Isn't it great how those preachers who crusade against gays and abortion are the most loving of family values types?

Rod "...yet another false Christian, eh Jim?" Swift :)

REUTERS, March 11, 1997

ORLANDO, Fla. - A popular Florida minister was in jail without bond Tuesday charged with kidnapping and pistol-whipping a man during an argument over money.

The Rev. Charles Evans, 45, has led the 2,500-member Trinity Assembly of God church for 15 years. From the pulpit, he has crusaded against abortion and gay rights.

Last month Orlando television stations began showing a videotape purportedly of Evans in a Daytona Beach strip club, fondling a stripper and slipping money into her garter.

Evans denied he was the man on the tape but strippers at the club said Evans was such a frequent customer he was nicknamed Furniture.

Evans stepped down from his position as head pastor while his denomination's governing body investigated the tape.

But one of those who identified Evans from the videotape was Jason Wheeler, 25, who told police that Evans was the man he had known as Chad and who pistol-whipped him five months before.

Evans was arrested after investigators corroborated Wheeler's statement, said Orlando police spokeswoman Cheryl Degroff-Berry.

He was charged with aggravated battery, aggravated assault and kidnapping, Degroff-Berry said. According to a police report, Wheeler told them Evans forced him into a car, bound his wrists, beat him with a gun and threatened to kill him Oct. 29, 1996.

The Rev. Terry Rayburn, superintendent of the Assemblies district council, said he questioned Evans regarding Wheeler's complaint and Evans admitted being in Wheeler's apartment. Evans said he was there on church business.

Rayburn said Evans remained popular at his church where an overflow congregation gave him a standing ovation during his last Sunday sermon before stepping down.

"He's our preacher and he's a good man," said Wanda Simpson. "He's a man of God and it's going to take more than this to bring him down."

But Cindy Zender, a former member of the congregation who gave the videotape to Orlando television stations, said: "It's long overdue. I'm just thankful justice is being done."