Jones, who was fired on November 6, "has denied all wrongdoing" and he has "filed a wrongful termination suit ... claiming the ministry board terminated him '"for reasons of personal malice and spite and not for any authorized cause."

According to Charisma News, Feed the Children filed "a countersuit Dec. 28 that alleges Jones misspent ministry funds, pocketed money given to pay his travel expenses and kept gifts from speaking appearances. It also says hard-core pornographic magazines were found in Jones' office."

"They fired me wrongfully," Jones told the Oklahoman in late December. "What they're trying to do is build a case up against me so that will hold up. It won't hold up ... I didn't do anything. ... If I had ... done anything wrong, you better believe I would have taken everything out of the office ... because I knew I was probably going to be fired.

"This is crazy," he said. "I'm not saying they can't live without me, but everywhere I go, people say, 'Feed The Children is Larry Jones and Larry Jones is Feed The Children.' And what they're trying to do is bury me ... with all these trumped-up charges."

Regarding the most salacious charge, keeping pornographic magazines including copies of "Family Affairs," "Taboo's Family Heat," "Penthouse Secret Fantasies," "The Penthouse Sex Files," and "Playboy" in his office, Jones said he obtained them strictly for research purposes.

"He intended to send the pornographic magazines to a ghostwriter [a Nashville writer, Tom Carter] helping him with a series of novels, including one about AIDS in Africa called 'The Zipper Disease,'" Charisma News reported. "He said the magazines were meant to explain to the writer how bad pornography has become."

"I'm not a dirty, old man," Jones said, according to The Oklahoman. "All of this was done for research."

CBSNews.com reported that "As an evangelist in the 1970s, Jones crusaded against pornography. In his book, 'Keep Walking,' Jones wrote he even bought a bulletproof vest because of multiple death threats early in his campaign."

Jones was terminated "after he admitted to hiding microphones in three executives' offices, including that of his daughter, who is the ministry's general counsel," The Oklahoman reported. "Jones said he planted the devices to record his conversations because his comments were being misinterpreted."

Then there were questions raised about $22,000 that Jones solicited from a supplier. "Jones said he asked for assistance with legal expenses and the vendor misinterpreted his request, the Oklahoma City newspaper reported."

According to Charisma News Service, officials at Feed the Children said that after Jones was fired, "it found further evidence of wrongdoing."

"... [D]ocuments were found in Jones' office showing that he was regularly paid by Affiliated Media Group (AMG), which purchases TV time for Feed the Children's fundraising spots and for other ministries. The ministry alleges that Jones hid the payments, and that he secretly entered into a three-year contract with AMG and persuaded the company to hire his son."

Jones maintained that "he has never taken a bribe." He told the Oklahoman "that AMG paid him roughly $10,000 a month in commissions because he recruited ministers to use the company to air their own broadcasts before or after Feed the Children's spot. Jones said the arrangement helped lower the cost of purchasing airtime and that the payments stopped several years ago.

"The owner said to me, 'Hey, man, you're one of the best salesmen I've got. I don't feel right you doing this without remuneration.' I said, 'Whatever you want to do is fine with me.' ... It was the same as ... what his salesmen were getting," Jones told The Oklahoman.

Feed the Children feeds the Jones family

According to the Web site Charity Navigator ("Your Guide to Intelligent Giving"), Feed the Children was providing members of the Jones family with a pretty decent living: In his role as president, Larry Jones received $234,937 for FYE 06/08; his wife Frances received $187,052 for her service as executive vice president; and, Jones' daughter, Larri Sue Jones, received $166,320 as vice president. The organization received a four-star overall rating from Charity Navigator.

The American Institute of Philanthropy's CharityWatch.org was not so charitable towards Feed the Children, calling the organization "The most outrageous charity in America":

From forged audits and alleged employee theft in the late '90s to alleged burglary and board coup staging within the past year, no other major charity can match Feed the Children's (FC) record of outrageous behavior over the past ten years. The madcap antics of Feed the Children and Larry Jones, its founder and president for 30 years, may be coming to an end. In August 2009, after months of turmoil at the charity, Mr. Jones agreed to give up control of FC in order to settle a lawsuit between FC's longstanding board and a new board that he had attempted to install. Fascinating details about many alleged wrongdoings at this charity have been brought to light as a result of this lawsuit.

.... FC has continuously received an F grade from AIP since we began rating this charity in 1995. Based on FC's most recently available financial statements for fiscal 2008, only 21 to 23 percent of its cash budget was spent on program services and $63 to $65 was spent to raise each $100 cash contribution. In 2008 about 54% of FC's cash budget of $125 million was spent on "television and radio," "direct mail," and "direct mail postage" according to its audit of the same year.

CharityWatch.org pointed out that "The most eye-opening [non board approved contract] is a television buying agreement in which FC pays approximately $40 million annually to Affiliated Media Group (Affiliated), [the company that paid Jones as much as $10,000 monthly] according to minutes of a June 30, 2008 board meeting, filed with the Oklahoma court. 'This purchasing function has never been let out for bids, and there has been a less than satisfactory accounting by Affiliated of the true cost of the television time.' FC told AIP that it will utilize '...competitive bidding on future purchase[s] of television air time.'"

As his urging, Jones' son Allen was employed by Affiliated, despite the board being concerned about a conflict of interest. And there is lots more hanky panky folks: Allen received "a $950,000 loan or promissory note to finance a framing business that he later assumed and defaulted on"; because of health problems, Frances Jones worked few hours yet received full compensation plus an addition $4,100 expense account; and, Larri Sue lived in a brand new FC-supported four bedroom house in Burbank, California.

According to AIP, it "has long been the only major charity watchdog to give FC a poor rating. None of FC's numerous and serious problems have kept it from obtaining the top or four star rating from Charity Navigator. FC boasts on its home page that it 'meets the extensive standards of America's most respected charity evaluator.'"

The charity watchdog pledges to "continue monitoring this charity and look forward to seeing FC's appointment of a new president or CEO that will efficiently and ethically fulfill its mission."

Larry Jones might not need a ghostwriter for his series of novels. He should have ample time to pursue that task for himself.