Independent charismatic mega church star Earl Paulk died Sunday in an Atlanta Georgia hospital. He was 81 and had been fighting cancer.
He was a colourful powerful man who had the ear of US presidents, who built a major edifice in Atlanta, attracted thousands of people and was brought down by numerous sex scandals. Church property has been put up for sale, what is left of the church is run by his son whom Paulk passed off as his nephew. He’d had an affair with with sister-in-law.
Paulk’s influence peaked in the 1980s and 1990s, when he was a national leader among independent charismatic churches. He built a huge, racially integrated congregation at the Cathedral at Chapel Hill. Membership was about 10,000 in the early 1990s. Paulk preached Word/Faith(Word/Faith) and Kingdom Now theology, (dominionism: a belief Jesus cannot or will not return until the Church has taken control of the earth’s governments and social institutions) He touted himself as a prophet.
Paulk enlarged his influence with his books and televised church services. President Ronald Reagan invited Paulk to a White House prayer breakfast, and President George H.W. Bush named Paulk’s public housing ministry one of his thousand points of light.
A lawsuit by a former employee, Mona Brewer who alleges a 14 year affair with Paulk will continue against the church.
There is mainstream coverage, however the majority of blogs posting are not religious, they are gossip blogs.
My condolences to his family.
Time line of Earl Paulks life
Earl Paulk – wiki
Nephew Jim Swilley’s blog (turn down your speakers)
The self-professed great ones leave this world just like the rest of us. (dead)
I remember when Paulk was one of the hottest religious commodities around. Read his books. Listened to him. Just one of many who have come to great fame, sinned, and faded away.
My sectarian rut in life was Baptist fundamentalism .The scandals are plenty in the this movement and now many of these former great pastors, who pastored thousands, are dying. Their deaths force me to confront what were we really doing in the name of God?
Bruce