Faith-Healing Evangelist Accused Of Having “Perverse” Bisexual Open Marriage, Harassing Males For Paid Sex

August 26, 2019 Christianists, Crackpots

The Christian Post reports:

Stephen Powell, an estranged protégé of controversial evangelist Todd Bentley at Fresh Fire USA, has publicly dismissed his mentor as “not fit for public ministry,” alleging that he has a “perverse sexual addiction” that has driven him to prey on interns.

Citing personal and reported testimony, Powell, who runs Lion of Light Ministries in Pineville, North Carolina, alleged in a lengthy post on Facebook Thursday that Bentley “has an appetite for a variety of sexual sins, including both homosexual and heterosexual activity.”

Powell also charged that Bentley’s behavior is enabled and covered up by his wife, Jessa, as well as Christian leaders in the evangelist’s orbit such as Rick Joyner, author of The Final Quest and founder of Morning Star Ministries and Heritage International Ministries.

According to Pulpit & Pen, Bentley has admitted to “some” of the accusations, which allegedly include “repeatedly sexually harassing male interns, asking for sexual acts to be performed by or upon them in exchange for money.”

Bentley first appeared on JMG back in 2013 when he claimed that a woman literally grew a new breast thanks to his magic Jesus powers.

“They brought a woman that had been to all the witch doctors and all the magic soothsayers and whatever she could do to get healed because she had breast cancer. As she was standing in the crowd, the power of God came all over her and she grew a brand new breast.

“Right after that, they brought two more people onto the platform. The woman was born without the parts that a woman needs, and the man as well because of a cancerous tumor. Both of them were instantly healed.

“I started to break the power of witchcraft, and 1,835 people at the same time started manifesting demons and fell to the ground writhing like snakes. We counted 1,835 people vomiting, rolling in the mud, writhing and hissing on the ground like snakes. There were even people levitating off of the ground by the power of witchcraft, even a young boy.”

More history via the Huffington Post:

Bentley, who is originally from Canada, is a former Hells Angels member and drug addict, according to the National Post. At age 15, he was convicted of sexually assaulting a seven-year-old.

In 2009 Bentley left his wife, Shonnah, for Jessa Hasbrook, a church intern with whom he had an affair, according to the Western Standard.

In December 2011, Bentley told an audience that he had a hand in bringing 33 people back from the dead, according to the Express, though the techniques Bentley allegedly employed are unclear. 20 of these cases were “medically verified,” he said.

This 2008 profile by the SPLC is chilling:

Tattooed across his sternum are military dog tags that read “Joel’s Army.” They’re evidence of Bentley’s generalship in a rapidly growing apocalyptic movement that’s gone largely unnoticed by watchdogs of the theocratic right. According to Bentley and a handful of other “hyper-charismatic” preachers advancing the same agenda, Joel’s Army is prophesied to become an Armageddon-ready military force of young people with a divine mandate to physically impose Christian “dominion” on non-believers.

“An end-time army has one common purpose — to aggressively take ground for the kingdom of God under the authority of Jesus Christ, the Dread Champion,” Bentley declares on the website for his ministry school in British Columbia, Canada. “The trumpet is sounding, calling on-fire, revolutionary believers to enlist in Joel’s Army. … Many are now ready to be mobilized to establish and advance God’s kingdom on earth.”

And from the BBC in 2012:

An evangelist preacher who has claimed he can cure people of their illnesses by hitting and kicking them has been banned from entering the UK by the Home Office.

Todd Bentley, a controversial revivalist healer based in the United States, had been due to hold a series of gatherings in England, Wales and Northern Ireland in the next few weeks. But the Home Office said Bentley, a Canadian citizen, was subject to an exclusion order and would not be permitted entry to the country.

“We can confirm that Mr Bentley has been excluded from the UK. The government makes no apologies for refusing people access to the UK if we believe they are not conducive to the public good. Coming here is a privilege that we refuse to extend to those who might seek to undermine our society,” the Home Office said.

Bentley was subject of a 2012 documentary on his faith-healing scams. The full film below is really something.

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