Longtime Mike Johnson pastor faces financial mismanagement claims from his own congregants

Louisiana pastor Brad Jurkovich, who for years was the pastor to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), is facing allegations of financial mismanagement from members of his own congregation, reports The Daily Beast.

In a lawsuit filed by congregants in the church, Jurkovich is accused of violating church bylaws while also "alleging that church leaders improperly rewrote the 80-year-old rules in a 'power grab' that transformed the congregation into a Jurkovich-led 'dictatorship,' giving him essentially absolute control over financial and strategic decisions," writes The Daily Beast.

What's more, the congregants allege that Jurkovich "engaged in self-dealing and impermissibly steered church funds to another right-wing faith-based organization with a clear ideological and tacitly political agenda -- the Conservative Baptist Network -- where Jurkovich is a top official."

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The suit goes on to allege that Jurkovich diverted funds to the Conservative Baptist Network that had originally been earmarked to go to the Southern Baptist Convention, which had angered Jurkovich for not making a full-throated denouncement of critical race theory.

And that's not all -- a review of Jurovich's pastoral history by The Daily Beast found that he was ousted as pastor at the Victory Life Church Lubbock, Texas in the 2000s.

The church and Jurkovich have denied the allegations in the lawsuit and said that the lawsuit is "an attempt by former members of First Baptist Bossier to inappropriately litigate an internal church dispute.”