The American pastor who plans to burn 200 copies of the Koran to mark the anniversary of 9/11 has been accused by former members of his evangelical church of using his own supporters as unpaid labour in his furniture business.Terry Jones has come under fire in his church's hometown of Gainesville, USA for using his own flock to work in an antique and used furniture business owned by him and his wife, Sylvia.
While the pastor moves between two homes, a $300,000 house in Slidell, Louisiana and a holiday apartment in Tampa, Florida his unpaid workers, motivated by their Christian beliefs, live in low rent accommodation owned by Mr Jones.
The pastor has repeatedly refused to answer questions over how what percentage of the profits generated his company and the unpaid workers goes to the church, only conceding that only "at least a portion" is donated.
Shane Butcher, who was expelled from the Dove World Church for disobeying Mr Jones, told the Gainesville Sun newspaper that he worked for the pastor's TS and Company for up 72 hours a week without pay, meals were provided from a "food bank".
Mr Butcher said that punishments for disobedience ranged from cleaning the barnacles off Mr Jones' private boat in Tampa, to carrying a life-size wooden cross or writing out all of Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible."
