The Montgomery News reports:
Alabama evangelist Paul Acton Bowen has been sentenced to 1,008 years in prison – the maximum on all counts – for his guilty pleas to sexually abusing a half dozen teenagers. In addition, he was ordered to pay $840,000 in fines for all counts, also the maximum.
Bowen served for 12 years in a local church, led a citywide student Bible study in Gadsden and was also the host of xlroads TV, a worldwide broadcast viewed weekly by millions of teens and adults in every city in America and more than 170 countries around the world.
Upon Bowen’s arrest last year, Roy Moore’s attorney, Trenton Garmon, resigned from the board of Bowen’s ministry. According to Garmon, Bowen had enrolled in a paid web filtering program called Covenant Eyes, which supposedly alerts an “accountability partner” when the allegedly godly Christian surrenders to his lust and views internet porn.
Additionally, Garmon claims that Bowen was supposed to be abiding by the so-called “Billy Graham Rule” and never be alone with a female other than his wife or with a male under 16 years old. Garmon acknowledges that the second half of that rule “was not always honored.” As it turns out, Dan Savage had some photo evidence about that.
Heavy.com has published an extensive report on the criminal charges, Bowen’s ministry, his false claim of being a Fox News contributor, his best-selling books, and his ties to major evangelical figures including a GOP candidate for governor of Alabama.