Cottage Grove man indicted in murder for hire case
Opening arguments have begun in the trial of Stephen Allwine, the United Church of God minister accused of poisoning and then shooting his wife.
The River Falls Journal reports:
Washington County Attorney Jamie Krueser described Amy Allwine as a loving mother, dog lover, business owner and a woman of faith — not the type of person who would die by suicide."Who would want to do this?" Kreuser said of the woman's alleged murder. "Someone who didn't want to be married to her anymore."Stephen Allwine wrote sermons and counseled married couples at a Newport Church where he served as a deacon and later a church elder.Through those capacities, Krueser said, Stephen learned about Ashley Madison, a dating website catering to married people seeking affairs.Investigators, according to the criminal complaint, identified at least two women Stephen Allwine met through the website.Devore acknowledged Stephen Allwine's relationships with other women, but said having affairs doesn't mean he killed his wife "or even didn't love his wife."Krueser said Stephen Allwine's role as an elder and longtime congregant at the church could have kept him from divorcing his wife, despite wishes to end the marriage. Trial begins for Cottage Grove man accused of murdering his wife
The Star Tribune is reporting that the prosecution has started off with this:
On other Facebook pages, some United Church of God members are claiming this is just an attack from Satan mean to demean the United Church of God and its mission. As shocking as this may seem to some, this is not a unique belief in the Church of God. Any time a minister has ever been accused or something, some members start spreading the rumor that it is an attack from Satan.Bilked by would-be assassins he tried to hire on the dark web, Stephen Carl Allwine shot and killed his wife in their Cottage Grove house and disguised her murder as a suicide, jurors were told Tuesday as his trial began in Stillwater.Amy Allwine died in November 2016 because her husband was having extramarital affairs and didn’t want to stay married, Washington County prosecutor Jamie Kreuser said in her opening statement.“He was seeing other women but he didn’t want to divorce her because of his position in the church,” said Kreuser, referring to the defendant’s role as an elder in the United Church of God. Cottage Grove man killed wife after failing to hire assassin, prosecutor says
Some UCG members are extremely excited to hear Allwine's attorney say the following as validation of their beliefs:
These same people cheered on Allwine's parents when they bailed him out of jail the first time.But defense attorney Kevin DeVore refuted those allegations, telling the jury that the case was full of “red herrings and distractions” and the prosecution had no evidence that Stephen Allwine committed a crime.“Just because he had an affair doesn’t mean he killed his wife,” DeVore said, countering that the death scene was “contaminated” because police officers removed a 9-millimeter handgun to unload it before photographs were taken.“It sounds like an amazing story, but it’s not a TV show or a movie,” he said.
The Church of God mantra is that one must never forget that we are in the end times Satan is ANGRY at United Church of God for preaching such a forceful message! Satan knows his time is short and will do all he can to discredit the church.
Yes, brethren, that record is still skipping in the same spot for decades. The end is nigh and Satan is pissed. Sigh...
See:
I knew Amy when she was a student at Big Sandy and was an employee in my department one year. She was a very sweet girl. I hope he gets everything that is coming to him.
ReplyDeleteI can lay odds of a million to one that Allwine preached that people should not eat bacon or keep Christmas, but thought nothing of finding hookers on Ashley Madison, searching out poisons to kill his wife, searching the dark web for a hired assassin or shooting her in the head. That evil bacon was worse than killing his wife and then letting his 7-year-old son find his mother dead. This is United Church of God at its finest, doctrinal purity over life.
ReplyDelete"This is United Church of God at its finest, doctrinal purity over life."
ReplyDeleteYou judge the whole organization on one man? Justice at its finest.
"I hope he gets everything that is coming to him."
ReplyDeleteAnd you already have proof that he did it?
Any problem I have, outwardly or self-caused, is an attack by Satan!
ReplyDeleteDamn that Satan guy!
I am far from a fan of UCG, but in all fairness I don't think judging United on his actions is at all fair. This could have happened in any denomination. I think you should just report about his trial and not use this very rare case as a judgement against UCG or any of the COG's.
ReplyDeleteTo quote a famous comedian popular during the zenith of the Worldwide Church of God and Armstrong peak, Flip Wilson - "The Devil made me do it!"
ReplyDeleteRichard
"He didn't want to divorce her because of his position in the church?"
ReplyDeleteIf true, how stupid is that? I mean, how much is a position in a mickey mouse church worth?
it could be an attack by Satan....get a minister to commit adultery and murder and use his minions to present the church as being full of such things.
ReplyDeleteThe 'Satan made me do it' could only be partially true, in that Satan does tempt everyone by using their weaknesses against them. But the final choice is in the hands of the individual. If they choose to follow through, the sin belongs to the person with Satan being complicate.
ReplyDeleteThere is no church persecution here. If the man did what is alleged, then like all who do commit these acts, he will be responsible for his own punishment. The criminal law applies to everyone, regardless of which church one belongs. To also hype the church and the man's association with it, is also wrong, as there is no church that does not have people committing evil acts within them.
The only justification for mentioning the church at all is to show that all these churches should not have a 'holier than thou' attitude and that 'my church is truer than yours' just does not cut the butter.
I knew when he was my minister that something in him was not kosher!
ReplyDeleteHe has never been a minister, but good try.
DeleteIt would not surprise me at all if sermons about Satan attacking UCG over this will be preached by certain types of men within the UCG ministry. I would not be surprised at all.
ReplyDeleteThe is a clear desire within UCG by some,since 2010, to call good evil and evil good. If you do a good deed with a clean heart you find yourself viciously attacked and falsely accused. it is rarther pathetic and clearly not of God.
May justice prevail for murdered Amy.
No need to invoke Satan or any mysticism at this point. As with the Weinland trial, facts will be presented to the jury, and there will be an official court record. The difference between Weinland and Allwine (note that different spellings of the word pronounced “wine” are present in both names) is that Allwine is not the leader of the group, so the outcome of this trial will have less impact on the particular splinter involved.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the doctrines, aren’t members and ministers supposed to confess if they have sinned? Of course, it is hypothetically doubtful that someone who has already sinned by evading taxes or murdering his wife would be observing a lesser doctrine like confessing and repenting of sin.
BB
There sure seem to be a lot of pro-UCG trolls posting here. If the people in UCG are somehow justifying this ba$tard, or stating that charges against him are somehow an attack from Satan, then they will be judged too. Adultery, pre-meditated murder, and - the most evil part - setting his young son up to discover his mother's body - this guy should be stoned and forgotten.
ReplyDeleteI've heard many describe how sweet Amy was. Very sad. Whether the organization had anything to do with it is hard to say. I noticed he counseled people that apparently were involved with Ashley Madison and that is how he learned of it. The thoughts apparently began to grow. I suppose some might find this as a tragic reminder that we should guard our minds.
ReplyDeleteThere was a life insurance policy involved here too as I recall?
ReplyDeleteI know nothing about the forensic facts of this case and cannot predict what the jury will decide. I am not sure if this was stirred up by Satan or by God or just "time and chance."
ReplyDeleteWhat clearly comes to the surface is the inability of the UCG to self-evaluate and self-reform using a standard of acceptable justice. It isn't about Allwine, it's about UCG's integrity as an Bible-based organization in it's reaction to this event. It was the same with the WCG and the State of California Receivership. It was the same with David Koresh at Waco. Integrity is absent.
Why doesn't the UCG leadership tell its lay membership that they need to be vigilant? That some ministers may be whack jobs? Why don't they create a channel for receiving complaints against ministers that will result in an inquiry instead of a cover-up? It is because they have sacrificed integrity for a sanctimonious facade.
Did Satan do this to impede the "Great Commission"? That seems a little presumptuous considering the size of the UCG and its tiny influence. Or, more likely, did God do this to reveal to the public that the UCG is an organization without integrity? Just another bunch of Millerite extremists.
The online UCG sermons are as flat as can be. It radiates no convictions, so one could easily think it's a Kenneth Copeland cousin.
ReplyDeleteTalking of life insurance policies, it's not commonly known that people were throwing themselves off buildings after the 1929 crash so that their families could collect the insurance money. The insurance companies responded by eliminating suicide from their life insurance policies.
"I am far from a fan of UCG, but in all fairness I don't think judging United on his actions is at all fair. This could have happened in any denomination. I think you should just report about his trial and not use this very rare case as a judgement against UCG or any of the COG's."
ReplyDeleteIf it's fair to presume "his actions," as has already been done here (and I'm not saying it is)...
If UCG and the COGs in general just claimed to be social clubs and nothing more, then I would agree.
However, they claim to be much, much more than mere social clubs. They claim to be none other than the one true keepers of the one true flame, which was rediscovered by nothing short of miraculous means 1,900 years after having been "lost" and "hidden" from humanity, but none other than a latter day, end time apostle, a station reserved from the 1st century AD until all the way until the 20th. They claim to be the one group on earth with which The Creator of Heaven and Earth and the supernatural, transformative Power of His Holy Spirit is working today, and the one group on earth that can possesses the key to the he narrow gate, the secret entrance to the kingdom of God.
If this were true of UCG, which has claimed for itself and its ministry nothing less than to be the inheritors of the mantle of the Biblical Levitical Priesthood, could this really have happened to one of Jesus Christ's very own pri-, er, ministers?
Well, you might argue, there was Judas, after all...
If we take Judas at face value, would that not mean that we would have to in like manner assume that Stephen Allwine was "ordained" as some sort of "son of perdition," as is said of Judas? That perhaps Stephen Allwine is somewhere prophesied in the bible since ancient times?
John 17:12 While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
Which is more likely, this, or that UCG (and the rest of COGs) are not telling the truth when they claim to be more than mere social clubs?
If they want to make these claims for themselves, I think it is only right, just, and fair that they be held to a higher standard, especially their ministers! If they can't live up to them, then I think we ought to hold it against them, because it shows they're frauds and con men.
"Stephen Allwine wrote sermons and counseled married couples at a Newport Church where he served as a deacon and later a church elder.
ReplyDeleteThrough those capacities, Krueser said, Stephen learned about Ashley Madison, a dating website catering to married people seeking affairs."
Is the suggestion here that Allwine learned about Ashley Madison from church members for whom he was providing marriage counseling?
"While ministering to married couples in his church, Stephen discovered Ashley Madison, a dating website for married people looking for affairs, the prosecutor said."
ReplyDeletehttp://www.citypages.com/news/the-strange-trial-of-stephen-allwine-a-preacher-accused-of-killing-his-wife/470787543
To answer my own question, yes, that is the suggestion. He learned about Ashley Madison because married church couples he was counseling told him about it.
The parable of the sower tells us that there is a spread of conversions in every church and denomination. This includes those who (often secretly) fall away. So it's very dicey to judge a church by the actions of one or a few individuals.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteAnonymous on January 23, 2018 at 11:13 PM said...“it could be an attack by Satan....get a minister to commit adultery and murder and use his minions to present the church as being full of such things.”
The problem is that the UCG really IS full of unrepentant, unconverted, unbelieving, uncivilized people who hang out there to behave very badly while playing church. The deceitful and malicious and adulterous and murderous attitudes of many people who go to the UCG are shocking. The FACT is that the UCG really IS a wiped out church.
The irony of this situation is that if Steven Allwine is convicted of murder based on dna evidence, everyone in UCG will believe he is innocent. Armstrongites don’t accept dna evidence.
ReplyDeleteBB
Some people in UCG may think Allwine is innocent. But even they have to admit top UCG leaders have not assumed that - taking his messages off the website.
ReplyDeleteThere is quite a bit of evidence, from their own words, that a lot of the people who frequent this site were never converted, except to the outer, superficial, aspects of Christianity (Armstrong's version of it).
ReplyDeleteOnly Jesus Christ and God the Father can make such a judgment. Your comment stinks of arrogance anon 8:25
DeleteIt could be a blessing from God. A trial to make us stronger.
ReplyDeleteOr, it could be a curse from Satan, a trap to destroy our faith.
Sometimes it's hard to tell God from Satan.
Who seriously claims that the population of UCG or any of the COGs, or all of them taken together, look statistically any different, as a whole, than the rest of "the world" which they claim is deceived, cut off from god, and stumbling around in spiritual and moral darkness? And if anyone does, is that claim remotely credible? In my 40 years of experience with WCG and UCG, it isn't. There's an old saying that dates back, probably to the '60s at least, "So goes the world, so goes the church."
ReplyDeleteLet's face it, there isn't anything particularly unique or remarkable about the COGs. There isn't any "transformation" happening in the church that isn't happening among the "unconverted" masses.
BB
ReplyDeleteBased on my stay in Herbs church, most members are inclined to believe the worst rather than the best in people. So the church will accept the guilty verdict, if so found. The only exception are church crazies, since many have a soft spot for them. But Allwine doesn't appear to be one.
Anonymous (January 24, 2018 at 1:23 PM) wrote: If this were true of UCG, which has claimed for itself and its ministry nothing less than to be the inheritors of the mantle of the Biblical Levitical Priesthood, could this really have happened to one of Jesus Christ's very own pri-, er, ministers?
ReplyDeleteRemember that Stephen Allwine was one of the "elders" ordained after the 2010 split. UCG ordained scores of men to replace the hundreds of elders that left them. Most of those men would never have been considered for ordination prior to 2010. Even in the COG world, UCG ordinations post 2010 aren't really respected. If you believe the ministry is a calling, it's hard to accept the legitimacy of UCG's newer elders since their ordination was to fill job holes.
Well, the trial was on the front page of the Washington Post's website this morning.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/01/25/a-church-elders-ashley-madison-affairs-led-him-to-the-dark-web-and-murder-police-say/?hpid=hp_mhp-morning-mix_mm-elder%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.34d78648ce5b
It didn't go into the crazy that is Armstrongism, however.
8:00
ReplyDeleteOf course not!
Or are you of the opinion that terrorists are no criminals but Islam adherents?
Nck