Faith in Action: Gregory Clarke
by Sherri Jackson
CBS 42 News
2008-02-10 20:00:00.0
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A recent conviction on tax evasion may send New Hope Baptist Church Pastor Gregory Clarke to prison. Right now he is waiting on the judge to grant him post conviction bond to stay out of jail while he appeals his sentence.
Convicted of a crime he says he didn't commit, what are his fears about the future, a prison term and Christian life after scandal? In a CBS 42 News exclusive we sat down with the embattled pastor for our Faith in Action segment to see how he's using his faith to carry him through turmoil.
It's Sunday morning at New Hope Baptist. Pastor Gregory Clarke has shepherded this flock for the last 21 years.
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| Click play to watch an extended interview with Pastor Gregory Clarke. |
"God led me here as the 10th pastor of this church," said Clarke.
For Clarke it happened quite by accident. He was asked to come fill in for someone in 1986 and never left. In our one-on-one interview, Pastor Clarke explained it wasn't his chosen career path.
“No absolutely not, I wanted to be in business, went to Alabama graduated from Birmingham Southern, majored in finance, I wanted to be a business executive," said Clarke.
Take a ride around this southwest Birmingham neighborhood and you can see the businesses New Hope Baptist Church operates…a credit union, senior center, day care, and elementary and that's just what you see on the outside.
"In 2006 the Department of Health and Human Services granted us a $3 million grant that's teaching abstinence in the entire city of Birmingham from 7th - 12th grade teaching students about abstinence from drugs, sex, all of these things," said Clarke.
The church operates two campuses in southwest Birmingham and south Avondale where they offer senior services and daycare for people in the community.
"I had to draw on all of my experiences and everything I'd done in school and in jobs because basically now it's an economic issue that we have to address, not just a spiritual issued but we have to address the economic issues of community," said Clarke.
Now Pastor Clarke finds himself drawing on all of his experiences in the pulpit to carry him along another path he had not quite chosen for himself.
“I was devastated to hear those words United States Government versus Gregory Clarke," said Clarke.
In July, Pastor Clarke was indicted for filing false tax returns, a charge he adamantly denies saying the $36,000 the IRS claims he did not report over a three year period was not money paid to him, but money trustees at the church voted to allocate to paying the pastor's bills.
According to Clarke, he was never given the money he's accused of not reporting.
"I'm going to stand on this because I don't believe I have done anything wrong. And I believe ultimately I will be exonerated from it," said Clarke.
Members of New Hope Baptist showed up in the rain to encourage their pastor during his trial.
"My church has been so supportive. I don't think I could have responded as well as I think had they not it would have caused detriment to my spirit, they have been very supportive," said Clarke.
Area pastors spoke out on his behalf as well.
For now Pastor Clarke’s fate hangs in the balance. He's scheduled to report to prison on February 15th, making this Sunday morning service the last before he begins serving a 21 month sentence unless a judge intervenes.
"And so sometimes you don't want to go through what you have to go through and it's natural to be upset to be angry and it's natural to question at a time such as this. I think sometimes when we are people of faith we are concerned about it because we think we should be better than that but the fact of it is it's human," said Clarke.
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