Los Angeles- Another televangelist, another sex scandal.

Move over, Jimmy “I have sinned against you” Swaggart.

Step aside, Jim “how could you hurt Tammy Faye” Baker.

Now there’s Paul Crouch, the 70-year-old founder of the world’s largest Christian broadcasting network.

Crouch has sought repeatedly to prevent a male former employee from going public with allegations of a gay sexual encounter between them eight years ago, the Los Angeles Times reported yesterday.

Crouch, president of the Trinity Broadcasting Network, reached a $425,000 settlement in 1998 with the former worker who threatened to sue over claims he had been unjustly fired from the network.

In a statement, the network confirmed yesterday that Crouch “reluctantly” agreed to pay Enoch Lonnie Ford, 41, with “the understanding that the accuser would go away and leave both he and TBN alone forever.”

“The scandalous claims leveled against him are false,” the statement continued, adding that the money used to pay Ford was not ministry funds raised from the network’s millions of religious faithful.

“In hindsight, we should have fought Lonnie tooth and nail,” Crouch’s son Paul told The Times. “We should have drawn the battle lines right there.”

Ministry officials have described Ford, who has a history of drug problems, as a liar and an extortionist.

Ford declined to discuss the case but one of his friends told The Times that Ford had told him the alleged sexual encounter with Crouch occurred in late 1996 at a network-owned cabin near Lake Arrowhead, east of Los Angeles.

“Lonnie had a lot of bad traits; one thing he isn’t, and that’s a liar,” said the friend, Sandi Mahlow, 50.

The Times said Ford has threatened to go public with a manuscript detailing his allegations and wants $10 million. Crouch took additional legal action through private arbitration and last June won a ruling blocking Ford from going public.

Ford is challenging the ruling.

The sordid claims could damage the Orange County-based Christian broadcasting empire Crouch and his wife began in 1973. The network, which depends heavily on donations, reaches millions of people around the world.

Crouch and Ford met at a network-affiliated drug treatment center in 1991. Ford went to work for the ministry the following year at a phone bank in Orange County.