A leading Fair Haven minister returns to town — and a firestorm erupts.
(The following article was translated from Spanish. It originally appeared in La Voz Hispana.)
Pastor Armando Hernandez, founder of one of the strongest and most important congregations of the city — the Christian church Second Star of Jacob, of the Assemblies of God — returned to the city that witnessed his rise as a spiritual leader of great importance.
Hernandez returned to New Haven after four years of self-imposed exile due to a “slip” he committed. His presence in the community has provoked joy in some and anxiety in others. As soon as he arrived some people began to distribute a flyer with his photo accusing him of being a corrupt and a fornicator, among other things.
The controversial flyer has caused such an upheaval that we decided to listen to the suppositions of the self-same evangelist in order to know his position regarding the attacks he has received and the truth of the events that transpired four years ago when his congregation was dismantled.
“I left the church August 30th, 2003 because of a personal problem of a romantic nature,” said the pastor. I felt ashamed of my actions and because of that I did not want to face my children, my community, and least of all, my church.”
With a heavy heart and a sad face, the former spiritual leader of The Second Star of Jacob revealed to us the details of the 37 years of his disastrous marriage, which he considers the reason for his getting involved in what he himself calls an extra-marital affair. That is to say, adultery.
“The main cause of my problem was the personal conflicts between my wife and me, the lack of understanding and affection, the coldness, and my wife’s constant expressions of the fact that she did not love me. In truth, all of those problems had been accumulating over the years and I was careless. In other words, I had a spiritual lapse,” confessed the pastor.
The tempestuous relationship between Hernandez and Mrs. X (whose name will not be used at her personal request) lasted until the last two months of his ministry of The Second Star of Jacob. In order to avoid the coming storm, the pastor opted to leave and abandon all he had worked so hard to accomplish.
“That’s when I left and went to Orlando, Florida, to stay with friends. I felt ashamed and didn’t want my mistake, my sin before God, to be discovered. No one knew about that until that moment.”
In the midst of the upheaval provoked by his leaving the congregation and the discovery of his extramarital affair, a storm of gossip and slanderous rumors surrounded the pastor, in spite of the fact that the affair had been managed very secretly and beyond the reach of the press until then.
However, and despite all of this, another rumor began to circulate implicating him in yet another relationship with a woman in Fair Haven, with whom it was said he had had a child. The pastor Armando Hern√°ndez has denied this other affair.
“No, that is not true. Those are rumors circulated by those who attack me, especially my wife, but that is not the case. I have nothing. They shouldn’t come up with such nonsense…”
During his self-imposed exile the popular preacher was in Florida, Atlanta, and Puerto Rico. He was running from his sin and searching for spiritual peace. It was in this state of mind, on “the Island of Enchantment,” in Humacao, Puerto Rico to be precise, that he sought a reconciliation with the All-Powerful, and secluded himself in fasting and prayer for two days.
Several months ago, Hernandez returned for the first time to the church he founded.
He was completely repentant of his sin and he received a welcome beyond his wildest hopes.
“I returned to the church at the beginning of this year. I was authorized to return by the Reverend Eliseo Aponte, a pastor who is my ‘spiritual son.’ I was given a chance to speak directly to the congregation and I asked for forgiveness from all of them. We all cried and at the end of the service they all came to me and embraced me,” explained the pastor, who is also the founder of Radio Amor.
“After the end of the service, I felt spiritual and emotional peace. As though a burden had been lifted from my heart, one that had tormented me without pity. I realized my congregation loved me. Few pastors are as blessed as I was, and in the midst of the reconciliation with my congregation they told me how much I was needed here…”
After that first encounter with his congregation, Hernandez returned to Florida to get on with his life. However, after some months, something told him that his destiny was to return again to New Haven, where other tasks awaited him.
“Everybody thinks that I returned to New Haven because of my family and that’s not the case. I returned because God prophesied it through some U.S. people who communicated it to me. In that context, God told me, ‘You will return because you have not finished your work. You were disobedient. You will return and will erect an altar for me. You will not depend on men, you will depend on me. I will sustain you and my signs will be with you…,” the evangelist affirmed to explain his return.
According to Hernandez, if it had been up to him, he would not have returned to New Haven, but he maintains that he is following divine orders.
“In human terms, I would not want to be here. God knows that. I have suffered personal attacks, like the flyer with my photo claiming that I am a corrupt fornicator and a thief,” argued the spiritual leader. “But that really doesn’t affect me.”
But it’s not only a matter of flyers and insults — he is also the victim of other attacks. His
detractors are trying to prevent him from beginning another ecclesiastical mission.
“I have gone to three different places and when I arrive I find out that people have arrived before me urging the owners of the place not to rent it to me. How they love God! And, they are preachers! The sad thing is that I helped some of those people when they were down on their luck. They are ministers and I know who they are!” exclaimed the pastor.
The sad reality of the situation was a surprise to us when we heard it from this servant of God, who continued his explanations.
“But, I understand the fear in this city about my new ministry. They are nervous because they know I am a good pastor.”
Upon hearing this, we wanted to know more about the pressure that, according to the pastor, prevents him from opening another church in the city.
“Look, brother, like a sheep’s herder in the old days, I am a consummated pastor. I am devoted to God. I love the souls under my charge. In other words, even if I have to leave my food on the table to go help one of them, I do it. What’s more, if I have to leave my bed at three in the morning to go help someone, I do it. I am a pastor 24 hours a day.
I am not an office preacher. I am a preacher of people. There are many office preachers out there, of course,” expressed the pastor vehemently.
“People need someone who listens to them. Psychologists and psychiatrists don’t give them any answers. They just give them drugs as a solution to their problems. In contrast, we pastors understand that there are many people who just need to be listened to and attended to as is proper. So we don’t have the solution to all their problems. But at the very least we get involved in their problems.”
Hernandez resents the way he has been treated and the persecution of which he has been a victim — according to him, by other local ministers — which he would never to do them.
“I am a pastor of homes. I have always been the kind of pastor who has never directed an attack at a person. I’ve never done that in my entire life. It’s not my custom. I have taught my disciples and ministers under my tutelage not to do that either.”
Also, the pastor laments the fact that his detractors will not face him personally as it should be done.
“None of them have dared to call me to sit with me and tell me what they have to say. If they came and told me to my face that I am “a dead mirror,” I would take it. If they called me “an adulterer,” I would accept it. What else could I do!”
The Reverend Armando Hernandez took the opportunity to ask the community for forgiveness for his past actions during the course of his conversation with this newspaper, “La Voz Hispana de Connecticut.
“Knowing that I failed God, I want to ask for the forgiveness of the entire Hispanic community, and of all those who have truly felt compassion for me.”
The religious leader most emphatically responded to the alleged disappearance of some church funds from The Second Star of Jacob, which has been blamed on him. “ I am going to tell you the truth. I received my moral education not from God or the Bible, or the Council. I was raised by my grandfather Maximiliano Gonz√°lez Lorenzada, who didn’t even know how to sign his name, but who gave me a teaching when I was ten years old. He said, “Armandito, I won’t leave you a house or a car, or anything. But if I do want to leave you one thing, it’s moral rectitude.” I have never stolen a single dollar in my entire life…”
The pastor heard the news that he was being accused of the disappearance of the money when he was fasting in Puerto Rico.
“There, in Humacao, I found out about the rumors that I had stolen money. I immediately went to the cemetery, it was two in the afternoon, the sun was blazing, I went to my grandfather’s grave and knelt before it crying. I told him, “Before your bones I say I didn’t steal that money. I am not a thief!”
Among the many insults and accusations, this one was the most painful for this deeply religious man. “This has been the greatest offense. The rumors about my having had three, four, or five children out of marriage, those are the devil’s lies. What is true is that I had an adulterous affair. I sinned with this girl, whose name I do not want to mention. That’s all.”
On an attempt to unmask other religious leaders who, according to Hernandez, have in fact committed similar adulterous abuses, the pastor declared, “ I know pastors who are still in their pulpits that have done that and have not left. They are still preaching. I don’t want to blackmail anyone, but in my case I left the community. I am and was ashamed of my actions.”
“I came back after four years and three months because God ordered me to do it. And, I tell you before his presence that I, Armando Hernandez, don’t want to be here…!”
The repentant Christian pastor has continued his ministry in a small place located in the intersection of Grand Avenue and Atwater Street, using his son’s Emilio’s church. Unfortunately, this has provoked a new problem, as he himself attests.
“Unfortunately, Emilio is being attacked because he gave the space for me to use…” To conclude, the pastor Armando Hernandez, wanted to attest one last time that “I came to New Haven, where I have many acquaintances, not friends. Many went to Florida often and none visited me there. Not one of them called me to see how I was doing, not even to say, ‘Look, you are an adulterer and a sinner.’ Not even that…”The return of Pastor Armando Hernandez to New Haven has lit a fire, and probably many things will happen and will be said during the course of this new mission he has started. Some think that everyone deserves a second chance. Others, however, don’t want to see him preaching…
Here it might be helpful to quote the Bible when it reminds us with severity that “Let whosoever be free of sin cast the first stone…” And it’s likely no one will show up to do that!
(All men fall, but only great men …get up!)