DATE: Saturday, August 16, 1997             TAG: 9708160255

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TONY WHARTON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   78 lines

ATLANTIC SHORES PASTOR UNEXPECTEDLY RESIGNS SWEET APOLOGIZES FOR UNNAMED ``MISTAKE.''

The Rev. George Sweet, founder of the 4,000-member Atlantic Shores Baptist Church and onetime candidate for Congress, has resigned his position, citing an unspecified ``tragic mistake'' in his past.

Sweet's departure will be announced to the congregation Sunday morning.

``Several years ago I made a tragic mistake and as a result I am disqualified from continuing my present ministry,'' Sweet said in a statement from his Chesapeake home Friday afternoon. He declined to elaborate on the mistake, and church officials made no comment.

Sweet said he also is resigning as president of Atlantic Shores Christian Schools and from the board of directors of Liberty University in Lynchburg. Sweet graduated from Liberty and is still close to its founder, the Rev. Jerry Falwell.

Falwell's spokesman, Mark DeMoss, said, ``They talked this week and prayed together. George Sweet would have a lifetime friend in Jerry Falwell, regardless of the circumstances.''

State Sen. Mark L. Earley, the Republican candidate for attorney general and a member of Sweet's congregation since 1991, said, ``Cynthia and I are very close to the Sweet family. We are praying for them.''

Sweet asked Friday for his congregation's forgiveness.

``I have been a resident of Hampton Roads my entire life,'' he said. ``This is my hometown. I am sorry for the reproach this has brought upon my Lord, my family, my church and my hometown.

``It is now for me to begin rebuilding with my wife and three children. That is the most important thing to me at this time.

``Along with this, my prayers are with all those who have been harmed by my actions and for the church I have spent nearly half of my life pastoring.''

No trace of scandal has ever been publicly attached to Sweet.

The 43-year-old Chesapeake native has been an influential figure in the spiritual and political life of Virginia Beach and Chesapeake.

At 6-foot-8, Sweet is a physical giant who was a basketball star at Western Branch High School. But in 1972 he turned away from an offer of a full basketball scholarship in Rhode Island to enroll at Lynchburg Baptist College, now Liberty University, and become a minister.

In 1981 he started the independent Atlantic Shores in a room at the Ramada Inn on Newtown Road.

Atlantic Shores grew into a 4,000-member congregation, building a sanctuary at the corner of Kempsville Road and Centerville Turnpike, on the border of Virginia Beach and Chesapeake. As one of the region's ``megachurches,'' Atlantic Shores went on to add a Christian school, which is flourishing, and a youth center.

Today, it typically has four services on Sundays.

It has become a core church for Christian conservatives in Hampton Roads. The Christian Coalition has regularly distributed its voter scorecards there before elections, and candidates have regularly addressed the congregation.

Earley said, ``I think the church is very strong because of the leadership and pastoring George Sweet has provided in the last 15 years. I think the church will carry forward.''

Associate Pastor James Wolfcale will serve as the interim minister.

Tragedy struck the church once before, in December 1988, when Christian school student Nicholas Elliott opened fire with a semiautomatic pistol, killing teacher Karen Farley.

``She was a spiritual gem,'' Sweet later testified. ``Honestly, I don't know if I met a more committed Christian lady.''

In 1994, Sweet ran against U.S. Rep. Norman Sisisky, the Democratic incumbent in the 4th Congressional District. Sweet picked up support from Tim Robertson, the son of evangelist Pat Robertson, and other Christian conservatives. But Sisisky defeated him easily.

Last month, Americans United for Separation of Church and State asked the IRS to investigate Sweet's and Falwell's activities on behalf of Earley during the Republican primary campaign this spring. The group argued that Sweet improperly used his tax-exempt church on behalf of a partisan political candidate.

There was no hint Friday that Sweet's resignation had any connection to that complaint. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

Rev. George Sweet did not elaborate on the reasons for leaving his

4,000-member congregation.

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