Former pastor and presiding AME elder Jonathan Roberts and his alleged partner in crime, Roberta Simmons, were charged with crimes related to the alleged stealing of funds from their church. Saint Stephens AME Church is Hardeeville, S.C., is missing about $50k from its bank account.
"There was an account that a couple of years ago contained about $56,000 and now contained only about $2,000," Nagy said.
Nagy said investigators are unsure how much money Simmons and Roberts may have stolen or what they did with it.
"Those are the kinds of questions we're trying to get answered to get justice in this case, and satisfy the congregation," Nagy said. "This is still an ongoing investigation. These are the first two charges that we've made but it would not surprise me if there were more charges or if we found out there were other people involved."
Read more: Church elder, secretary accused of fleecing Hardeeville flock
Why do people steal such small sums of money from a church where the crime will eventually be discovered? My personal theory is they bet on church elders not wanting a public scandal.
2 comments:
Contrarywise, I think the reason these things happen is that these type of people don't think about the consequences.
In various forms of fundagelicalism, with no training and no proper accountability, and lots of spiritual adrenaline, the boundary between the pastor and the church is virtually erased, and with a self-induced sense of "I can do no wrong," and the adulation and trust of the people, the "pastor" sees the money as a personal possession, and his own will as God's. These kinds of churches are notorious for "worshipping the pastor" and for their lack of proper financial procedures; they are always a crime waiting to happen.
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