After a former staffer came out publicly with accusations about Todd Bentley’s ‘open marriage,’ homosexuality, and sexting, the evangelist went to Facebook to confirm some of the allegations and (vaguely) denying others.
THE ACCUSATIONS
Over the last 24-48 hours, alternative Christian websites like the Bible Thumping Wingnut, Reformation Charlotte, and Pulpit & Pen have written about accusations toward Bentley on behalf of Stephen Powell, a former colleague of Bentley who claims that he was engaged in the most despicable kinds of personal immorality.
Powell’s accusations include claims that Bentley:
- Repeatedly sexually harassed male interns, asking for sexual acts to be performed by or upon them in exchange for money
- Sexually harassed female fans and asked for nude photos and engaged them in physically inappropriate ways
- Sent nude and illicit photographs of his wife to those he believed would be interested in sexual liaisons with her in a group setting
- Was repeatedly caught viewing pornography, and treated it very nonchalantly
- Other various accusations regarding substance abuse, crass language and general ungodliness.
You can see a more thorough list of the accusations here.
THE CONFESSION
For the first twenty-five minutes – the majority of his confession – Bentley talked at length about the betrayal he felt from a “former associate” who took his sins public. In other words, he blamed the whistleblower.
Then, Bentley reminded his listening audience – in advance – of how they should forgive him, recalling various Scripture verse about restoration.
Bentley also repeatedly stated that his sin was “in the past,” but gave a range of between six months ago and seven years ago. Although Bentley acknowledges the year 2013 as a particularly “dark” time, he does acknowledge that much of this behavior has continued until recently. However, Bentley repeated over and again that it was “in the past.”
Bentley admits to “some” of the accusation, but not all. Bentley refused to say which part of the whistleblower’s accusations were false and which were accurate, other than that he didn’t “cheat” on his wife (those in open marriages don’t consider it “cheating”). Bentley says that all accusations about his wife are false, but said some accusations about him were true and others were “half-true.”
In his video confession, Bentley admitted to sins of a sexual nature, inappropriate text messages, inuendos, and general ungodliness.
However, Bentley claims to have been working through these sins with appropriate restoration and repeatedly invoked the name of Rick Joyner as someone who has “been calling around to leaders” for him, which sounded like Joyner was basically doing Bentley’s crisis management.
Bentley also admitting to at first denying the accusations and trying to hide his guilt. And then, he compared himself to the Apostle Paul for several minutes after his confession.
You can watch the video below.
If you want to get past the excuses, preemptive demands for forgiveness, and hostility toward the whistleblowers, just fast-forward to the 25-minute mark.
THE PAST RESTORATIONS
This was Todd Bentley’s family.
Then, Todd Bentley became the famous evangelist behind the Lakeland Revival (he got famous for literally kicking and punching people who had come for healing, giving him the nickname, “Bam Bam Bentley”).
Bentley’s parlor tricks were popular and he proved to be an entertaining personality. However, during the Lakeland Revival as he was claiming to be a prophet for God and divine healer, was having sex with his assistant…this lady.
And then, he divorced his wife after cheating on her, and married his mistress (above).
Have no fear, though. Rick Joyner and the most prominent New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) apostles “restored” him to ministry and got him an “accountability team.”
Now, this is Bentley’s family. He traded them in for a different set.
And, Bentley is still hanging out as a major international evangelist with all the big charismatic leaders like Bill Johnson and Rick Joyner (below).
To reiterate, Bentley was already restored once by these men. Here are Bill Johnson’s words about Bentley’s restoration, claiming that he was “restored” back in 2008. Many of these accusations refer back to 2013 – five years after Johnson and Joyner said Bentley was a legitimate leader again – and up until this very day.
Now, thanks to charismatic prophets who apparently don’t have enough clairvoyance to win the lotto or enough common sense to know Bentley is an ungodly danger, Bentley has been free to be a sexual predator in the church, pimp out his wife, and solicit sodomy from ministry interns.
Welcome to modern-day Charismaticism.
[Editor’s Note: Sorry, Bentley deleted his train-wreck, victim-blaming, blame-shifting video]
