Tony Alamo

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Tony Alamo, from a tract left on a car windshield
Tony Alamo, from a tract left on a car windshield

Tony Alamo (born Bernie LaZar Hoffman, September 20, 1934 in Joplin, Missouri[1][2]), is a controversial American preacher, singer, entrepreneur, and religious evangelist. He and his then-wife Susan are best known as the founders of a fundamentalist organization currently known as Tony Alamo Christian Ministries and based in and around Texarkana, United States[3], and frequently referred to as a cult.[2][4][5][6]

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[edit] Early life

Hoffman was born in Missouri to Jewish-Romanian parents in 1934.[7] 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.[8]

As an adult in the early 1960s, Hoffman moved to Los Angeles, California, assuming the name Marcus Abad, and pursuing a career in music. He was briefly incarcerated for a weapon-related offense.[2]. It was there that he met aspiring actress Susan Lipowitz (born Edith Opal Horn in Dyer, Arkansas[7]), a Jewish convert to evangelical Christianity[8] who was nine years older than Hoffman and married to whom Hoffman would later describe as a "small time Los Angeles hood". After Lipowitz' divorce, she and Hoffman were married in a 1966 Las Vegas, Nevada ceremony, and the couple legally changed their names to Tony and Susan Alamo.[2]

Together, the couple established the Tony Alamo Christian Foundation in 1969 in Hollywood, California[7]. They also manufactured and sold a line of "Tony Alamo" brand sequined denim jackets, a business that would eventually land Tony in prison, after he was convicted of tax evasion.[9]

She delivered the sermons on the Alamos' syndicated TV program during the 1970s, while Tony appeared to sing a gospel song. She died on April 8, 1982, to cancer, and he claimed that she would be resurrected.

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 failing to file returns the following three years.

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

"World Pastor" Tony Alamo being arrested in 1991
"World Pastor" Tony Alamo being arrested in 1991

In 1989, he fled Saugus after he was charged with abusing the 11 yr old child of a follower at the group commune in Santa Clarita Valley, and eluded capture. Alamo has contended that he was being persecuted by a "legal Mafia." He said:

"I favor spanking children; you know that. It says so in the Bible. People have to decide whether to do what the Lord says or the state."

Alamo issued orders over a speaker phone, listing each of the child's transgressions and dictated how many times to paddle the child. The child could not sit down without a pillow for 2-3 weeks. Five of his followers were also charged. (Los Angeles Times, April 15, 1999)

In February 1991, Alamo ordered his followers to bring along his 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 six-year federal sentence, and then went to a halfway house in Texarkana.

Tony Alamo Christian Ministries' leaflet placed on an automobile windshield
Tony Alamo Christian Ministries' leaflet placed on an automobile windshield

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. Tracts currently being distributed include a picture of Alamo circa 1986.

[edit] Suffrage controversy

Alamo voted in the 2006 runoff election in Fouke, Arkansas (12 miles 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. Although Alamo presented a signed letter from probation officer John C. Mooney Jr., stating that Alamo's term of supervision had ended 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.[10][1]

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Sherman, Bill. "Storied evangelist still preaching: Tony Alamo continues to stir controversy from the Arkansas town he calls home.", Tulsa World, World Publishing Company, Tulsa, OK, 2006-12-03. Retrieved on 2006-12-29.
  2. ^ a b c d Fisher, G.R. and Goedelman, M.K. (2001). "Remember the Alamo!". Personal Freedom Outreach. Retrieved on 2006-12-29.
  3. ^ Alamo Christian Ministries' official web site directs inquiries to a Texarkana, Texas post office box. The Alamo Ministries compound is Fouke, Arkansas
  4. ^ Francke, Eric W. (c. 2000). "A Brief History of the Alamo Christian Foundation". New England Institute of Religious Research. Retrieved on 2006-12-30.
  5. ^ Waters, Tim. "Body of Cult Leader's Wife Stolen from Mausoleum", Los Angeles Times, Tribune Company, 1991-02-20, p. B3. Retrieved on 2006-12-30.
  6. ^ Ricci, James. "Cult Leader Loses Ruling Over Dead Wife's Body", Los Angeles Times, Tribune Company, 1997-02-20, p. B4. Retrieved on 2006-12-30.
  7. ^ a b c Tony Alamo Materials. Central Arkansas Library System
  8. ^ a b Alamo Christian Ministries/Music Square Church. Montana Human Rights Network]
  9. ^ "Jury Convicts an Evangelist in Tax Evasion", New York Times, June 12, 1994
  10. ^ Williamson, Jim. "Official: Clerk cannot contest ballot: Miller County Election Commission accepts vote from Tony Alamo", Texarkana Gazette, 2006-12-05. Retrieved on 2006-12-29.

[edit] External links

[edit] See also

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