Robbed, Raped and Murdered in the House of God
All rights reserved
Mail to: walthope@hotmail.com
Posted at http://crooksag.tripod.com/
http://crooksag.tripod.com/crooks.pdf
To Dan Strader, the son of Pastor Karl Strader, who has
a hard time accepting why he was sentenced and jailed for forty-five years for
the crimes he committed mostly against the defenseless elderly in his community
of
To the State Attorney’s Wayne Durden and Jerry Hill and Judge Doyle of Polk county for their hard and true work to get justice, righteousness and truth, of whom Roy Aldrich wrote and stated that they were real men of God and not like the others who were supposed to be men of God, full of honesty and integrity.
To Roy Aldrich, who’s persistence, faith and courage finally paid off in seeing Dan Strader convicted and jailed for forty-five years and saw this book written in a large part before his death in February 1996.
To the media, in particular, Susan Barbosa of the Ledger of Lakeland and Keith Kohn of the Tampa Tribune, who were the only ones to support and give comfort to Roy and Patricia Aldrich, when they were robbed and beaten by thieves, wolves in sheep’s clothing, and were left by the wayside by so-called Christians. That was a crime yesterday and is still a crime today.
The
Speech in Carpenter’s Home Church
TV-Evangelists
and Mailbox Ministry
Sins
of Sodom and Gomorah, USA
We
Give No Offense In Anything?
"For
False Christ’s And False Prophets Will Rise
You Cannot
Serve God And Mammon
Do
Not Trust In Lying Words That Cannot Profit
Rolling
the Dice With the Jury
Clemency
for Strader? Don't Buy It
Carpenter's
Home Church Sold to Without Walls
Strader
Seeks Reduced Sentence
Judge
Denies Strader's Last-Chance Appeal Writ
Will
Dan Strader Get Out of Jail in 2006? No!
Your honor, there are more things than money—truth, honesty and justice. He [Strader] hasn’t been honest, and he is seeking to avoid justice with money.” (Assistant state Attorney Wayne Durden, Polk County, Florida at the sentencing of Dan Strader, 1995)
The name Strader carries weight in charismatic circles. Strader, 72, has been pastor of Carpenters Home for 35 years and has ministered at various churches nationwide. A Pentecostal church under the Assemblies of God denomination, Carpenters Home has owned radio stations, hosted concerts and conferences featuring big names in Christianity, such as evangelist Rodney Howard-Browne, gospel singer CeCe Winans and Christian music artists Jars of Clay and Michael W. Smith reported the St. Petersburg Times.
But the past 15 years have also carried controversy. Some Assemblies of God leaders, including televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, have publicly questioned Strader's theological teachings, according to the Lakeland Ledger. "We've been to hell and back," Strader said during a recent church service. About 800 of Strader's members left to form their own church in 1989, after a dispute over his leadership.
Then in 1994, Strader's son, Daniel, was arrested on fraud charges. He was convicted the next year and is serving a 45-year sentence in federal prison. A small number of fraud victims were members of the church, causing further tension. Strader said he believed his son was innocent and was treated unfairly by the system. But his son's appeals have been denied. Strader asked members of Without Walls to pray for his son's release, saying seven years behind bars was enough for a "white collar crime."
At one time membership rolls swelled to about 5,000. Strader
and a jubilant congregation had the 10,000-seat auditorium built, believing
that in time it would be filled to capacity. Instead, attendance dwindled.
Published the
The problem with lying and thieving preachers in
Then a man of God came to Eli and said to him, "Thus
says the LORD: 'Did I not clearly reveal Myself to the house of your father
when they were in
Carpenter's Home Finances
In our local news recently is a report that the Carpenter's
I wish The Ledger would investigate and publish the finances
of this deal. The Carpenter's
I have relatives who were members of that church since the 1940s, and they helped pay for it.
I have visited often in the past and heard many of Rev. Strader's sermons. I was puzzled why he often said in his sermons that anyone who disagreed with him should not make a fuss, just walk out the back door and leave.
His congregation has now dwindled down and he is left with a multimilliondollar facility.
My relatives left after Rev. Strader became a more-autocratic minister, there were questions about his family being given jobs at the church and his son was convicted of defrauding church members (mostly elderly ones) out of their life savings.
It seems to me part of the problem is that the Assembly of God denomination allows ministers to preside over board meetings instead of a church member, as in other more democratically operated Protestant churches.
Nonetheless, it was good Assembly of God people who paid for
that Carpenter's
The question before the public is, will it?
TRAVIS EPSHIRE Published The Ledger
Since the Garden of Eden, man has proclaimed his innocence and has refused to accept responsibility for his sins and deeds. However, the bible clearly gives us a solution in receiving with meekness the implanted Word, which is able to save our souls. Then it clearly tells us to be doers of the Word and not hearers only thereby deceiving ourselves.
Unfortunately, as documented by the Strader Affair, there were many who were deceived but very few who were doers of the Word as defined by the “History of the Revival of 1992-1995 6. Karl Strader” taken from a web site:
In February of 1993, Karl Strader, pastor of Carpenter’s
Home Church in Lakeland, Florida, and his wife, Joyce, were in Hawaii for a
Worship ‘93 conference, where Norvel Hayes prophesied that a tremendous great
wind of the Spirit was about to come to them. Joyce Strader wrote in Ministries
Today (July/August 1993, p. 38), “We arrived home Saturday night. That Sunday
morning Carpenter’s
During the first few months of 1993, Rodney Howard-Browne
spent a total of thirteen weeks at that church, and Christian leaders from many
parts of the United States, including Richard Roberts, chancellor of Oral
Roberts University, came to the meetings to observe and participate, and
minister in the new anointing. Charisma (Aug 1994, p. 24), stated that people
flew in for these meetings from
The effect of this so called revival in Carpenter’s
Also, on Monday morning,
We all like the pleasant things of God and life, and shy away from unpleasant and controversial things, such as the present day sins of the pastors and evangelists in this great land. We say things such as ‘touch not God’s anointed’ and some of us worship them as kings. The Prophet Isaiah reminded us:
“Be a shelter to them from the face of the spoiler. For the extortioner is at an end, devastation ceases, the oppressors are consumed out of the land.” (Isaiah 16:4)
Sometimes, others see and know more about the truth of the
Kings of Israel and others in that they were largely spoilers, thieves, liars
and oppressors. Not all Kings in
As a denomination, the Assembly of God has not accepted responsibility for the actions of their prominent members in their organization. It has done nothing to bring justice and healing to the real victims in these cases. Instead, they it has chosen to console and comfort the aggressors, the noble ones, and the perpetrators of the crimes. The victims were mostly elderly people, who didn’t have the physical strength or financial resources to fight back and recover what they lost.
The other fact of the matter is that because of the accurate
reporting of the Ledger and The Tampa Tribune, in central Florida, in 1994-95,
concerning Daniel Strader, Alice Faye Redd, the Assembly of God ministers and
pastors and what went on at Carpenter’s Home Church, many people were
justifiable upset with those who piously talked about God from their high
places but behind the scenes did hypocritical things. As a result, they wanted
nothing to do with God or Christians. What was not right and unfair was that
such a small number of people should do so much damage to other people’s lives
and to the
The Tampa Tribune ran a typical story in June 1996, about a
Pastor in
In like manner, the hierarchy of a denomination can become equally corrupt and crooked. However, when you have a church organization made up of honest and God-fearing people, full of integrity and accountability, it doesn’t matter which system predominates. When an organization is made up of dishonest and corrupt people, it still doesn’t matter which system is in operation because it will affect everyone. The same holds true for all forms of government both State and Federal.
We live in a day and age where many religious Christian organizations and churches been exposed, have tumbled and fallen because of financial mismanagement and serious accusations, that have been made by the media about some of the leaders and directors of these nonprofit organizations and corporations. Independent ministers have become offensive to the secular world and to some Christians, and we are sure there will be others. There have even been grand jury investigations and indictments of people such as Jim Bakker and Dr. Henry J. Lyons - men we would never have believed would have committed sexual and financial improprieties.
The St. Petersburg Times and the Tampa Tribune reported
almost daily about “Lying Lyons.” The
“Born Again” Rev. Henry Lyons, former head of the National Baptist Convention,
was sentenced to 5 ½ years in prison for his convictions on state charges of
racketeering and grand theft.
Judge Schaeffer ordered
A few weeks after
On his income tax, as a preacher,
Since 1994, the Lakeland Ledger, the Tampa Tribune and the
St. Petersburg Times all have had many stories about “born again” evangelicals
who say the love the Lord but do terrible and wicked things to God’s people. Stories
about religious evangelicals like the Straders of the 10,000-seat Carpenter’s
Pastor Karl Strader, a board member of
Bob Jones University leaders have criticized the pope and
labeled the Catholic church a ``Satanic cult'' say that the pope is the
antichrist, forbid interracial dating, and teaches that speaking in tongues as
a result of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is of the devil!
BJU has trained more pastors than probably any other Fundamental college or university. Our graduates make up much of the leadership of Biblical
Daniel Strader, 37, was sentenced to 45 years in prison in August 1995. He was convicted of 238 felony counts for bilking 57 mostly elderly investors, some members of the church, out of $2.3 million by selling investments in properties that didn’t exist or already had liens against them.
The leadership of the Assembly of God denomination both in
The State prosecutors proved their case and convinced the jurors that Dan Strader devised an elaborate scheme to attract cash in the real-estate and mortgage investments. He was selling the securities without a license and that the securities were unregistered. This was done in an organized method amounting to Racketeer-Influence and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO Act.
Jim Bakker helped dedicate Carpenter’s
Bakker, 54, was convicted in 1989 of defrauding 116,000
followers who sent him at least $1,000 each in return for promised lodging at
his religious/recreational complex, Heritage
Who would have believed that the “Strader” name in
For too long we have sat back and accepted this situation, and let others look into the allegations of wrong doings. Then we are all surprised that some of these allegations turned out to be true. Unfortunately for us, power and greed corrupts people who have been in their position too long and assume it is their God-given right to do as they please.
Many organizations including the Senate and the House of Representatives are plagued with those who have been there too long and begin to abuse their privileges and rights. Nonprofit religious and charitable organizations are no exception and suffer from the same problems human dilemma.
There is a thread of corruption, greed, evil and preying on the weak and misfortunate by local pastors, like Karl Strader; to prominent national Assembly of God ministers, like Bakker and Swaggart, within the Assembly of God organization itself that is based on connections and influence and is devoid of honesty, truth, integrity and righteousness.
The nice meek people like Roy and Patricia and Associate
Pastor Jim who caused the 1989 split at Carpenter’s
The money that flows through Carpenter’s
More money is embezzled from the church each year ($16 billion) than is given to foreign missions ($15 billion) reported the newly published second edition of the World Christian Encyclopedia. The exhaustive survey of global Christianity contains some good news. It notes that Christianity has become “the most extensive and universal religion in history,” with some 2 billion adherents—one in three of the world’s population—at the start of the new millennium.
The last century has also seen a huge shift in the racial makeup of believers globally, from 81 percent white in 1900 to 55 percent non-white last year. The charismatic renewal has also been a major influence in the last 100 years, with 520 million current members of Pentecostal and charismatic denominations and movements. Almost 800 million people have been touched by the Spirit since 1900.
But the fine print of the massive publication also contains some disturbing information. Among the startling findings of the research team is that:
More money is embezzled from the church each year ($16 billion) than is given to foreign missions ($15 billion).
Consider this fact that in a one year period of
(Mind Jesus Christ did not keep His total salary a secret like Bill Bright has continually done!)
CCC is in theory an interdenominational Christian evangelistic and discipiling ministry with the objective of helping the local church and other organizations fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) in this generation BUT TONGUE-SPEAKERS ARE NOT WELCOMED nor MIRACLES and HEALINGS! Even though Jesus Christ healed the sick, cast out devils and drove money changers out of the House of God with a whip!
Founder and Chairman Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for
Christ who along with his wife makes up fifty percent of the board of directors
of this nonprofit religious organization wears
thousand dollars suits and claims to make on forty thousand dollars are year.
But of course, unlike President Bush or other public servants, Bill Bright
doesn’t release his total compensation to his donors or the public and definitely
not his personal income tax!
Because of the separation of the church and state in the
American Constitution, the American Evangelical religious leaders such as Bill
Bright, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Charles Stanley, Louis Paula and
Billy and Franklin Graham have a field day in stealing money from the
sheep in the name of the one who would never do such a thing. They have
developed an art in legally being wolves in sheep’s clothing that is not
allowed in
It is a fact that none of the prominent evangelical leaders
in
In United States, in the last few years, many evangelical churches and religious organizations have gotten together because of a religious scandal in Texas, involving Larry Lea of On the Rock Church, W. A. Grant and Robert Tilton of Dallas. The television media brought it out, and while others such as Dr. Billy Graham who was most hurt by it formed an organization called Evangelical Council of Financial Accountability insisting accountability and financial responsibility in religious organizations so there would be no cause for offense in anything or needless loss of money. Apostle Paul wrote:
We give no offense in anything, that our ministry may not be blamed. (2 Corinthians 6:3)
Avoiding this: that anyone should blame us in this lavish gift which is administered by us. (2 Corinthians 8:20)
Christian Religionists, Evangelicals, Baptists, Charismatic and Pentecostals, all teach, that as stewards of God, everything we have belongs to Him and it is very important that we provide:
“Honorable things, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.” (2 Corinthians 8:21)
Yet, very few churches and religious organizations, who although they state they believe the bible and the importance to provide “honorable things,” most of them don’t belong to an organization that practices financial responsibility and open accountability.
Also, they keep the salary of the senior pastor of the Church or the senior evangelist, a secret. Why? I can’t answer that, but I do know it does give offense, in the secular and religious world. If you are honorable there is no reason not to reveal your income if it is within acceptable norms. The salaries of other public servants, including the President of United States and the first Lady, are known.
In an intelligent society such as ours, any church or organization that is not openly accountable, shouldn’t be soliciting money from its members or adherents, who are the public at large. Somehow, all churches and church corporations should be warned and told they must be accountable, and be open and do all things above board where possible.
Hence, as a “news reporter” and “editor” rather than a “theologian” or “gifted one,” I have tried to report and make comments on events that actually happened rather than what should have happened. Many have come to realize and appreciate, that in America in the 80’s, there was a minority of pastors and evangelists, belonging to a minority denomination, the Assembly of God, who caused the majority of religious scandals that affected all the Christians in America. Arrogant, rebellious and scandalous people like Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart and Pastor Karl Strader, who were “Born Again Evangelicals.”
It would be wrong to generalize and to associate all pastors
or evangelists with these troublemakers. Nevertheless, we had personally written randomly to over
two hundred and fifty evangelists and pastors in
Many of these pastors and evangelists live and behave like kings of their own kingdoms, rather than like servants of the living God, as they should be. Humility and submission are words they must reintroduce into their own vocabulary and lives before they teach others.
Contrary to many pastors’ and evangelists’ point of view, we as Christians don’t exist primarily to serve them or to give them money but to serve the King of kings and Lord or lords. In our Heavenly Father’s eyes, we are all equally important. He has no favorites and is definitely not a respecter of persons -although, some pastors and evangelists would like us to believe otherwise.
We have over us only one King and His Name is Jesus. We are all bondservants to each other in the body of Christ, not just in words but in deeds. Pastors and evangelists are not and never were meant to be kings over us or over anyone else for the matter. They are there to serve us and not we to serve themselves.
The prominent Pentecostal and charismatic evangelists and pastors, especially in AG, who don’t know what the word integrity means should look it up in the American Heritage Dictionary, which defines it as:
Probity, complete and confirmed integrity; uprightness, of principles and practices: honesty, honor, honorableness, incorruptibility, uprightness, moral soundness, virtue, purity, morality. Also, integrity corresponds with fact or truth: veracity, accuracy, correctness, faithfulness, fidelity, truthfulness, honesty, frankness, openness, sincerity, exactness, verity, exactitude, and precision. Also, it defines integrity as the moral quality of a course of action, morality, moralness, ethicalness, propriety, righteousness, rightness and the state of being whole: completeness, entirety, oneness, totality and wholeness.
However, on the other side of the coin the words associated with the opposite of integrity are:
duplicity, deceit, immorality, dishonor, untruthfulness, deception, deceit, falsehood, fabrication, unethicalness, impropriety, partiality and incompleteness.
The latter things can be easily associated with Evangelical
pastors, such as Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart,
Karl Strader, Dr. Henry J. Lyons, Dr. Bill Bright, Pat Robertson, Oral
Roberts, Kenneth Copeland, and Dr. Billy Graham . In other words, if we have
faith we will have integrity, responsibility and accountability. These are
words that are missing in many of our churches in
However, for the record and to my knowledge, there has been no acknowledgment or acceptance of any responsibility by the prominent Men of Integrity in the Assembly of God, concerning the deeds and actions of AG Pastors like Karl Strader and Jim Bakker, whose leadership has resulted in many poor and defenseless elderly people being raped, murdered and robbed.
Roy and Patricia Aldrich of
A chaplain wrote to me in January 1996 and stated:
Also, a couple of months back I saw a prominent A/G minister from the Orlando area, I think his name was Charles Groden (something like that), who was caught on video tape dancing with nude women in a strip joint in Orlando. District Superintendent Terry Raburn was on T.V. saying that the pastor denied the charges and said that it wasn’t him and he had been set up by a look-alike. Inside Edition then put the minister on split screen in pulpit and in the bar. It was definitely him or a cleverly edited tape or a twin brother. It has to be him. The report went on to say that Groden(?) was involved in a drug deal gone bad and a pistol whipping of another man. Police identified him as one of three men present at the pistol whipping incident.
God bless you!
We have learnt something interesting about many Pastors,
Preachers, Superintendents, and Evangelists in
Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God;" for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. (James 1:12-15)
Roy Aldrich
died prematurely at the age 65, as a direct result of the stress and betrayal
by his friend and pastor Karl Strader and the deeds and actions of his son,
Daniel Strader.
Dan Strader was convicted of stealing our life savings of $ 100,000.00 by using lies and deceit and since your question about the effect on our lives is probably the must important factor to you and the Parole Commission, let me simply repeat the words of Jerry Hill, state attorney of Polk County: "The crimes of Dan Strader have done more damage to more elderly people than any homicide that I have prosecuted “
Dan's thefts have forced us to sell our house and most of our personal possessions and move into a trailer. He has shown absolutely no remorse and Judge Robert Doyel who presided over this case stated: "The first step toward rehabilitation is admission of wrong doing, and therefore I feel that Dan Strader will never be rehabilitated."
What Mr. Strader did was calculated and carefully planned
with a willful disregard for the lives of others to such an unbelievable degree
of extremity that my wife and I still cannot
understand why anyone would try to destroy us in this fashion,
especially since we had given faithful service to the Carpenter’s Church in
Lakeland pastored by Karl Strader, Dan’s Father.
The comedian Flip Wilson loved to say the “devil made me do it.” Thereby implying that He was innocent of the guilt and consequences for his deeds and actions. The truth of the matter is neither the devil nor God who makes a person do it. God doesn’t tempt anyone and the devil is only a magnet which draws out what is already there in man and has not been dealt with by the Holy Spirit.
People get involved continually in other peoples’ lives either using them or speaking against them, and then they think that they are innocent of the resulting consequences. However, they are not innocent because they were taken away by their own lust and enticed, were carried away into evil thoughts and actions. As a result, they will all pay. God’s Word states:
"But if you indeed obey His voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries. (Exodus 23:22)
No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is from Me," says the LORD. (Isaiah 54:17)
We place ourselves on very dangerous ground when we attack and hurt one of God’s Children, especially if he or she is a true servant of the Lord. Then it is a guarantee from the Word of God that God will become our enemy and our adversary for God’s Word clearly states:
The LORD is in His holy temple, the LORD'S throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. The LORD tests the righteous, but the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates. Upon the wicked He will rain coals; fire and brimstone and a burning wind shall be the portion of their cup. For the LORD is righteous, He loves righteousness; His countenance beholds the upright. (Psalm s 11:4-7)
Remind them to be subject to rulers and authorities, to obey, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men. For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. (Titus 3:1-3)
The Lord in his temple sees with His eyes and tests the righteous but He hates the wicked and the one who loves violence and will rain coals, fires, brimstone and burning wind upon him. The Lord is righteous and upright and His face is toward the upright. He will deal in due season with the foolish, disobedient, deceived ones who are serving their own lusts and pleasures and speaking evil of others in their arrogance and pride. He will deal with them as He did with Dan Strader.
God has made a promise to his servants that He will bless all those who bless them and all those who have cursed, spoken against or spitefully used them. He will use them and deal with them as they have dealt with others, then they will be destroyed because of their evil thoughts and ways. For God is not to be mocked what a man sows he will also reap.
Well, my family and I were there that Sunday morning on
In it we were told how wicked and evil the conspirators were who were really the perpetrators of the crimes responsible for Daniel’s demise. They included some who now belonged to Victory Assembly of Lakeland (the church resulting from the 1989 split of CHC) and others, such as Roy (65) and Patricia, formerly of CHC, Jason (62), and Walter (67). They were talked about as though they were the perpetrators of the crimes and not Daniel.
Karl also stated the following in his prepared statement which should be read twice because it reveals a lot about the person of Karl Strader, a man gifted with oratorical words but devoid of understanding their reality and application:
“I still don’t know all the ramifications of Dan’s business. It’s too complicated for me. And I certainly don’t pretend to know all about securities laws. I know very few people who really do. I know Dan is one of the most gifted children. He loves God and I can’t believe he ever intended to hurt anybody. I don’t think he is malicious in anyway. I don’t think he was scheming to defraud anybody.
I do know that he’s an entrepreneur who has gone “belly up” in a sour economy, has taken a number of unusual hits below the belt business wise, has taken investments from certain investors he should have avoided, has received some terrible advice from his company’s attorney about securities in particular, and I also believe that there’s a conspiracy among certain people in town to bring him down.
The newspaper reported this past week that he’s humbled but not repentant. The truth is that the plea bargain Dan himself said, he was made to lie when he had to say he was guilty of some of the charges. His conscience is really bothering him about that. He knows he’s not been perfect and realizes he has made, as we would call them, “some pretty dumb mistakes.” But to intend to mislead or to defraud people no.
I do feel sorry for those of us who invested money with Dan...I am truly sorry that investors had been hurt.
Our family’s more than grateful for the sacrificial gifts from some of you that came in for Danny’s defense fund.
However, Dan and Melissa are seeking God. Their trust is in the Lord.
James, the brother of Jesus wrote to Pastor Karl Strader and others:
If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. (James 1:26-27)
While Karl referred to the victims of Dan’s crimes as investors and talked about their hurt and sacrificial gifts for Danny’s defense fund, no funds were ever set up by the Straders, by the Assembly of God, or members of the church, for all the widows of Dan’s crimes, real people like Patricia Aldrich and others. Also, former staff members of CHC related to us that Karl and Dan weren’t on speaking terms since 1989 until the time Dan was arrested in 1994.
LORD, who may abide in Your tabernacle? Who may dwell in Your holy hill? He who walks uprightly, and works righteousness, and speaks the truth in his heart; He who does not backbite with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor does he take up a reproach against his friend; in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but he honors those who fear the LORD; He who swears to his own hurt and does not change; He who does not put out his money at usury, nor does he take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved. (Psalms 15:1-5)
The following
is a speech that Dan Strader gave from the pulpit of Carpenter’s
“I prepared two different statements for this morning, one that I'm sure Dad would prefer I read and the other from my heart. I'm not quite sure which to share with this congregation till just now.
C. S. Lewis said truth comes out of a man when he is being tortured. I've been tortured for more than a year, seven and a half weeks of that confined to a 6 foot by 9 foot jail cell. Now in less than six weeks the state penitentiary will be my new home for the next fourteen years. But I feel that you are owed an explanation and more importantly an apology.
I'm very sorry for the reproach and embarrassment that I've brought to my father and this congregation. Friday's headlines read, "Strader enters guilty plea." Another said, "Minister's son guilty of scam.' How ironic that six years ago this next month my father was making headlines in this same newspaper with "Carpenter's pastor faces church vote." My father's sixty-six accusations were drafted by a church board member who along with eleven others on that board at that time wanted his resignation. That individual is now a prosecuting attorney with the State Attorney’s office that filed 303 counts against me. Enough charges that if convicted would have been a 750 year sentence life in prison.
Another individual on that same board read the sixty-six accusations against my father. You need to know that he and his wife were the ones who offered many of my investors interest rates in excess of 30% tax free to move their funds from my company to their investments. Is it any wonder I had a rush on the bank as one reporter commented. There wasn't even an investigation launched by the state until the newspaper was encouraged by these same individuals to run a story.
One of the officials who chaired a portion of that meeting six years ago had funds invested with that board member along with at least 30 others in this congregation who joined one of the chairmen to form another church. One of the headlines six years ago read, "Strader blesses new group." For a short time they were.
Although that conspiracy has now been exposed in another set of headlines, there are always casualties in warfare but just as a member of this congregation supported my father six years ago, I trust that you will stand with him and my family once again. It was this church body and my father's friendships across this nation that came to my assistance and not my associates in Amway and other business circles. All but a handful abandoned me and my family but I forgive them.
I want to say that I'm sorry to the investors that have experienced financial loss. There was never any scam or scheme to defraud anyone. That intent never even entered my mind. Unfortunately, we judge ourselves by our motives and intents and others by their actions.
Some have said that my father was insensitive and unsympathetic to the investors. Some have even suggested that the church should repay investors. What most of them did not realize was that my own father was an investor. He too was experiencing similar emotions that many investors share with the loss of their hard earned dollars.
Some demonstrated their anger though to the extreme. One investor met me at the door of one of my rental properties where my wife and children were residing a day after Thanksgiving. I repeatedly ordered him off of the property. He cursed me, then hit me in the face followed by repeated blows to my body. I forgive him. He didn't know the whole story. He had every right to be angry.
I was accused of cashing checks, investors checks and pocketing 'the funds for my own personal use. That simply was not true. I chose to do business with this financial institution because banks are notorious for placing holds on large deposits for indeterminate periods of time. This can be disabling for a business like ours that operated on a close margin of cash flow.
The checks were predominately out of state checks from
the attorney and owner of our company, and another business associate in
Every dollar was accounted for and properly documented to the internal revenue service and the other federal agencies that monitor these type of transactions. The institution we did business with was compensated for their services and all of the associated banks had full knowledge of the service provided. Any portion of those funds that may have come to me would have been incidental and appropriate and would not have devalued the nature of the transaction.
Another accusation was that. I sold property to more than one investor. Again that simply was not true. There were multiple parties who had shared interest in the same property. There is not a developer in this community who is not familiar with capitals and partnerships, first, second and sometimes even third mortgages on properties, construction loans, wrap around mortgages, discounted mortgages, buy downs in financing, refinancing, partial releases, subordination agreements, liens in property taxes, secured loans, and unsecured loans. The list is endless.
I was further accused of not even having property. That
was not true. During the period in question our company had an interest in over
seventeen properties. One was a seventeen unit mobile home park with a
residential manager that was sold to Home Depot on US Hwy. 98 North. Our
company had an integral part in bringing that store to
Finally, there was the airship deal. One of the individuals who participated directly with the owner of our company on this transaction was from our church. My father had cautioned me on doing business with this individual. I didn't listen. My wife asked me not to have any more dealings with this same individual. I ignored her requests and didn't disclose to her the nature or the particulars of this arrangement.
She later insisted on going to
So what did I do wrong?
1. I didn't follow through with the intricate details of every business transaction to insure the integrity of every investment I represented. Although I surrounded myself with a team of attorneys, accountants, and other financial advisors, I was ultimately responsible.
2. I made promises and commitments to others based on the representations made to me. Consequently when those were broken to me, my word became worthless to others thus tarnishing my credibility. That still no excuse. I should have made adequate disclosure to investors so that their expectations would be balanced with reasonable performance on agreements.
3. I compromised on principles that I've governed my life by particularly when I went into business and continued to do business with certain investors and associates that were unconsecrated. There were cautions from my wife. I shoved them aside. I should have listened. General Shwartzkof said, "It's not a man's lack of confidence that brings him down but his lack of character. "
4. I made some
poor judgment calls during a sour economy.
I should have forced our company's owners to make some decisions that
were critical to our company's survival. I tried but failed. I was not allowed
to have contact with our owners during the time of my release on bond. We ended
up losing over a million dollars in real estate holdings to another unscrupulous
attorney in this community and his client just a few weeks ago. Our CPA in
So where did the state come up with all the charges
against me? When an individual or corporation sells stock or issues promissory
notes or certificates, that constitutes a security. Under
Count one: failure to register a security.
Count two: failure to be licensed to sell securities.
Therefore, if we fail to do the first two our security is fraudulent.
Thus count three: securities fraud. So therefore, if what we sold is fraudulent consequently you have--
Count four: grand theft. If one or more individuals involved you have a conspiracy. When you have conspired to sell a fraudulent security you are charged with racketeering. Multiply that times the number of victims and you begin to understand why the number of counts against me were so high.
Thursday, within minutes of a hearing to obtain money for my defense, I was informed by counsel of the offer from the state. I was told that to reject the offer was risky. A lengthy appeals process that could have taken me all the way to the Florida Supreme Court would have ensued.
I didn't have a choice. We didn't have the financial resources to provide an adequate defense. The state has virtually unlimited resources. They had already spent an estimated $248,000.00 to prosecute me. The $40,000.00 paid to my attorney from an assistance fund that several of you helped out with was only a drop in the bucket in comparison to the state's resources.
A plea bargain is just that. You bargain on what you will plead guilty to. I told my father after I was through Thursday, I felt they could have added charges of aggravated assault, sexual battery, manslaughter, and whatever they wanted to throw in. I felt very uncomfortable with the plea. I felt very disillusioned with the whole process.
I've never even taken a penny off of my parents dresser as a kid. I don't even open my wife's mail or dig through her purse without her permission. But unfortunately that's the way our criminal justice system is set up.
Seven hundred and fifty-eight years versus fourteen years. I guess I got a real good bargain all right.
I truly hurt for the investors, especially those who are in real hardship situations but you never got to hear from most of them You know why, it didn't make good press. Most of them would just simply like me to have the opportunity to make repayment to them even if it takes awhile. Some of the investors are appalled and shocked as I am at the prospect of my imprisonment. Some of them need the money now to live on not fourteen years from now.
Restitution on the amount of money the state claims I owe if allowed to compound for the next fourteen years at 12% interest would be nearly 18 million dollars. Then they expect me to repay at least 10 % of that amount each year. I believe that's 1.8 million dollars per year. Of course the opportunities for me to earn that kind of money in fourteen years are endless. It's a travesty of justice. The investors are victims.
The three investors who have been showcased throughout this whole ordeal are not representative of all the investors But these three have several things in common. First of all, this wasn't their life savings. Their net worth ranged from a quarter of a million dollars to well in excess of a million dollars. Secondly, even if they were all paid off today, they are full of such hatred my life would still be in danger. As we exited the hearing Thursday the one investor attempted to run over my father, Melissa' and me. A former member of this church who was in the car with him, told me he would see me in hell before he would lose his money. Another said I needed to he squashed like bug. Another placed a contract out on my life while I was in jail over the summer and told me my wife and children are equally as guilty and need to die.
Something else they had in common. They were jealous over the relationship I had with my own father and family because each one of them had such dark mysterious pasts. One spouse told me her husband had molested her daughter, another his son was murdered in a sour dope deal, and still another has a drunkard for a son who has been in and out of the same jail I was in.
And all three couldn't stand the revival we had with Rodney Howard Browne. One commented 'hat Rodney was a charlatan and was calling on demons to cause people to fall on the floor or laugh uncontrollably. Another called the revival a circus and still another blasphemed and cursed the move of God ever; time he visited the sanctuary looking for me or my father to threaten us. I forgive these individuals. I harbor no bitterness or resentment towards them. But I refuse to accept judgment from these three individuals
I trust that when I am sentenced on March 15 that the honorable Judge Doyel will take into consideration the wishes of 'the true victims that have been hurt and not these impostors.
I want to close with the most important apology that
needs to be made publicly and that's to my wife Melissa and my two
children, Steele, 6 and,
I didn't listen to you when you sensed that certain individuals were manipulating and betraying me. Instead, I took income and savings away from you and the kids and gave it to a few unregenerate investors to appease them ( Roy Aldrich) only to have them wish us dead. Those funds should have been there for you and the kids in the event of my disability or what has now turned into my incarceration. I've allowed us to become homeless and broke. I have abandoned you. I am no longer your provider or protector.
And a man that does not provide for his own is worse than
an infidel. You have every right to
divorce so you may have an opportunity to rebuild your life. Fourteen years is a long time to wait. You have no promise or guarantee of the man I
be. Our children deserve much better
than this. But I hope you will find it
in your heart to forgive me. I know that
you love me and perhaps the respect you once had for me will be restored,
For those who do not understand what con men do they lie,
deceive others or simple don’t tell the whole truth. In this context Dan
Strader’s ten minute speech must be considered appropriately. The Tampa Tribune
on
Durden then pressed Strader on what his morals were all about.
“Do you feel it was wrong to lie to people? He asked.
“Yes.”
“But you did it anyway?”
“Yes,” Strader responded. “I definitely feel I compromised on ethical and moral conduct.”
“What kind of value system do you have to enable you to lie to people?” the prosecutor pressed.
“I had a very poor value system.”
Basically, the lies and derogatory remarks that were made in the house of God from the pulpit of an Assembly of God church were unbelievable. While the Assembly of God did nothing about this speech or use of a pulpit in such a way even though they were asked to look into the matter, it was noted and acted upon by the State Attorney and Judge Doyle. Dan’s bail was revoked two days after this speech and he had to spend the next sixty days in jail for this violation.
"I know your works, your labor, your patience, and that you cannot bear those who are evil. And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars; and you have persevered and have patience, and have labored for My name's sake and have not become weary.” (Revelation 2:2-3)
Concerning
the speech made by father and son on that Sunday morning of
Their remarks didn’t stand up to the test of reality and honesty. Dan’s stated refusal to accept judgment from these three individuals was identical to his Dad’s characteristic behavior pattern. Karl had stated to many others when he was questioned and examined by others for deeds inconsistent with the character of Jesus that He had nothing to say and that God would defend him.
As a direct result of Dan’s speech at Carpenter’s
The prosecuting attorney must have been a really intelligent person to have seen that Dan and Karl Strader were both crooks who used the trust of others for their own purposes. He saw through their protests of innocent and their belief that they were being framed by others who were out to get them.
Although, I would like to personally congratulate the prosecuting attorney for a job well done, he didn’t completely finish his assignment because as Roy Aldrich would put it “there is another Strader who needs to be in jail.“
The Straders who are good with words have never been good at seeing themselves for what they really are. But who is? Some are more honest than others and some are more crooked than others.
The Straders couldn’t recognize the truth, even if it hit them on the head. That Karl Strader was preaching truth in a flagship church among the Assembly of God churches, is even more strange, and one must really wonder what else is wrong with the Assembly of God.
Jose in his letter of
Now that Pastor Karl Strader’s own flesh and blood, namely his son Daniel has been “caught in a web of sin.” Pastor Strader seems to forget what he has been preaching for years from the Bible, “ Be sure your sins will find you out.”
In my opinion, Dan Strader got his background with all
honesty because Pastor Strader receives a humongous salary, plus many other
benefits, which his close-knit board knows about. If the average person who
attends Carpenter’s
My own independent research and months of work would later bring me to the same conclusion as Jose made in his letter about Dan’s sins and Karl’s humongous salary plus many other benefits. It was for this reason that the executives of CHC Inc. and the Assembly of God, would later stonewall me at different times because they didn’t want the truth to come out.
The Secretary Treasurer of Carpenter’s Home Church Inc., or “Brother Joe” as Karl would call him, would write to me that “the salaries are private and confidential.” Maybe, it was for this reason Pastor Karl Strader never called me “brother Walter,” because my salary was not humongous, I was not an accountant and didn’t play with money and people’s lives.
Roy Aldrich, in his letter of
There are statements being made by the officials of the Carpenter’s Home church that indicate that they thing that The Ledger and the State Attorney are “ out to get us.”
Leading religious people believing that their group is the “ insiders” and the legitimate arms of the government and society are the outsiders is exactly the same attitude promoted by David Koresh and Jim Jones, both of whom led their followers to disaster.
The fact of the matter is that Dan Strader, Karl Strader’s son, took savage and selfish action against a large group of elderly people whose lives have been shattered by his alleged illegal borrowing scheme.
My wife and I lost our life savings to Dan’s false promises and all the people of Polk county can be thankful to Chuck Zeller [ Investigator] and others of the State Attorney’s office that they have some one to defend them and represent public against con men and deceivers.
Being a minister’s son should not make a difference in the application of criminal justice.
The value of the article in the Ledger about my wife
being fired from
Roy Aldrich really brought out the seriousness of Dan
Strader’s crime and Karl Strader’s vengeful act, in getting
Walter of Lakeland, in his letter printed by the Ledger, stated
almost prophetically and very intelligently about the speeches in Carpenter’s
Rev. Strader claims that his son trusts God. How can anyone so devoid of conscience even claim to know God? Dan Strader is going to find out that God is on the side of all those elderly people whom he so cunningly fleeced.
Rev. Strader gave a graphic description of the cell his son is in. What does he want? The Ritz Carleton or maybe the Sheraton Inn on Florida Avenue? Give me a break. Who is Rev. Strader, Dan Strader or anyone else to dictate where he should be incarcerated?
On
In a tearful 14 minute speech to his father’s congregation Sunday Morning, Daniel Strader apologized and offered his explanation of what has led him to the brink of a 14 - year prison sentence. [A plea bargain agreement which Dan would later reject and received a 45 year sentence instead.]
But Strader’s comments include blame against his advisers and accusations of death threats and of a conspiracy against him by Alice Faye Redd, the former grand dame of Polk’s Republican Party who is now an accused con artist herself.
“ I want to say I am sorry to the investors that have experienced financial loss,” the younger Strader told a congregation of 2,000. “There never was a scam or a Scheme to defraud anyone. That intent never entered my mind.” [Although court testimonies and record would show this another Strader lie.]
“ So what did I do wrong?” Strader 36, asked the congregation. “I didn’t follow through with the intricate details of every business transaction to ensure the integrity of every investment I represented.”
He was that he was ill-advised by his attorneys and accountants, he failed to heed the advice of his wife and “made some poor judgment calls during a source economy.” But he said “I was ultimately responsible.” [ Amen and Amen.]
The Rev. Karl Strader prefaced his own son’s speech with a few comments of his own Sunday Morning saying, “he’s an entrepreneur who’s gone belly-up in a sour economy...and also believe there has been a conspiracy among certain people in town to bring him down.
Strader said he felt sorry for those investors who did lose money they entrusted to him, but also said the Loudest complaints against him have come from only a few of the investors, who did not lose their life saving and are still wealthy.
Roy Aldrich’s letter to the Editor concerning the speech,
titled “Strader’s talk vengeful” printed by the Ledger on
In Dan’s Strader’s 14 minute speech to the people at a
service at the Carpenter’s
His slashing references to three of his investors at that so-called church service include personal attacks not related in any way to financial matters. They are the vengeful ravings of a brat who took advantage of his father’s permission to say anything he wanted.”
Can anyone comprehend the level of arrogance involved when a thief criticizes those he robbed.
Since I am one of the three he was told to avoid, I wish to God he had listened to whoever told him that. If he had, my wife and I would still have our life savings.
From the pulpit of a church that is supposed to be the place where healing and peace are preached, Dan is allowed by his father to rip open old wounds and make them bleed some more.
Al of Winter Haven, also wrote a letter to the Editor,
titled “Flee Halls of corruption” printed by the Ledger on
In response to Mr. Roy Aldrich’s letter to the Voice of
the people.
There are tears in my eyes also to think that --
1. a pastor, a “minister of God, would allow the pulpit of the church to be used by a money changer. Money-Changers were driven from the temple by Christ, according to my Bible.”
In my opinion, the two men involved that Sunday were slaughtering the lambs.
I would flee the halls of corruption never to look back, fearing that I might be turned into a pillar of salt.
The real problem with the speech in January, 1995, by Dan and Karl was it was all lies. My family and I, ignorantly sat there and believed every word that our pastor and his son told us because you can’t believe Christians, especially the Assembly of God type of lie. We didn’t flee the hall of corruption, but listened to these money-changers and their oratorical lies in the House of God.
We believed their eloquent words, felt their crocodile tears and even told our friends, who were not members of the church, that the newspaper accounts about the Straders were all lies and that they didn’t have the whole picture. The truth according to the Straders was that is was a frame up by vicious others, who wanted to get Pastor Karl Strader for who he was. [ A false prophet, a renegade and rebellious Assembly of God Pastor.]
The actual truth turned out to be that Dan’s own accountant resigned because he warned him that what he was doing was illegal and Dan promised to change which he never did. The same accountant would later testify against Dan in court.
The sour economy excuse that Karl used, both for his son’s demise and the decline in the church giving that following summer, was a typical Strader ‘catch all’ phrase, to blame circumstances for their personal failures. Karl even used this phrase in a letter to church members a few years before requesting more funds. There was no conspiracy by the State or Victory Assembly or others. Dan Strader by his own deeds and actions brought himself down.
The loudest complaint against Dan and Karl did come from Roy Aldrich, who turned Dan in to the State Attorney after he was betrayed by Karl. Roy was robbed by Dan and as a result lost his lifesaving's and had to sell his wife Patricia’s beloved Teddy Bear collection and his precious 250 engine full scale train collection just to survive, after Karl fired his wife from their only source of income.
Dan was not an entrepreneur, he was a first class con-artist
who used religious words, quoted the Bible, prayed with and preyed on his victims.
He modeled himself after his protégé and hero--his Dad, and did the things that
the Senior Pastor and the Strader family did in Carpenter’s
Both the pastor’s sons Dan and Stephen, and his son-in-law, used church vehicles, stationery, stamps and other things in Carpenter’s Home Church as though it was their sole God given right. They expressed in their real behavior and attitudes that they were special and different from others.
Stephen Strader actually said, that I was mistaken to think his father had friends among the church members, that in fact, his real friends were outside the church. Stephen later confided to a group of us in a prayer meeting that his father was away from the church that week because he had gone to visit one of his father’s friends, Jim Bakker of the PTL Scandal, an ex-felon and Assembly of God pastor.
The definition of nepotism, is the showing of favoritism to relatives. It was a key accusation brought against Karl, by his whole deacon board, in 1989. To which Karl Strader replied, that he was a servant of God and would not answer their charges. A few years later, this display of arrogance was an attitude, that Dan would also display at his own trial. Dan, like his father in 1989, wouldn’t admit to doing anything wrong.
The Straders were never really sorry for their deeds and victims and didn’t care what became of people’s lives as a result of the crimes committed by Dan. Not a penny was given by them to Dan’s victims, except a multitude of meaningless, religious words, devoid of real love, good works, and honest acceptance of personal fault. However, they did solicit and accept money from others to defend Dan Strader.
Integrity, honesty, financial responsibility and open accountability are words that were not in Dan’s or Karl’s vocabulary; as court records, articles of incorporation, correspondences and personal behavior would later show to be true.
Pastor Karl had stated in a radio address over WCIE, that while we, as Christians, are required to tell the truth we are not to tell the whole truth because that would be gossiping. Both Dan and Karl would find Scripture verses to defend themselves and show that they were right, after all they knew better and were very important people.
T.G. of
How dare Pastor Karl Strader put the responsibility
on the media for the actions of Daniel? There was no consideration given to all
the individuals who lost money, even lifesaving's, and some their very homes.
He went on to say, King David of
The Ledger quoted Roy Aldrich’s remarks that “the use of a
pulpit for attacking individuals is absolutely reprehensible. Assembly of God
church leaders should suspend Karl Strader pending an investigation for having
his son use the church service as his forum.” Roy Aldrich also wrote a letter
on
Typically, the Assembly of God leadership in
Roy and Patricia were one of the couples among these wounded
seniors, who were also very active members of Carpenter’s
Later, we realized how we too, had been taken in and duped by the Strader clan, and that in reality, the other people weren’t evil and wicked as they were portrayed to be in our church from the pulpit. Our big regret was, how could we be so naive and easily taken in?
I guess we are all trusting sheep and we believed in our pastor, never expecting such incredible behavior among professing Christians. Is it something that all religious Christians are taught, that the Pastor is God’s man and we cannot question or say a word about him and his actions?
To this day Dan Strader thinks he is right and everyone else
is wrong. He is after all a Strader, right?
He doesn’t see as others do but only sees what wrong has been done to
him. How sincere he was in all he did--even while he robbed, raped and murdered
those around him by stealing what was never his to have, with smooth words and
using God’s Name in vain. He was a defamer and blasphemer who in Jesus’ name
did exactly what Jesus taught in His
Word not to do. His speech in Carpenter’s
Assembly of God Pastor, Karl Strader allowed the use of God’s pulpit to perpetuate Dan’s deceit and abuses and must be held accountable for many things; including propagating his son’s self-righteous attitudes, self-centerness, stupidity and ultimate sickness.
Dan was right at all costs. No matter what it cost others, he meant no harm, therefore in his mind he was not responsible for the outcome of his actions. An approach similar to the one used by Jim Bakker.
But that’s not what the Bible teaches or says. Man is enticed by his own lust and taken away to destruction. So Dan has gotten what he deserves and should remain there until he learns better. A man without mercy should be shown no mercy and is one who is devoid of God’s fruits and simply dabbles at understanding Him. Sad but true, Dan as evidenced by his fruit doesn’t know God at all.
Furthermore, doesn’t the Word say ‘touch not God’s anointed and do his Prophets no harm,’ because then God will judge us? However, aren’t we all anointed ones and prophets as well as priests and kings, when we have the Spirit of the Lord in us and on us? The real fact of the matter is, we aren’t to depend on or trust Pastors or Evangelists but only God because they are only guideposts and signs, made out of clay, to bring us to the One who created all things and not to themselves.
When we put our trust in Pastors and Evangelists rather than God and His Word we get exactly what we deserve--deceivement and abuse. We should become mature, able to discern the truth and walk independently of other influences, even when they call themselves Christian.
Well, after a five week trial in June, 1995, and mountains of evidence and testimonies from victims, it was shown that Dan Strader, could use smooth words and flattering speech to deceive the hearts of the simple, defenseless, trusting, elderly to rob them of their life’s savings, and that he was a real thief and a con-artist.
Yet, the Strader clan, who controlled Carpenter’s
The defendant’s view, as was expressed by Pastors Karl and Stephen, and reported in the Ledger went as follows:
There was a conspiracy between the Lakeland Ledger and the State Attorney’s Office abetted by allegedly dissident members of his father’s Church who broke away. Without this unproven conspiracy and persecution complex in Mr. Straders view, his company would have managed to pay all the victims.
Attorney John of Bartow said that Strader’s comments were inappropriate and “about as old as his investment strategy. Frankly, he must think his entire congregation up there is comprised of fools and buffoons to float that kind of excuse for his own criminal conduct.”
But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God. (Romans 2:29)
After Dan and
Karl’s speech and charade at Carpenter’s
“Dr. Lunsford and Dr. Trask should obtain a complete
transcript of Karl and Daniel Strader's extensive remarks about his version of
his financial troubles, which were made as a part of the Sunday morning service
at the Carpenter's Church on
The two newspaper articles, one of which quotes me, do not contain the nature of the personal attacks which Dan launched, stuff which never should disgrace the Cross of Christ from a pulpit.
These public pronouncements were accompanied by extensive clapping and even cheering on the part of the congregation who obviously were getting just one side of a very complicated situation, part of which the Florida State Attorney alleges involves the theft by lies and deceit of $100,000.00 of our money by Dan Strader.
You can understand that Karl Strader's use of his church in such a fashion is not fair and certainly is not Christian from the stand point of the added grief multiplied to victims like myself. Would Karl Strader give me twenty minutes to present my side?
As improbable as such an assertion may sound to the officials of the Assembly of God, we have the elements of a cult, all we do not know is how far things are going to go. The weirdness of the "manifestation" emphasis fits nicely into this scenario.
For the protection of the Gospel worldwide Karl Strader should be prevented from supplanting the Gospel with anything, especially the matter under discussion. The church should not be used to try his son's case. That is for the courts.
The church people are being turned into an excited mob by the pastor when they have no balanced information upon which to form valid judgments. They are also being exposed by Karl and Dan Strader to the idea that Dan's financial troubles are attributable to some sort of a conspiracy coming from the outside. That sort of thinking is germane to all cults.
Also, Karl Strader's assertion that "a sour economy" is the reason for his son's troubles is a false statement he has made several times. For example, our money completely disappeared in less than a month, hardly due to any discernible economic background. The pastor of a church should not prevaricate from the pulpit.
The truth which the Straders are trying to conceal by an emotional appeal to their church people is simply that Dan used a massive sea of misrepresentations, both oral and written, to obtain the major portion of the savings of older people who trusted the Strader name for various reasons, people who like us wooed never guess in a thousand years that their investment very likely was not being used as Dan stated.
Not one dime of our $100,000.00 was used for what Dan
represented as the urgent need for a "contract deposit" on a five
million dollar deal to purchase some blimp type airships from
One generic and unmistakable characteristic of all criminal mentalities surfaces: lying. Soon lies take over a person's life like a drug addiction and seemingly to a person caught in the web of deceit and being deceived, there is no reality except in the mind of the afflicted person.
Therefore it may be entirely possible that Dan may not
understand why some of his "customers" have been vocal about not
getting their money returned as Dan promised
and he may not understand why the state of
And it becomes "fun", something Dan said to me many times. Sin is fun, but only for a season. It would be a “kick to walk into an older couple's house and walk out two hours later with fifty thousands dollars by always of course, representing their investment with him as secure and paying much more than the bank, I turned Dan down for a $20,000.00 loan on the same day that he took $100,000.00 from me with the "Airship" story. Dan is good! Who but him would be able to do that, I was had by the best.
There certainly is some credibility to the assertion that we "victims" should not have loaned out significant amounts of money with no real security, but that is not how the government views it because one of their roles is protecting the public from scams-too late in our case.
Dan and I talked many times about the cross of Christ and the Atonement provided by the shed blood of Jesus, and I did express concern that the recent manifestation meetings at the church might overshadow the central Gospel message. In his public statement at a church service, he now maintains that I attribute Rodney’s stuff to the Devil, just another misrepresentation among so many.
For the record, I do regard it possible that massive appeals to the powerful and little understood subconscious mind could account for much of it and now I guess that sort of explanation sounds demonic to the sort of closed thinking I observed at the meetings. The Gospel is what is important, not whether you are prone on the floor, plastered to the walls or stuck to the ceiling.
Dan's assertion that he never intended to take anything from anybody could easily be true because in his self-generated set of rules what he was doing was not wrong in his opinion. So I feel great compassion for this man. He is entering a process where the first stages involve denial and self-justification and striking out at his tormentors like me.
He really believes that his problems are solely due to procedural errors, and that is a good thing for the present because if he felt at this time the full impact of the effect he has had on people, I doubt he could handle it.
Karl Strader, while he has done a wrong thing to let his son strike out at others as part of a church service, is a great man of God who in his grief is doing what he can for his son. My heart goes out to him. I have heard some of the derogatory remarks made about me personally by members of the Strader family.
Karl ignored me when I wrote to him about his son keeping our money, and then he fired my wife. I am not only to forgive them for the loss of $100,000.00 but also for every other thing. Why we have been chosen by Christ to suffer like this because, partially at least, we trusted the Straders is a mystery.
The real implication of all the aspects of the matter before us is that by the power of the Cross we may choose to seek life or death, and that which can save us will also destroy us if we choose death. In practical terms, death is being chosen by the Straders if they continue to attack certain investors who they perceive as causing trouble for Dan. Dan brought this trouble on himself, and any other construction is lying and therefore the death pathway.
Officials of the Assembly of God can see how dangerous
the waters are through which Karl Strader
is navigating as one views this situation even in the most superficial manner.
He should be somehow brought in check, and if the contents of Dan Strader's
"sermon" at the Carpenter's Church are examined, you will most
certainly agree. We do not need another
Dan's assertion in his "sermon" do indicate some concern for his "investors," but there cannot be one shred of actual repentance in his life as he in the same talk from his father's pulpit blames others for everything but what he calls procedural or detail misjudgments.
But at the present time Karl is motivating his flock to become zealots for Dan which exceeds propriety and will harm further many others, including, I believe, Dan who should simmer down and face what lies ahead without whining.
Of course, the General Superintendent of the Assembly of God didn’t respond to Roy Aldrich in his hour of need and hurt. I was to find out later, that the Assembly of God, not like other denominations, was a ministerial fellowship formed around ministers with the common Pentecostal experience and the little ordinary guy was not considered important and were repeatedly ignored.
The District Superintendent wrote
a response to
I was later to write a letter to Evangelist Rodney Howard Browne and General Superintendent Thomas E. Trask as well as others, about their friend and confrere, Karl Strader concerning Roy Aldrich’s problem and the Strader Affair. Of course, since I was not a prominent minister, evangelist or someone of importance in their eyes, they never bothered to answer my letters and totally ignored me.
Mind you I shouldn’t be surprised at this because Jesus Himself told a parable of a certain man who went down from Jerusalem, which was a center of worship, to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and left leaving him half dead. A certain nameless priest came down that road and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise, a certain nameless Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side.
Again, a certain nameless Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was saw the wounded man and had compassion on him. He went and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. The next day, when he was leaving he took out some money and gave it to the innkeeper and told him to take care of him and whatever more he spend, when he came again, he would repay him.
Then, Jesus asked a question of the religionists of that day saying:
"So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?" And he said, "He who showed mercy on him." Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise." (Luke 10:36-37)
The Ledger and the Tampa Tribune became the good Samaritans and helped Roy Aldrich when no one else wanted to hear about his troubles with religionists. So now I wrote a book and mentioned them in it, about their real deeds and ways so that others may ask them, what did these prominent religious people do to their neighbor Roy Aldrich and what was their role in the Strader Affair?
Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. (Hebrews 10:28)
Judge Doyel at the sentencing of Dan Strader read portions of impact statements from 22 victims who lost all or most of their life’s savings. They had filled out these statements as part of a pre-sentence investigation of Dan Strader. While Judge Doyel didn’t identify the individuals and said their statements would be sealed, He became choked up while reading some of the emotional statements. Some of the victims sitting in the courtroom’s gallery were weeping openly.
On
“The psychological and financial devastation wreaked by this defendant is enormous. A review of some of the victim impact statements show the extent of their injuries.
· My reaction to this atrocity is devastating. My husband died believing that the money.... he left invested with Dan Strader... had left me financially able to take care of myself....for the rest of my life...I am now emotionally and financially ruined. I am living on my Social Security and had to go out and find a job and return to work at the age of 70 years.
· I have no one to help-me and no money to hire help like I did before...we can not buy the medicine that we need because of this....I would get a job if I had someone to stay with my wife...At the time this happened my wife was on a new drug for this problem and I had to quit because she or we could not afford it any longer.
· This was someone that I trusted and knew... my husband has had to try to accept he may have lost his total retirement. This was all the money we had left.
· This has made me depressed and I have lost trust in any one.
· I am 75 years old and will be long gone before I receive any amount that he owes me. In the mean time, I live day to day worrying about my finances.
· It has made me feel betrayed not only by the business community but also by the Christian Community in which Mr. Daniel Strader is held in such high regard.
· My wife and I had to go to work because we could not live on social security and our small retirement checks.
· Mr. Strader has preyed on the trusting, the needy, the vulnerable and elderly. We were gullible to trust his suave line of lies and deceptive innuendoes. His deceit and cunning were well planned and he exploited us without human conscience. [like Father like son.]
Although, these statements show some of the devastation wrought by Daniel Strader, they don’t reflect the views of all the victims. Many victims are terribly embarrassed by being taken in by him. Others contend they suffered physical symptoms as a result of the fraud perpetrated on them by the defendant. Many of the victims want only to receive their money. [An impossible dream under the circumstance.]
There are many people who never will accept the truth of this case. There are other victims besides “investors.” Daniel Strader’s children were innocent by any calculation. Likewise, an entire congregation has been damaged by their association with this man. But all this suffering is the result, not of victim greed or the criminal system or the press, but the wrongdoing of no one other than the defendant.”
On
· He (Dan Strader) took money under the guise of investments in land, discount mortgages and others investments, but jurors concluded it was all an illusion.
· In interviews with several of the victims, one thing became clear: They all trusted the pastor’s son. “He’d stand here and tell you that, ‘I wouldn’t cheat you,’ that, ‘I’m a minister’s son,’” said Virginia Wheeler who turned 79 last month.
· He talked like he was a real religious person, You’d expect that of the son of a pastor.
· The effect that Dan Strader’s crime against me and my wife and I has been one of complete devastation:...make no mistake. Strader is nothing more than an unfeeling animal without conscience.”
In my research on the Straders, I read in “The Ledger” of a disabled Vietnam war veteran, Michael, who was unable to work, had cried bitterly at Dan’s trial and died a few months after Dan Strader’s sentencing.
Michael told of how he bought his home from Dan’s company. How Dan sold him the home as a licensed real estate agent, which Dan never was, and in reality was licensed only to sell insurance. How Dan Strader, held the mortgage on Michael’s home, used it as collateral to borrow money a few times without his knowledge or approval. When Dan got into trouble because of his crooked and dishonest practices, Michael lost his home and died devastated.
Another gentleman and member of Carpenter’s
What was also disturbing to me was that there were many
pastors who were once associated with Carpenter’s
In reality, Pastor Karl Strader was an evil and wicked man, who brought on himself the suffering for his deeds and ways, and was a con-artist just like his son.
Without digging to deeply into all the details, because it
was very upsetting to me, I found many others who had similar horror stories of
what Dan did to them, as well as others who told of what Pastor Karl did to
them. Like father, like son! The Straders were allowed to freely speak out from
their pulpits and even jail cell; but others in Carpenter’s
I also wondered many times, how a man like Karl, who was supposed to be a great minister and a man of God, who preached the truth from the Word of God, could say his son loved the Lord, was seeking God and was innocent. When all the actual mountain of evidence spoke to the contrary. The facts speak for themselves. What made him so special that he could dictate to the authorities and others what was right judgment concerning his son? He who could not face the truth!
The answer that came to me was that Karl, like his son, had
real problems in his life and was deceived into thinking things about himself,
his family and ministry that were not true. How a man who couldn’t see or tell
the truth about his own son, could be an Assembly of God Pastor at Carpenter’s
"For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect. (Matthew 24:24)
Apostle Paul talked about being deceived and stated:
For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple. (Romans 16:18)
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the
Others had stated:
“Mr. Strader has preyed on the trusting, the needy, the vulnerable and elderly. We were gullible to trust his suave line of lies and deceptive innuendoes. His deceit and cunning were well planned and he exploited us without human conscience.”
When I read these lines, knowing what I now knew about how Pastor Karl with his accounting friend, changed the Articles of Incorporation, the bylaws and the Policy manual of Carpenter’s Home Church to suit himself and his family in 1989, I was sure that the people were speaking about Pastor Karl of Carpenter’s Home Church of Lakeland, Florida and not of Dan Strader.
Slowly, it dawned on me, I too was a real victim as many others were because I had placed my trust in Karl, the so-called man of God. I had also trusted in the integrity and honesty of the Assembly of God denomination. Just as another real victim and former friend, Roy Aldrich wrote to Karl, his pastor and said:
“As you continue to rule, you bring your family closer to the disaster you have inflicted on so many whose only crime, like ours, was trusting you.”
All we did was to sincerely and naively attend Carpenter’s
As a father and a conservative religious person, just like it would have been for Daniel in the Bible, I saw wrong was wrong, and sin was sin, no matter who did it, including our own children. The Strader clan, as a whole, had to be dealt with accordingly, seeing they refused to acknowledge that deep wrong had been done, or see how their behavior of using others and robbing them was wrong, even though they did it in great sincerity. They have always felt, that if they were sincere about it, their sins were not held to their account. Some where in their teaching is deeply faulty thinking. Someone forgot to check on what the Holy Spirit had to say on the subject.
"Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. (Luke 17:3)
"And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, 'I repent,' you shall forgive him." (Luke 17:4)
Unfortunately, there was never a deep repentance, that is, turning away from harmful behavior, on the part of Karl or Dan Strader to warrant forgiveness from God or man.
On
“Are they two fallen angels or just the 1995 incarnation of Hatfields and McCoys. These two unlikely rivals now find themselves in the same deep straits. Alice Faye Redd and Daniel David Strader. Their roots nourished by the same deep faith. Their past are muddled in the same murky waters.”
“They were power brokers on opposite sides of a bitter
feud that left a prominent church reeling. And now Strader and Redd two deeply
religious once upstanding members of
Then, I saw there was a cancerous evil teaching within the Assembly of God denomination, now evident in other denominations, which produced Jimmy Bakker, Richard Dortch, Jimmy Swaggart, the Redds and the Straders.
These so called men of God used their positions of trust, of being ‘the anointed ones’ whom others were not to touch, to take advantage of others both financially and spiritually. Ironically, no one had ever taken a closer look at the organization or corporation that supported them or allowed them to operate ‘The Assemblies of God.’
But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus,
"And who is my neighbor?" Then Jesus answered and said: "A
certain man went down from
Roy and Patrica Aldrich were school teachers who loved children very much. They weren’t rich and famous and not young anymore. They had devoted their entire lives to helping and teaching children.
I was later to observe how
Patricia was a school teacher with over 20 years of teaching
experience, when Pastor Karl Strader, in the Spring of 1987, called her and
asked if she would come to work for him in a full time volunteer capacity. Pat
and Roy loved and respected Karl’s ministry and wanted to be a part of
Carpenter's
Patricia worked for Pastor Karl as a “Ghost writer,” composing letters to members of the congregation and many others around the world, to which the senior Pastor often only signed his name. He obviously, trusted her skill and character because he rarely questioned what she wrote on his behalf.
Patricia also supervised the twenty-four hour
Out of love and respect for his senior pastor,
When problems arose in the church, in 1989, Roy and Patricia wrote a letter making over two thousand people aware that their beloved Pastor’s ministry was at stake. As a result of this letter they mobilized many of those who didn’t go to church business meetings, and they became supporters of Karl without knowing all the facts, and in consequence the vote went in his favor. Karl Strader could state that the Aldrich letter saved his ministry.
When the 1989, church split, caused problems for
The following letter was not the first letter that
Dear Pastor Strader:
You should be informed that Danny, with whom I meet now and then, read the letter that I submitted to you on ticket sales with the only and express purpose of determining if it sounded like my comments came from a hostile context.
He said that although my thoughts were strongly stated, he did not object to the spirit with which I wrote, and so I asked him to drop it off to you.
I respect his opinion to the extent that had he objected to my tone, I would definitely have either rewritten it or not submitted it at all.
I do not envy you getting so many unsolicited opinions from so many sources from folks who hopefully are striving, along with you, for a sense of direction for our church.
I personally shrink back from stepping forward against what is obviously established practice at the church. That action takes me out of my comfort zone and into a position that often times is fueled by ego and not God.
There are some among us, including me, who have definitive answers on matters of many opinions - concepts that are not specifically defined in Scripture.
I know that you want what is best for our church and I am thankful that you are
open to my ideas along that line.
In Christ, Roy Aldrich
Dan Strader begged
Out of love, respect, friendship and trust for the Straders,
and a chance to make some profit from a
one month loan, they agreed, and on
Now it seems that in the state of
Conveniently, for these con-artists these agreements are not notarized or recorded, but the unsuspecting target of this scam accepts the word of a so-called Christian, such as a handshake or a scribbled note, like Dan did, as security. Interest is paid at first, until the scoundrel gets into trouble and then the innocent trusting Christian loses his or her money as a result.
It seems that this practice was going on in Carpenter’s Home Church when we were there, and some of the luxury cars that were on the lot belonged to those who raised capital or unsecured loans, from other unsuspecting Christians, using this method to obtain funds.
Many hurt Christians because they were Christian, wouldn’t
go to the authorities, though they were robbed, they wanted to “leave it in the
Lord’s hands.” This is a phrase often
heard in Christian circles. This was very convenient for scoundrels like Dan
Strader, until
Roy Aldrich, who could express himself extremely well when he wrote, decided to wrote a letter on February 3, 1994, to Pastor Karl Strader, where he clearly outlined the problem that they were having in getting the pastor’s son to return their funds. From then on, Dan and Karl Strader would avoid dealing or speaking to them, and turned a deaf ear to the problem.
Karl finally responded on
“In retrospect, is the worst judgment call of my life
going to be that I believed your son on
“What is God’s reaction to evil, robbery, misrepresentation, oppressing old people and murder. That’s right murder, because severe blows such as Patty and I are being dealt, can easily be mortal wounds as people are apparently shredded of their live savings and exposed to the personal trauma of not being able to recover their funds.
Dan Strader, shortly thereafter made false promises to the
Aldriches, that he would repay them, and funds would be transferred to their
account on
When it became apparent to Carpenter’s
Roy Aldrich wrote sixteen letters to his Pastor Karl Strader, between February and June, 1994, concerning what Dan Strader had done to the Aldriches and Karl Strader still maintained throughout 1994, that he was not aware what Dan had done wrong.
On
“Dan Strader deliberately destroyed the Aldriches financially by taking our $ 100,000.00 which was clearly designated for one purpose and using it for other purposes without our knowledge or permission, never realizing that such a dastardly and fraudulent act was destined to become public knowledge within just a few weeks.
This action is not the result of a “bad business deal but rather a wanton act of deception and deceit and aggression against us personally, a terrorist act which for the past months has caused us immense personal grief and consternation.
It is beyond my ability to imagine that our being in
On
“Initially we came to Lakeland because of your ministry, to put it in simple terms, and your creating a job for Patricia in order that we might feel accepted, a seed that you planted had a harvest, we feel, at the time we fought to preserve your continuance as senior pastor of our church.
When I ask you to put in a word for us with Dan, I am asking for something very effective because if one thing is true of your son, he respects you and stands in awe of you to such an extent that your word to Him is gold.
Could you be instrumental in just getting us an agreement so that in future time Patty and I would be able to count on the return of our necessary old age cushion.
We are no longer asking for our cash back immediately from Dan who appears unable to do that.”
On
“Since we live in the expectation that our money cannot possibly be entirely gone in such a short length of time, we have not taken our case to the State Attorney.
But at our age we need certain guarantees that in the future our principle is returned as promised or we will be forced to go to the State Attorney for what little protection of our interests he can provide.”
On
“It will always be amazing to many of us, the so-called “ investors” and church leaders alike, that two privileged men who claim to believe in Jesus could deliberately inflict so much suffering on mostly elderly people, like ourselves, for just about the only motivation capable of fueling such a machine-pure greed.”
On
“Joe, the promise that Gary [Pernice] has our funds intact and ready to return to us is probably another false promise like the one which appears in my documentation concerning Dan’s pledge about returning our funds by March 3rd “before 11:00 A.M.”
Now there is no reply to any of our communications from Pastor Strader or Dan, and the State Attorney has picked up on this hard nosed attitude.
How could Dan Strader, supposedly our friend, using the sense of morality we hear so much from the pulpit of the Carpenter’s home church so misuse our trust of him to take illegally our life savings from us and then not even have the courtesy to contact us in any way.”
On
“The State Attorney has told us that we were absolutely lied to about where our money went and the use of it to pay people we do not know..
When is Dan Strader going to start to tell the truth?”
On
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to read between the lines well enough to determine from concern expressed on the phone the centrality of our case to his [State Attorney] ability to prove fraud, the conviction of which will put Danny away for a long time.”
When Lonnie was appointed, the new principal of Evangel in
1994, Jim assured the existing staff of
On
Ironically, Lonnie, as the new Principal of the school was
terminated in November, 1995 because he too didn’t fit the profile of the
decision makers and executors of CHC Inc.--namely Karl Strader and the
Secretary-Treasurer, Jim. He was replaced by the associate pastor was appointed
to become the new principal of
Ironically, the former Principal of Evangel School, Dave,
wrote a recommendation for Patricia, on
“She has exceptional writing and journalistic skills, takes directions well and follows through on every assignment. She is personable, highly intelligent, and of impeccable integrity and character.”
This recommendation
was noted by others and Patricia found work as a school teacher in
Well, on
“We think that you might find our testimony against Dan Strader scheduled for next Monday A.M. interesting for two reasons:
1) Unlike many of the other investors our $100,000 loan
completely disappeared in just one month from
2) My wife Patricia, taught in the Carpenter’s
Also during the time frame being investigated by the trial, Dan made substantial monetary contributions to his father’s church with what quite possibly will be proven to be largely stolen money bilked from the numerous victims.
The church will not reveal the amounts received from Dan Strader since 1989, the approximate beginning time of the alleged scam. [Also the time when Karl Strader rewrote the Articles of Incorporation of Carpenters Home church Inc., and made himself the sole executive and boss.]
The amount of Pastor Strader’s salary has always been a closely held secret, and that fact may explain why the church will not be forthcoming with any help for state investigators and why Straders are so arrogant toward the media and are so contemptuous about ‘government in the sunshine.’”
However, the Aldriches would continue to be ignored and rebuffed by their Senior Pastor and former friend, who not only refused to see them, but he had Joe fire Patricia from Evangel Christian school where she worked at the church.
The Straders would also spread lies about the Aldriches which many, including my family and I, believed when we first attended CHC. It was very sad and hurtful the way they were treated by others in the Assembly of God because of the actions of Pastor Karl Strader, who was defending his son and himself from what had happened and what was being written in the newspapers.
What also amazed me is that Pastor Karl Strader and others in CHC received these letters from Roy, which they never directly acknowledged, although Karl used his right hand man, Brother Joe to deal with and speak to Roy, yet they still maintained that his son Dan and did nothing wrong.
The $100,000 dollars that Dan Strader had stolen from the Aldriches was their life’s savings for retirement and they were deeply hurt. Not only did they lose their nest egg for their old age they lost their steady source of income.
"Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. "Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side.
"But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. "So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. (Luke 10:31-34)
Roy Aldrich
wrote many more letters to the Assembly of God district office as well as to
the headquarters in
Dear Mr. Aldrich,
I am responding to your letter with some fear and
reluctance. The fear is that anything I
say could wind up in the Lakeland
Ledger. I have thus far remained
clear of the
fray and have
refused to comment to the media
on any of the matters-pertaining to the Lakeland scandals. [ AG Scandals not
First, I want you to know that I do have compassion and concern for you dear people who have lost so much in these events. I pray for you that God will help you recover from your great loss. I am so sorry that these tragedies have occurred and that you have been personally affected.
I also have another concern, that these published
statements can do great harm to the
I regret that unwise statements have been made both in the pulpit and to the media. To this point the investments have not been connected to the church in any way other than relationship to the church and the pastor.
Your statement to the Ledger that the Assemblies of God should do something regarding the matter indicates that you are not thinking clearly on the matter. I have not yet discovered anything in these events that could be chargeable on the part of any credentialed minister who is indirectly involved. What charges can be brought for unwise public statements in a land that prides itself in "free speech?"
Please be assured of my love and concern for you and all parties who are hurting deeply because of unwise and unfortunate events that have brought us to this moment.
In His Service,
Don Lunsford
District Superintendent
Amazing that the Pastors at CHC and the District Superintendent of the Assembly of God were more concerned the Aldriches had gone to the media rather than what so-called Christians did to them.
The words and fears that Don Lunsford expressed were also to me quite unbelievable and have made me quite upset, every time I read his letter at the apparent hypocrisy and empty meaningless words devoid of genuine love, concern, truth and action.
Then the Assemblies of God wonder why the media and others were upset at them. It was obvious to me that the prominent ones in the Strader Affair did not have favor, grace, wisdom, discretion and discernment from God to deal with the obvious wrongs and injustices and it showed in their words, deeds and actions.
On
“Truth, honesty and integrity will be restored to the great church on the lake.
Leadership including the district officials are been given time to disassociate themselves from iniquity and if they do not then their portion must be with those who will be made an open spectacle by the God of the Bible.
Pastor Strader did another dramatic performance asking his people to join him “arm in arm” in relation to his son. He is lying by leaving the clear implication that his family and friends are receiving religious persecution.
Are you men of the district really completely impotent to make this man use his pulpit for the purposes intended?”
Roy, who always loved to talk about the Cross and what Jesus had achieved there, was referring almost prophetically to what Apostle Paul said and what would happen to the Straders.
And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. (Colossians 2:13-15)
Although, I had never met the Aldriches before their
unsolicited letter of November, 1995, Patricia and Roy had been quoted about 35
times in the local
Dear Mr. Kambulow,
You and I have never met before but I dropped off a four
page letter to Jack Collins that I had written concerning the firing by
Carpenter’s
I was also disappointed to learn how Jack and Betty and Cindy were also fired by Joe the Secretary-Treasurer and Karl Strader after many years of service with the church. He was a good man and with his wife devoted all their energy to the church.
I read the letters that you had left at Jack’s home and was encouraged to see that finally someone saw the light. I am glad to see that you have written a book about all of this. The secret high salaries and special benefits of Joe the Secretary-Treasurer and Karl Strader have been of concern to me for a number of years. To my recollection, it was at least $150,000 each a couple of years ago. As you might be aware the church has dropped the pension funds plan for its employees but I am sure that Karl and Jack have a pension plan paid by the church even today.
I have also expressed some grave reservations about charging set ticket prices for the gospel in the form of mandatory prices of entering God’s building for concerts as much as $25.00. I was also told by someone that they do not pay tax on these concerts as it is done through WCIE rather than Carpenter’s Home Church Inc. It is surprising that the IRS has not got wind of it.
These leaders of the church decided long ago to emphasize what CHC could do to serve them rather than what they could do to serve the church and its members. More perversely the leaders consider that the people they banish and fire at will, with out cause, are cursed of God anyway. It does not matter to many, how much grief Karl and Joe have caused to others in order to achieve the position of power they now abuse so freely.
In 1989 my wife and I wrote a letter which we distributed to 2,400 homes supporting the continuance of Strader’s ministry when he was under fire before the split. Karl credited our efforts at the time with being very influential in saving his ministry an act which we came to regret. Patricia did far more for the church and Evangel than teaching like many others, including ghost writing letters for the Straders.
When it became apparent that Dan [ pastor Karl Strader’s
son] had stolen our money Karl who was always nice previously did not meet with
us but got his right hand man his henchman to fire my wife who was an employee
of
Regards,
Roy Aldrich
So I wrote to my newly discovered friends in Christ who had suffered so much in the Strader Affair and were faithful and true having never given up.
Dear Friends,
I received your letter dated
Because God is still God, because the Holy Spirit is
still moving today, I anticipate for you, in the now of our life and existence
what He has promised in His Word in, “I will make you inhabited as in former
times, and do better for you than at your beginnings. Then you shall know that
I am the LORD” (Ezekiel 36:11); and,
I will prepare a lamp for My Anointed.
His enemies I will clothe with shame, but upon Himself His crown shall
flourish. (Psalm 132:17-18)
So keep your courage and spirits high for your reward in heaven and even on earth will be great. “Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Matthew 5:12) Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward for you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the reward. (Hebrews 10:35-36)
Roy and Patricia Aldrich did not find true Christianity in
their pastor or their Church, Carpenter’s
"You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your
father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand
in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks
from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. "But
because I tell the truth, you do not believe Me. JOHN
True Christianity is found in the simple story that Jesus told and in those who do what Jesus told them to do:
"A certain man went down from
"Now
by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed
by on the other side. "Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place,
came and looked, and passed by on the other side.
"But a certain Samaritan, as he
journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. "So
he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him
on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
"On
the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the
innkeeper, and said to him, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend,
when I come again, I will repay you.'
"So
which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the
thieves?"
And he said, "He who showed mercy on him." Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise." Luke 10:25-37
It’s doers of the word who are true Christians not the talker especially if they are pastors. We are to look at their deeds and not just their words; being a Good Samaritan is what true Christianity is all about. It's obvious to many that many so called Christians and their pastors don't have it. They are not compassionate giving truthful or honest. They all claim to be Christians while ignoring what apostle Paul clearly told them:
Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:31-32
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. Colossians 3:12-14
O LORD my God, if I have done this: if there is iniquity in my hands, if I have repaid evil to him who was at peace with me, or have plundered my enemy without cause, let the enemy pursue me and overtake me; yes, let him trample my life to the earth, and lay my honor in the dust. Selah (Psalms 7:3-5)
Believe it or not Pastor Karl Strader actually preached on Psalms chapter seven and made it his prayer one Sunday morning when we were there. He actually mouthed the foolish words and asked God to do it to him if he did evil to others. Well, God heard and answered His prayer and his honor was laid in the dust by enemies, Roy and Walter.
Early 1989, Roy Aldrich wrote many letters both to Karl
Strader and the dissidents including brother Jim. It was very interesting to
examine what
That is how most of us are when it doesn’t touch us, we
aren’t bothered about a problem until it touches us directly. So
These are traditionalists whose warfare is not only against Pastor Strader but also against the entire charismatic movement, and if they succeed here, there could be an adverse ripple effect around the world because of the special nature of this church.
We need to stand and fight, not to preserve our position, but to keep the faith and the ministry going. The real casualty here will be worship and spiritual warfare this is the target of the demon world and Satan.
Is it possible that we should abbreviate the Easter program or change its complexion in order to preserve our energy for the continuing storm?
It has been my opinion all along that the enemy's strategy is a war of attrition, not an attempted knockout punch, and that is why no charges have been filed. A frontal attack against you would miserably fail.
If you, indeed, do call for a vote of confidence, then let some of us mail out a letter to members which clearly delineates the issues as we see them. By naming the ten or so prominent people against you, the dissidents would be drawn out in the open where they are at a great disadvantage.
Putting this insurrection to an end is as simple as just clearly identifying bitter people and enabling all to see their objectives.
This is what they fear the most, and they now need to be drawn from seclusion without exception or else we may lose our battle by default.
Sincerely in Christ
Roy Aldrich
Roy Aldrich, like his friend Walter loved to write letters.
On
Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ:
As you probably already know, a very important vote concerning the status of our beloved Pastor Strader will be taken on Monday evening, March 13th, at a congregational meeting.
At that meeting there will be a vote of confidence for our pastor, and I am sure you can see the importance of attending it to make sure that your will, as it is submitted to God's will, is done.
No doubt you are familiar with the fact that there have been two previous meetings in which our church situation was discussed; however, at this one a crucial vote will be taken that will determine whether or not the vision Pastor Strader has for our church will be continued.
It is a very serious matter for any individual or group of individuals to attempt to terminate the ministry of a servant of God and, frankly, such an attempt may be made Monday night by a dissident minority who consider that their opinions should be placed above the facts as seen by a loyal majority, the staff, and the pastor.
Strong written affirmations by Uncle Shelby, Rusty Nelson, and Kevin Doddy indicate their 100% support for pastor, and other voices in support of the pastor will be heard on Monday.
Only members will have the privilege of voting at this meeting. In all fairness it should be pointed out that there will be an equal opportunity for all sides to speak under the chairmanship of a district official. [Thomas E. Trask]
Your attendance at this meeting could be the greatest contribution you are going to make in 1989 to this great church.
By responding to this call, we demonstrate our willingness to accept the responsibility as well as the rewards of our having been selected by Jesus, before the foundation of the world, for the privilege of being associated with Pastor Strader in the great mission of getting the gospel out around the world.
Concerned, loving supporters of the Strader family.
Pastor Karl Strader also enjoyed to write letters of
appreciation because on
Dear Roy and Pat:
Greetings in the Name of the Lord Jesus!
Only God knows how close the vote would have been had you folks not helped to get "the letters" out to encourage people to come last Monday night.
You are to be commended.
God bless you for wanting to see things done fairly!
Sincerely Yours in Christ
Karl D. Strader, Pastor
A year later, Roy’s Aldrich friend and beloved Pastor, Karl
Strader, wrote on
Dear Roy & Pat
Greetings in the Name of the Lord Jesus!
Thank you for your kind remarks and your input. I really appreciate the good work that you have done and are doing, Pat. I really appreciate your sweet spirit. You and Roy have been real friends.
Sincerely in Christ
CHARGES AGAINST PASTOR STRADER
We have been told that no formal charges have been filed against our pastor, so I would like to suggest that he is guilty of many things, perhaps too numerous to mention, which include the following:
1. He should be
charged with building the Carpenter's
2. He should be charged with loving all people, even his critics.
3. He should be charged with being an aggressive soul winner.
4. He should be charged with praying for the healing of bodies and spirits.
5. He should be charged with a vision for missionary efforts all around the world.
6. He should be charged with memorizing Scripture and becoming a master preacher.
7. He should be charged With spreading the Gospel around the world by radio and television.
8. He should be charged with being a strong family man.
9. He should be charged with defending his wife.
10. He should be charged with deliverance’s made through Spiritual Warfare Ministries.
11. He should be charged with supporting our Easter and Christmas programs.
12 He should be charged with teaching the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
13. He should be charged with praying in the Spirit everyday.
14. He should be charged with creating a good working atmosphere for the staff.
15. He should be charged with getting the finest guest speakers for Our church.
16. He should be charged with opposing the works of the devil.
17. He should be charged with asking forgiveness for his mistakes.
The above list of charges implies that Pastor Strader is guilty and should spent the next ten years or so at hard labor working as the God’s placed leader of the Carpenter's Home Church.
Sincerely in Christ,
Roy Aldrich
Later, Roy was to write one of his best letters which I consider a classic to Karl Strader in January, 1995 in regard to his Sunday sermons on ‘Enemies’ which included the following remarks:
I would like to join the ranks of those who Karl Straders counts as his “enemies.” by the following statements:
1) I am the enemy of lying and deception which hurts and robs people.
2) I am the enemy of those who practice cruelty in the administration of any corporation, especially churches.
3) I am the enemy of any minister who allows the use of his pulpit for personal vendettas.
4) I am the enemy of any minister who uses his pulpit for soliciting public and personal sympathy over controversial matters involving his family.
5) I am the enemy of every minister in the world whose sense of right and wrong is based on nepotism and favoritism.
6) I am the enemy of the policy of Karl Strader who raised $52,000.00 for Dan’s defense fund and $58,000.00 for repairing a roof and not one dime for his son’s elderly and devastated victims.
7) I am the enemy of the disrespect represented in the Strader attitude towards the State Attorney and Judge Robert Doyel, a true servant of God.
8) I am the enemy of the policies of secret salaries which conceal huge benefits flowing from trusting church members to their leaders- salaries which provide sumptuous life styles, while at the same time, these same leaders are firing and traumatizing the “little people” under their care like Cindy Deaton, Patricia Aldrich, Jack and Betty Collins.
9) I am the enemy of huge personal gain to Karl Strader and Joe Perez derived from their secret management fees from the CHC Life Center Retirement Estates.
10) I am the enemy of the thinking that some claimed “anointing” or supposed special privilege with God gives anyone the right to turn a Christian church into their own personal “cash-cow.”
11) I am the enemy of the thinking expressed in the attached sermon outline which implies that the welfare of CHC is determined by any one man or family. We are supposed to worship Christ, and not the Straders.
12) I am the enemy of any minister who uses his oratorical ability to rally church audiences into cheerleading and other emotional excess as a device to shore up a crumbling personal empire.
13) I am an enemy of any organization that suggests opposing the leader’s lifestyle and words is opposing God.
For a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not given to wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but hospitable, a lover of what is good, sober-minded, just, holy, self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.
For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain. (Titus 1:7-11)
The word ‘Pastor’ is a King James invention. The New Testament doesn’t talk about Pastors as we know them today. However, the Word of God speaks of bishops and that a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God, not greedy for money, but a lover of what is good, and that includes justice, virtue and truth. I believe that this also applies to Pastor Karl Strader.
Stephen Strader asked me once, “What Bible was I reading,” because he didn’t understand what I was saying. Maybe I should ask the same question of the Straders, “What Bible were they reading,” while all those evil and funny things were going on in CHC.
The following letter was written by my wife, Sandy concerning the Bishop of CHC, Senior Pastor Karl:
After reviewing some of the damaging evidence against Daniel
Strader in the articles that were printed in The Ledger (
1. I find that both Karl and Daniel are self-deceived, self-serving, dishonest, discompassionate and underhanded. Basically, they are “con-artists!” The outward appearance they portray is one of honesty, love, respect, and an air of success, while they are truly in the Biblical sense “Wolves” in sheep’s clothing. They, I repeat They Are Not—Sheep! Pretending, to be a sheep or a shepherd doesn’t make it true! Seriously speaking, there is nowhere in the New Testament that speaks of pastors or their importance. The only good pastor is a Spirit-filled pastor who has put his respectability aside for the greater good. I have a lot of experience with family members who say they love me, while they use many words to express how wonderful they are and act in a self-serving manner.
2. The spiritual atmosphere in the church when I began to visit in October, 1994, was cold, distant, sprinkled with a few spiritual gifts offered by others, not the Straders, and filled with gossip and a sense that under the surface was a lot of hurt in many of the people.
After several months at the church, I observed that the leadership was cold, indifferent to the sheep’s individual needs and upon meeting one or two of them, I noticed how they lacked genuine concern for others and were very self-important.
This denotes a definite lack of love and humility, which the Bible clearly states we must have both for the brethren and the heathen. Some of the gifts of the Holy Spirit were in operation, but only in prophets, and “healers” outside the “main” leadership.
The Holy Spirit was present at the front podium due to the anointing on the singers, not the pastors, as I realized later. Everything was extremely controlled. Only prophecies acceptable to the leaders where allowed to be spoken. It was obvious the Holy Spirit was not really in control of the services as it was purported He was.
I simply observed how Karl himself, never turned to people or seemed genuinely happy to see them. This was true even of his leadership and his behavior toward them. His smile appeared artificial. It seemed unusual for a man in Christian leadership for so long.
Later, I would learn my inner sense on the matter was right. It was not that he didn’t know people but that he chose to ignore them. He was more important than they. Jesus, didn’t ignore his disciples, he walked with them, talked, ate, and slept with them. He lived with and loved them on their level. He showed them his compassion and love even when he knew they could so easily betray Him.
True love is loving the unlovely. It is supernatural. Something alien to Karl Strader. He chose to ignore people. Both his leadership and his congregation of long standing, followed his poor example of love and caring of the sheep.
No one invited us to join them or showed interest in our family. If we didn’t “join” the programs we were ignored. All contact with the church and its members were superficial and brief. A hand-shake when you entered the church, an occasional smile, and a lot of criticism behind your back.
Also, his sermons were devoid of the Holy Spirit. Oh, yes they were interesting at times. He tells his stories well. But, something deeper and more important was very much missing. He used the Word of God without seeming to understand the deeper truths behind the words. He spoke too much of us changing our character and behavior, very little of how the Holy Spirit can do it far better if we simple invite Him to.
Something I’ve come to realize he doesn’t understand. He became repetitive and dull. Not really showing much depth. (By depth I mean, having such a relationship with the Holy Spirit that you get fresh manna from heaven for each new sermon and the prophecy and direction all fit together in the service to further the Kingdom of heaven and benefit the people. Heaven is moving and flowing freely in the service and everyone knows it. In order to accomplish this the pastor must be very close to the Lord.)
The whole point of the exercise of coming to Florida, for my
family and I was to find a church full of the Holy Spirit, where we could give
and take in true Christian love and giving, and minister as God called us. We
were duped into believing this was Carpenter’s
It was an illusion and a lie. Carpenter’s
Later, I would realize, this attitude of lack of caring was an outward expression of a deeply embedded inward problem. Problems of true honesty before God and man, self-deception that Karl Strader and his family felt they were: right, acceptable in behavior, true to the Word of God, selfless, loving and truly honest in their dealings with others.
I hate to say, the entire family, is delusional, self-deceived and totally dishonest and disrespectful to others. The heart is desperately wicked, who can know it, the Bible tells us.
5. The facts of Karl and his family’s behavior speak for themselves.
a. Karl doesn’t genuinely love people. He doesn’t love justice in God’s terms. When one of my family members were wrong, I told them so. I didn’t cover it up, pretended they were spiritual or protect them. Wrong is wrong! He chooses to ignore wrong and sugar coat his children’s behavior. The children of Eli in the Old Testament didn’t get away with this why should his?! For that matter neither did Eli!
b. They believe they have a special dispensation from God and are above other people because they are so important to Him and His service. They consider themselves indispensable to God, in itself a delusion! The Bible is clear, God is no respecter of persons.
c. They must not be judged by man because they are about God’s business and are above the men around them. They should be treated with great deference and respect no matter what they do. It can’t be wrong they did it sincerely. Sincerely robbing people and calling wrong—acceptable, is in itself deeply wrong—wrong before God and wrong before man!
6. Due to their attitude of self-righteousness, a need for respectability at all costs, and love of power and money, the following atrocities toward mankind was committed by them:
Karl didn’t heed the warning of the people demanding true Christian behavior from the Straders and accountability to the church body, in a meeting held to clear the air between the congregation of true believers and the Strader clan.
Karl wrote up a dictatorial policy demanding people behave as he wanted them to or leave the church “quietly” in his own words. As he was the Christ and had all the answers. Sound’s delusional? It is! In my entire life I have never seen such an un-democratic, un-spiritual, un-loving, un-professional and un-Christian document.
I personally read the sixty-six resolutions the congregation were bringing forward to Karl, demanding he and his family change their behavior and attitude to the congregation and certain prophetic and other practices. He chose to ignore them and cut them out of the body. He chose to place himself above the sheep.
Does this sound like a loving shepherd or a cold hearted wolf. Why is it he alone has power over the governing of the church, its policies, attitudes to sheep and control of the finances. Is it perhaps because of his “love of money?”
This entire attitude on the part of the father, opened the way for the delusions and practices of Dan to begin his “business practices” of taking money from one person to pay off his personal debts or investors. Where he promised them their money would go, was not what truly happened to the funds.
Even in simple insurance transactions he stole money entrusted to him, to pay people’s insurance premiums, by endorsing the checks and keeping the money for personal use. Insurance companies began to complain they were not receiving their clients premiums and it came back to Daniel.
He was entrusted with a sacred trust—to deal honestly—there is no “mistakes” when one is honest! If one willfully robs one person to give to another, this is thievery, no question about it! It is blatant robbery. He also had his father’s arrogance and pride that he is right and above the law of God and man.
Upon digging a little deeper, you begin to realize that Karl has been practicing the very thing his son was doing with his insurance clients and investors. Karl has been taking people’s tithes, given to the Lord’s service, and properly designated to certain ministries and specific purposes, and placed them where he wanted them, not where they were designated to go.
In so doing, he aroused God’s attention and anger when he began to manipulate and remove intended funds from intended service to the Lord, to cover the church’s indebtedness. This obviously doesn’t honor the Lord but only becomes “lip service,” something Karl became adept at. A pathetically poor example to his children of “mismanagement of money” and double talk, saying one thing to the congregation and doing something totally different.
Sad to me is the documented facts that came out in Daniel’s trial that he had robbed not only the investors and insurance clients, he had robbed his children and wife of peace of mind and a sense of security, because their electricity was shown to have been cut off at least fifteen times in the previous year by the electric company due to lack of payment. This is only a small sample of what went on in his practices in paying personal bills and obligations. Not very responsible or loving—even to his own family, is it?
The bottom line is, men who cannot handle their own behavior or families correctly, with good Christian order and with common respect and decency, should not be leaders of anything—let alone a large Christian church or a business!
This principle applies to all Christian leaders! We are all accountable: first to God, second to our spouses and children, and third to fellow believers and other people. We must all pay the piper! Sorry, no exceptions!
We have a firm responsibility to teach accountability to our children, both to God and man! It is irresponsible to allow a child to believe there are no consequences for our actions and all will be forgiven and covered by “God’s love.” This is only true, the Bible says, if we meet God’s conditions of holding to his truths, unwaveringly and with deep fear of what He could do if He so chose!
God is still ultimately Sovereign! He chose to allow Job to suffer though he had done nothing to deserve it! God is God! I know he is not blind to all man does. He does Judge. Jesus’ sacrifice brought judgment.
As He said to me on the subject of love, it not only means being gentle and kind, it brings accountability and judgment. If we’re not sure we’ve crossed over the line into judgment and wrong doing we need to humble ourselves before God and find out.
When Karl and Daniel were told by God they were wrong they didn’t obey His voice. Is it because they never learned to truly “listen to His still small voice and obey Him? They also thought the vessels of his warnings were unimportant and of no consequence—Christian people—not of high positions or great wealth. Simple people, whom they had learned not to respect.
They could not recognize when a man of God had been sent to them, to redirect them and give deeply important warnings. They had not true spiritual discernment. They couldn’t hear, they couldn’t see. Is this not also Biblical? God stopped men’s ears and blinded men’s eyes?
The evidence speaks for itself. A broken church, many hurt and damaged Christian lives, the theft of thousands of dollars not belonging to the Straders, be it in tithes or investments, the Gospel of Christ trampled and disgraced, control and manipulation of lives in the Name of God and without compassion. One son in prison, another sent out of the country to minister elsewhere because he is a liability due to his attitudes and behavior, and a daughter who begs other pastors to help displace her father to place her husband in her father’s pastoral position. How Christian! How loving! What a wonderful example of right Christian living! How happy I am not to follow or be fooled anymore by such a wicked example!
“You don’t understand. You don’t know anything about us.” Stephen Strader
“There was nothing that we could do about it.” Assembly of God Pastor
Now there was a widow in that city; and she came to him,
saying, 'Get justice for me from my adversary.' (Luke 18:3)
Before I got
involved, Roy Aldrich wrote numerous letters about them to the editors of the
Ledger and the Tampa Tribune, many of which were published. One of these
letters was printed in the Ledger on Saturday,
There are statements being made by officials of the Carpenter's Home church which indicate that they think that the Ledger and the State Attorney are "out to get us"
Leading religious people believing that their group is the "insiders" and legitimate arms of the government and society are the "outsiders" is exactly the same attitude promoted by David Koresh and Jim Jones, both of whom led their followers to disaster.
The fact of the matter is that Dan Strader, Karl Strader's son, took savage and selfish action against a large group of elderly people whose lives have been shattered by his alleged illegal borrowing scheme.
My wife and I lost our Life savings to Dan's false promises and all the people of Polk County can be thankful to Chuck Zeller and others of the State Attorney's office that they have someone to defend 'them and represent the public against con men and deceivers, and being a minister's son should not make a difference in the application of criminal justice.
The value of the article in the Ledger about my wife
being fired from
If love is the greatest earmark of Christians as the Bible says, then who are these people who causelessly fired Patricia when she was already suffering so greatly?
Walter Morgan of
The recent firing of Mrs. Pat Aldrich as a teacher at
Of course the fact that Pastor Karl Strader's son
"Danny" defrauded Mrs. Aldrich and her husband of $ 100,000 has
nothing to do with this dastardly deed. Baloney. If you can believe that, then
I have a piece of ocean front property I will sell you in
There is no place in the Bible that condones what I call evangelical dictatorship.
The main reason for this letter is to voice my own
opinion and also encourage all God-fearing people to wake up and try to use the
brain that he so graciously gave them, before it's too late.
Another one of
It has been reported that a number of employees at the
Carpenter's
If that is true then Joe should have fired himself for keeping twenty or thirty unnecessary employees on the payroll, because he also stated that the mass firings will not affect the services of the church.
But far more important in view of the firings is the long established policy of keeping secret the salary of the Straders who obviously enjoy security that the lesser faithful employees do not have.
Since the Carpenter's Home Church has been rocked by scandal by the minister's son, Dan Strader, bilking many elderly citizens out of their life savings, you would think that in financial matters they would be willing to at least disclose to their members as much about how much the Straders profit from the church as, for instance, the mayor of Lakeland must disclose about his salary.
A group claiming to be Christians who would rather have government in darkness than government in the sunshine are on dangerous ground. When they solicit funds things are done in the open, but much spending is behind closed doors.
Could this attitude be the psychological background behind Dan Strader's thefts and expenditures? Testimony in court revealed that most victims of .he scam were not told the truth about the use of their money and others were not told the whole truth.
If Pastor Strader is making $150,000.00 per year salary and benefits while at the same time terminating other employees who were earning near starvation wages, then that should be of interest to our community, especially since Karl Strader has publicly misstated that. his son is guilty of only minor judgmental errors and was only targeted by the State Attorney because he is a "high profile" person.
Combine secrecy about salaries in which paying church members are not entitled to details about finances with the conspiracy theory that Dan asserted in court, wherein he stated under oath that the newspapers and State Attorney are out get him and the mentality is revealed which destroyed so many people whose only crime was trusting the name of Strader.
The Word of God contains true stories about real people and what happened when they disobeyed and did their own thing. We live in a society that thinks nothing of rebellious acts never mind the consequences. We chose not to remember there is a God in Heaven and we reap what we sow, even in the now, and continue to do our own thing and lean to our own understanding!
At a Sunday morning church service in September, 1995 Pastor Karl Strader lied to his members about the Church’s financial situation. He said that the church’s finances were in great shape.
Pastor Stephen Strader, during a prayer meeting the following week, during a time of prayer and fasting, requested prayer for the church’s finances and justified his father’s statement to the group, “My father made a heavenly exaggeration.” and he said, “confidentially the church’s finances were in terrible shape.” Stephen Strader stated that “some suppliers were not paid for months and CHC didn’t have enough money to pay their huge electrical bill.”
[For the record, there was nothing heavenly about it, it was
simply a lie, and it was rather hellish rather than heavenly.] A few months later, Pastor Karl Strader also
said, in a Sunday morning service on
Ironically, while Dan Strader, was out on bail before his plea bargain, he spoke at length to the Tampa Tribune and said the following about the former days of the Church, “It was financially strapped and on the verge of defaulting on its debts.”
Daniel Strader later rejected the plea bargain of a fifteen
year sentence that he had reached with the Florida State Attorney’s office and
given forty-five years instead. Amazing to see how the father is like son and
visa versa, they both said it wasn’t their sin or deeds, but it was “The
economy that caused problems for other people and Carpenter’s
Prosecutors said Strader bilked $3.7 million by selling investments in real estate and then selling those same properties to others a few times over. Dan Strader pleaded guilty to organized fraud and securities violations.
However, to this day Pastor Karl Strader has refused to admit his guilt concerning his son’s activities or what went on in Carpenter’s Home Church; although on Sunday, January 21, 1996 Karl admitted, in his own Strader way their “liability to repay creditors.“ A few months later, their important Radio Station had to be sold to help offset these liabilities.
“In this the children of God and the children of the devil are manifest: Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother. For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.” (1 John 3:10-11)
“Now the sons of Eli were corrupt; they did not know the LORD.” (I Samuel 2:12)
On January
1995, Durden, the
When the jury, composed of a housewife, a school secretary, a motel purchasing director, a supervisor, a warehouse worker and a retiree were selected on June 14, 1995 in Bartow, thirteen other investors were dropped, because they had died or had become ill, leaving 62 investors and 250 felony charges, a reduction of 53 charges from the original 303 charges, in the fraud and racketeering trial of Strader.
Due to extensive coverage in Lakeland. Circuit Judge Robert Doyle decided in April, 1995 that Strader couldn’t get a fair trial by local jurors and ruled a jury would be selected in Kissimme.
Strader had pleaded guilty in January, 1995 to 151 charges in a plea deal that would have
given him 14 years in prison but before Dan could be sentenced, he withdrew the
plea on
“At the time he entered the plea, Strader was defiant and cocky, claiming he was another victim of the system, and ridiculing his elderly victims. Most of them are claiming to be elderly, so tell them I hope they can last 14 years.
After his arrest, Strader spent months in the Polk Country Jail until his family and friends could raise enough money to bail him out. Once free he was ordered to live with his parents.
Prosecutors, too, are confident they can prove their case.
They say there is enough evidence to convince jurors that Strader devised an elaborate scheme to attract cash in the real-estate and mortgage investments.
They feel that they can show - almost open-and shut- that Strader was selling the securities without a license and that the securities were unregistered. They feel they can prove this was done in an organized method amounting to Racketeer-Influence and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO Act.
Strader had no intention of defrauding his clients, Edmund said, and he feels he can prove it.”
Daniel Strader’s mother-in-law had to testify in his case but not appear in court because of health reasons. Her testimony was needed because some checks in the Strader case had her name on it. In addition, her husband was a partner with Strader in some businesses.
Daniel Strader was described by the prosecutor on
In addition, Strader cashed millions of dollars of investment checks at check cashing companies which charge 2 to 3 percent for their services. The testimonies of many elderly trusting victims on the witness stand would confirm this:
The dealing took place between June, 1989 and April, 1994.
Strader promised high interest payments and told investors they could get their
money back at any time with out penalty and most of his investors were
Strader’s former insurance clients. However by 1993, at the time of the revival
in Carpenter’s
Three elderly investors testified that they placed their
money with Strader because they trusted him. Dorothy Brown, 69, who attended
Carpenter’s
The Browns invested $25,000 with Daniel and the money was the last of her husband’s retirement benefits. Dorothy testified that the interest payments were always late. When the Browns decided to get their money back from her pastor’s son, Dorothy called Dan Strader to set up an appointment but he never returned her calls.
Court records show that Strader approached many of his former clients and church friends to request that Strader invest their money a fact which Strader denied.
Strader also stated if the Comptroller’s Office felt that his business [Interstate Financial Services Inc.] was not in compliance, officials should have helped him come into compliance. Instead, they targeted him as a “high profile” person whose persecution could send notice to other firms. As a result, the investigation led to investor’s panic with everyone wanting their money at the same time.
These were the same excuses that Daniel Strader gave to the
congregation at Carpenter’s
The Strader clan including Karl, Joyce, Stephen and Karla, always maintained, until the present, that they were high profile people being persecuted and that people should help them financially and otherwise.
However, the Straders in deeds and real works didn’t do anything to help, comfort, console or support any of Daniel or Karl’s victims but rather opened their wounds and poured salt on them through their critical words and statements.
What a double standard and hypocrisy for these so-called men of God who are part of the Assembly of God. Thomas Burner, a 76 year old retiree cried on the witness stand when he stated, “I thought he was a man of God. I would have given him more if I had it.”
Definitely, from my research and the material that I read, and the people who I talked to and wrote to, the “Racketeer-Influence and Corrupt Organizations act“ could be applied to the all the Straders, and even to the Assembly of God, who did nothing about the racketeering and corruption that went on in the Assembly of God for the last fifteen years, not only in Lakeland and Charlotte, South Carolina but in America.
The Tampa Tribune ran an article on
Investor
says Strader sold him on loan
Man says
Strader stressed religion
Investor says defendant claimed God approved of a $100,000 deal.
By BlLL HEERY Tribune Staff Writer
BARTOW-A man who lost a $ 100,000 investment testified Monday that his many religious conversations with fraud defendant Daniel Strader prompted his investments
Roy Aldrich, a 64- year old retired teacher, said his money was supposed to be invested for only one month in a venture featuring --a blimp like aircraft, and he expected a $ 10,000 interest return.
Several days after he gave Strader,
son of the Rev Karl Strader or Carpenter s
investor says Strader sold him on loan from Page 1
and grand theft. He is accused of
bilking 62 investors out of $ 3.7 million. Strader is charged with selling
investments in properties that didn't exist or selling the same properties over
and over in Carpenter s Crest, a
Interstate Financial Services Inc., of which Strader was president, had no legitimate income, the prosecution contends. Its only income came from investors and not from income producing properties, prosecutor Wayne Durden said at the beginning or the trial two weeks ago. Aldrich s testimony was the first mention of an investment in a venture involving a blimp like aircraft.
Aldrich said he made several
investments with Strader during a three-year period and always received his
principal and interest payments, even though they often were late. He sled he
was told the money was being invested in the purchase and resale of mortgages
through
Strader on
About 11/2 hours later, Strader returned to Aldrich's home “exuberant”, Aldrich said and said he was glad that Aldrich had not given him the $20,000. He said he had been in touch with Pernice and a very unusual deal was coming up.
Pernice and another man were negotiating for the purchase of a blimp-type aircraft for the Club Med vacation resorts, Aldrich testified. Strader said $150,000 was needed to invest, and he and Pernice would put up $25,000 each if Aldrich would put up $100,000.
The money was to be placed in an
escrow account as a contract deposit for the purchase, Aldrich said he was
told. He was told there was no way the principal could be lost. Each investor
would receive in a month, by
Aldrich testified he told Strader he would not invest unless Pernice signed the agreement, because it was his deal. Pernice's s signature was on the agreement, he said.
Defense attorney Jack Edmund stressed during cross-examination that Aldrich received money from ail his earlier investments with Strader and the only investment in which he lost money was the one Pernice was directly involved in.
The defense is trying to prove
that since Pernice’s s
Ironically, the same year of 1989 Dan’s father Karl Strader, was in trouble with the church board because his other son and son-in-law were abusing and misusing the church property to their advantage. Yet, somehow the wrong behavior of the children was not the fault of the parents. Well, this is not what the Lord said about the high priest Eli and He was judged and dealt with accordingly, and soon the same thing will happen to Karl Strader and it will not be nice.
What always amazes me is how stupid people think that we are because Dan Strader, who is a replica of his Father Karl Strader, with the same smooth talking abilities, still maintains his innocence in spite of the trial and sentencing that was reported throughout Polk county by the Tribune and Ledger. What is also amazing that many Assembly of God members read the same newspapers or chose not to and did not believe what was written.
The Ledger ran on
“Seventy-six year old Thomas Burner fought tears on the
witness stand Thursday as he told about investing his savings with
Burner testified that in 1987 he invested $25,000 with Strader, who had been his insurance agent. “He acted like my broker. When a man has prayer with you, you think you can trust him,“ Burner testified pausing to compose himself. “I thought he was a man of God, that’s why I invested with him. I’d have give him more if it had it.”
Burner said Strader gave him no documents to confirm his investment. Strader paid him interest for a few years. Burner said and let him withdraw $11,000 from his investment.
But when he asked for the return of the other $14,000 he
did not get it. Strader said it was invested in Carpenter’s
Seventy-eight year old Julia Delling, a former member of Carpenter’s Home Church, testified that Dan Strader came to her house and called frequently until she invested $60,000 with him and then she didn’t see him anymore. She received interests rates for a year and than Dan’s checks started bouncing. On the witness stand she stated “He was so nice. A gentleman. He has a nice way of talking. Beside when you hear the name Strader you trust it.”
Charlotte Kirkland, a 67 year old widow from Aubundale testified she trusted Strader completely because he told, “You don’t have a thing to worry about. I‘ll give you a my personal guarantee. Strader worked on and stole from everybody who would trust him including preachers for a retired 71 year old preacher from Tennessee testified that he told Strader when he invested his $25,000 life savings he couldn’t afford to lose it. Strader “assured me that our money was safe. If the company went bad, he would personally guarantee the principal.”
Sherry Jahoda from
Well, as the court records and media showed the personal word and guarantee of a Strader turned out to mean very little. However, there is one called Jesus Christ of Nazareth who doesn’t lie or break His Word, and He is faithful and true unlike the Straders. The Word of God states:
And you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one thing has failed of all the good things which the LORD your God spoke concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one word of them has failed. (Joshua 23:14)
"God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of
man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken,
and will He not make it good? (Numbers
As for God, His way is perfect; the word of the LORD is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him. (2 Samuel 22:31)
However, the performance of the Lord’s Word is also dependent on us doing our part such as walking in his statues, keeping His commandments and executing His judgments which is something that the Assembly of God members and Pastors such as the Straders didn’t do. As the Word of God states:
Concerning this temple which you are building, if you
walk in My statutes, execute My judgments, keep all My commandments, and walk
in them, then I will perform My word with you, which I spoke to your father
David. (1 Kings
Vyrad Woorard, a 64 year old
As a result, her family lost $200, 000 to this praying religionist whose father stated, “He has always loved and sought the Lord.” Well, his Lord was not the King of Kings but the mammon of unrighteousness--the love of money. Jesus Himself said:
"Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? (Luke 16:11)
"No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon." (Luke 16:13)
Strader’s attorney, in this
fraud and racketeering trial, Jack Edmund, as reported by the Ledger in an
article by Susan Barbosa of
Pruden testified that she questioned Strader abut her money and that she told him she planned to call state authorities about his business dealings.
Then Strader asked her not to file a complaint and told her “I am not that kind of person I’m a good Christian,” Pruden testified.
Edmund asked her: “You are a good Christian too, aren’t you? And you got, to some degree conned. Don’t you think Dan Strader could be conned too?
Susan Barbosa of the Ledger
wrote an article dated
“A
In fact the income-producing properties held by Interstate Financial Services were not enough to pay the mortgages, taxes and utilities on the properties Carlin said. Most disturbing Carlin said was that he saw check kiting when checks are written even though the money to cover them is not in the bank and the use of money coming from new investors to pay previous investors.
In 1992, Carlin said he told Strader that he saw the possibility that Strader would be charged with criminal fraud for the way he was conducting his business transactions. Strader told him he would clean up the business in 1993.”
Gary Pernice, a college friend of Dan Strader from Oral Roberts University and now a disbarred Atlanta lawyer, testified how he and Strader floated thousands of dollars in checks between Atlanta and Polk County banks and admitted stealing money from four Lakeland residents including Roy Aldrich because Strader told Roy that Pernice was negotiating an investment in some blimp type aircraft.
During sometimes argumentative cross-examination Judge Doyle frequently admonished Edmund not to make speeches and to give Pernice a change to answer questions. Pernice told Strader’s Defense Attorney Edmund that both he and Strader knew it was wrong to use money from one investment to pay another.
Roy Aldrich after hearing Pernice’s testimony said he was relieved to hear Pernice tell the court “that they definitely conspired to defraud me and my wife.” Outside the courtroom Roy Aldrich said to the Ledger, “They destroyed us. These are two gentlemen who represented themselves as Christians. That’s what makes it so sad.”
Charles Zeller, a State Attorney office investigator and the
prosecution’s 90th and last witness testified that Daniel Strader took in $6.23
million from investors from 1989 to 1994. The Prosecution had showed that
Strader’s Company had generated no income and used money from one investor to
pay another. A majority of the investors who testified said they knew Strader
through his insurance business or through Carpenter’s
On July 6, 1995, Daniel Strader testified in his own defense and portrayed himself and his failed business ventures as the victims of the renegade partner who also pulled dozens of elderly investors into an abyss filled with million of dollars in red ink but was not able to substantiate in court his claims with facts.
Strader testified during cross-examination by the State Prosecutors that he felt three investors were morally repugnant for bringing the case to the attention of news reporters and investigations.
Something similar to what a prominent Assembly of God Pastor said in March of 1996, at a Wednesday night evening service, in his teaching from the pulpit about that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, “How it was wrong to publicly expose false prophets” in reference to Pastor Karl Strader of Carpenter’s Home Church.
I wonder why this
prominent pastor made that unsubstantiated remark? Did he have something to
hide like Pastor Karl Strader?
The Tampa Tribune on
Durden then pressed Strader on what his morals were all about.
“Do you feel it was wrong to lie to people? He asked.
“Yes.”
“But you did it anyway?”
“Yes,” Strader responded. “I definitely feel I compromised on ethical and moral conduct.”
“What kind of value system do you have to enable you to lie to people?” the prosecutor pressed.
“I had a very poor value system.”
Daniel also under cross-examination not only admitted lying to his investors he testified he didn’t know it was illegal to kite checks and admitted to taking money from one investor to pay another investor. However, Strader testified that the investors weren’t investors at all rather they were lenders. He stated that his businesses were poised to emerge from the abyss when investigators and a reporter with the Ledger moved in and dealt a costly blow.
Well, the jury came in with its
verdict on
Could I say as you are finding your place this morning, that Joyce and I and our family, all of them, we want to thank you for praying for us the last few weeks. I don't know, I don't think we could have made it without your prayers. And I think it's over. The court isn't quite through yet and no matter what the verdict of the jury is, I feel in my heart it's over. I really do! But you have been so kind and our prophets and our prophetesses have been prophesying all the way along there's going to come a witness, a key witness. And thank God that witness came to us this past week.
And what man decides is not going to make any difference at least we got all the evidence in now, praise God. And all I have asked all along was a fair trial and an opportunity for my son to make proper restitution That's all I've asked from the very beginning. I don't know how that all isn't complete yet but I've sure felt your prayers. And thank you for holding steady through the storm. And I honestly believe before God no matter what the verdict is, we've won! We've won!
One of the things that's been rather amusing to me
through the last few weeks is that a certain member of my family was trusted
because his father was a prominent preacher. That makes me want to laugh
because if you take any poll conducted today, of all the career lawyers and
preachers are way down on the bottom of the list of people to be trusted.
Numbering from one to ten, attorneys and preachers are about a two or a three.
And I think rightfully so. I said. I think rightfully so because preachers
particularly here in
He has no skeletons in the closet, that's for sure. (laughter) But I do want you to know that he applied to carry papers recently with the Lakeland Ledger and they did not think that he was worthy. And the Tampa Tribune, as well. He applied both places. Now sometimes I kid but I'm not kidding now. That's the truth.
As long as we're divided, that's the reason why I got so
amused this business, well is because your father is a prominent pastor in the
community is the reason why people invested because of your father. How
ridiculous can you get. If this community in
Amazing, that Pastor Karl Strader sat through all of Dan’s
court proceedings and still said to us and his flock at Carpenter’s
"Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into the ditch?” (Luke 6:39)
There was the deliberate and
planned embezzlement of Roy Aldrich of $100,000 as Pernice testified that Dan
and he did conspire to lie about an airship project, a story full of hot air.
However, the Straders are good with hot air and words have come easily to them.
No wonder Pastor Karl Strader had
The Ledger on
Another juror Linda Detwiler said:
“But the way he answered just sort of indicated his guilt” when the jurors began deliberating they deal with one issue at a time on the 63 page verdict form: racketeering, grand theft and securities fraud. The evidence was all there she said, there wasn’t any question. The picture got clearer ever day. Mr. Strader is his own person and did what he did.”
'You shall do no injustice in judgment. You shall not be partial to the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty. In righteousness you shall judge your neighbor. (Leviticus 19:15)
"One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established. (Deuteronomy 19:15)
Under the
The testimonies will show that while Dan stole people’s life
savings Karl stole the lives, hopes, dreams and works of people like the
Aldriches. Although, neither of them used
any physical weapons but words, real lives of ordinary trusting people
were devastated, disrupted and even destroyed in the process. Both did it for their own personal hidden
agenda and both did not get away with it. Dan is sitting in jail in Bartow and
Karl is sitting in another jail in Carpenter’s
On Saturday, May 18,
1996 The Ledger printed an article “Strader files third lawsuit from prison
cell” by Susan Barbosa to the effect that Strader was suing a state prosecutor, Alice Faye Redd, Dr. Henry Redd,
Watson Clinic, Victory AG,
One thing I have personally learned about the Assembly of God pastors, they are quick to use the words “to sue, libelous and slander.” While they themselves are not telling the truth and nothing but the whole truth, especially about the Strader Affair and suing other Christians when the Bible says we are not to do this.
Maybe they think that others are not Christian, so that they can sue or maybe the reality is people like the Straders who sue are the ones who are not Christians. It’s ironic that Dan Strader, a convicted felon, and one witness is suing the victims of the Straders’ greed and selfishness.
A) Patricia L. Aldrich made the following statement in court regarding the sentencing of Dan Strader on August 7, 1995.
“Your Honor, as a victim, I want to thank you, the State Attorney, the Jury, and the Free Press for exposing the truth of what all of us have been through at the hands of Dan Strader. I also want to thank you for this opportunity to be heard before the sentencing takes place.
In order to let you know where I am coming from, I would like to very briefly trace the background of my relationship to the Strader family and thus to Dan.
In the Spring of 1987, while I was completing my twenty-sixth
successful teaching year in a Christian school, I received a phone call from
Karl Strader asking me to come to work for him in a full time volunteer
capacity. My husband and I loved and
respected his ministry and wanted to be a part of Carpenter's
I began work there in the summer of 1987 by; composing
letters to members of the congregation and many others around the world to
which Pastor Strader signed his name because he did not have the time to answer
all of his mail. Also, I supervised the
twenty-four hour
When problems arose in the church in 1989, my husband and I wrote a letter making over two thousand people aware that Pastor Strader's ministry was at stake. Since those who wanted him out had been mobilized, and most people in a church do not like to go to church business meetings, the letter brought out his supporters and the vote went in his favor. Shortly thereafter, the Pastor and his wife invited us to breakfast in their home and declared that our letter had saved their ministry.
What does this have to do with Dan? Members of his family became close with us and one member even said that we were like members of their family.
Why then should we not trust Dan Strader?
When the split in the church caused problems for
Why then should we not expect help when our crisis with Dan arose? We went first to the Pastor and asked to meet with the elders in order to handle the problem in a Biblical manner.
What happened? We were ignored and our only means of income and insurance were cut off when I was fired. WE LOST EVERYTHING!
These people call themselves Christians! Jesus said in the Gospel of St. John 13:34-35 "A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another; By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another."
By this standard, the press, the State Attorney, and the Court are more Christ's disciples that Dan Strader or any of his family. There is no such love in the Strader family.
Throughout our suffering and the suffering of many
precious elderly people, the pride and arrogance displayed by Dan Strader and his
family have been obvious to any rational observer. The attitude of this
convicted felon is, that though he has admitted wrong doing on the witness
stand, he is above the law. He and his
family have used the pulpit of the Carpenter’s
Until Dan Strader’s monumental pride is broken and he falls at the foot of the Cross in repentance, we as victims have no grounds for trusting him to return one cent to us.
I believe that if Dan serves a VERY LONG TIME in prison, this might bring about the necessary breaking process and perhaps even Karl Strader will learn what the Bible verses that I quoted above really mean. At least our children and grandchildren might benefit from some restitution but without the breaking of this monumental pride there will be no money for anyone.”
Pastor Karl Strader wrote a letter to Roy Aldrich on
Carpenter’s
Dear Roy
Greeting in the name of the Lord Jesus!
I want to apologize for the delay in answering your
letter of February 3. Also I apologize to you that I could not talk with you
when you came over while we were having breakfast with an appointment schedule
in ten minutes.
I do not defend Danny at all for anything he may or may not have done, but I will stand with him and his family and give him moral support no matter what becomes of this.
Everyone of us who have invested in Danny’s Company or loaned him money, personally, knew from day one that Danny’s a gifted salesman, that he give us the best possible scenarios as any good salesman would do and more and we know it was high risk.
No one should be investing moneys these days at the interests he promised us without knowing there was a strong possibility of losing some moneys before it was all over.
Sincerely yours in Christ
The Ledger also printed the following:
“Aldrich said he felt the timing of His wife’s notification was “unfortunate” and related to his decision to speak publicly about his problems with Rev. Strader’s Son, Daniel D. Strader. Karl Strader said the last paragraph “has nothing to do with the situation.”
The similarity between Pastor Karl Strader’s letter of
“I have thus far remained clear of the fray. I am so sorry that these tragedies have occurred and that you have been personally affected.... Your statement to the Ledger that the Assemblies of God should do something regarding the matter indicates that you are not thinking clearly on the matter... I have not yet discovered anything in these events that could be chargeable on the part of any credentialed minister who is indirectly involved ... Please be ..... assured of my love and concern for you and all parties who are hurting deeply because of the unwise and unfortunate events that have brought us to this moment.”
Karl Strader also
didn’t take any responsibility for himself, Carpenter’s
Comparing Patricia Aldrich’s statement in court, about the
fact that Dan Strader was proven to be a con-artist, a liar and a thief; and,
Karl Strader’s letter of
·
The use by Karl of Carpenter’s
· His apology for not talking to his long time best friend, Roy Aldrich, at the breakfast table and his real delay in writing the letter.
· Karl’s request that he not be held responsible for the so-called investments with Dan, which were nothing less than embezzlements as proved by the courts. Karl as Assembly of God Pastor should have known the Bible and the requirements that a Bishop must be one “who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence” and what the Lord said to prophet Samuel about the high priest Eli “For I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knows, because his sons made themselves vile, and he did not restrain them. (1 Samuel 3: 11-13)
· Calling Dan ”a gifted salesman” which he never was, on the contrary, Dan was a thief who stole his clients’ checks when he was in the insurance business, a thief when he was “check kiting“ since 1989 with other Oral Roberts graduates, a thief using Interstate Financial Services to conduct a “Ponzi Scheme” from 1989 up to the time of his trial in 1994 and a thief who modeled himself after his father.
· Karl’s stupid remarks that everybody knew that there was a strong possibility of losing some moneys when Dan made so many statements to others on the contrary that this cannot be and if it should occur, he will personal guarantee the loans and make up should there be losses, for the Strader name can be trusted. Mind you the judge would latter state that Strader cannot be trusted.
· Karl’s cold hearted complaint, that Pat was not doing enough volunteer work for the church, after his son had devastated them completely and totally financial. Why hypocrisy and careless consideration of others.
· Karl’s remark about fairness to the rest of the employees and volunteers, primarily being his family and friends. Information given by others, would show that the majority of employees earned less than $15,000 a year while Karl earned over $150,000 a year and would take time off during the week to visit his friends, like Jim Bakker, at the expense of the corporation or to go to his condominium on the ocean, while the employees and volunteers were working selfishly or were being used indiscriminately by the corporation.
·
Karl’s hypocritical remarks about his
appreciation for all that Pat has done. This remark is to be especially
evaluated in the light of the fact that Karl Strader asked Patricia to quit her
job, give up everything, sell her home and move
The real tragedy was that Patrica wasn’t the only one to be treated this way. There were others who were used, abused and discarded by Karl after years of loyal and faithful service again at a fraction of the pastor’s salary. Real people like Jim, Jack, Betty and Cindy.
So we now see that another Strader, Karl, was also being judged in the state courts in abstention for his real actions and deeds in regard to Carpenter’s Home Church Inc. using it to his advantage and that of his family and displaying no real consideration for others. Since destruction of people’s lives was not a big thing to the Corporation why should the withholding of Vacation pay or accrued time pay to departing employees make any difference to them.
If Carpenter’s Home Church was not a religious corporation, but a secular one, its chief executive and the corporation would have been justly sued and held accountable for being an irresponsible employer, for the personal use of the corporation not regarding the shareholders interests and financial irresponsibility, among other things.
After
Dear Dan
Tell what you know
Your father’s lust for power is not worth taking the fall and possibly going to Hell.
It is neither wrong or disloyal to point your finger at Karl Strader, but rather action which could save not only a major portion of your life but hundreds of people from deception.
You and I both know that you have had for years the perception that nothing much matters to your father except his position as example when he marched around the church with two security guards which were not needed except to stroke his ego.
He is willing to sell you down the river just like he did Patricia and me.
I did say to your father after the verdict, “The hidden things of darkness have come to light.”
At that time I was referring to your actions but now I believe that much is still hidden and that, at least from the spiritual point the wrong Strader is going to prison.
Dan, in the “we won!”, speech that your father delivered from the pulpit, July 9th after you had testified repeatedly to lying to investors, it should become obvious to you that your father has no real regard for you.
A man becomes a pastor in order to serve God and preach to spiritually hungry people. He believes as he speaks for God, any praise given to him is given to God and any disagreement against him is against God. He develops a God-like tone of voice and then he becomes God himself, the ultimate trick use by Satan.
This is what has happened to Karl Strader. Don’t allow him to swell you and your family shoes and all through this situation.
B) Roy Aldrich also
made the following statement in court regarding the sentencing of Dan
Strader on
On
Seven days later, on December 7, 1993, Dan wrote my wife and me a note mentioning details about our supposed business deal and attributing our investment with him as a manifestation of the "Atonement" meaning the love expressed by Christ on the cross when the loving Jesus took on Himself the sins of the world as an act of love.
We now know from bank records: that Dan’s reference to Christ was pure blasphemy against God and an act of hate because secretly by sunset of December 20, 1993, he had spent every penny of our 100,000.00 in many; directions without our knowledge, which made recovery of our life savings impossible, even spending a good portion of our money on his own personal expenses.
Dan's representations to us were all lies.
Months of suffering by my wife and me were to pass before we found out in your court, Your Honor, the details of how Dan Strader had destroyed our old age as certainly as if he had taken out a gun to shoot us.
Nothing about Dan's lies and theft were inadvertent or spontaneous but rather planned destruction of a couple who had befriended him.
We wrote a letter on
Subsequently, we asked for a meeting with the elders of the church and that was refused.
We were granted a meeting with Joe Perez ,the Secretary-Treasurer, and Jim Ferrell, the Associate Pastor, two paid employees, which was supposed to be for the purpose of setting; up a meeting with Dan Strader and his wife, Melissa. No meeting ever was arranged and we were never notified as to why.
At that meeting with Jim and Joe in March, 1994, the tone of those two men can be best expressed when Joe Perez, the Secretary-Treasurer obviously speaking for Karl Strader, said "We think your going to the press stinks!"
Because of our good paperwork and documentation about the investment, it would have been easily possible for Karl Strader to ascertain the nature of his son’s problems many months ago, but he refused to do so and never met with us.
A few weeks later, the Carpenter’s
But this was only the beginning of the cruelties the Strader family heaped upon us.
As you know, Your Honor, Karl Strader allowed Dan to give
a speech from the pulpit of the Carpenter's
In front of the entire congregation and over radio WCIE, Dan called attention to what he called the "dark mysterious past" of the three of his investors whom he called "impostors" and "morally repugnant," naming three allegations: death of an investor’s son under mysterious circumstances, a victim whose son was a drunkard, and the 'third allegation was that another investor had molested his daughter.
Your Honor, can you in your wildest nightmare ever imagine the pulpit of a church used in such hate? Karl Strader has not amended or apologized in any way for such travesties being issued from his pulpit and over the radio for fifty miles in all directions.
Our complaint to the officials of the Assembly of God was answered that Assembly churches are mostly autonomous and the director can't or won't do anything about Karl Strader's behavior.
A review of the newspaper articles of the last year and one half indicate that the Carpenter's Home church membership has been basically told that Dan's problems, rather than being criminal, were due to inattention to details and procedures.
Your Honor, such misrepresentations are a tendency to
anarchy and especially when knowingly propagated by the pastor of one of
I have said about the Straders that they would not recognize the truth if it came down the street wearing a tuxedo.
But the cruelties this family has heaped upon my wife and me do not reach their full evil until on July 9, 1995, only a month ago, after Dan had admitted repeatedly in court that he had lied to investors over and over, Karl Strader from his pulpit on the following Sunday yelled out, "We won!" and laughingly lampooned victims whose sincere testimony in court indicated that they had trusted a minister's son because of the Strader name.
Pastor Strader was in court everyday and heard the testimony, therefore at this time he cannot use the excuse which he might have earlier that he did not fully understand what was going on.
Pastor Strader's, "We won!" statement before his congregation after the week prior in which his son admitted in court that he had ravaged scores of people with lies - that statement under controlled circumstances on the part of a man who claims association with the truthful God is an indication that there may not be a moral bone anywhere in the body of Dan or his pastor.
The Bible says liars and cruel people are not of God.
We contributed and worked at the Carpenter's
On the other hand, Karl and his people raised over $50,000.00
for what they called Dan’s defense fund and during that time Karl was given a
luxury car.
That churches are supposed to minister like Christ without respect of persons is a laugh in this case.
Your Honor, the Straders 'themselves by being so cruel to my wife and me have set the tone for your sentence.
Your Honor, you represent not only the government but also God Himself.
That Dan Strader and his family have carried on a campaign of misrepresentations has to be a factor in your decision.
How can those who show no mercy claim mercy for themselves?
Your Honor, you observed the incredible arrogance of Dan in court, but I personally will not go away from this situation believing that Dan would have acted so cocky if that attitude was not encouraged. Perhaps from the spiritual standpoint, the wrong Strader is going to jail.
The darkest thought which has entered my mind is that the fact that Dan's powerful family has not bothered to raise a dime for the relief of the victims, a factor which obviously could have encouraged Your Honor toward a more lenient sentence, means that there is a good possibility that Dan's family is as willing; to trash him as Dan was to trash my dear wife Patricia and myself.
Lust for power is a consuming fire and when it is supposedly done for God, it burns all the hotter; and Karl Strader is not the first person in church history who would, in the words of Dan Strader, "Do anything and say anything" for selfish purposes.
Dan did lie to keep Interstate Financial afloat as long as possible, and his father's use of the same immoral approach in regard to the Carpenter's Home Church will not succeed any better for the church than it did for Dan.
And, Your Honor, even if their perception of a glitch in evidence of discovery should succeed in the eyes of the Straders, they have not factored properly the thousands of witnesses in Polk County who have heard and read about my wife and me and how the elder and younger Strader crushed us.
All of us will shortly go, Your Honor, from your court to God's Court where the discovery is perfect; and it is my prayer that the Straders learn enough from you and your excellently run courtroom to turn away from the very unrighteousness Karl preaches about but does not know how to avoid.
My wife and I thank the free press and the jury and the whole judicial system.
It may not be perfect but it worked in this case.
Especially, we thank Cathy Cushner, Wayne Durden, and Chuck Zeller.
We also thank you, Your Honor, for your compassionate attitude toward the elderly victims and your patience with other nervous witnesses.
My wife and I call you a man of God in every sense possible, and it was very encouraging seeing you make order out of chaos. A case involving deception of this magnitude may never appear before your bench again.
The militant idolatry of their son by the Straders was the surest way to make things more difficult for you, Your honor, and in that they succeeded; but, for the life of me, how is it that such educated and advantaged people did not understand that the ridiculous and self-serving conspiracy theory in which the Straders stated that 'he free press and the State Attorney were "out to get us" was the surest way to destroy their son.
The courts, the State, and the press were after only one thing and it is called The Truth.
I have documented, Your Honor, that since the robbery of us by Dan Strader both he and his family have done everything they could to further destroy and humiliate my wife and me; therefore, as I said earlier, it is the Straders themselves who have set the tone for your decision two days from now on August 9th when thousands of people will see what God has to say through you, the Honorable Judge Robert Doyel.
P.S. As for Dan's promise to repay if not jailed, it seems to me just another attempt on his part to arrange the criminal justice system to his own benefit in the same fashion he preyed on his victims because of his own monumental selfishness.
Can a murderer escape jail by promising to work in the garden of his victim's family?
I would certainly like to have some of my dollars returned, but in Dan's case I reluctantly have to agree with some of the other victims that the only way to deal with diseased and criminal minds is to separate them from society.
The Strader's failure to raise a cent for the investor victims is the best indication of the Strader contempt for victims who committed the unpardonable act, like my wife and I did, of going to the authorities with the story of Dan's thefts.
Pastor Strader has committed professional suicide by
misleading his congregation and using dramatic effects to solicit sympathy
during church services which are supposed to be used to preach the Gospel. He behaves as if he owns the Carpenter's
"Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. (Matthew 23:23)
Prior to sentencing of Dan, the court received numerous letters from the defendant. Most letters pleaded for mercy and many contended that he was innocent of the crimes for which he was convicted. In the Judge’s words, “the defendant unsuccessfully tried to convince a jury and the court that his only mistake was to make bad business decisions because of his trust of other people especially conspirator Gary Pernice.”
The defendant quite clearly thought that he didn’t intend to hurt anyone and that he hadn’t committed any crimes. He was unwilling to acknowledge the truth that it was criminal for him to lie to people to get their money and then use their money for his own purposes. He evidently believes that he is above the law and it is perfectly acceptable for him to defraud people [or deceive them].
On
Karl Strader stated “I d like him to have an opportunity to make things right” and then he made the statement of the year which was typical of the Karl Strader, that “I see nothing that warrants years in prison.”
The following year in March,
1996 Karl Strader would again made a similar statement about the Assembly of
God Evangelist Jim Bakker, who was preaching at Carpenter’s
Well, for one thing Jessica Hahn
a church secretary had a sexual liaison with Bakker, a married Assembly of God
Pastor, at a
There after Dortch, an Assembly of God pastor, at Jim’s request arranged a $265,000 payment using designated money given by ordinary and honest people to Jessica Hahn to keep her from revealing what had happened. This whole episode which was one of the things Jim Bakker did that was totally immoral, wrong and criminal. Of course, Pastor Karl Strader didn’t see this behavior as wrong.
Well, definitely in my opinion the Assembly of God knows how to have some very interesting, comical and stupid pastors who it ordains and allows to minister under its denominational umbrella.
Pastor Karl Strader, in the beginning before the trial, requested the authorities recognize who they were--the Straders. That Dan Strader should not even be brought to trial. Pastor Karl Strader who was on the board of Regents of a University then proposed to the judge that a board be appointed, which included the President of Oral Roberts University, to keep “Dan Strader on track to repay investors.”
Dan Strader’s Attorney Jack Edmund told the judge that Rev. Strader’s plan and connections to make restitution ”more probable than possible.” Now, don’t you believe the Straders are special with their religious connections, influence, piety, arrogance, smiles and hypocrisy?
Assistant State Attorney Wayne Durden called Strader a common thief and the restitution plan from this so-called man of God nothing more than a vague promise “designed” to save Dan’s sorry rear end. It was an effort to hold the court, the victims and justice hostage to those vague promises.
Durden went on to say some very interesting words that leaders in the Assembly of God should note because it expresses the desires and character of Almighty God. Durden said, “Your Honor, there are more important things than money--truth, honesty and justice. He [Strader] hasn’t been honest, and he is seeking to avoid justice with money.”
Judge Doyel told pastor Karl Strader that he understands the theory behind the proposed board, but he didn’t see any sources of money for restitution.” Judge Doyel said ”Mr. Strader is a thief. Mr. Strader intentionally stole people’s money.” One of the jurors in this trial spoke out after the sentencing about the arrogance and attitudes of the Straders, especially Dan Strader, that it was blatant and flagrant.
At Dan’s sentencing, Pastor Karl Strader asked from the Judge for mercy for his son because this is his first offense. Maybe this was Dan’s Strader first offense at getting caught but reading the factual diverse material that I read, the pattern was already there in 1989 when Dan was in the insurance business forging signatures, and deceiving people.
The prosecution had shown that
in 1990-1994, Dan and a Christian friend and graduate also of
Judge Doyle asked Pastor Karl Strader “How he could show mercy when the defendant has not shown remorse for his crimes.“
Judge Doyle as a Minister of God went on to say something that was amazing to me and explains why God gave Dan Strader a 45 year sentence. He said, “I have prayed for wisdom on this, but how can I, as the conscience of the community forgive the man when, I have yet to hear Mr. Strader say he did anything illegal.”
Almost 40 people, including Strader’s sister and wife, in one day, spoke on Dan’s behalf. Karla Dixon his sister stated that her brother had a dream and not a scheme. His dream was to build homes for families on fixed incomes.” Most of the 11 investors who attended asked Judge Doyel to impose the maximum sentence.
Judge Doyel said “Since he won’t acknowledge stealing millions from the elderly, its not likely Daniel Strader will be rehabilitated” and sentenced the son of an Assembly of God preacher to 45 years in prison. Pastor Karl Strader and Dan’s wife Melissa were visibly upset with the sentence.
Karl later said, “The sentence was unexpected, though he couldn’t understand why victims were so vengeful.” He said his son plans to appeal. Karl also stated “we hurt with those who hurt.” [Another one of his heavenly exaggerations as his son Stephen would put it.] Smiling Dan Strader declined to comment on the sentence and told the reporters “ You can see me in jail.”
The fact remains that after everything was said and done and all the words of the Strader family, which we heard from them both in the church services and prayer meetings, that Dan Strader bilked 62 elderly investors of their life’s savings and their very lives through lies and deceit.
The Strader clan and others in AG still maintain nothing was
done wrong by any of the other Straders. Except the real facts and events show
that Karl fired Patricia from her sole livelihood after Dan stole
Boy! They really think that we are stupid and one day the truth would not come out? What also amazes me is, just like a prostitute who claims she did no wrong, the Assembly of God think that they are going to walk away from the Strader Affair unharmed and un-scratched. AG as a denomination must be joking if they don’t think that they are going to pay a price in the media and in other ways.
The courts were not stupid and neither is God. Dan Strader who got 45 years in jail still maintains with the rest of his family that it was a conspiracy and a frame up. How stupid do the Straders and others think we are?
Maybe their sheep are stupid and
deceived but others are not? The Strader case generated hard feelings in the
church and the community which have not gone away. Unfortunately, the case of
Alice Faye Redd, a former member of Carpenter’s
Isn’t this what many other religious pastors, leaders and evangelists do among us today, especially in the Assemblies of God because they take our money and our trust and convert it to their personal use and hidden agendas. They think as Karl Strader says and does because after all they are the servants of the living God and do not have to give an account to anybody.
That is why it’s so hard to know what their salaries are because they are special servants and we are nobodies. That is why AG and Karl Strader are so secretive and afraid to speak to the media and others even though “truth has nothing to fear but fear itself.”
The fact of the matter is that
nobodies such as myself aren’t being accused of the things that these religious
leaders are doing today in
Ironically, as a Minister of the Gospel, he knew very well what the Word of God said concerning justice and that it supports what the State Attorney and Judge Doyle said during the trial and sentencing of Dan Strader:
“Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil.
Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same. For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God's minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil. (Romans 12:1-4)
Yet, Pastors Karl and Stephen Strader talked in CHC, one Sunday morning in August, 1995 when we were there, against the government authorities, about what was done to Dan Strader and that the sentence of 45 years that Dan received was unjust, unfair and wrong. They believed and stated the State Attorney’s office and the media, mainly the newspapers, were out to get them because they were ‘high profile“ people. I saw their real evil and selfish deeds in treating others, including former staff members, as beneath their dignity.
A devastated elderly couple had to go to the State Attorney for help because Dan lied to them about the return of their hard earned money doesn’t qualify as religious persecution against the Straders. What does qualify as persecution is what the Straders did against people. That they should have helped and not beaten down real people like Patricia and Roy Aldrich, and other victims, such as my family and I, whose only crime was to have gotten to know a Strader.
One thing I observed was that while Pastor Karl Strader superbly preached and knew the Scriptures from his head, he definitely didn’t live them from his heart. Where does this put many of us who have a lot of head knowledge about God and His Word and His ways but not heart knowledge accompanied by real deeds and actions?
Roy Aldrich wrote the following in response to Dan Strader and a questionnaire that was requested from the Parole board.
“Dan Strader’s crime although he never used a gun resulted in the premature deaths of many innocent people and to this day Dan Strader has never admitted responsibility nor remorse for his actions nor for what happened to other people as a result of his greed and selfish ways.
In addition Dan Strader as the Son of Pastor Karl Strader had more light and opportunities than many of his victims. What was also sad that while he was preying on his innocent victims he would have discussion about the things of God and pray for and with his victims. All of this at the same time while he was committing the crime.
So Dan Strader was not and is not guilty of just one series of acts or doings but of many things. When he as Jim Bakker will admit some remorse and confession of his wrong doing only then can pardon be considered.”
Walter Morgan one of the victims of Dan Strader’s crime, who lost $160,000 to him, wrote a letter to the editor titled “Apple didn’t fall far” which was printed on July 25, 1995 and stated some profound truths.
“Regarding Karl Strader, the pastor of Carpenter’s
Anyone who observed the stupid smile on the convicted felon’s face during the trial could never disagree with me.
The members of that congregation who participated in that farce by dutifully sitting there and not walking out should hang their heads in shame and ask the Lord for forgiveness.
In my humble opinion, that particular pastor should never be allowed to preach another sermon as long as he lives!
Assemblies of God, take note!
Walter Morgan was one we used to say, “was right on the
button” because on
“Concerning your article on July 27, it was reported that
Carpenter’s
Summers come and summers go. It has been going on for years, so what‘s the reason for the drop in contributions? Certainly not the fact that Danny has been exposed for what he is.
What a lame excuse for these “good Christians” to come up with. Readers, stop and think. Here is my theoretical scenario. March, 1989 church splits and mostly large tithing members leave, drastically reduce income. In 1989 Danny starts to con people out of their life savings. In the meantime the church keeps going. In 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993 - the great enterprise keeps stealing money. In early 1994, He gets caught.
Result, funds stop coming in, End result 1995, church winds up in a financial bind, also referred to as a summer crunch for the benefit of the congregation. Stop and think of this from the business perspective and not the theological perspective.”
At the end of the Sunday morning service on December 17,
1995 Pastor Karl Strader stated these
words for no apparent reason, “One third of our congregation left to go across
the street, one quarter moved away to a downtown church and left us with a
hundred thousand debt [monthly] and we are still standing and we will
overcome.” He then added that God was a God of Miracles and started to pray for
miracles. What a farce? What a delusion helped and practiced by a minister of
the Gospel such as the Senior Pastor of Carpenter’s
The Tampa Tribune ran an article on
Disbarred
Under a plea agreement with prosecutors, a tearful Pernice also agreed to make restitution of almost $ 3.1 million to victims.
The grant theft charges against Pernice, who was a friend
of Strader’s when they were students at
Aldrich gave $100,000 to Strader and Pernice in December,
1993 to be invested in an “airship” enterprise being operated by Pernice in
Aldrich’s check was deposited the same day in the Lakeland bank account of Interstate Financial Services Inc. in which Strader and Pernice were partners, the charges said.
The $100,000 was converted into five cashier checks with two those checks totaling $50,000 made payable to another investor and two checks totaling $ 27,500 made payable to Strader and deposited into the personal accounts of Strader and his wife Melissa. The fifth check was payable to Daniel Strader and endorsed over to Pernice, the affidavit said.
Aldrich said he favors the long time prison term for Strader.“ Strader was arrogant and admitted doing no wrong.
Disbarred Atlanta Attorney, Gary John Pernice, pleaded guilty and cried real tears as Circuit Judge Robert Doyel went over a plea agreement something which Dan Strader never did. Pernice also stated “I want to do what I can do to make up” and was cooperative and accessible with the State again which Dan Strader never did. Pernice testified that no promises had been made by prosecutors, although Strader’s attorney suggested that prosecutors had made a deal with Pernice in exchange for his testimony against Strader.
In November, 1995 Pernice was sentenced to prison part time
to spend 180 weekends in jail and was mandated to give 28 percent of earnings
to bilked investors, Pernice was also to send letters to the editors of three
daily newspapers serving Polk county to explain his wrong doings and
apologizing to the public. He was to write the
Pernice was also to help victims file claims with the Georgia Bar Association which had a limited trust fund to pay clients who lost money because of their attorneys illegal activities.
Roy Aldrich as letter titled “Pernice sentence just“ was
printed in the Ledger on
“Although my wife and I lost $100,000 to the Strader and Pernice fraud, we feel that Gary Pernice unlike Dan Strader, is truly repentant and will do what he promises about trying to restore victims.
Dan Strader’s arrogance in court did not allow mercy to
be mixed with justice: but
Judge Doyel was firm but compassionate, a sign of true greatness.
Court testimony revealed that
Roy Aldrich personally in January, 1996 told me that Pernice
was doing everything to repay his obligations and had ensured that some money
from the Georgia Bar Association was sent to
Dan Strader filed an appeal from his jail cell. His appeal was reviewed and turned down by the courts and his forty-five years jail sentence stood. Dan used the opportunity to work on a book about his innocence and file lawsuits against many innocent parties. After a while the judicial system ignored his lawsuits.
Therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake. (2 Corinthians 4:1-5)
We give no offense in anything, that our ministry may not be blamed. But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonment, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fasting; by purity, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left (2 Corinthians 6:3-7)
On
Satisfied with His Likeness
(Ps.
17:1-15)
I.
Give Ear to My Prayer. (1)
A.
Hear how I really feel. (Heb.
4:15)
B.
I am being genuine. (I Tim. 1:5)
C.
I want Thy Holy Judgment. (Ps.
139:23)
II. Put Me to the Test. C3)
A.
I want your evaluation. (Rev.
2:23)
B.
See how I do under stress. (I
Pet. 1:7)
C.
I don’t think you’ll find anything wrong.(II Tim. 1:3)
D.
I'm determined to watch my words.
(Ps. 19:14)
III. I Need Your Constant Strength. (6)
A. Keep me from tripping. (Ps. 91:12
B. Give me your comfort. (Jn. 14:26)
C. Keep me under protection. (Ps. 91:1)
D. I need your special attention. (Ps. 17:8)
1.
Enemies rise up against me. (II Tim.
i:12)
2.
Enemies oppress me. (Acts
3.
Enemies surround me. (Isa, 59:19)
a.
They're flourishing. (Ps. 37:35)
b.
They're worldly. (Phil. 3:19)
c.
They're sneaky. (Judges 1:4)
(1)
Fight against them. (I Sam. 17:47)
(2)
Deliver my soul.(Ps. 91:15)
IV I’m Planning on Winning Life’s
Battle (15)
A.
I'll have on the wedding garment. (Rev. 17:14)
B.
I'll stand in your image. (II
Cor. 3:18)
We see in the book of Corinthians, an example of what a real minister of the Gospel is like--Apostle Paul. Then we could compare it with what Pastor Karl Strader said and did with his sermon “Satisfied by His Likeness.” Apostle Paul stated:
“And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling.
And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory,... (1 Corinthians 2:1-7)
Karl Strader used persuasive words of human wisdom and there wasn’t a demonstration of the Spirit and power of God in it because he preached his typical self-centered (himself) sermon. Jesus said “He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him.” (John 7:18)
As a result, I wrote
a letter to the Senior and all the Associate Pastors of Carpenter’s
“Now, as a faithful adherent of Carpenter’s
Concerning the words “I want your evaluation...and I don’t think you I
find anything wrong, ” you will be happy to know that I have written my third
manuscript which was called “The CHC Affair.” The title “The CHC Affair” have
now been renamed and replaced with “The Strader Affair;” as Carpenter’s
In this manuscript, which I have also shared with others, I evaluated Pastor Karl Strader as he had requested and defined what is wrong. Extracts from the Epilogue of “The Strader Affair” is herewith included. Similarly a brief which has now been renamed “The Strader 1995 Affair“ has been submitted to different leaders in the U.S. Congress for their review and action.
I love the new and good attitude of honesty, openness
and accountability expressed in the pastor’s first sermon. This is something
which I have been advocating for a while. To add to the ten good points that
the pastor stressed for the church in the New Year as the “Word of God” I would
love to see a new honesty, openness and accountability in Carpenter’s
To quote Judge Doyle words to the Straders “the defendant unsuccessfully tried to convince a jury and the court that his only mistake was to make bad business decision because of this trust of other people .... The defendant quite clearly thought that he did not intend to hurt any one that he has not committed any crimes. He was unwilling to acknowledge the truth that it was criminal for him to lie to people to get their money and then use their money for his own purposes. He evidently believes that he is above the law and it is perfectly acceptable for him to defraud people [or deceive them]. There are many people who never will accept the truth of this case.”
“The fact that Florida newspapers recently have been writing in the Mid Central of how the Straders and Redds operating under the wings of the Florida District Council of the Assemblies of God Inc., a non profit religious corporation, and Pastor Karl Strader of Carpenter’s Home Church of Lakeland, also a non profit religious corporation, conspired and defrauded many elderly people of at least seventeen million dollars from decent hard working Florida residents.” [The Strader Affair, 1995 Brief]
The nice prophets, who prophesied of the Straders and even CHC, were wrong about Dan getting out before Christmas, as Dan is in there for a long time. Justly so as the courts of the land who act on behalf of God decreed it. My question now to the pastors of CHC is what else were they wrong about?
I do know that
one prophet spoke about the words in the book of James and the financial famine
continuing and what God does when one of his poor innocent sheep is touched by
wolves in sheep’s clothing. How God brought David’s sin into the open before all
of
Maybe this New Year will be a time of soul searching and change. I know that many are waiting for it. My prayer and your prayer no doubt is soon Lord soon!
Well, I do ask your patience and indulgence with me and my letters and I trust and know that something good will come out of it.
Yours in Christ
The Pastor didn’t give me a written response. However, the
same day, when he received my letter, he went on the Church radio and gave a
small message which said that “There was a time and season for everything. A
time to war and a time for peace. Just like Jesus didn’t give a response to
Pontius Pilate when he was being led to
The Pastor also said “while the Bible tells us to tell the truth, the whole truth; we are not to tell all the truth because that would make us tale-bearers.” Also, “the Bible admonishes us not to cast our pearls before the swine and bring out into the open, the special things of God.”
In other words, just like Dan Strader did during his court trial refusing to admit that he did any wrong and was arrogantly defying the judge and the court system, Pastor Karl Strader had a special dispensation and he didn’t have to give an account to anybody but God Himself.
Karl Strader in his words had become Jesus Christ in the flesh being persecuted by his enemies and was going to the cross. What a delusion for a so-called Man of God and an Assembly of God Pastor!
Obviously, the sermon on enemies wasn’t the only one that Karl preached there were others such as the one of ‘Shining Lights.’ Karl just like the devil, knew and preached the truths of the Word of God but He didn’t practice it. Jesus said "My mother and My brothers are these who hear the Word of God and do it." (Luke 8:21)
"But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: "and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall." (Luke 21:26-27)
Apostle James the brother of Jesus also wrote about doing and said:
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. (James 1:22-25)
So as we read the following sermon outline and what we know
about the Strader Affair we can make our own judgments and assessments about
the man Karl Strader. Mind you just like Karl Strader used Patricia Aldrich to
be a ghost writer for his church letters, he used one of his wife’s relatives
to help him write his books. So it would be curious to find out who was the
ghost writer for his sermons and that would explain to me why he didn’t
practice them, they were not his on work. Just like Carpenter’s
Shining Lights
I. Jesus Did Good Works. (Jn. 14:10, 11)
A. He was anointed. (Isa. 61:1-3)
B. He was the Messiah. (Matt. 11:2-5)
C. He went about doing good. (Acts
D. He destroyed the works of the devil. (I Jn. 3:8) (John 10:32)
II. We Are to Do Good Works. (Eph. 3:10)
A. We have other examples. (Heb. 12:1)
1. David (I Sam. 19:4)
2
Dorcas (Acts
B. We are admonished. (Matt. 5:16)
1.
Women (I Tim. 2:10j
2. Young Men
(Tit . 2: 7 )
3.
Rich (I Tim.
4 . Everyone ( I I Tim.
a. The fool doesn’t. (Ps. 14:1)
b. . We'll be judged. (Prov. 24:12
c. . Rulers endorse. (Rom. 13:3)
d. We deny Him if we don't (Tit.
e. We're to be zealous. (Tit. 2:14)
f . We're to maintain. (Tit. 3:8, 18)
g. We're to provoke. (Heb. 10:36)
III. We Are All Involved in Some Manner. (I Pet. 2:12)
A. Fivefold ministry.
1. Apostles
2. Prophets
3. Pastors
4. Teachers
s. Support Troops (Eph.
1. Workers of Miracles
2. Gifts of
Healing (1 Cor.
3. Exhorters
4.
Givers (
5. Administration
6. Shewers of Mercy
7 . Helps ( I Cor . 12: 2f3 )
(Matt. 25:31-46)
KARL D. Strader
As seen by the evidence of what Karl did and did not do for Roy Aldrich, Karl Strader was not a doer of the word but only a preacher of it. For Jesus said about such hypocrites:
He answered and said to them, "Well did Isaiah
prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: 'This people honors Me with their
lips, but their heart is far from
The word of God states:
They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one." "Their throat is an open tomb; with their tongues they have practiced deceit"; "The poison of asps is under their lips"; "whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness." "Their feet are swift to shed blood; destruction and misery are in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known." "There is no fear of God before their eyes." (Romans 3:12-18)
For "He who would love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips from speaking deceit. (1 Peter 3:10)
Karl as a pastor and student of the Bible should have also been aware of all of the Words of Jesus that he preached to others.
“Say to those who are fearful-hearted, "Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God; He will come and save you." (Isaiah 35:4)
“Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?” (Galatians 4:16)
“For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness,
righteousness, and truth” (Ephesians
5:9)
On
RE: Mr. Walter Kambulow letter of
Dear Mr. Don Lunsford,
As a highly paid executive of the Assemblies
of God, one of your responsibilities is public relations as well as writing
letters. However, in regards to my letters, I note that you have chosen not to
respond to an active adherent of Carpenter’s
Don’t you think that the Strader Affair has gone far enough and someone should deal with it inside the Assembly of God before others outside of it do it? That is one of the reasons I have spent so much time about the Strader Affair. It is better to clean your own house of evil doings rather than letting others do it!
On
I reminded them
that Don Lunsford in his letter of November 20, 1995, stated to me “I trust
that it will bring enlightenment and inspiration to me” and this was also what
I anticipated with the “News Release” which had been faxed to news desks all
across the great country of America, including Christianity Today and CBN as
well as Senators and Congressmen.
RE: News release “Strader
Affair” -
Cancer as “A pernicious, spreading evil; tending to cause death or serious injury; deadly. b. Causing great harm; destructive.
Gentlemen!
We live in a great country where we are all free to express our views and many
other things. Writing and talking about the Holy Ghost and laughter and what is
going on in some Charismatic and Pentecostal churches is a very minor subject
that does not affect the lives of many people. But on the contrary in the same
churches, Pentecostal and Charismatic people are being robbed, used and
their premature deaths are being caused
by the actions of people in these churches, as a result of Assembly of God
Pastors and members; especially in
Should not your publication and
organization write, talk about and correct this injustice which affects many
people where we presently live. Do you not have a real moral responsibility to
help people who have been robbed, hurt, and used by Christian Charismatic and
Pentecostal people in this state of
For the record, there is presently a cancer in
Carpenter’s
Recently, mid-central
The sad part is these religious people composed of basically two families called the Redds and the Straders have even used their church, Carpenter’s Home Church of Lakeland, Florida, as battleground for the control of members and who can literally rob them best as well as others. The other said part is that the Straders and Redds operated under the wings of the Florida District Council of the Assemblies of God Inc., also a non profit religious c