AKRON, Ohio — A controversial ‘pastor’ and televangelist, who has been accused by former members of counseling women to obtain abortions, has admitted to urging male members to have vasectomies and then inspecting their private parts after the surgery.

Ernest Angley, 93, has been leading Grace Cathedral since the 1950’s and was a prominent televangelist in the 1970’s. However, increasing divides in Angley’s congregation over alleged cult-like practices have led some to speak out the media, including those who state that Angley advises pregnant members to abort and urges men to have vasectomies. Others have accused Angley of being a homosexual for examining the men who go through with the surgeries.

While representatives from Grace Cathedral have called the accusations “lies,” Angley recently admitted to the Ohio Beacon Journal that he believes children shouldn’t be born in the present times because of its evils. He claimed that the doesn’t force women to have abortions, but admitted to encouraging vasectomies.

Usher Mike Kish also expressed this sentiment.

“I would hate to even bring a child into the world at this point, being a parent, just having common sense,” he said. “If you look at the condition of this world … it just seems to be going downhill.”

“It really is,” Angley agreed. “I wouldn’t want to be brought into this world now.”

He said that even those with strong faith are not advised to start or enlarge their family.

“[B]ecause the people of strong faith go down, and their children are in danger,” Angley stated. “It wasn’t like that when I was a kid. We could walk up and down the streets, we could play at night and we were not molested at all.”

He told the story of one man in his congregation who decided to have his vasectomy reversed, remarking that it was wrongful for him to do so.

“I knew he shouldn’t have,” Angley remarked. “We almost lost [his wife], and they had twins and one of them died [at birth]. The little boy [who survived], he is something else. … The daddy, he’s proud of him. But he knows he did the wrong thing.”

Angley and his wife never had children themselves because, he said, they “wanted to give [their] lives to the work of God.”

The Beacon Journal also obtained audio footage of a message that Angley delivered in July, which caused deep controversy in his congregation over his practices. During the service, the former televangelist admitted to looking at men’s private parts pre and post-vasectomy, but denied being a homosexual.

“I’ve helped so many of the boys down through the years,” Angley told the congregation. “They had their misgivings. Sure, I’d have them uncover themselves, but I did not handle them at all.”

“And I would tell them how that would work. And they’d have to watch it,” he continued. “I’d have some of them come back to me that I felt needed to. And I would tell them, I would look at them—their privates, so I could tell how they were swelling. … And some of these turned against me.”

But some of the women whose husbands did not have vasectomies state that they had been advised to abort if they became pregnant. One called Angley a “monster.”

“I thought perhaps it was a girl,” said one woman who went through with the abortion and is now unable to bear children due to early menopause. “It was terrible. It was absolutely gut-wrenching.”

Grace Cathedral declined to provide their position on abortion when contacted by Christian News Network.

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