BishopAccountability.org
	Former Ministry Member Tells of Abuse, Polygamy Former Alamo Follower Speaks out about Underage Marriage KHBS/KHOG September 21, 2008 http://www.4029tv.com/news/17525486/detail.html DYER, Ark. -- Evangelist Tony Alamo is at the center of a child pornography investigation after his compound in southwestern Arkansas was raided Saturday. Now, former members of his ministry are speaking out about what they say is a history of abuse and polygamy at the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries. Alamo's ties to the area began back in 1975, when he opened his first church in Dyer. It wasn't long before the evangelist was being investigated for labor abuses and tax evasion. But former followers said the abuses also included his marriages to underage girls. "I was in the foundation at one time for about 12 years, and I became his mother-in-law, through no knowledge of mine," said Carol Fryer, a former member of the ministry whose daughter, Jody, was married to Alamo. Fryer said her daughter was 17 years old when Alamo asked for her hand in marriage. But Fryer said it was less a proposal than a demand. "She said well, let me pray about it, and he got mad, and he said, 'Well, God said he's gonna take your life if you don't cooperate,'" Fryer said. Fryer said there was never any marriage license, and that Alamo never asked her permission. Marriage was that simple. "He just took her. That was it," Fryer said. Fryer said that's the way Alamo takes all of his wives. She said he already had two other wives when he married her daughter, and that one wife was just 15 years old. So Saturday's raid, and the subsequent child pornography investigation, came as no surprise to her. "I knew what he did to us, so I knew that it was true. I knew how many wives he had, and they were getting younger all the time," Fryer said. She said she has no doubt that Alamo has taken part in the abuse of underage girls. She hopes the investigation proves her right. "The same God that he kept using against everyone, he's going to stand in front of, and he knows it," Fryer said. Fryer left the ministry several years ago, and since then, she said she feels like a veil has been lifted from her eyes. Not only did her daughter leave Alamo, but she testified against him in a tax evasion trial in 1994.
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