Trouble in Arizona for ex-Mequon pastor

Burris finds his TV show off the air, new members difficult to come by

Journal Sentinel/December 21, 1997
By Tom Vanden Brook

Here less than two months, the self-described "evangelist-teacher" has watched as the ministry he transplanted from Mequon has withered before it could grow:

The local CBS-TV affiliate has dropped his weekly gospel show.

A lack of new members for his New Word Ministry, formerly known as Rhema Worship Center in Wisconsin, prompted him to cancel a standing reservation for services at the Ramada Inn.

And a Phoenix-based cult watcher warns Internet surfers on his Web site about the preacher who left his Mequon church with 20 Milwaukee-area families, under scrutiny from the FBI. He says the group fits the criteria for a cult -- a group of people showing great devotion to an idea or person, in this case Burris.

The voluble evangelist and his family, meanwhile, remain mum, refusing to speak with a reporter from the refuge of their $528,000 desert home off a cactus- and palm-tree-lined boulevard in this stylish, sunny suburb of 140,000 that bills itself as the "Most Livable City."

"You're from where?" Burris' wife, Alethea, said from behind an oak door with a stained-glass pediment. "The Journal Sentinel? Milwaukee? Chuck Burris is not available."

When pressed to respond to a series of stories in the Journal Sentinel that have detailed Burris' lavish spending from $1,000 suits to a $100,000 Porsche 911 Turbo, she replied: "No comment, no comment. The police have been notified. Bye-bye."

Members of the Milwaukee families who followed him are equally uncommunicative.

"Why do you want to know about Rhema?" asked a church member living in a Phoenix apartment complex. "We're fine here."

When he chose to move here, Burris probably never envisioned an environment so inhospitable.

"This should be a very fertile place for Mr. Burris to start a ministry," said Rick Ross, the Phoenix-based consultant who makes a living tracking extremist organizations and deprogramming cult members.

"The law in Arizona, like a lot of the West, has a pretty hands-off attitude. And while this may not be the Bible belt, it's a very religious area. There's a lot of money to be made here. Burris knew what he was doing when he moved down here."

Burris moved here after he put the Rhema Worship Center in Mequon on the market this fall and sold his pleasant, if somewhat plain, home in Brown Deer for $165,900.

He encouraged a core of churchgoers to join him in Scottsdale, and many of them dutifully uprooted their families, disrupted careers and moved to Scottsdale, a city redolent of wealth.

Scottsdale plays host to pricey golf course resorts, chic shopping at Neiman Marcus and six-lane roadways clogged with BMWs, Jaguars and the occasional Ferrari.

All must have seemed well to Burris for a time after he arrived.

Alethea Burris herself has been seen driving a shiny, black Mercedes-Benz station wagon.

The Burrises and their two children moved to the city's fashionable, growing northeast side, not far from Taliesin West, once Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home.

By any measure, their home is lovely. A sweeping, semi-circular driveway arcs from E. Ironwood Drive to their front door. The six-bedroom home with a clay tile roof and stucco siding features vaulted ceilings, a wet bar and spa in the master bath.

The Burris' subdivision, enclosed by a wall and protected by a white guard house and green, metal security gate, is full of sun-bleached homes that range in price from $200,000 to $700,000. Lawn service is a given inside the confines of the Pueblo Bonito development.

Ads for the new ministry, featuring Chuckie and Alethea Burris, appeared on Channel 5, inviting people to join. His show, "Word of Faith Ministry," appeared Sundays at 6 a.m.

And Burris held two services a week at the Ramada Inn.

But a few dissident former members who have railed continuously against Burris have made an impact here by leafleting Phoenix-area churches and news outlets with Journal Sentinel articles and personal letters.

Those articles have detailed Burris' aggressive fund raising that netted the ministry nearly $1.5 million, provided him with an average salary of $70,000 and fringe benefits that included mortgage payments, according to a former church member with access to financial records. The Journal Sentinel also showed Burris used at least $100,000 in church money in an attempt to buy the Scottsdale home.

Former church members contend that Burris at first told his congregation that the money raised would be used to build a new church. Later, he said the cash would be used to buy the church in Mequon.

The bank that lent Burris money to buy the church, at 2415 W. Mequon Road, has begun foreclosure proceedings. And the FBI in Milwaukee has said it is investigating Burris for possible theft, money laundering and wire fraud, although they stress that no wrongdoing has been proved.

But the allegations have proved enough for Channel 5 to disassociate itself from Burris, according to Kent Haehl, sales manager for KPHO-TV.

At the Ramada Valley Ho Resort, Burris recently canceled a reservation for space he had used as a temporary church. A resort manager said Burris told him that the ministry was not drawing enough new members.

Scottsdale police, too, have taken note of Burris and the allegations being investigated by the FBI. But police have told a local newspaper that they had received no complaints locally about him.

It's unclear where Burris is now conducting services. But relatives of those who have moved here said they believe he is preaching from his home or that of a church member.

Several members are believed to be living in a Phoenix apartment complex several miles from Burris' more luxurious quarters.

Ross, the cult expert who maintains a consulting firm from a small apartment in Phoenix, said the response, or lack of it, from Burris and his followers is typical.

Ross called Burris' ministry a cult, saying that it fit the criteria of a group of people showing great devotion to an idea or person, in this case Burris.

"Cults can be benign, but when there's financial or emotional exploitation, they're destructive," Ross said.

Burris does not brook criticism, a hallmark of some religious cults, Ross added. Former Rhema members say Burris would publicly berate those who criticized him. They were ostracized for having a "Jezebel spirit."

"They're taught that if you see the pastor in error, you should pray for him," Ross said. "They believe the church and God are inseparable and to go against Burris is to go against God."