I was hoping to back off a bit of these posts, but the situations just keep on coming in day after day after day, each worse than the previous ones.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...87d_story.html
World Ambassador Ltd. is not a registered 501 C3 with the IRS, but the news reports call it a charity. It is registered as a non-profit in Iowa, and as we all know, churches do not have to register to operate. It is unclear if World Ambassador Ltd. would qualify as such. Regardless, they presented themselves to the public as a religious group.
So what are we seeing often the common thread here? We see religious leaders, in this case Christian, who do not practice what they preach or testify too. Why is that, and why so often is not only money, but sex involved? Is it the suppression that they are preached to and taught starting as children? It is doubtful that one can predetermine someone who does these transgressions, but certainly if one was to profile these individuals, there are a number of characteristics they exhibit.
It seems the more orthodox the fundamentalist is, the more incidents like this occur.
From the local
newspaper:
Petersen claimed to struggle with a sex addiction from 2005-2015, prosecutors said. Petersen would pay for this addiction through his credit cards, home equity lines of credit, and World Ambassadors’ donations.
The number of contributors to World Ambassadors from 2010-2014 ranged from 31 to 38 people, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. From January 2010 through December 2014, the nonprofit received total deposits of $476,466. Of those deposits, $475,555 was deposited into Petersen’s personal checking account either by bank transfers or checks payable to himself from that account. U.S. District Court Judge Leonard T. Strand released Petersen on bond pending sentencing which hasn’t been set at this time.
So basically, he robbed a small group of people who had trust in him.