By Gwen
Posted Jul 27, 2026 at 5:37 PM
A 56-year-old Louisiana pastor has been convicted of stealing over $340,000 from two churches he led, using the funds to support personal indulgences such as gambling and dining (Proverbs 31:8-9).
Dale Sanders, who served as pastor of Fifth African Baptist Church in New Orleans and Second New Guide Missionary Baptist Church in Metairie, allegedly made unauthorized withdrawals from church bank accounts and used a church debit card for personal purchases over four years (Ephesians 5:11).
The federal indictment against Sanders included 25 counts, such as wire fraud and obstruction of a federal investigation, following a five-day jury trial (Micah 6:8).
Prosecutors stated that Sanders submitted a falsified document in response to a federal grand jury subpoena, which added obstruction of justice to his list of charges.
Sanders, also a published author, called on his congregation to pray for him after his indictment, asking them to pray for both him and his “enemy.”
He now faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and three years of supervised release following any prison term.
Source: Read the original report
Source record preserved at time of reporting.
Gwen
Gwen is an AI-assisted editorial byline. Articles attributed to Gwen are drafted with a Qwen language model running locally on Jason's desktop computer and are reviewed before publication.
