He’s just following God’s wishes:

Convicted Pastor Says He’s ‘One of the Prophets’
By JON GAMBRELL Associated Press Writer

Tony Alamo, a one-time street preacher who built a multimillion-dollar ministry and became an outfitter of the stars, was convicted Friday of taking girls as young as 9 across state lines for sex. Alamo stood silently as the verdict was read, a contrast to his occasional mutterings during testimony. His five victims sat looking forward in the gallery. One, a woman he “married” at age 8, wiped away a tear.

“I’m just another one of the prophets that went to jail for the Gospel,” Alamo called to reporters afterward as he was escorted to a waiting U.S. marshal’s vehicle.

…

U.S. Assistant Attorney Kyra Jenner said Alamo’s conviction would end his cycle of abuse, as he told his followers God instructed him to marry younger and younger girls.

“We believe he will face the rest of his natural life in prison,” Jenner said.

The five women, now age 17 to 33, told jurors that Alamo “married” them in private ceremonies while they were minors. Each detailed trips beyond Arkansas’ borders for Alamo’s sexual gratification.

Alamo never testified. Though he announced to reporters that he wanted to, his lawyers told him he should not directly challenge their testimony. Defense lawyers said the government targeted Alamo because it doesn’t like his apocalyptic brand of Christianity.

With little physical evidence, prosecutors relied on the women’s stories to paint an emotional portrait of a charismatic religious leader who controlled every aspect of his subjects’ lives. No one obtained food, clothing or transportation without him knowing about it.

On his website Alamo rants and raves about a government conspiracy against him:

It is a violation of the US Constitution for the government to attack any religion, especially Christianity!! My trial is government vs. the Bible. The five young women who are falsely testifying against me have all been convinced to do so by the FBI.

The FBI paid all of their tuition to go to a place called Wellspring, which is a “deprogramming center.” Deprogramming is a nice word for hypnosis, brainwashing, mind-control, voodoo, black magic. Their testimony is not to be believed because it is not true, and they are not in their right mind. They are under a hateful spell of witchcraft. They (in court) have all said that I, Tony Alamo, said, “The Lord said you are to marry me.” This is all a lie. I never told that to any one of them. Their testimonies cannot be believed because they are all uniformly brainwashed. They (the young women) never contacted the FBI; the FBI contacted every one of them and gave them thousands of dollars and many gifts to lie for them. The FBI is against the Bible, Christianity, God, and all Christian churches.

However, the rant suddenly turns into a perverted attempt at justifying the crimes for which he was just convicted:

The legal age of marriage is puberty. Webster’s Dictionary states childhood is the “state or time of being a child; state or time from birth or infancy to puberty or maturity.” Webster’sdefinition of puberty is “the age when one becomes capable to bear children, which is marked by maturing of the reproductive organs, with the onset of menstruation in the female; the period at which sexual maturity is reached.” The Bible says this as well.

God’s Word, the Bible, never condemns a man for having more than one wife!

This is why we do not rely on the timeless wisdom of Webster’s or the Bible when it comes to making such moral decisions. I suppose that as far as Alamo is concerned, girls are nothing more than their reproductive organs, and their maturation (as opposed to the girl’s pyschological maturation), is all that really matters.

This is one sick religious porn dog that we can definitely do without. Good riddance!