EDINBURG, Texas — A former Hispanic church planter implicated in a 2006 Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT) scandal has filed a defamation lawsuit against the BGCT and several other Texas Baptist entities and individuals.
Otto Arango, founder of the now-defunct Piper Institute for Church Planting, along with Aaron de la Torre and Armando Vera, were accused in 2006 of misappropriating funds the Texas convention provided for new Hispanic church starts. The trio claimed 258 churches had been started between 1999 and 2005 through a training system Arango had devised based on the house-church model.
Questions about Arango’s reportedly lavish lifestyle and suspicions about the use of some funds prompted BGCT officials to ask an independent counsel to investigate. The investigative team reported the BGCT had given more than $1.3 million for startup funding for the program and monthly support for Aranago, de la Torre and Vera, and that 98 percent of the congregations they claimed to have planted either no longer existed or existed only on paper.
Investigators also accused some BGCT staffers of poor oversight.
In the lawsuit, Arango alleges that the defendants made “false and malicious statements” about him and that they have harmed his “reputation, credibility and integrity.” The statements, he contends, convinced others that he had “stolen funds, had improperly used church funds and had lied about the number of new Hispanic Baptist churches he had started.”
(TAB)
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