Rev. Donald Armstrong: Paying for kids' college with church funds earns degree in Shmuckery

You can't dip into the company coffers to pay a remodel to your house and you can't stick your fingers into your parishioners' purses to put your kids through college. It's a lesson that the Reverend Donald Armstrong's kids may have learned if they took Ethics 101 in college --...

By Jonathan Shikes

February 25, 2011

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You can't dip into the company coffers to pay a remodel to your house and you can't stick your fingers into your parishioners' purses to put your kids through college. It's a lesson that the Reverend Donald Armstrong's kids may have learned if they took Ethics 101 in college -- the same college Armstrong paid for with church funds, by his own admission.

Armstrong, the former rector of Grace and St. Stephen's Church in Colorado Springs, has been accused of stealing money from the church and is facing felony charges. And while the reverend admitted that he took the money, he said it was in lieu of pay raises.

Prosecutors aren't buying that story. They want Armstrong to pay back the $291,000 that they say he stole between 1999 and 2005, according to a story in the Colorado Springs Gazette. The Episcopal Diocese of Colorado defrocked Armstrong in 2007.

There's nothing they can do, though, about the gowns worn by his kids.

For more Shmucks, visit our Shmuck of the Week archive.

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