Tony Alamo

Tony Alamo (born Bernie LaZar Hoffman on September 20, 1934) is an American preacher, singer, entrepreneur, and religious evangelist. He and his then-wife Susan are best known as the founders of a radical fundamentalist organization currently known as Tony Alamo Christian Ministries. The organization is based in and around Fouke and Alma, Arkansas, United States.Alamo Christian Ministries' [http://www.alamoministries.com/content/english/index.html official web site] directs inquiries to a Texarkana, Texas post office box. The Alamo Ministries compound is in Fouke, Arkansas] It has been referred to as a cult.cite paper | author = Francke, Eric W. | title = A Brief History of the Alamo Christian Foundation | publisher = New England Institute of Religious Research | date = c. 2000 | url = http://neirr.org/alamohist.htm | accessdate = 2006-12-30] cite news | author = Waters, Tim | title = Body of Cult Leader's Wife Stolen from Mausoleum | url = http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/2071141.html?dids=2071141&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS&type=current | work = Los Angeles Times | publisher = Tribune Company | page = B3 | date = 1991-02-20 | accessdate = 2006-12-30] cite news | author = Ricci, James | title = Cult Leader Loses Ruling Over Dead Wife's Body | url = http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/latimes/access/11096169.html?dids=11096169:11096169&FMT=CITE&FMTS=CITE:FT&type=current | work = Los Angeles Times | publisher = Tribune Company | page = B4 | date = 1997-02-20 | accessdate = 2006-12-30]

Biography

Hoffman was born in Joplin, Missouri, to Jewish-Romanian parents in 1934. [http://www.cals.lib.ar.us/butlercenter/manuscripts/collection/mss97-42.html Tony Alamo Materials] . Central Arkansas Library System] As a child he moved with his family to Montana, where he was briefly employed as a delivery boy for Helena's "Independent Record" newspaper. [http://www.mhrn.org/publications/fact%20sheets%20and%20adivsories/TonyAlamoFactSheet.pdf Alamo Christian Ministries/Music Square Church] . Montana Human Rights Network] ]

In the early 1960s, Hoffman moved to Los Angeles, California. He assumed the names Marcus Abad and Mark Hoffman and pursued a career in music. He was briefly incarcerated for a weapon-related offense.cite paper | author = Fisher, G.R. and Goedelman, M.K.| title = Remember the Alamo! | publisher = Personal Freedom Outreach | date = 2001 | url = http://www.pfo.org/rememberalamo.htm | format = | accessdate = 2006-12-29] Hoffman married Helen Hagan (born Helen Alice Muller in New York, New York) in 1961. On May 25, 1964, the couple had a son, Mark Anthony Hoffman. While married to Helen, he met aspiring actress Susan Lipowitz (born Edith Opal Horn in Dyer, Arkansas), a Jewish convert to evangelical Christianity who was nine years older than Hoffman and married to a man whom Hoffman would later describe as a "small time Los Angeles hood". After both Hoffman's and Lipowitz' divorces, Lipowitz and Hoffman married in a 1966 Las Vegas, Nevada, ceremony, and the couple legally changed their names to Tony and Susan Alamo.

Together, the couple established the Tony and Susan Alamo Christian Foundation in 1969 in Hollywood, California. They also manufactured and sold a line of "Tony Alamo" brand sequined denim jackets, a business that would eventually land Alamo in prison for tax evasion. [" [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E04E3DD113AF931A25755C0A962958260 Jury Convicts an Evangelist in Tax Evasion] ", "New York Times", June 12, 1994]

Susan delivered the sermons on the Alamos' syndicated TV program during the 1970s while Tony appeared to sing a gospel song. When Susan died of cancer on April 8, 1982, Alamo claimed she would be resurrected and kept her body on display for six months while their followers prayed. It would be 16 years before her body was returned to her family. [" [http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/09/23/alamo.evangelist.raid.ap/index.html?cfm=seatoverthere Evangelist: 'Puberty' is age of sexual consent] ", "CNN", September 23, 2008]

In 1984 Alamo married Birgetta Oyllenhammer, owner of a clothing design and manufacturing company in Southern California.

In 1985 Alamo targeted the Pope and then-president Ronald Reagan. "Did you know that the Pope and Ronald Reagan are a couple of Anti-Christ Devils and that they are selling us all down the drain?" asked a tract entitled "Genocide". A federal grand jury in Memphis, Tennessee, charged Alamo with filing a false income tax return in 1985 and he failed to file returns during the following three years.

He then married Elizabeth Amrhein. After a custody battle, they lost control of her children.

For a time Alamo had a retail store in Nashville, Tennessee, called The Alamo of Nashville.

In February 1991 Alamo ordered his followers to bring along his second wife's body when they evacuated the Tony and Susan Alamo Christian Foundation compound in Crawford County, Arkansas. The compound was about to be raided by federal marshals in the wake of a civil lawsuit against Alamo.

Alamo was ultimately arrested on tax-related charges and was convicted in 1994. He completed a prison sentence, and was released on December 8, 1998. [Bernie Lazar Hoffman, prisoner number 00305-112, Federal Bureau of Prisons, U.S. Dep't of Justice, at [http://www.bop.gov/iloc2/InmateFinderServlet?Transaction=NameSearch&needingMoreList=false&FirstName=Bernie&Middle=&LastName=Hoffman&Race=U&Sex=U&Age=&x=98&y=13] .] He then went to a halfway house in Texarkana.

Alamo's followers sometimes distribute his writings publicly. The tracts, often in the form of a six "page" trifold pamphlet filled with relatively small type, have been found placed in the windshields of cars in shopping centers, for instance. The tracts predict impending doom and Armageddon and invite the reader to accept Jesus as his or her savior while condemning Catholicism, the Pope and the American government as a Satanic conspiracy behind events such as 9/11, the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor and the John F. Kennedy assassination. Tracts currently being distributed include a picture of Alamo circa 1986.

In a tract distributed shortly before the siege of the Branch Davidian establishment in Waco, Texas, Alamo protested the media's use of the word "compound" to describe the "campus" of his "seminary", and the word "cult" to describe his "ministry".

Controversies

uffrage

Alamo voted in the 2006 runoff election in Fouke, Arkansas (convert|12|mi|km southeast of Texarkana) in support of incumbent Cecil Smith. This vote was challenged by Miller County Clerk Ann Nicholas on the grounds that Alamo is a convicted felon. Alamo presented a signed letter from probation officer John C. Mooney Jr., stating that Alamo's term of supervision had ended on December 7, 1999. The letter did not explicitly state that Alamo's suffrage had been restored.

The Arkansas Secretary of State's office issued a statement saying that the county clerk did not have the authority to challenge a ballot on those grounds, and Alamo's ballot was ultimately accepted. However, Smith was defeated by candidate Terry Purvis with a tally of 216-151.cite news|author = Williamson, Jim | title = Official: Clerk cannot contest ballot: Miller County Election Commission accepts vote from Tony Alamo | url = http://www.texarkanagazette.com/articles/2006/12/05/local_news/news/news01.txt | work = Texarkana Gazette | date = 2006-12-05 | accessdate = 2006-12-29] cite news | author = Sherman, Bill | title = Storied evangelist still preaching: Tony Alamo continues to stir controversy from the Arkansas town he calls home. | url = http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/article.aspx?articleID=061203_Ne_A1_Stori11149 | work = Tulsa World | publisher = World Publishing Company, Tulsa, OK | date = 2006-12-03 | accessdate = 2006-12-29]

Allegations of child abuse at ministry

On September 20, 2008, federal and state investigative agents raided the Arkansas headquarters of the ministry as part of a child pornography investigation. [ [http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/09/20/evangelist.child.porn.ap/index.html Evangelist's compound raided in child porn case.] CNN. Retrieved September 20, 2008.] [ [http://cbs2.com/national/Tony.Alamo.investigation.2.822128.html FBI agents raid Arkansas ministry in child porn probe.] (September 20, 2008). KCAL News (Los Angeles, California). Retrieved September 20, 2008.] This investigation involved allegations of physical abuse, sexual abuse and allegations of polygamy and underage marriage. According to Terry Purvis, mayor of Fouke, Arkansas, his office has received complaints from former ministry members about allegations of child abuse, sexual abuse and polygamy since the ministry established itself in the area. In turn, Purvis turned over information about the allegations to the FBI. [Gambrell, J. (September 20, 2008). [http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EVANGELIST_CHILD_PORN?SITE=AZSUN&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2008-09-20-20-57-17 Arkansas compound raided in child porn case.] Freedom Communications, Inc. Retrieved September 20, 2008.] Alamo denied the child abuse allegations. [cite news|publisher=CNN|title=http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/09/20/evangelist.raid/index.html|title=Evangelist's compound raided in child abuse case|date=2008-09-20] On September 25, 2008, Alamo was arrested by Arizona police and FBI agents in Flagstaff, Arizona on charges that he transported minors over state lines for sexual activity in violation of the Mann Act.cite news|url=http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080926/ap_on_re_us/evangelist_child_porn_3|title=FBI: Evangelist Alamo arrested in child sex probe |last=Gambrell|first=John|publisher=AP via Yahoo News|accessdate=2008-09-26]

References

External links

* [http://www.alamoministries.com/ Tony Alamo ministries]
* [http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=810 Intelligence Report Article on Tony Alamo's Resurgence]
* [http://www.tonyalamonews.com Alamo Ministries Watch Group: Tony Alamo News - Verifiable Facts & Opinions]
* [http://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=4224 Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture]
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* [http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/1990/9010fea1.asp Nailing Tony Alamo (An RC response)]
* [http://www.oalj.dol.gov/public/dba/decsn/1387SCA.txt Dept. of Labor decision against Alamo Foundation]
* [http://www.podcastalley.com/podcast_details.php?pod_id=50188 Recent Tony Alamo Interviews]
* [http://framingbusiness.net/2005/john-paul-ii-and-the-holocaust/ Tony Alamo on John Paul II]