Gov. Hunt Preaches After Indictment

No, the pastor said, he never had any second thoughts about having Gov. Guy Hunt preach at his church Sunday, although Hunt had been indicted six days earlier on felony charges.

“That didn’t alter it a bit,” said Ernest Stump of the Vestavia Primitive Baptist Church.

So, after 30 minutes of singing a cappella hymns, the more than 200 people at the morning service heard a sermon from a governor charged in a 13-count indictment with stealing $200,000 from his 1987 inaugural fund.

Hunt, 59, a Primitive Baptist preacher long before he became a politician, has said he is “totally innocent” of the charge.

He didn’t refer directly to his personal problems during his 50-minute sermon, his first since his indictment.

“Our souls are made to soar above the cares of this world,” he told the congregation at the church just south of Birmingham.

“The Lord says we are to have no fellowship with unrighteousness,” he said at another point.

And: “Religion should involve things of honesty and integrity right down the line.”

After the sermon, Stump asked the worshipers to shake hands with Hunt and his wife, Helen, “because of what he stands for, what he preaches.”

Hunt is charged with conspiring with an accountant and two aides to take money from the fund, a tax-exempt account drawn from private sources, inaugural tickets and program ads. It doesn’t say what the money might have been used for.

Hunt is to be arraigned Jan. 20. If convicted, he could be stripped of his office and get 20 years in prison.