06/26/02

By GARY McELROY
Staff Reporter

A Loxley street preacher who screamed at a funeral that the deceased was burning in hell said Tuesday he was beaten by mourners for telling the truth.

While Orlando Bethel vowed his battle against evil has only begun, one relative at the service said he believes Bethel set out to incite the grievers because he was bitter over a family land squabble.

The incident occurred June 14 at the Pine Grove Baptist Church in Loxley at the funeral of Lish Taylor, an uncle of Bethel's wife, Glynis.

Bethel claims Loxley police did nothing after "a mob" beat him.

"They said it was attempted murder," Loxley Police Chief Cliff Yetter said Tuesday. "It was a little scratch on his shoulder."

Yetter said Bethel's verbal assault "slandered the family of the deceased. ... He told them the man in the coffin was going to hell, calling them whoremongers."

Neither of the Bethels disagreed with claims that Orlando Bethel screamed out during the solemn gathering, condemning all to "a lake of fire."

He was only supposed to sing, Orlando Bethel admitted, "but the Holy Ghost told me to really speak the truth -- I said this man was no longer with us because he is in hell, that they needed to repent of their sins, there was a lesbian scheduled to sing, and there were fornicators.

"That was when I was dragged to the back of the church by several men," he said.

"He almost got killed," Glynis Bethel said. She said her husband was seriously injured and she later found him "balled up in an embryo position."

The Bethels said Tuesday that after getting nowhere with Loxley police, they went to the Baldwin County Sheriff's Department, where a warrant was issued for Glynis Bethel's brother, Lemuel Molden, one of the alleged attackers.

According to a sheriff's spokesman, no warrant had been issued by late Tuesday.

Molden said Tuesday his sister had been away from Alabama for years and returned to Loxley from Miami about a year ago to claim part of a 50-acre home site left to family members when their grandmother died.

The Bethels ended up with about an acre, Molden said.

"They wanted to acquire all of the property and make it some kind of retreat," Molden said. "It didn't pan out like they thought it would, and I guess they are a little bitter."

Molden said that after his uncle died, Orlando Bethel called and asked to sing at the funeral.

Molden now says he believes the request was "premeditated."

"My uncle didn't like Orlando," Molden said. He said Bethel would often "go down and pray for my uncle," only to be ordered out of the house.

"I think he was being revengeful," Molden said of Bethel.

Molden said that when Bethel began his harangue at the church, mourners froze in shock.

"After he sings, he grabs the mike and yells that Lish is burning in hell. He just screamed it out."

Molden said that when someone cut off the microphone, Bethel gestured to a young man to bring a bag down front.

It was then, Molden said, that people began leaving, fearing there were weapons in the bag.

"He pulls out a megaphone," Molden said. "We tried to get him out of the church. I asked him, 'Orlando, why are you doing this?'" Molden said.

Molden said that later the Bethels drove up to his home. Orlando Bethel began screaming about hell, and Glynis Bethel, while "speaking in tongues," sprinkled olive oil on Molden.

"I thought it was gasoline," Molden said.

Molden, although frustrated at his sister and her husband, expressed respect for their "persistence."

As if to confirm this, the couple said Tuesday the battle for the souls of relatives and other Loxley sinners was only beginning.