Don’t judge Todd Bentley by his past – prison for sexual assualt

As some people know, before he became a Christian, Todd Bentley was in prison for sexually molesting a seven year old boy. Although he was only young when he did this awful thing (14 years old), it is still inexcusable. But, as heinous, as horrible, how disgusting, how inexcusable, how sad I find this act – and however much I sympathise with the child and his family - as I said when I was first told about it on this website, and as I have said repeatedly since - Todd and any other abuser can be forgiven by God for this if he repents of it and turns from his wicked ways. 

His awful past does NOT invalidate Todd Bentley from ministry now IF he has truly repented and turned away from this crime. As I said to the original poster ‘If any man is any Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone, the new has come…’  and then there is  ‘as far as the east is from the west so he has removed our sins from us’.   If God has removed our sin, who are we to bring it back up as a stumbling block?*   This is the glory and wonder and joy of the gospel. If   the man is in Christ, that is.

 (* I only bring it up now because it is already in the public domain and people are talking and asking me about it, and wrongly weighing his ministry up by it).

Though such a past calls for wisdom and care, (I have known several supposedly ’saved’ paedophiles, some who were repentent and healed or were well on the way to healing, and some who were still unrepentent and unhealed predators and abusers), I find it sad that some Christians will judge Todd Bentley all too easily for this act, and decide not to have anything to do with him or his ministry ’because he is a pervert’. But the gospel is clearly one of life changing transformations, rescuing even the darkest and most sinful man. There is no biblical precedent for being able to hold such a sin against him, or hindering him or disqualifying him from ministry, if   he is truly saved and repentent.

People, please do not judge Bentley by his past, rather judge him by weighing and testing his words and actions now, and testing the spirits behind his words and actions, and those of his mentors and associates.

I have never  taken Todd Bentley’s past pre his conversion into account when weighing and discerning his ministry, as I should never take any other man or woman’s past into account pre their conversion, as nor should you take mine. I speak against Todd Bentley because he is a false prophet and false teacher NOW and does some brazen false works of a liar and a charlatan and profiteer. I do not speak against him because he is an ex con and, if he is saved, a forgiven child molester. (I say if  saved, as how can someone such as him be truly saved and have so little fear for God to lie in such a way as he does? Or prophesy and teach such drivel?)

I find it extraordinary that people will happily accept any or all of Bentley’s unbiblical teaching and prophecies NOW and say ‘he has to be from God’ and refuse to listen to a word against him, but when told of something he did years ago pre his conversion, which is forgiveable as per the eternal gospel, will become one of the worst kind of pharisees and refuse to have anything to do with him then. It is extraordinary that they will do the very opposite of what the Bible says (judge someone for their past sin, and not judge someone for their current heresy!)

Guys, stay away from Todd Bentley, he is dangerous. But I do not warn about him as a sexual predator – rather I warn about him as one who is a far more dangerous predator - a false teacher and false prophet and a charlatan and profiteer – which has not just a lifetime of stuff to deal with as per the abused seven year old boy, but has eternal  consequences for many.

The Report News magazine, 04-30-2001 by Rick Hiebert -

Does forgiving mean forgetting? A faith healer comes clean on his young-offender conviction for child
molestation.

Todd Bentley has a confession to make. A faith healer who has attracted international attention over the past several months, Bentley presents himself as a reformed bad boy who was once jailed for 18 months for ” crimes of an assault nature” and breaking-and-entering in his hometown of Gibsons, B.C.

The truth is, his most serious crime was more heinous: the molestation of a seven-year-old boy. “They were sexual crimes,” Bentley admits. “I was involved in a sexual-assault ring. I turned around and did what had happened to me. I was assaulted too.”

“I don’t like to talk about it publicly because it would hurt [my ministry ].” he concedes. “I don’t whip it out in the newspapers or on TV because people will go ‘Whaaa?’ I’ll say ‘I was in prison, period. Let’s move on.’”

Bentley’s admission took place after he was confronted with information given to The Report following the magazine’s publication of a story (” Signs and wonders,” March 5) on his burgeoning ministry. Federal law protects young offenders by prohibiting the dissemination of any information that may identify a youth convicted of a crime, but Bentley, now 25, freely provided details of the offence. “I was 13 years old when I committed my crime,” he says. “I was jailed at 14.” (In fact, The Report has learned that Bentley molested the boy in October 1990, when Bentley was 14, and that he was sentenced in March 1991, when he was 15.)

Bentley, who is now married and is the father of three young children, stresses he has repented for his crime and has undergone three years of counselling. “There has not been and there won’t be other cases,” says the
evangelical faith healer, who feels he needs no counselling to ensure he does not re-offend. “It’s something that’s dead and buried for me.”

But, in an age when the likes of Protestant televangelists and Catholic priests have been ensnared by sexual scandal, the issue is far from dead.

Denny Cline, pastor of the Albany, Oregon, Vineyard church where Bentley launched a healing revival last year, looks on him as a spiritual son and says Bentley always exhibits a godly character. Upon learning of Bentley’s molesting offence, Pastor Cline remarks, “I don’t think he told me that, but it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. It wouldn’t have mattered in regards to what he is doing now, and the person that he is now…If he’s paid his debt to society and God’s forgiven him of everything, then who am I to not forgive?”

On the other hand, Lieutenant Jeff Johnston, a Salvation Army pastor in Port Alberni, B.C., who used to work in Bentley’s hometown, is more skeptical. “There’s absolutely no way that I would allow my own kids to come within a million miles of anyone who had been involved in a youth sexual assault,” he says. Lieut. Johnston notes a church group tried to bring Bentley to Gibsons for a series of meetings in 1997, but the gatherings were called off after Lieut. Johnston and other pastors threatened not to allow their youth groups to attend. “It’s one thing to be forgiving, it’s another thing to be stupid,” Lieut. Johnston says. “If you, as a pastor, had someone in your church ministry who had been involved in these things and they ever re-offended, the fact that you knew and didn’t disclose it to parents, take every precaution, would be a huge liability issue.”

Forewarned is forearmed, says Canadian Alliance MP Randy White. Given the notorius recidivism of pedophile offenders, the federal government should pass the national sex-offenders registry bill he tabled April 4. Mr. White explains that police need to be able to keep track of sex offenders who enter fields such as itinerant evangelism. “It’s worse not to admit the offence from the start,” Mr. White observes. “If you hide it, ultimately someone will cross your path and expose you. It becomes twice as hard to deal with.”

Furthermore, Darrell Johnson, a professor of pastoral theology at Vancouver’s Regent College and a Presbyterian minister, says that although Bentley promises his past is “dead and buried,” his victim–and the victim’s family–are likely still suffering. The professor is also concerned that Bentley admits he has no team of pastors or counsellors to help him now. Says Prof. Johnson, “Openness, transparency and accountability would protect him, as well as the people he ministers to.”

Photo cap: Evangelist Bentley: “I don’t like to talk about it publicly because it would hurt [my ministry].”

Healing Evangelist Todd Bentley Reveals Facts About Past Assault (By Billy Bruce, for Charisma Magazine)

The young preacher says he wants to set the record straight about an offense he committed at age 14, before his conversion

Canadian evangelist Todd Bentley knows well the power of a testimony to convince the lost that no one is too far gone to find healing in Christ. Recently, he has also learned that when the secular media digs into one’s testimony, confession may not be so good for the soul.

In a lengthy feature article published in the September 2002 issue of Charisma, Bentley, 26, acknowledged that at age 14, as a juvenile, he had been arrested for assault. A March 2001 story about him that was published in The Report–a secular, conservative political magazine published in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada–offered a similar report.

But The Report story backfired when the mother of the victim of the assault read the article and informed the magazine that Bentley’s assault had been sexual and that he had molested her son, also a minor, at the time. Bentley served several months in jail for the crime, and five years afterward he gave his life to Christ. Today his crusades around the world are producing reports of healing miracles and thousands of salvations.

The Report writer who filed the original story about Bentley’s ministry called him back to verify the nature of the crime. As a juvenile offender, Bentley’s record was protected from public disclosure, and he said he had no idea The Report would then turn around and publish his acknowledgement of the crime.

“[The reporter] didn’t tell me he was doing a follow-up story,” Bentley told Charisma. “He was just friendly and told me what the mother had said, and I admitted to him in what I thought were off-the-record comments that it was true, but that it happened years ago and I had since been changed by the gospel.”

Bentley openly acknowledges the rougher parts of his juvenile past when he preaches in public, including his near-fatal drug overdoses, criminal burglaries, physical abuse of his mother and several stints in prison. But he said he has never talked openly about the sexual assault because of the stigma the crime carries and what he says is “the inability of Christians to forgive certain sins.”

His advisers, who include several pastors and counselors, have advised him to refrain from talking publicly about the sexual crime for the same reasons.

Bentley did publicly acknowledge the sexual assault during the summer of 2001 while leading a conference and crusade in Kewlona, British Columbia. He had received the support of the New Life Vineyard church in Kewlona to use their facilities for the events, and organizers had installed posters advertising the event around town.

The family of the assault victim had moved to Kewlona, and when they saw the posters with Bentley’s name, they contacted local media. Bentley decided to address the local outcry by going on the 6 p.m. local TV-news broadcast. He admitted the crime on-air, asked for forgiveness, told viewers how ashamed he was, and how he was transformed five years after the incident by the gospel’s power.

“From that incident up to this article in The Report, our ministry has not had one complaint about this revelation from my past,” Bentley told Charisma. “The church in Kewlona stood behind me and continued to allow me to use their facilities to finish the conference. The protests stopped after I went on TV, and they aired that broadcast two or three times.”

Bentley, who is now married and has children of his own, said he has feared Christians would be afraid to leave their children around him if the juvenile sex-offense were known. He says he will report on the crime in a book he is writing that is expected to release this year.

Two ministers who provide pastoral covering for Bentley told Charisma they have full confidence that God has forgiven him for his juvenile crimes and that he is in no way susceptible to repeat offenses of that nature.

“Todd is in good standing with us, and we believe him most definitely to be restored,” Pat Cocking [Patricia King] said. “There has been no sign at all of any questionable behavior.”

Bobby Conner of Demonstration of God’s Power Ministries in Moravian Falls, N.C., echoed Cocking’s sentiments.

“I do serve on Todd’s watch-care group and minister with him several times a year,” Conner said. “I know that he is a faithful young man. The anointing on his life is awesome. I feel he has been up-front with me and the watch-care group about his life before Christ. It seems well to move on now and not to continue to open what God has forgiven and covered.”