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Atlanta charismatic church leader in sex scandal26 November, 2007 The 80-year-old leader of a suburban “megachurch” in Atlanta, Georgia, the United States, has been found to have slept with his brother’s wife in the early 1970s and fathered a child by her. D E Paulk, 34, has been known for years publicly as Earl Paulk’s nephew. Now it has turned out that D E Paulk is in fact Earl Paulk’s son. Local reports said that members of the family of Archbishop Earl Paulk, 80, stood at the pulpit of the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit at Chapel Hill Harvester Church a few Sundays ago and disclosed the secret exposed earlier by a paternity test ordered by a court. According to local media, D E Paulk, who became head pastor a year and a half ago, said publicly, “I am so very sorry for the collateral damage it has caused our family and the families hurt by the removing of the veil that hid our humanity and our sinfulness.” He added that he did not learn the secret of his parentage until the paternity test. This is not the first sex scandal to hit Earl Paulk and his independent, charismatic church, reports said. However, this time, the law could pull up Paulk for having lied under oath about the affair. The paternity test was ordered by a judge at the behest of the Cobb County district attorney and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which are investigating Earl Paulk for possible perjury and false-swearing charges arising from a lawsuit. A former employee of the church, Mona Brewer, has sued the archbishop, his brother and the church. Brewer said Earl Paulk manipulated her into an affair from 1989 to 2003 by telling her that it was her only path to salvation. Earl Paulk had admitted to the affair in front of the church in January 2007. But, he had said under oath, in a 2006 deposition, that Mona Brewee wa the only woman who he had sex with apart from his wife. The megachurch that now stands in a 100-acre area around a cathedral, in the suburbs of Atlanta, started out in 1960 with about 50 members in the Little Five Points neighborhood of Atlanta. The church had made a name for undertaking bold initiatives, such as admitting black members as well as gays in the 1960s, and ordaining women. By early 1990s, the church claimed about a membership of 10,000 members and 24 pastors, reports said. By receiving tithes of 10% from each member’s income, the church built a Bible college, two schools, a worldwide TV ministry, and a an extensive, $12-million sanctuary. However, today, though the church’s membership has reportedly shrunk to about 1,500; the church has 18 pastors, most of them volunteers; and the Bible college and TV ministry have closed down – all these blamed mainly on complaints about the alleged sexual wrongdoings of the elder Paulks. In 1992, a female member of the church alleged that she was forced into a sexual relationship with Don Paulk. Many other women too claimed that they had been coerced into sex with Earl Paulk and other members of the church’s administration. Jan Royston, a church member who left the church in 1992, in fact started an online support group for former members to discuss their “crushed faith and hurt feelings.” She said, “This is a cult. And, you escape from a cult. We all escaped.”
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