Disgraced religious figure Earl Paulk

No one is more admirable than an ordinary minister, priest or rabbi, but when one such person puts on such a good show that he or she gathers up an enormous flock, this individual bears looking at closely, and with suspicion.

Georgia man Earl Paulk, although admirable for being on the side of the angels during the Civil Rights Movement, appears to have always had an eye for the ladies. He resigned from the pastorate of one Atlanta church in 1960 over an affair he had had with a parishoner.

Later that year, he founded a new church in Atlanta, the Gospel Harvesters.

The church moved to an Atlanta suburb in the early 1970s, grew like holy heck, and built an enormous building that became known as the Cathedral at Chapel Hill. His charismatic, Pentecostal flock grew to around 12,000 until a variety of sex scandals brought him down. Some of the charges against him involved child abuse.

The frosting on this unseemly cake was applied when the huge church's new pastor, who had been thought to be Earl's nephew, turned out to be his son instead. Wow!
Even worse, Paulk's own granddaughter accused him of molesting her.

Paulk died of cancer in March 2009.