Southern Baptists in Stealth Mode

Benesh's salary is paid by the Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board, which oversees church planting. Mission board spokesman Mike Ebert says the denomination has 221 church-planting missionaries like Benesh working across the United States and Canada.

The financial crash in 1999 of the Baptist Foundation of Arizona, a subsidiary of the Southern Baptist Convention of Arizona, the largest collapse of a religious financial institution in the nation's history, resulted with many elderly sheep.. hurt and devastated. For all of its talk of love, compassion and good works the Southern Baptists leadership did very little to change and reverse this tragic situation.

Restoring Our Integrity, a grassroots effort seeking to repay Baptist Foundation of Arizona investors and restore Southern Baptists' integrity, has ceased operations reported the (Southern) Baptists Press on April 18, 2000. Under this plan the Arizona Southern Baptist churches were asked to contribute 1 percent of their undesignated receipts to cover administrative
costs, and funds received from individuals nationwide were to go toward repaying BFA investors' losses.

Only 66 Arizona Southern Baptist churches and missions, out of about 400 congregations, had pledged to support the ROI plan, said Larry Deskins, pastor of Gateway Fellowship, SBC, Gilbert, Ariz., who was spearheading the ROI effort. Another effort the Jerusalem Fund which was began last September, has only raised $384,918 so far.

Steve Bass, Arizona Southern Baptist Convention executive director- treasurer, said the churches' lack of commitment to ROI should not be construed as a lack of concern for BFA investors. "We're proud of our
congregations for what they have been doing," Bass said.

"There is no glass jar in the backyard of the Arizona Southern Baptist Convention where I can go dig up these assets," said Bass. "That's the same truth with the national convention. . . . There are some people who maybe misunderstand . . . [and think] we're like Roman Catholics who have all these assets in our offices. . . . Well, that's not true."

But it was the Southern Baptist convention who supported and propagated the support of the $640 million Ponzi scheme that enriched insiders. Private companies controlled by one insider, former BFA director Harold Friend, were paid about $11 million from BFA and its maze of related companies from November 1998 to November 1999,

However Armstrong, a retired Southern Baptist minister, and his wife, Lois, 76, need money from BFA and can't get a penny. He suffers from diabetes, cancer and a liver malady. The Armstrongs sold their Casa Grande home in June and wired the proceeds, about $160,000, to their BFA account. In all, the Armstrongs had entrusted about $460,000 to BFA. Their "investments" amounted to promissory notes. BFA borrowed their money at a high rate, and promised to pay it back , reported the Phoneix News Times. (http://phoenixnewtimes.com)

BFA didn't keep its promises. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November, claiming $640 million in debts and $160 million to $200 million in assets. Now the Armstrongs are living in their RV. It is the only home they can afford.