Survivor Account of Tony Alamo Ministries

[Cleopatra7]

I recently found out about the thankfully defunct Tony Alamo Ministries, and found this account of a woman who was raised in this craziness:

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/index.ssf/2008/09/inside_the_arkansas_compound_t.html

Quote

If only she prayed hard enough, she could make Susan Alamo rise from the dead.

At age 12, having not set foot outside a religious compound in Arkansas since she was 4, Elishah Franckiewicz believed it was possible.

Day after day, she lay down beside the corpse, dressed in a wedding gown, for Susan Alamo was "the bride of God."

And day after day, she endured beatings by church elders because the dead woman -- wife to sect founder Tony Alamo -- did not open her eyes.

"We prayed over her open coffin for months," said Franckiewicz, now 37 and an English teacher at an area community college. "When she didn't come back to life, Tony (Alamo) started losing his mind. He believed that it was because the devil was in the children, because we had weak souls."

Franckiewicz's story has a happy ending, since she escaped and Alamo was put in prison. I seriously doubt Gothard, for example, will ever have to pay for his crimes, although now I'm wondering if the Bateses and Duggars will be praying to resurrect him when he eventually dies.

[Four is Enough]

What this child had to go through in the name of religion. In reality it was just a madman exerting influence over others. How many times have we read, how many times will we read this story?

[anniebgood]

The other night I found a flyer on my windshield that was from Tony Alamo ministries. It said commutation and it was his story. What a piece of horse shit. (Him too). I almost wasted a stamp and put it in an envelope to mail back and said I hope he rots in hell. I didn't but I found some more of them on the ground at my grocery store.