Friday, October 14, 2005

Brother Stair –- he’s everywhere.

At least on shortwave radio. Just surf your way through the SW frequencies and you’re bound to hear this radio preacher, 24/7. I listened to a bit of his program the other night. I used to listen religiously but grew tired of the same old end-time ranting.

Ensconced in his commune in Walterboro, South Carolina, Ol’ BS finds it hard to keep the outside world at bay while preaching as the Last Day Prophet. Legal problems have dogged him. Back in May 2002 his name was in the news: the local authorities accused him of improper relations with underage ewes in his flock. He was able to reach a deal through plea-bargaining, after spending a couple of months in jail. Since then he has plead guilty in another case for improperly touching a couple of his ewe and more recently he faced a civil suit by stray sheep claiming they were sheared and wanted their money back.

In regards to the fondling incident, BS defended himself in The Post and Courier newspaper (Charleston, SC) by saying that the whole case was overblown because outsiders didn’t understand his religious community. [Religious commune leader pleads guilty in fondling case (December 1, 2004) By Andy Paras]

When I listened to his broadcast recently, Ol’ BS explained that he plead guilty because they were going to find him guilty anyway.

If you’re unfamiliar with Brother R.G. Stair, he’s one of the voices on domestic shortwave radio who fall into the category of Christian conspiracy alarmists. BS will tell you that it’s all a great mega-conspiracy —- the Freemasons, the Vatican, the Illuminati –- they are pulling the strings in the background, enslaving the world. Even to the point, apparently from his POV, that they can rig any jury they want.

[Sources: http://www.rickross.com/groups/rgstair.html ;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brother_Stair .]

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