(RNS) — When the Rev. Jerry Beeson discovered financial irregularities in his new church’s bank accounts, he tried to do the right thing.
In October 2024, Beeson had moved up from Texas to become pastor of Living Waters Tabernacle Church in Meeker, Oklahoma, after his predecessor, the Rev. Michael Hall, had been made a bishop in the Pentecostal Church of God. As he looked at the bank accounts, Beeson now alleges, he found that Hall and his wife who had misused church funds.
Following church protocol, and not wanting to cause a public scandal for the church, Beeson, a former newspaperman turned preacher, reported what he had found to denominational officials. He is still paying for his actions.
Instead of looking into the matter, Beeson says, denominational leaders took over Living Waters in May, changed the locks, seized the bank accounts and kicked out its leaders. Beeson was fired.
But until Thursday (Oct. 30), when the bishop and his wife were arrested and charged with embezzlement, Hall kept his job, with disciplinary power over all pastors in the Oklahoma District of the Pentecostal Church of God.
According to a local news report, county prosecutors now allege that Michael and Vickie Hall used more than $170,000 in church funds to pay for improvements on their home, to make purchases at Wal-Mart and Hobby Lobby, and to buy a vehicle for their kids.
An attorney for the Oklahoma District said Hall has been suspended, pending the outcome of the legal case. “Similarly, Bishop Hall’s credenti …