Click here to return to the Ministrywarning web site regarding convicted criminal and fugitive Ken Parks of Duluth, GA. Parks runs a fraudulent "ministry" and "charity," that he calls ETC Ministries, last known to be operated from his residence in Duluth, as well as unlicensed businesses AtlantaMAXPhoto, Fotos by Ken and Ansisoft. Since 2000, Parks has been consumed with stalking, harassing, and threatening numerous people, including those in his own family, via web sites, chatrooms, e-mail and regular mail. Parks falsely claims he has won all of his pro se (without an attorney) lawsuits against his victims, when in fact the documentation shows he has actually lost his lawsuits.
The following are important biographical facts about Ken Parks, fraudulent founder of his ETC Ministries, located in Duluth, Georgia. Ken Parks also has a website and chat forum using the title Kenfactor. Click here to return to the Ministry Warning homepage, which has court, police, and other documentation against Ken Parks.
1. Beginning in his late teens, shortly after Ken Parks' father died in 1972, he boasted that he was going to do everything it takes to become rich and powerful. He bought "get-rich-quick" books and positive thinking books toward that end.
2. While in his early 20s, his family remembers him dating only teenage girls, some as young as 15 years old. He was cautioned about this, yet he became agitated and defensive. One of the teenage girls he wished to date was a Jewish Christian. Soon after Parks was introduced to this girl he apparently falsely professed to have become a Christian in an attempt to get this girl to date him.
3. Parks added to his quest for riches and power his new-found religious belief that God would give him everything he wanted. His favorite Bible verse that he boastfully misappropriated for his quest for power and wealth was "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (paraphrased from Philippians 4:13). Parks frequently spoke condemningly against everyone, especially some in his family, who didn't share his interpretation of Christianity.
4. Despite Parks' current and past claims of being morally superior to everyone, Parks engaged in pre-marital sex while living rent-free in his mother's house. His behavior was against his mother's house rules, yet Parks not only never apologized, he became defensive and acted as if moral exceptions were granted to him from God Himself.
5. There is every indication to suggest that Parks defrauded the government by lying to get food stamps. He obtained food stamps despite the fact that he lived rent free in his mother's house (she lived in her second husband's house while still retaining ownership of the house Parks lived in). Parks also received his father's government death benefits while he went to an inexpensive two-year technical college. Parks also worked part time and occasionally full time. Had Parks truthfully reported these sources of income, it seems extremely unlikely that he would have qualified to receive food stamps. After Parks received his food stamps he boasted about buying steaks and other luxuries, as well as boasting about how much money he saved. At least one family member remembers questioning him about how he was able to obtain food stamps, but he would never answer that question.
6. Parks has libelously claimed in his drafts of his "e-book" Irreconcilable Differences of Faith that he was a helpless victim to Calvin Simmons' Fortress Church, also known as the Calvin Simmons' Evangelistic Association, formerly located in Lawrenceville, Georgia. In reality, soon after the then-24 year old Parks married his first wife (who had only graduated from high school a few months prior) in 1978, he took his wife against her wishes from Connecticut to Lawrenceville because he believed that Simmons was a prophet and Simmons' prosperity gospel perfectly matched Parks' own long-term quest for power and wealth. Parks' family and friends warned Parks and urged him not to get himself involved in what was obviously a cult, but Parks defensively refused to listen to anyone. Parks quit his job in Connecticut without having any job to go to in Georgia. Soon after Parks immersed himself in Simmons' Fortress cult, and he frequently berated and verbally attacked his younger sister in particular and other people for their refusal to leave Connecticut to join the cult. Parks frequently attacked others as being "demon possessed" because they rejected his and Simmons' teachings. He went so far as to call demon-possessed a mere acquaintance who was undergoing treatment for cancer (click here for details), since one of the cult's beliefs was that anyone who became ill, even with so much as a cold, had given place to the devil and was possessed by demons.
7. Parks changed jobs while involved in Simmons' cult. He was fired from one job because he was caught stealing cases of soda that the company had bought for its vending machines. His family didn't find out about this until many years later.
8. Family members, one in particular, remember that Parks frequently boasted that "God revealed" to him that he was going to become a leader in Simmons' cult. After a few years of involvement in the cult, Parks was not allowed to become a leader and this increasingly made him angry at Simmons and his entire cult. Parks' first marriage was also unraveling, and as his ex-wife revealed years later, Parks was abusive against her and the three young children they had. There were also apparent verified accounts of abuse in Simmons' church school that the two oldest children attended.
Several times and without notification Parks abandoned his wife and children without food, money, or transportation. As the inevitable divorce ensued in the late 1980s, Parks repeatedly told his family that he did not want anything more to do with his children. This is an important fact, because all throughout Parks' libelous attacks against his family and friends, he claims to have been a loving, caring husband and father. It was Parks' family who urged him repeatedly to care about his children and seek at least partial custody of his children. His family then hired an attorney for Parks so as to at least aim for partial custody. Only when Parks sensed a possibility for a "chess game" win in court against his wife did he use the pretext of custody for his children in order to pursue his "win." Parks' mother spent over $15,000 of her retirement money to pay for her son's attorney's fees in his custody case. Parks' sister loaned him in check form approximately $2,000, only part of which Parks repaid (the remaining part was awarded to Parks' sister in a small claims' lawsuit against Parks; Parks fled the state before obeying the court's order to repay his sister, an act Parks boasts about).
During his custody case, Parks told some family members and friends that he was going to "publicly shame" everyone who stood in his way and opposed his "mission" from his god. He also told at least one family member that his god spoke to him in "voices." He also claimed during this time that he was going to "blow up" Simmons' church and the homes of the cult's members. Parks repeatedly told at least one family member that he was going to kidnap his children if he did not win his custody case against his ex-wife. His family members and his friends told him in no uncertain terms that his incessant ravings were extremely unhealthy and they urged Parks to get counseling and to focus on taking care of his children. Yet Parks defensively disregarded his family and friends' concern for him and he obsessively ranted about "getting back" at all who "opposed" him.
Parks' sister pulled out of supporting Parks' quest for a court win in the custody case, although his mother (whom Parks abusively derides as "pessimystic") continued to hope for the best for her son and her grandchildren. His sister's decision was made after Parks' continued to make the above disturbing comments and after Parks told her several times he didn't know how to take care of his children. Parks demanded that his sister quit her job and quit going to college for her degree so that she could take care of his children "because that's what a woman's job is." Parks' sister tried to warn the attorney that Parks' comments indicated he was not fit to have custody of his children, but apparently -- just like Parks -- all the attorney cared about was "winning" the custody court case.
When Parks did get court-ordered custody of his children, he was advised by the court -- and he promised the court -- to attend counseling (he lived rent free in his mother's house). Parks not only refused to follow up on counseling, he resumed his abuse against his children. Prior to this Parks' family did not know that Parks was abusing his children (Parks had always blamed his wife and the cult for abusing the children). Parks' family reported the abuse to Connecticut's Department of Children and Youth Services (now renamed Department of Children and Families after a class action lawsuit was filed against the agency in the 1990s for reckless endangerment of children). But because Parks lied about abusing his children and got his children to lie for him to hide the abuse, the initial report of abuse went unresolved. Parks' mother incurred health problems due to the stress of Parks' abuse and his harassment against her and her grandchildren, and she reached the painful decision to evict him and his children from her home. Only when neighbors, the police, and the children's maternal family members also repeatedly reported Parks' neglect and abuse of the children to DCYS did a more indepth investigation begin against Parks. Shortly after this last investigation was started by DCYS, Parks fled with his children from Connecticut to parts unknown. His ex-wife hired a private investigator to find her children, and she revealed more to Parks' family about the abuse Ken Parks had done against her and against the children while they were married and separated. In Parks' websites and on his chat room posts he has repeatedly libeled family members by accusing them of the crime of child abuse. (Click here for a copy of a document from DCF which proves that Parks is committing malicious libel against a family member whom he has falsely accused of committing the crime of child abuse.)
With the help of Parks' family members, Parks' ex-wife won custody of her youngest child, a daughter (Parks has repeatedly lied to his daughter that she is not really his daughter). Parks' two oldest sons initially opted to stay with their father because, as they told their mother, they "felt sorry" for their father. Shortly after Parks lost custody of his daughter to his ex-wife, his oldest son and then his middle son left their father to live with their mother. His oldest son told his mother that he was fed up with hearing his father rant and rave constantly about getting back at their mother and everyone else. This oldest son apparently has a scar on his hip, presumably from when his father beat him with a belt (Parks' family members remember at least one incident after he won custody of his children in which Parks used the buckle-end of his belt to beat his oldest son, then about eight years old).
9. Up to this day, Parks has never stopped lusting for power and wealth, despite his inability to keep a job for any length of time. He has manipulated his children and unwitting church members into "feeling sorry" for him. There is much of Parks' life that indicates that religion and involvement in various churches are nothing more than means to deceive people into giving him money and possibly positions of power. He seems to derive great pleasure in hurting and taking advantage of people, as witnesses can attest to.
10. Parks has very badly violated the trust of his family and friends over many years' time. Family and friends sought to help Parks and demonstrated their concern for him when he was clearly acting and speaking irrationally. Yet since about late 2000 (when the 10 year statute of limitations expired on the small claims lawsuit against Parks), Parks has aggressively and obsessively "fulfilled" his "prophecy" about "publicly shaming" all those whom he irrationally believes "oppose him" by shamelessly lying about them on Internet chat rooms and on his numerous websites. Parks knows full well he's lying against the very people who once trusted him and who hoped the best for him, and he gives every appearance of taking deranged delight in his obsessively libelous harassment campaign. His attacks against his family and one-time friends are bad enough by themselves and clearly indicate mental instability, but the fact that he is actively seeking to defraud strangers into donating to his fraudulent "ministry" and "charity" makes him even more dangerous to the larger population. Having violated the trust of family and friends as heinously as Parks has, it is sheer madness for anyone to think he cares about Katrina victims or any other "poor and needy" people. Parks has proven by his own written and spoken words and by his actions that he is dangerous and certainly not one who can be entrusted with monies under the guise of providing for the "poor and needy."
Click here to return to the Ministry Warning homepage, which has court, police, and other documentation against Ken Parks.