Alamo initially worked in the music industry as a singer and performer
05:39before eventually founding the Alamo Christian Foundation in 1969.
05:44His Jewish heritage seemed to matter little when it came to the evangelical side of preaching.
05:49Yet Alamo's foundation was criticized almost immediately for targeting youth in Hollywood for conversion.
05:55As the high priests of voodoo and poker mania know,
05:58rhythmic shattering noise can be used to affect normal brain function and critical reaction.
06:04This focus on having young members of his foundation cruising Hollywood for new recruits
06:09tied into Alamo's exploitation of child labor for his clothing side business.
06:15In 2009, he was ultimately convicted of charges related to his inappropriate conduct with minors
06:21and spent the rest of his life in prison.
06:23Years after his wife's death, Tony Alamo began taking child brides as young as eight years old.
06:29And in 2009, he was sentenced to 175 years in prison.
06:34Number 24, Ted Haggard's sex scandal.
06:37Well, it was a love-hate thing.
06:38I mean, it was a compulsive behavior.
06:41And once I was able to deal with that through therapy, I haven't had that compulsion since.
06:46The St. James Church was founded in 2010 by a free Methodist pastor named Ted Haggard.
06:51This wasn't Haggard's first venture.
06:53He had previously found great success with his New Life Church back in the 1980s.
06:58But it was the scandal associated with Haggard's former ministry that necessitated a new religious venture,
07:03one that outed his extramarital affair.
07:05If you need to go somewhere in the middle of the night and you want to keep it a secret
07:11and hope nobody ever knows, don't go there.
07:14The pastor admitted to a relationship with a male sex worker named Mike Jones,
07:19as well as to purchasing narcotics.
07:21This was especially significant given Haggard's vocal opposition to same-sex marriage and LGBTQIA plus causes.
07:29The minister also admitted that he behaved inappropriately with another young male member of his congregation,
07:35and he ultimately resigned from his position as chair.
07:38Now, I've lost my career.
07:40I've lost my social standing.
07:41I've lost all my positions.
07:43I've lost all my influence.
07:45I've lost my trustworthiness.
07:46I've lost all of that.
07:51Are you straight now?
07:52I am.
07:53You are?
07:54I am.
07:54You're not a gay person who fights with yourself every day?
07:58No.
07:58The fundamentalist Protestant group Focus on the Family has long advocated for conservative political causes,
08:04with an emphasis on opposing LGBTQIA plus rights.
08:08They established a splinter ministry called Love One Out,
08:12led by John Polk, who claimed that counseling and prayer had changed his sexuality.
08:17However, Polk stirred controversy in 2000 when he was photographed outside a gay bar in Washington, D.C.
08:23He initially denied it was him, then claimed he only stopped to use the bathroom,
08:27before ultimately admitting he went in there to meet other patrons.
08:31I knew this was going to come out immediately, so I lied.
08:36And I said I didn't know it was a gay bar and I had gone in there to use the bathroom.
08:40Well, any person with half a brain realized, come on, John.
08:45Polk eventually left Love One Out, publicly denounced the organization, and apologized for his involvement.
08:50These days, he identifies as both Christian and gay, rejecting the formerly gay label he once embraced.
08:57I had never been honest a day in my life.
09:01It was lie after lie after lie after lie.
09:0622. Terry Hornbuckle Assault Scandal
09:09The Victory Temple Bible Church of Arlington, Texas, only consisted of 15 members when it was founded by Pastor Terry Hornbuckle in 1986.
09:18Fast forward to 1992, and the congregation, that was formerly housed within an old dairy queen,
09:23had been rebranded as a Gape Christian Fellowship and was situated in a nondescript strip mall.
09:29It was during his time overseeing this new ministry that Hornbuckle drugged and sexually assaulted three non-consenting women.
09:36He was found guilty in 2006 and served a full 15-year sentence.
09:41However, fearing that he would re-offend if released, authorities decided to transfer Hornbuckle to a mental health hospital after his prison term had ended.
09:4921. Mother Teresa's Motivations and Charity Scandal
09:53This profane marriage between tawdry media hype and medieval superstition gave birth to an icon which few have since had the poor taste to question.
10:04To many people around the world, Mother Teresa remains an unwavering figure of selflessness and compassion.
10:10This is understandable, as the Albanian Indian nun founded the Missionaries of Charity, which for many years has provided hospice services and assistance programs for the poor and sick.
10:20But even before her death in 1997, Teresa was criticized for her motives and the quality of medical care provided.
10:27By these canonical keywords, we are taught that we may recognize saints.
10:33Yet Mother Teresa regards herself as mandated by heaven, which is hardly modest.
10:38Her critics cited the missionaries' practice of secretly converting dying patients to Christianity regardless of their religious affiliations.
10:46She was also called out for reusing syringes and lacking proper medication, even though her charity was pulling in millions of dollars in donations every year.
10:56Regardless of these denunciations, Mother Teresa was canonized by the Vatican in 2016.
11:02More than 100,000 worshippers packed into a sunny St. Peter's Square for the canonization of Mother Teresa.
11:0820. Joel Olsteen and the Hurricane Harvey Controversy
11:12The city set up a shelter about four miles from here that can house 10,000 people, showers, dormitories, kitchens, security, all that.
11:20They didn't need us as a shelter at that point.
11:23Famous televangelist Joel Olsteen has been the senior pastor of Lakewood Church in Houston, Texas, since 1999.
11:30When Hurricane Harvey hit Texas in August 2017, Olsteen drew significant criticism for only offering prayers and not opening up his megachurch to those displaced by the flood.
11:40Through their social media pages, Lakewood's administration attempted to refute those claims.
11:45They put up pictures that supposedly showed the 1,600-seat facility had also suffered considerable flooding and was therefore inaccessible.
11:53But this was quickly contradicted by posts from several Twitter users which showed no apparent flooding around the church's premises.
12:01Following the backlash, Olsteen made Lakewood available as a shelter and began accepting donations and relief items for the hurricane survivors.
12:10You know what? We've been here 60 years helping people and we're going to be here long after all this dies down helping these people as well.
12:1619. Peter Popov's Clairvoyant Scan
12:19You're going to see a miracle touching your own life as you use it, amen? I believe the power is just going to flow to you.
12:28The televangelist boom of the 1970s and 80s saw a number of high-profile preachers amass fame and fortune for their apparent hearing and clairvoyant powers.
12:37One of these was Peter Popov. During his widely broadcast services, Popov would accurately provide specific details about his audience members, as if divinely revealed to him.
12:48In 1986, James Randi, a magician and skeptic, showed that the California preacher wasn't actually hearing from God, but from his wife through an earpiece.
12:59Popov's wife, Elizabeth, had previously gotten personal information from people in the audience and then fed it to her husband electronically through a tiny earpiece.
13:08At first, Popov denied the allegations, but faced with insurmountable evidence, he later owned up to them.
13:14While his followership was significantly affected by the scandal, Popov successfully made a comeback in the late 90s.
13:21Can you just answer us one question? Can you just move away, please? Would you talk to us later, please? No.
13:2818. Joe Barron Juvenile Solicitation Scandal
13:32Joe Barron is leaving Prestonwood Baptist Church in the Dallas area after being arrested Thursday in this parking lot.
13:39Joe Barron was a minister and marriage counselor at Prestonwood Baptist Church in the Dallas, Texas suburb of Plano.
13:45In 2008, Barron struck up an online conversation with who he thought was a teenage girl living in Bryan, Texas.
13:52After about two weeks, Barron drove the almost 200-mile trip to meet up with the girl, only to be arrested by law enforcement and charged with solicitation of a minor.
14:02His arrest was part of a sting operation in which police officers posed online as young children in a bid to fish out predators in the area.
14:09The Prestonwood church quickly denounced Barron's actions and forced him to resign from his pastoral position.
14:15He was later convicted of the charges.
14:17In his car, officers found a webcam and condoms, even though the 52-year-old allegedly told authorities he simply wanted to buy the girl a Coca-Cola.
14:2717. Carlton Pearson and the Gospel of Inclusion
14:31The property, my intellectual rights, the name, I had to sign off from the founder of the organization that I had founded, and it was just pretty torturous.
14:42And lost your home?
14:43Lost my home.
14:44At the height of his ministry, Carlton Pearson was a prominent Pentecostal preacher whose Tulsa, Oklahoma church drew in crowds of over 6,000 people weekly.
14:53He was also a gospel singer and televangelist, who got his start as a protege of the late Dr. Oral Roberts.
14:59As beloved as he was, Pearson soon lost favor with his peers and followers when he adopted a new doctrine he called the Gospel of Inclusion.
15:07People have been saying that I stopped believing in hell, and I've been thinking about that, and I've been praying on it.
15:15The doctrine rejected the idea of hell as punishment for sin and preached that everyone will ultimately be saved by God, regardless of their actions on earth.
15:24Soon after, Pearson lost a bulk of his congregation and he was declared a heretic by the Joint College of African American Pentecostal Bishops.
15:32The Bible, the Bible can be very controversial because one day it says you love God and the mercy of God endures forever.
15:38How can mercy endure forever and hell endure forever? One would cancel out the other.
15:4316. The many scandals of Earl Polk
15:46I am so sorry for any hardship that's come in your life or your family because of me.
15:53During the Civil Rights Movement, Georgia Minister Earl Polk gained a reputation as one of a handful of white Southern preachers who advocated against racism and segregation.
16:03However, that reputation was soon tainted by a slew of sex scandals.
16:07Between 1992 and 2005, multiple women accused Polk of manipulating them into having sexual relations with him.
16:14The Brewers were pillars in Bishop Polk's church.
16:18They filed a suit asking for unspecified money, saying Polk sexually abused Mona for 14 years.
16:25But the mother of all scandals came in 2007 when Donnie Earl, Polk's nephew and a senior pastor at his church, revealed that Polk was actually his father.
16:35Through a court-ordered paternity test, it was discovered that Polk had had an affair with his brother's wife, resulting in the birth of Donnie Earl.
16:43He was also alleged to have molested his granddaughter.
16:4615. Greater Ministries International Ponzi Scheme
16:50A Ponzi scheme that traded on people's faith. Take a look.
16:54Don't put it on your tax return that you donated any money to Greater.
16:57As the founder of the Florida-based Greater Ministries International, Gerald Payne orchestrated an elaborate scam that defrauded unsuspecting people throughout the 90s.
17:06Dubbed Faith Promises, the scheme was depicted as a divine investment program in which investors' money would be doubled by God himself.
17:14In total, about 18,000 people were swindled by Payne, his wife Betty, and other church leaders to the tune of about $500 million.
17:23The fraudulent program came to a halt in August 1999 when U.S. federal agents stormed the church's headquarters in Tampa and closed down the building.
17:33Payne and his accomplices were arrested and handed lengthy prison sentences for their crimes.
17:38The church would guarantee a 17% return.
17:41We don't promise you, the Lord does.
17:43Number 14. The Book of Abraham
17:46I think of the process of converting a written foreign language into my own language, usually with the use of a dictionary.
17:53That doesn't seem to be what Joseph Smith is doing.
17:56The Book of Abraham is one of the most fundamental scriptural texts of the Church of Mormon.
18:01The text originated from a collection of Egyptian scrolls that were bought and translated by the church's founder, Joseph Smith, in the 19th century.
18:09Smith claimed that the book was an autobiographical account of Abraham's early life in Egypt.
18:14But almost as soon as it was published, the book became shrouded in controversy.
18:19Egyptologists have translated these papyrus fragments and determined that they don't directly relate to the Book of Abraham.
18:26Instead, they contain ancient Egyptian funerary texts.
18:30With some Egyptologists criticizing Smith's translation of the original text,
18:35they also accused him of reconstructing entire parts that had been damaged.
18:40The book sparked renewed criticism in the late 1960s,
18:43when parts of the scrolls purchased by Smith were discovered and found to be entirely different from his translated text.
18:50Abraham also shows us that our Heavenly Father loves all of his children.
18:55He wants us to know him.
18:57Number 13. Robert Tilton's Prosperity Gospel Scandal
19:00It's burning on the inside of you, and you need to make a vow of faith of $1,000.
19:05Oh, Bob, couldn't you say $25? No!
19:07The Prosperity Gospel is a belief in some Christian denominations that encourage followers to make monetary donations in exchange for God's favor.
19:16This doctrine has been widely criticized by Christian and non-Christian figures, and has even resulted in multiple financial scandals.
19:23Chief among them was Robert Tilton, a Texas preacher and televangelist, who urged his audience to mail in hefty sums alongside their prayer requests.
19:33The primetime obtained some of Tilton's financial documents.
19:37These are daily deposits, and based on these, Tilton's followers send his ministry conservatively $80 million a year.
19:46In 1991, an ABC News investigation into Tilton's ministry found that he only took out the cash and checks and threw away the prayer requests.
19:55Although Tilton initially denied this, he later owned up to it in a deposition.
19:59Tilton quickly lost most of his audience and, eventually, his TV program.
20:03It doesn't make any difference what time of the day it is. Call us right now at 214-620-6200.
20:12Number 12. The Magdalene Laundries
20:15Last year, the United Nations Committee Against Torture issued a scathing report calling for compensation for the victims of abuse and punishment for the perpetrators.
20:24In 2014, English actress Judi Dench received an Oscar nomination for her performance in Philomena.
20:30The film, based on true events, followed a single mother who was sent to work in a church-owned institution and forced to give her child up for adoption.
20:39Run by the Catholic Church, the real-life institutions, known as Magdalene Laundries, took in unwed mothers and other women thought to be morally wayward.
20:58They were then subjected to, in some cases, years of torture and unpaid labor, practices which were supported by the state and church.
21:06In 2013, the government of Ireland offered a formal apology and set up a compensatory fund for victims of the laundries.
21:13Catholic representatives, however, still refused to acknowledge the church's pardon.
21:30Number 11. The Banco Ambrosiano Scandal
21:37Connected to the Mafia, the Freemasons, and the heart of the Catholic Church.
21:41In the early 80s, a scandal broke involving the Catholic-owned Vatican Bank and another Italian bank called Banco Ambrosiano.
21:49In 1981, the chairman of Banco Ambrosiano, Roberto Calvi, was sentenced to four years in prison for illegal transactions he had carried out through the institution.
21:59While he was out on bail, the bank collapsed after it was discovered that it had accrued debts of over $1 billion.
22:06Calvi fled the country to England, only to be found dead, hanging from the Blackfriars Bridge in London.
22:12Calvi wasn't just connected to the Vatican. He also had links with the Mafia and Italian Freemasons. He had lots to hide and a lot of secrets to tell.
22:23Being the main shareholder of Banco Ambrosiano, the Vatican Bank was implicated in the scandal, as it was alleged to be the medium through which a lot of money was siphoned out of the bank.
22:33Number 10. Jim and Tammy Faye Baker's Controversies
22:38If every person watching could double their pledge right now, that way we can save the word of God.
22:48Jim and Tammy Faye Baker were a husband-and-wife evangelical team that gained popularity in the mid-70s with their television program, The PTL Club.
22:57The Bakers enjoyed great success with the show, at one point raking in revenues of around $120 million annually.
23:04This all came crumbling down after it was revealed that $287,000 in hush money was paid to Jessica Hahn, a church secretary who accused Baker of assaulting her years ago.
23:17Things took a turn for the worse when Jim was charged with defrauding his members of millions of dollars for memberships at Heritage USA, their religious theme park.
23:26He was sentenced to 45 years in prison, of which he served only five.
23:30I did not handle my checkbook. I did not handle even my own finances. I was busy doing these things, and I neglected that.
23:39Number 9. Residential Schools in Canada
23:42More than 150,000 children were sent to residential schools, which Canada's first prime minister supported to, in his words, sever children from the tribe and civilize them.
23:54The troubling legacies of governmental policies, like the Japanese internment camps of World War II, looms large over Canada's system of residential schools.
24:03These state-sponsored institutions possessed ties to religious organizations and were intended to forcibly assimilate indigenous children.
24:11The schools shockingly operated into the late 90s, with the last of its kind, Kivalik Hall, only shutting its doors in 1997.
24:20The family and personal lives of indigenous people were so disrupted for so long that there is just this tremendous impact on the lives of people that continues right to this day.
24:32The residential school system today has been acknowledged by the Canadian government as genocide, thanks to their forced removal of children, widespread abuse, and the damage done to indigenous cultural heritage.
24:43A 2021 investigation even turned up the existence of unmarked graves, offering yet another black eye to this shameful period in Canadian history.
24:53It has to be looked at. It has to be investigated. The boys didn't die in the bush. They died under custody.
25:04Number 8. Gilbert Deya Abduction and Trafficking Scandal
25:09Mary Deya at the time claiming the husband Gilbert Deya had powers to deliver miracles.
25:14The husband had run a church ministry in Nairobi where women unable to bear children were prayed for and in the process allegedly delivered.
25:23After leaving his home country of Kenya in the mid-1990s, this evangelist founded the Gilbert Deya Ministries in the United Kingdom.
25:31Deya and his wife Mary claimed to be able to grant infertile women miracle babies after praying for them.
25:38These women were made to travel to Kenya where the birthing process would take place.
25:42It was, however, discovered that these miracle babies were actually stolen from maternity hospitals in Nairobi and presented to unsuspecting women.
25:51Mary was arrested in Nairobi in 2004 and later sentenced to prison for stealing two babies.
25:57Deya was apprehended in the UK and after a lengthy court battle, he was extradited to Kenya where he was tried on child trafficking charges but was ultimately acquitted.
26:07With Mary Deya behind bars, her husband was fighting extradition orders filed before a Nairobi court, a court in London, ruled that Deya could not get a fair trial in Kenya.
26:18Number 7. Matitsa Beppe Scandal
26:20But in some ultra-orthodox communities, religious leaders known as moels also engage in something controversial during the bris.
26:30The practice of male circumcision is an ancient rite in Jewish faith, dating back to the religion's foundation.
26:35In certain orthodox communities, after taking off the foreskin, the moel, or circumciser, sucks off the blood with his mouth before bandaging the area.
26:44People should just kind of be aware that there's, you know, health issues that are involved and you should really kind of check to make sure that the person who's doing it is healthy.
26:52This procedure, known as Matitsa Beppe, came under fire after a number of New York infants were diagnosed with herpes.
26:59The disease was thought to be transmitted to the children by the moel, reportedly leading to the deaths of two babies over an 11-year period.
27:07In response, the New York City Health Department passed a regulation mandating that all parents be informed of the risks and sign a consent form before proceeding with the ritual.
27:17Were you shocked when Rabbi Fischer told you that?
27:20Shocked is an understatement. It's unbelievable that this goes on and this man is maiming and killing children.
27:30Number 6. Creflo Dollar Gulfstream Jet and Domestic Violence Scandals
27:35In which way is this jet important for your ministry?
27:39Well, in order for me to do what I've been called to do. The airlines, they don't fly my schedule.
27:46Known for his extravagant suits, luxury cars, and lavish homes, Creflo Dollar really goes out of his way to embody his last name.
27:54The Atlanta-based televangelist has caused quite a stir for his acceptance and preaching of the prosperity gospel.
28:00The outreach ministry of World Changes Church is not what draws the criticism. It is Creflo Dollar's beliefs about posterity.
28:07In 2015, Dollar was heavily criticized for soliciting donations to buy a luxury $60 million Gulfstream private jet.
28:16According to him, the plane was necessary to spread the gospel worldwide.
28:20Prior to that, in 2012, Dollar was accused of getting physical with his teenage daughter.
28:26He was arrested and charged with battery, but the charges were later dropped after he completed a mandatory anger management course.
28:32Anything you want to say to your congregation?
28:34No, sir.
28:35Number 5. Mount Cashel Orphanage Scandal
28:38For more than four decades, physical and sexual abuse at Newfoundland's Mount Cashel Orphanage was suppressed by a code of silence.
28:46The Mount Cashel Orphanage was a facility in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada that housed boys from the 1950s until it was shut down in 1990.
28:54The orphanage was run by the Congregation of Christian Brothers, some of whose members molested the young residents.
29:00In total, over 300 boys were reported to have been victims of the crime, making it the largest assault scandal in Canadian history.
29:07Even worse, it was reported that religious and local authorities were well aware of the incidents but turned a blind eye to them.
29:13Multiple civil lawsuits have since been filed by the Mount Cashel survivors, leading to millions of dollars in compensation being paid by the government of Newfoundland and the Congregation of Christian Brothers.
29:24From the time I walked in until that service was over, I just kept looking at that priest and those other boys and wondering.
29:35Number 4. The Allegations Against Bishop Eddie Long
29:39The well-known sex scandal involving Bishop Eddie Long began when four young men, all former members of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church,
29:47filed suit accusing the bishop of lavishing money, trips, and gifts on the young adults.
29:52Bishop Eddie Long was a senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in DeKalb County, Georgia, when he was embroiled in controversy in 2010.
30:00That year, four young male members of Long's church came forward with allegations that he had forced them into improper sexual relationships a couple of years prior.
30:09Long, who was staunchly against gay marriage, vehemently denied the claims, saying that he was under attack by his accusers and that he was going to fight.
30:18But that fight only manifested behind closed doors, as the lawsuits filed by the four men were settled out of court for undisclosed sums.
30:25A fifth accuser came forward and also received an unspecified settlement from Long.
30:30Eventually, it turned into such a relationship that the bishop had a ceremony with Anthony Flagg called a covenant.
30:39Within that covenant, it was essentially a marriage ceremony.
30:42Number 3. Jimmy Swaggart Solicitation Scandal
30:46You see this right here? This is the Bible. That's what I go by. That's what I live by.
30:50Who brought it down?
30:51Not the Catholics.
30:52Jimmy Swaggart was once a pastor at the Assemblies of God Pentecostal Church, and one of the leading televangelists in the U.S.
30:59His weekly programs were so popular that they were broadcast to over 3,000 stations around the world.
31:05But what he is probably most renowned for was the scandal he was accused of in 1988.
31:10After being photographed leaving a motel room with a sex worker, Swaggart was stripped of his ministerial license, and his TV shows were briefly taken off the air.
31:19All of this built up to Swaggart's infamous I Have Sinned speech, in which he tearfully confessed to his congregation on live TV.
31:27I have sinned against you, my Lord.
31:30The Louisiana preacher went on to establish his own independent ministry.
31:34Number 2. Vatican Leaks Scandal
31:37It was a cloak and dagger operation with meetings between Nuzzi and the butler in public squares, conversations only by public telephones.
31:46In 2012, a series of confidential Catholic Church documents were released to the public in what became known as the Vatican Leaks Scandal.
31:53It all began with the publication of a letter written by the then-Secretary of the Vatican Finance and Management Committee, alleging misappropriation of funds within the committee.
32:02That, they believe, proves he is the source of a flood of leaks to Italian newspapers that have embarrassed the Pope and exposed a poisonous atmosphere behind the ancient walls of the Vatican.
32:14Things worsened when Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi released a book containing more confidential letters from Pope Benedict XVI's desk.
32:22These letters exposed alleged financial corruption and abuse of power within the Vatican.
32:28The final nail in the coffin was an internal investigation that revealed the blackmail of gay clergymen by church outsiders.
32:35Pope Benedict ultimately resigned from his position in 2013, the first papal resignation in 700 years.
32:42But the Vatican's police eventually figured out the butler did it.
32:46He was charged with stealing documents and sentenced to 18 months in Vatican custody.
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33:06Number one, the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston spotlight scandal.
33:11We thought, OK, we've heard there may be six or seven.
33:13And then suddenly we thought, could there be a dozen?
33:15And then we seem to have 20.
33:17And by the time we were confident publishing our first story about the scale of the problem, we said there were at least 70.
33:22We now know there were hundreds in the Boston Archdiocese alone.
33:25In the early 2000s, the Boston Globe published a series of articles that revealed accusations of assault by multiple individuals against Catholic priests in the Archdiocese of Boston.
33:36These articles, which initially focused on cases within the Boston area, soon gave way to a global investigation into the conduct of priests and the leaders of the church.
33:46One of the traditions of any reporting team is to confront that person whose name is going to be on the front page with allegations of wrongdoing before it's in the paper.
33:55In total, more than a thousand cases were uncovered, with some dating back several decades.
34:00Major criticism was directed at the church leaders who covered up these cases by transferring accused priests to other parishes.
34:08The exceptional investigation by the Boston Globe team was dramatized in the 2015 Academy Award winning film Spotlight.
34:16We're not going away. We're going to tell this story. We're going to tell it right. We just need a little more time. That's all we're asking for.
34:26Why bother asking?
34:27Should religious leaders be held to different moral standards than their respective flocks? Let us know what you think, respectfully, in the comments.
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34:45See you next time.