Oh, those wacky evangelicals

[Marswolf]

Virginia Minister Charged With Indecent Exposure, DUI

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. — A minister and Christian radio station employee has been charged with indecent exposure and driving under the influence, police say.

Tommy Tester, 58, of Bristol, Va., was arrested last week by Johnson City police after they say Tester urinated in front of children at a car wash.

Police also said Tester, who was wearing a skirt, offered to perform oral sex on officers who responded to the car wash. He was also charged with having an open container of vodka in his car.

Tester is the minister of Gospel Baptist Church in Bristol and works for Christian radio station WZAP-AM.

Calls on Tuesday to the church and Tester's home were not immediately returned.

The radio station issued a statement on Monday asking for prayers and saying Tester had been suspended pending an investigation.

"We pray this matter can be quickly resolved," WZAP owner Al Morris said in the statement.

Tester was released Friday on $1,000 bond. A hearing is scheduled for Oct. 25.

[Guest Steelharp]

:stir:"And ye shall be known by your fruits." He ain't Christian... he's a fruit!

[Guest Hyaloid]

"Do as I say...."

[Marswolf]

Oh, it must be all a mistake.... He was frightened by the cops and denies it all.

http://www.timesnews.net/article.php?id=9002266

Bristol pastor, Christian radio station employee charged with indecent exposure

Published 07/30/2007 By Kacie Dingus Breeding

A Christian radio station employee and Bristol pastor has been charged with indecent exposure as well as DUI and violation of the open container law.

WZAP-AM 690's owner, Al Morris has issued a brief statement Monday afternoon saying, "As many of you are aware Tommy Tester, an employee of WZAP was recently arrested in Washington County, Tenn.

"The allegations, as reported by the news media, are serious and are in no way condoned or accepted by the ownership and management of WZAP.

"We do not know all the details and facts concerning the arrest; but for the time being Tommy has been relieved of his responsibilities at the station until such facts surrounding the case are determined.

"We pray that this matter can be quickly resolved.

In the meantime, we ask you to pray for Tommy and for WZAP."

The Johnson City Press reported Saturday that Thomas Dale Tester, 58, of 17426 Hobbs Road, reportedly faces charges of driving under the influence, indecent exposure and violation of the open container law.

Morris said Monday in a phone interview that Tester, known to listeners as "Tommy Tester," is also pastor of Gospel Baptist Church on Reedy Creek Road. "So far, they (members of the congregation) have rallied behind Tommy," Morris said.

Morris, who was on vacation when he first heard about the allegations and read the details in the Johnson City Press, added, "It's the biggest shock of my life."

Having since read the two police reports over and over again, Morris spoke of his desire to wait until all the facts are revealed in court before condemning Tester, "I know what the police report has told me and I know what Tommy has told me--Tommy has denied all of it."

Morris said his staff, the station's listeners and members of Tester's congregation were all shocked about Johnson City police officers' allegations.

When he talked to Tester, "He said they (Johnson City police) scared him--he was scared to death and didn't know what he'd said or what he'd admitted or anything else," Morris said.

According to the Johnson City Press article, Tester allegedly pulled up in a blue 2007 Toyota Camry and offered to give Johnson City police officers oral sex when they arrived at 308 S. Belmont Street to investigate a report of indecent exposure.

Tester, allegedly wearing a skirt, then reportedly got out of his car at the Belmont Car Wash and urinated in a wash bay in public view with children present.

A search of Tester’s vehicle reportedly revealed a half-empty pint-sized bottle of vodka and an empty bottle of Oxycodone in the passenger floorboard. Morris said Tester had told him about the painkiller prescription, which he'd said was prescribed due to previous back surgeries.

According to reports, Tester also allegedly admitted to police that he had been drinking and failed all field sobriety tests.

Morris said he'd relieved Tester of his duties at the station pending the outcome of the case.

Tester was released on bond from the Washington County Detention Center Friday afternoon and is scheduled to appear in Sessions Court on Tuesday.

[molonlabetn]

I sincerely hope that this fellow gets the help he so desperately needs.

Yikes...

[Marswolf]

Also found this:

http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/oct1982/v39-3-article3.htm

In the early spring of 1974, a small group of parents-fifteen in all-attended the regular monthly meeting of the Washington County School Board and demanded that it immediately remove from eleventh grade English classes the "Responding Series" of literature textbooks. The leader of the group was Bobby W. Sproles, who, at that time, operated a small grocery in the city of Bristol, Virginia, about fifteen miles west of Abingdon.

Sproles said the series contained "common curse words" such as "damn" and "hell." "Evil comes from this kind of thing," he said. "We should hold our children off from seeing these words as long as possible." The School Board was non-committal.

At the next meeting, Sproles' group was back in force. There was standing room only. The Rev. Tommy Tester, pastor of the Gospel Baptist Church, said "the demons of hell have entered the bodies of our educators." Sproles asked women and children to leave the room as he read the offensive words. Two children left. Sproles read: "By god … poor bastard …God damn the Prince of Wales … sick as a pink-assed baby in the crib."

All the offensive quotations were from Billy Budd, a modern adaptation of the Herman Melville novella by playwrights Louis O. Coxe and Robert Chapman. Melville wrote the story shortly before his death in 1891 after a long dry period of wrestling with religious and social questions. It is a profound statement. A moving story. A morality play.

Glad the children had the Rev. Tester to lead them.

[towerclimber37]

NASTY! what a crued and nasty man.

[Schadenfreude]

PREACHER MAKES A SLAVE OF KIDNAPPED GIRL

June 23, 1999-- Minister 'stole baby to be servant' By David Sapsted in New York

A MINISTER and his wife are to stand trial in Tennessee for stealing a baby from a children's home 20 years ago and raising her to believe that God put her on earth to be their servant.

The girl, who was frequently beaten, denied medical care and never sent to school, served the couple and their four children until she was taken to hospital after attempting suicide last year. According to police, she was physically and sexually abused by Joseph Combs, 50, pastor of the now-defunct Emmanuel Baptist Church, and his wife, Evangeline. The couple kept her a virtual prisoner, said Capt Blaine Wade, of Bristol police. "I don't think she ever really knew it was wrong."

While the couple did not mistreat their children, court documents allege that the kidnapped girl was beaten and kept in seclusion. She was supposed to have been educated at home, but cannot read or write.

In addition to kidnapping and assault charges, which both husband and wife face, Combs has been charged with seven charges of rape. Both have pleaded not guilty. Their trial will be held in September.

According to the indictment, the couple took the unnamed baby from a nursing home in Indiana. The girl escaped twice, in 1992 and 1996, but was returned to the couple by police. Capt Wade said the woman, now 20, has been reunited with her natural parents.

[Marswolf]

More on that story at http://www.biblicalevangelist.org/jack_hyles_chapter8.php.

[TGO David]

More on that story at http://www.biblicalevangelist.org/jack_hyles_chapter8.php.

Joseph Combs was found guilty on 11 counts, namely, charges of especially aggravated kidnapping, aggravated assault, aggravated perjury, aggravated rape, and 7 other counts of rape. The jury imposed fines totally $240,000. Evangeline Combs was found guilty on 6 counts, namely, charges of especially aggravated kidnapping, aggravated assault, and 4 counts of aggravated child abuse. The jury levied $150,000 in fines against her. The actual sentencing was scheduled for April 25th (past our deadline for reporting) and, if sentences ran consecutively instead of concurrently, “the greatest Bible teacher in Christendom” could get 144 years in the slammer and Mrs. Combs 73 years. It is our conviction that neither should ever see the outside of a prison wall again, but we are enough of a realist to know that American jurisprudence in our day and age doesn’t work that way.

I suppose the death penalty seemed a little too steep to the jury?

Stuff like this makes my blood boil.

[Branket]

Good day to be Catholic...oh wait, the alter boys...

[Guest Old Chief]

Religious people sure give religion a bad name.

[Guest sermon8r]

:stir:"And ye shall be known by your fruits." He ain't Christian... he's a fruit!

Good one Brother....

The Great Fruit Inspector will have his day.........