
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 25, 1992                   TAG: 9203250320
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LYNCHBURG                                LENGTH: Short

FALWELL USED CHURCH AS COLLATERAL

Since 1981, the Rev. Jerry Falwell's ministries have used his Thomas Road Baptist Church as collateral 11 times to secure $34.5 million in loans and bond issues, the Lynchburg News & Advance reported Tuesday. At least $17.5 million in loans is outstanding.

The church property was assessed by the city last year at $5.2 million.

Most of the money was used to build facilities on the Liberty University campus, said Mark DeMoss, a ministry spokesman. He also said he believes the congregation approved each of the deeds of trust.

The largest of the outstanding loans, for $8.5 million, was taken out by Old Time Gospel Hour and church trustees three years ago, according to records in Lynchburg Circuit Court. That loan was funded by Lincoln Savings & Loan, the most prominent and costly failure of the S&L scandal.

A deed of trust on Thomas Road Baptist Church and Lynchburg Christian Academy was transferred to Charles Keating Jr.'s Lincoln Savings & Loan three months before the government seized the California thrift in April 1989.

The loan demands weekly payments of $24,000 from the official borrower, Old Time Gospel Hour, until the year 2004.

The deed of trust held by Lincoln S&L was taken over by the government's Resolution Trust Corp., set up to liquidate failed S&Ls. The ministry statement said the church and Old Time are negotiating with the RTC to restructure the loan, and are reworking another debt, an $8.5 million bond issue, also secured by the church.

The RTC is collecting payment and trying to sell the loan to institutional investors as part of a portfolio of commercial loans made by Lincoln S&L, said Kevin Shields, an RTC spokesman.

by CNB