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Colorado Reform Baptist Church a Sham

Discussion in 'Baptist History' started by Jerome, Jul 21, 2012.

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  1. Jerome

    Jerome Well-Known Member
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    In the thread "Baptist Groups in the USA" (here) RLVaughn asked about the Colorado Reform Baptist denomination, listed in Melton's Encyclopedia of American Religions with the address P.O. Box 12514, Denver Colorado.

    That "church" is really just an ordination/diploma mill—tax dodge outfit.

    Here are a couple of tax court cases involving the Colorado Reform Baptist Church:

    http://openjurist.org/32/f3d/1423/tavery-v-united-states

    http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/953/1391/223800/
     
    #1 Jerome, Jul 21, 2012
    • Informative Informative x 1
  2. Squire Robertsson

    Squire Robertsson Administrator
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    Hmm, very interesting.
     
    #2 Squire Robertsson, Jul 21, 2012
  3. Jerome

    Jerome Well-Known Member
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    More on William Conklin/Colorado Reform Baptist Church:

    Denver University Law Review, Vol. 72, No. 3 (1995), pp. 815-818

     
    #3 Jerome, Jul 23, 2012
    • Informative Informative x 1
  4. Jerome

    Jerome Well-Known Member
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    William Conklin ran several mail order "churches" from P.O. Box 12514 Denver (besides "Reform Baptist" he apparently also had "Dutch Reformed" and "Apostolic Orthodox" credentials for sale). His "Church of World Peace" made it into Geisendorfer's Religion in America: A Directory (1983):

    http://books.google.com/books?id=5A0VAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA46
     
    #4 Jerome, Jul 23, 2012
  5. Jerome

    Jerome Well-Known Member
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    1981 Indiana Gazette article by Tom Bickert:

     
    #5 Jerome, Jul 23, 2012
  6. Jerome

    Jerome Well-Known Member
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    #6 Jerome, Jul 23, 2012
  7. Jerome

    Jerome Well-Known Member
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    1984 newspaper article:

    http://news.google.com/newspapers?n...fdVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=jOEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6453,5679483

     
    #7 Jerome, Jul 23, 2012
  8. Jerome

    Jerome Well-Known Member
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    #8 Jerome, Jul 23, 2012
  9. 12strings

    12strings Active Member

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    I wonder, if this church was not associated with the word "reformed" would you have any interest in posting it?
     
    #9 12strings, Jul 25, 2012
  10. Squire Robertsson

    Squire Robertsson Administrator
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    It cuts both ways. As, the "rest of us" give our "reformed" brethren more than enough to report and talk about.
     
    #10 Squire Robertsson, Jul 25, 2012
  11. Jerome

    Jerome Well-Known Member
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    Evangelical Free Baptists

    RLVaughn inquired about this denomination a while back:

    There is a Wikipedia entry that adds:

    I ran across this article mentioning them:

    http://www.forestparkreview.com/News/Articles/2-5-2013/Bad_boy-to-street-preacher-to-bishop/

    Has anyone heard of these "Evangelical Free Baptists"?
     
    #11 Jerome, Oct 2, 2013
  12. rlvaughn

    rlvaughn Well-Known Member
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    Jerome, thanks for supplying this information! Back when I was researching it I was never able to find out anything.

    I'm surprised Melton included this group in EAR.
     
    #12 rlvaughn, Jul 19, 2016
  13. rsr

    rsr <b> 7,000 posts club</b>
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    McBeth mentioned the group as a body of 22 Free Will Baptist churches with membership of 2,500 (1987).
     
    #13 rsr, Jul 19, 2016
  14. rlvaughn

    rlvaughn Well-Known Member
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    I think those of us who are actively trying to discover all the Baptist groups in the US are susceptible to not realizing that a group is organized more for tax purposes than being a legitimate body of Baptists. With all the information on the internet nowadays, I think we are less likely to be fooled (or at least someone won't be fooled and will report it).
     
    #14 rlvaughn, Jul 26, 2016
    • Agree Agree x 1
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