{"id":962,"date":"2008-09-26T17:59:02","date_gmt":"2008-09-26T17:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/2008\/09\/evangelist-tony-alamo-charged.php"},"modified":"2008-09-26T17:59:02","modified_gmt":"2008-09-26T17:59:02","slug":"evangelist-tony-alamo-charged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/09\/evangelist-tony-alamo-charged","title":{"rendered":"Evangelist Tony Alamo Charged with Illegal Transport of Children"},"content":{"rendered":"

(RNS) Evangelist Tony Alamo was charged Thursday (Sept. 25) with transporting children across state lines for sexual activities, just five days after authorities raided his Arkansas ministry.
\nAlamo, 74, was charged after police and social workers interviewed six girls who were removed from the compound on Sept. 20, The Associated Press reported.
\nThe former street preacher, who leads Tony Alamo Christian Ministries, has said that he believes girls are suitable for marriage when they become sexually mature.
\n“Consent is puberty,” he said in a recent interview with the AP.
\nFBI spokesman Steve Frazier would not disclose what the children told authorities, but he said he did not think children were with Alamo when he was arrested at a resort near Flagstaff.
\nIn FBI documents, Alamo was identified by his birth name, Bernie Lazar Hoffman, the AP reported. He has said he was born Jewish but became a Christian convert.
\nAlamo and his late wife Susan were street preachers on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip who went on to form a commune near Saugus, Calif. When his wife died of cancer in 1982, Alamo claimed she would be resurrected. He kept her body on display while their supporters prayed for six months.
\nIn 1994, he was convicted of tax-related charges and served four years in prison after the Internal Revenue Service said he owed $7.9 million to the government.
\n— Adelle M. Banks
\nCopyright 2008 Religion News Service. All rights reserved. No part of this transmission may be distributed or reproduced without written permission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(RNS) Evangelist Tony Alamo was charged Thursday (Sept. 25) with transporting children across state lines for sexual activities, just five days after authorities raided his Arkansas ministry. Alamo, 74, was charged after police and social workers interviewed six girls who were removed from the compound on Sept. 20, The Associated Press reported. The former street…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nEvangelist Tony Alamo Charged with Illegal Transport of Children<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/09\/evangelist-tony-alamo-charged\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Evangelist Tony Alamo Charged with Illegal Transport of Children\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(RNS) Evangelist Tony Alamo was charged Thursday (Sept. 25) with transporting children across state lines for sexual activities, just five days after authorities raided his Arkansas ministry. Alamo, 74, was charged after police and social workers interviewed six girls who were removed from the compound on Sept. 20, The Associated Press reported. The former street…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/09\/evangelist-tony-alamo-charged\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-09-26T17:59:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"nsymmonds\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Evangelist Tony Alamo Charged with Illegal Transport of Children","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/09\/evangelist-tony-alamo-charged","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Evangelist Tony Alamo Charged with Illegal Transport of Children","og_description":"(RNS) Evangelist Tony Alamo was charged Thursday (Sept. 25) with transporting children across state lines for sexual activities, just five days after authorities raided his Arkansas ministry. Alamo, 74, was charged after police and social workers interviewed six girls who were removed from the compound on Sept. 20, The Associated Press reported. The former street…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/09\/evangelist-tony-alamo-charged","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2008-09-26T17:59:02+00:00","author":"nsymmonds","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/09\/evangelist-tony-alamo-charged","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/09\/evangelist-tony-alamo-charged","name":"Evangelist Tony Alamo Charged with Illegal Transport of Children","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-09-26T17:59:02+00:00","dateModified":"2008-09-26T17:59:02+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/09\/evangelist-tony-alamo-charged#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/09\/evangelist-tony-alamo-charged"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2008\/09\/evangelist-tony-alamo-charged#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Evangelist Tony Alamo Charged with Illegal Transport of Children"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2","name":"nsymmonds","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","caption":"nsymmonds"},"description":"Nicole Symmonds is Beliefnet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Prayer editor and also covers Christianity. 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