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A Lutheran minister who also served as the treasurer for the Fisher Chamber of Commerce for five years now faces charges of embezzling nearly $14,000 from the organization.

Polk County Attorney Greg Widseth issued a press release Thursday stating that his office has filed a criminal complaint in Polk County District Court against Rev. Michael Kevin Eminger, 47, formerly of Fisher and now reportedly living in his home state of Wisconsin. Eminger faces four counts of theft by swindle and four counts of felony theft, with possible penalties of 5 to 10 years in prison and fines of $10,000 to $20,000. Eminger is not currently in custody and is scheduled to make his first court appearance Jan.19.

According to the criminal complaint, Sue Meyer, president of the Fisher Chamber of Commerce, informed the Polk County Sheriff's Office in early October that the former treasurer had stolen more than $13,000 from Chamber's checking account. This came to light when the Chamber received an overdraft notice from the bank, which prompted a review of the checking account over the last five years.

The review revealed numerous checks Eminger issued from the account, primarily written to himself, for unexplainable expenses totaling $13,923.12. With an annual budget of around $4,000, that amounts to nearly all the Chamber's funds accumulated during the three-and-a-half-year period Eminger allegedly pilfered public funds.

Meyer told Deputy Randy Sondrol that when board members confronted Eminger about the missing funds the day before, he made no excuses and apologized for putting them in such a position.

However, at that time he only admitted to taking $4,000 to $5,000 from the account. Meyer presented Sondrol with a detailed list of unaccounted for, unexplained, or questionable expenses paid out of the Chamber account, which he used when questioning Eminger later in the month. Eminger then admitted using about $10,000 in embezzled funds to pay his personal expenses, but claimed the rest covered legitimate Chamber expenses.

Until his resignation about a month ago due to the alleged embezzlement, Eminger had served as pastor for Trinity Lutheran Church in Fisher and St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Euclid, both Missouri Synod factions, for nearly a decade, since the spring of 1997. He also filled in at other area churches as needed, including Our Savior's Lutheran in Crookston, where he served as interim pastor several years ago.

Meyer, also a member of Trinity Lutheran in Fisher, pointed out that there is no reason to suspect that Eminger took funds from his congregations and that he did not have access to church funds.

A spokesperson for the Minnesota North District of the Lutheran Church Missouri explained that Eminger is on restricted status with the LCMS and is currently not allowed to take a call to another congregation pending the outcome of the criminal case. While on restricted status, Eminger is also not supported financially by the LCMS and must find his own work outside the ministry.

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Anonymous Slider N said...
No Way! Not another Spirit Filled Pastor charged with stealing! I thought Jesus was residing in their hearts! These guys must be doin alot of repentin and Jesus must be doin alot of forgivin! These stories here just reinforce in my mind that Our Lord Jesus really lives in the hearts of men! LOL! LOL!


Anonymous Anonymous said...
The man is only human as the rest of us. The man wants to do good but can't. The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, and pulls us all down, even those who we thing should not be tempted as us.
The hear of mankind is deceitful above all thngs and despertly wicked, "Who can know it?

If caught which he must have been,or I would not be readiong about it, he will pay the penalty, as all do when caught...Its called faceing the music.


Anonymous Frank said...
Imma Christian:
Satan is in charge here, he's up there tempting people to do things that they would not normally be doing under normal circumstances, he especially targets Christians to do bad things make them look bad in the eyes of the non-believers to make them seal and commit their non-belief in their minds, in order to guarantee their soul to burn in Satan's hell.

Satan is clever, much clever than a Christian, thats why Satan targets Christians to appear bad and do evil, that's why Christians need Jesus to save them from their sins.

Just saying the name Jesus, instantly out-stamps Satan.

Like Decon kills rats and mice, good over-rides evil, get it?

Like demonic healing, just say come-out Satan, come-out Satan, in the name of Jesus and those evil spirits will come running out.

I seen it done in the movie, The Exorcist, it's all real, just go see the movie, I dare you come back and tell me it's all a crock of shit.

It's a constant daily battle between good versus evil, Satan versus Jesus, belief versus non-belief.

Satan is so clever and smart, but Jesus saves souls, Satan can't do that, Satan destroys souls, but only Jesus can save souls. ROFLOMAO, what a crock of shit!


Anonymous Warnepiece said...
If it is okay with Jesus to steal an ass and/or a colt, per LUKE 19:29, Mark 11:1-7 and Matthew 21:1-7, then it should be okay for this Pastor to embezzle a paltry $14,000. Thou Shall Not Steal only applies if you don’t have Jesus’ blood stains on yourself, or if your a "man of god.".


Anonymous unknowing1 said...
Christians feel they are being persecuted. Could there possibly be a reason such as they break the law, prey on others, think only of themselves? This guy just wiped out the chambers total three year budget. But of course all he has to do is say he repents and all is forgiven!


Anonymous Dano said...
This is just natural selection at work, the way the great intelligent designer up in the sky, drew it up.

Dominate, bullshitter, "Type A", preacher takes what belongs to lesser members of tribe. Preacher gets new clothes, new car and new girlfriend and reproduces. The rest of the flock continue to sacrifice part of their income to the church, must be careful with what's left, must forestall having the next little lamb, and viola!

The most dominate, biggest liar, strongest, most virile member of the cult, has the most grandkids.

All of the slick televangelists and super preachers in the megachurches fit this profile. Look at the biggies in the business. They will leave so much money to their progeny that all the next ten generations will have to do is eat sleep and reproduce.
Dan


Anonymous Anonymous said...
These kind of scandels make news but i was in the Methodist church for years and the way pastors get promotions is by how much and how many big dollar projects they can swindle the congregation out of. They dont visit the lost,go to hospitals or preach salvation. They preach buying into their retirement plan via building projects,such as family life centers,larger sanctuaries,new parsonages etc. Working so closely as I did with pastors and in the ministry it seems criminal but unfortunately its legal


Anonymous Anonymous said...
that some fucked up shit. thanks to the guy with the bible verses about jesus stealing.


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