Self-Appointed Christian Vigilante Roper Is No Stranger to Ecclesiastical Battles

Paul Roper, a self-appointed Christian vigilante who forced television minister Jim Bakker to own up to an extra-marital sexual encounter, has for the second time appeared in the middle of a fray over ecclesiastical morality.

The first time was four years ago when Roper took to task Rev. Ralph Wilkerson, the flamboyant founder of Melodyland Christian Center in Anaheim. He alleged that Wilkerson’s misspending of church funds for personal purposes had helped to push that church to the brink of bankruptcy.

Some Roper admirers say that when he took control of Melodyland’s finances, he returned the church to solvency. “In six months, Roper turned it around,� said Lowell Jones, who formerly was an administrator at the Melodyland School of Theology.

But Wilkerson’s attorney, Michael R. McDonnell, said that after the Anaheim Police Department and Internal Revenue Service thoroughly investigated Roper’s allegations, they declined to file any criminal charges against the minister.

‘Stirring It Up’

McDonnell said Roper’s role in the current Jim Bakker scandal is characteristic: “He is always right there in the middle, stirring it up.�

Henry Block, a retired Vancouver, Canada, businessman who said he made a mistake by entrusting the management of his enterprises to Roper, contends Roper has a tendency to exaggerate. “There is some truth in what he says, but it tends to grow,� he said.

Roper, the 43-year-old son of missionaries who grew up on a Crow reservation in Montana, said Friday that he does not regret his role either in the Melodyland or Bakker controversies, which he says boils down to simply trying to right a wrong.

Complaining that some ministers are hypocritical, he admonished: “They should live the way they talk. . . . The whole work of God will be better if we get these phonies out of it.�

Frequently Gives Sermons

Roper, who frequently leads Bible classes and gives church sermons, said in the past he has been a licensed minister but has allowed the licenses to lapse. At the age of 17 he attended L.I.F.E. Bible College in Los Angeles for theological training. Then he said he took classes at California State University, Fullerton, before going into business for himself. He hopscotched among various occupations, at one time owning three home furnishing stores in Seattle.

He said he decided to move to California to continue his studies at Cal State, Fullerton, when Wilkerson in 1979 asked him to become general manager of Melodyland, which was $8 million in debt.

Roper took immediate measures at Melodyland to cut costs--selling two church-owned airplanes, dismantling the church’s television ministry and slashing staff salaries. He also arranged for real estate tycoon Block to buy Melodyland’s land and buildings for $4.3 million--giving the church much needed funds--and then lease the facilities back to the church. Roper said he later acquired Block’s financial interest in the church management company. And in April, 1983, when the church was in better financial shape, the congregation bought back the property.

‘Didn’t Work Out’

With the Melodyland uproar behind him, Roper was invited to Vancouver to oversee Block’s various business enterprises. “He didn’t work out,� said Block, who had been favorably impressed by Roper’s performance at Melodyland. He said Roper advised him to invest in an oil drilling venture in Kentucky that failed and in Queen City Savings & Loan Assn. in Seattle, which turned out to be sinking in red ink.

Roper has been charged with fraud, negligence and breach of fiduciary duty in a $20-million civil lawsuit involving his management of the defunct Seattle savings and loan, where he served as chief executive officer, director and vice chairman of the board from Jan. 12, to Aug. 1 of 1983.

“I have not defrauded anyone of anything,� Roper responded to the lawsuit, which the Federal Savings & Loan Insurance Corp. filed in April, 1985, in federal district court in Seattle against Roper and about 29 other former officers and directors of Queen City. Roper argued he was not at fault in the failure of the financial institution and said that a settlement of the charges against him is pending.

Nonetheless, Bart Freedman, an attorney for FSLIC, which took Queen City under receivership and then sold it to Gibraltar Savings & Loan, said that Roper resigned his positions at Queen City at the urging of state and federal officials.

After the Queen City fiasco, Block and Roper parted company, but friction remained. Block recently filed a lawsuit against his former protege over disputed ownership of a mortgage on a home in Yorba Linda.

Roper, meanwhile, has returned to Orange County, where he is a third-year law student at Western State University in Fullerton. When Roper left Melodyland, he announced that he was establishing an organization to expose errant ministries.

While that organization never materialized, Roper said, “literally hundreds of people have come to me with various stories of wrongs.� One of those was Jessica Hahn of Long Island, N.Y., who told him how she had been invited to Florida in 1980 to attend a taping of Jim Bakker’s television show and wound up having a sexual encounter with the minister in a hotel room.

Acting on Hahn’s behalf, Roper went after Bakker and his South Carolina-based PTL ministry, which ultimately resulted in a $265,000 settlement for her. When knowledge of his encounter with Hahn was about to be made public, Bakker resigned from PTL, charging that he had been “blackmailed.�

Roper acknowledges he has accepted a fee for handling Hahn’s case--the amount of which he refuses to disclose. He said his primary motivation was to help someone who had been hurt.