What happened to Larry Lea?

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Questioning Christian

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Mike McK referenced it in another topic, and I thought this deserved its own addressing by itself. I was talking with a friend last night about Larry Lea, and he remembered some of what happened. I was wondering what the whole deal was with that guy?

When I used to watch him, I was always impressed with his sincerity, and very compelling as well. That's what stood out more than just about anything about him. I hated to hear that he fell, and I was wondering if anyone knew what the story was.

Anyone know what he is involved in today in minstry?
 

MikeMcK

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I was one of his biggest followers and when my church was foolish enough to let me teach a class, I based it on Lea's book, "Could You Not Tarry One Hour".

It's true that Lea said some good things and had some good teachings in his ministry, but he was also heavily involved in WoF teaching and, because of this, taught some things that were Unbiblical.

In the late 80's, the Trinity Foundation, a Christian watchdog group that keeps tabs on televangelism and also published the bi-monthy religious satire magazine, The Wittenberg Door, carried out an expose that was televised on ABC as an hour long special report and focused on Lea, W.V. Grant, and Robert Tilton.

The show led to federal charges against Grant and Tilton, and charges of mail and insurance fraud against Lea.

Among Lea's claims was that his house burned to the ground and that his family was destitute. He pleaded with his followers to send money to rebuild his house, but the investigation showed that the house in question was not Lea's place of residence, but a vancant investment property that was up for sale.

When ABC showed evidence of this, and showed video of the Lea family at their still intact, multi-million dollar mansion, that's what led to his downfall.

Lea stood to profit three ways from this: from collecting on the insurance policy, income from the sale of the home, and from the money his followers would send, believing they were helping a homeless family get back on their feet.

Aside from the fact that it was illegal and immoral, it was also the dumbest and most sloppily put together fraud scheme in history.

There were also dozens of lesser charges of mismanagement and misdirection of funds.

And then, there was the relationship between him and Eric Pryor, rumored by many to be a homosexual affair, but I'm not going to get into that because it would be bordering on gossip.
 
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JimB

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geetrue

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Larry Lea was my pastor at Christian Faith Center in La Mesa, California back in 1992. I had to leave after a few months due to being transfered to LA, but he was good for me. I enjoyed his energy.

Larry Lea hosted the 700 club for two weeks and he couldn't even read the tela-prompter due to that eye/mind problem that see's letters backward.

Someone asked him how he reads the bible ... he said I just memorize it all.

The last I knew he was an associate pastor at Heritage Christian Center in Denver, Colorado for Dennis Leonard.

He has a son too that was the youth minister for Melodyland which is next to Disneyland out here inCalifornia, but that was a long time ago.

He seems to be a good preacher that fail down, but God picked him back up again and dusted him off ... just like I would want him to do for me.
 
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Questioning Christian

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And then, there was the relationship between him and Eric Pryor, rumored by many to be a homosexual affair, but I'm not going to get into that because it would be bordering on gossip.

Weeelllll ... it's a good thing you didn't get into it!!! ^_^
 
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prayergal

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I read LarryLea's book, "Could you not tarry?" and I thought it was really good. I understand that God used him to bring prayer to the forfront. And the guy did have faith to believe God for great miracles. But everybody reaches their limit. And Larry Lea was no exception. And I like many in this thread used this book to teach on prayer because it had some good principles and I do believe in not throwing the baby out with the bath water. But the story I heard about his downfall was similar to the one heard here about the burning down of his house. However, I heard that he had two houses and so him soliciting for finances to rebuild was fraudulent and so he was publically disgraced. I understood that he just left the ministry. When I used this book for teaching I just told the people I was teaching that this happened. The Lord's Prayer Outline that he endorsed is really good. It just takes a really long time to pray it. In this modern time it's hard to get people to get into that.
 
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MikeMcK

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Larry Lea was a good man who got taken down by a "Christian" hit group, and a fabricated story by the secular, liberal media. It really bothers me that so many here so eagerly propagate the lies of God-haters.

Maybe you could tell us what the lie was.

You might also want to explain why, if the story was fabricated, federal prosecutors were able to try and convict Tilton and Grant, based on evidence presented in the story.
 
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MikeMcK

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I remember I used to watch him, and he promoted a guy who he claimed he was a former male witch who put curses on Lea, but later I believe that story was questioned in its validity.

That would be Eric Pryor.
 
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MikeMcK

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eww. that would be nasty. a satanist? gay relationship?

He wasn't actually a Satanist. Like Mike Warnke, he claimed to be a Satanist but was soon exposed as a fraud.

As far as the "gay relationship", we don't know that. It was a rumor, but was never substantiated.
 
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BenAdam

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Yes I went and read that. Most college professors will not accept anything sourced from wikipedia....in short....highly unreliable.

Like the saying that Wikipedia is highly unreliable?

That is a myth. Wikipedia, with a few noted exceptions, has been shown in the areas of science and technology to be more accurate than Britannica. History is close, and the big issues with it are when it comes to contemporary entities like people and businesses.

Quite simply, if an article doesn't cite a source, consider the information suspect.
 
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JimB

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Yes I went and read that. Most college professors will not accept anything sourced from wikipedia....in short....highly unreliable.

Most college professors would not accept some of the things you read on CF, either.

~Jim

It has taken me all my life to understand that I don’t have to understand everything.
 
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