One more evangelist in the US is under the scanner for sexual abuse of children. Federal and state police raided the evangelist's compound in Arkansas late Saturday. But he says he is like Christ and hence being persecuted.

The raid was part of a two-year investigation into the ways of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries, said Bill Sadler of the Arkansas State Police. About 100 agents were on the 10- to 15-acre site and met with no resistance, he said.

In addition to FBI agents and Arkansas state police, officials with the state Department of Human Services participated in the raid at the church property in the town of Fouke, about 12 miles from Texarkana.

Social workers interviewed children who live at the complex to find out whether they were abused. The investigation involves a law that prohibits the transportation of children across state lines for criminal activity, said Tom Browne, who runs the FBI office in Little Rock.

"Children living at the facility may have been sexually and physically abused," Browne said.

But Alamo, reached by phone in Los Angeles, California, denied any wrongdoing.

"It's a hoax," Alamo said. "They're just trying to make our church look evil ... by saying I'm a pornographer. Saying that I rape little children. ... I love children. I don't abuse them. Never have. Never will."

Asked why authorities were searching the property, Alamo compared himself to Christ.