Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
A few weeks ago I was in a local restaurant, eating by myself and reading a newspaper. At the table next to me were two couples talking loudly and in an animated manner about this big pentecostal revival going on in Lakeland, Florida. The revival meetings, which have drawn hundreds of thousands of people, are put on by Todd Bentley and Fresh Fire Ministries and have been going on since April.
Well guess what? Bentley just got caught cheating on his wife, is getting a divorce and is leaving the ministry. It's Ted Haggard time, only this time it was with a woman according to the ministry's website:
We wish to acknowledge, however, that since our last statement from the Fresh Fire Board of Directors, we have discovered new information revealing that Todd Bentley has entered into an unhealthy relationship on an emotional level with a female member of his staff. In light of this new information and in consultation with his leaders and advisors, Todd Bentley has agreed to step down from his position on the Board of Directors and to refrain from all public ministry for a season to receive counsel in his personal life.
An "unhealthy relationship on an emotional level." Translation: they were knocking boots. Emotionally. Another faith fake healer bites the dust.
Politics
Comments
Well, the born-agains can console themselves by saying that at least it was girls.
Posted by: SLC | August 22, 2008 10:02 AM
I can hear all the fundies now breathing a sigh of relief, "Well, at least this one was a woman."
Personally, I'm won't be surprised when one gets caught with a moose, or an aardvark.
Posted by: Skip Evans | August 22, 2008 10:04 AM
To be honest, the aardvark would still surprise me, Skip.
Posted by: chancelikely | August 22, 2008 10:07 AM
I wonder if he was also having it away with the angel "Emma" he claimed to have met? And what's he going to say the next time he has one of his chats with Saint Paul? More background here.
Posted by: Bartholomew | August 22, 2008 10:10 AM
His mistake was letting his staff catch on fire, too. Fresh indeed.
-TTm
Posted by: Ticktockman | August 22, 2008 10:31 AM
Posted by: James Hanley | August 22, 2008 10:38 AM
"and to refrain from all public ministry for a season to receive counsel in his personal life."
Translation: "We're going to keep him in the back room until he's learned how to keep his dick in his pants (or at least conceal his affairs better) and until the congregation has forgotten all about this minor blip/slip/trip".
Posted by: Blaidd Drwg | August 22, 2008 10:43 AM
Just to show you how cynical I've become: we don't know that it was a woman - we have only their say so that it was an "inappropriate emotional relationship" with a woman.
Then you notice how they say that it didn't "shake their faith." Proof that it likely did. (Why would they mention it otherwise?)
Minor quibble: "When this ministry was initially birthed" - just when did "birthed" become a verb?
Posted by: Kristine | August 22, 2008 10:44 AM
Kristine Yer Not Usin' It Right.
Let's use it in a sentence:
"Man, my Ministry really birthed them people good!",
or, maybe, "Ha Ha! Them rubes is birthed now - they sent me all their life savin's!"
HTH :)
ps: You got all your house keys on a ring, so you can go to the Rethuglican Convention and remind McSame how many houses he has? (USA Today reporting 12...)
Posted by: J-Dog | August 22, 2008 10:52 AM
Kristine, I suspect "Birthed" became a verb in general useage somewhere around 1939, when "Gone With the Wind" came out... "I don' know nothin' 'bout birthin' no baby!"
Posted by: Blaidd Drwg | August 22, 2008 10:54 AM
Frankly, I think we're taking the wrong tactic here. I don't think this is just another "televangelist gets caught," story. This is a "Christianity eats its own," story. Bentley may have simply gotten a crush on a young woman, but the reaction against him is extreme. Most of it seems to come from other Christians who disagree with the nature of his ministry. They've been waiting for him to slip up for months, circulating rumors about him, and now he's slipped up and they're piling on. I think this is just one more battle in the mainstream vs. pentecostal war.
Posted by: VorJack | August 22, 2008 11:06 AM
Fortunately, he has entered a heterosexual rehabilitation center and expects to be 100% cured of these disgusting urges in about six weeks.
Posted by: rob | August 22, 2008 11:46 AM
That's what they get for believing sex is a sin, and that they are born sinners.
Next.
Posted by: yogi-one | August 22, 2008 11:50 AM
I kept wondering how there can be any of these ministers left, as fast as they fall from grace, but then I realized what a recruiting tool this must be: preachers get more booty!
Posted by: Scott Hanley | August 22, 2008 11:50 AM
We are no one to judge Todd Bently. Our God is all about grace. The Kingdom of God will keep growing and expanding with your without Todd. I pray that Todd understands and receives the grace of God in His life right now. He is still a precious vessel to the Almighty.
Todd just know that you have not fallen from grace.
Posted by: Ranjan Biswas | August 22, 2008 12:01 PM
"On an emotional level." Thank Gawd there was no involvement of genitalia. That would have been SOOOO icky.
Posted by: carey | August 22, 2008 12:04 PM
Correct. Take faith, Todd! You have not fallen from Grace. You may have gone down on Grace, and she you, but fallen off? Never.
It's kind of them to create an endlessly entertaining set of images, along the lines of Dr. Johnson's "position ridiculous."
For example, did she talk dirty to him, like from the Apocrypha? or, Talk about pitching a revival tent!
But under it all is that sad fact that pharisaical right-wing hypocrites who "'enter' in to an unhealthy relationship" with women, men, or farm animals who are not their wives are punished less severely than the average folks, because they have means, and because their people happily invite them to play the "sin/counseling/recovery" get-out-of-trouble free card they carry next to the condom in their wallets. The rest of us have to live with our urges and errors.
ice
Posted by: ice9 | August 22, 2008 12:19 PM
chancelikely, have you ever seen what aardvarks can do with those tongues?!?
Posted by: Pierce R. Butler | August 22, 2008 12:26 PM
Re Ranjan Biswas
Does that sentiment apply to John Edwards also? Or does it only apply to bigoted, bible backed, barnum, bunkum bastards?
Posted by: SLC | August 22, 2008 12:44 PM
[Sings]
Moose, moose, I like a moose
I've never had anything quite like a moose
I've had lots of lovers
My life has been loose
But I've never had anything quite like a moose
[/sings]
Don't ask.
Posted by: Abby Normal | August 22, 2008 1:04 PM
Does anyone here have an aardvark?
There's a boy over here with a right and left ear,
but nobody here has an aardvark.
Posted by: Karl | August 22, 2008 1:10 PM
More about Todd Bentley
(Did he say instrument? I'm sure he meant "tool.")
Sounds like a real sweetheart.
Posted by: Herod the Freemason | August 22, 2008 1:28 PM
I think it is awful that so-called "Christians" so easily disown their own because of mistakes they have made. Good thing the my God isn't like that, or we'd all be fucked.
Posted by: Jamie | August 22, 2008 1:52 PM
"to refrain from all public ministry for a season to receive counsel in his personal life."
But don't refrain too long, 'cause we need the money. Man, this is going to impact the third quarter profits.
Posted by: hje | August 22, 2008 2:19 PM
Cool, a reverse euphemism!
In standard Board-of-Directors-speak, "He has entered into an unhealthy relationship on an emotional level with a female member of his staff" gets memoed as "He has resigned in order to pursue other exciting opportunities".
Posted by: chaos_engineer | August 22, 2008 3:57 PM
Meh.. I'm a Christian and have been following this guy's magic act from day one. I'm glad that he got caught so old gullible women will not be taken advantage of. I'm sick of spectacles like this being the only thing alot of people here about Christianity while the real Christianity of actually helping people and acting out Gods laws goes peacefully unnoticed.
Posted by: Discerning_Christian | August 22, 2008 5:02 PM
Kristine, the OED has citations for birth as a transitive verb with this usage as early as 1906 and in a US dialectic dictionary in 1928. (Interestingly, there's an even earlier usage as an intransitive verb going back to the 13th century.) So the Gone with the Wind hypothesis of Blaidd Drwg is quite debunked.
I'm not even sure why this is really news, considering what Ed said about John Edwards a while back. Is anyone surprised that someone with significant clout had an affair, regardless of whether or not he should have had greater self-control? I just think this is a rather poor opportunity to get smug about seeing a "righteous" Christian doing something wrong (although I agree with the sentiment re: the euphemism - but that's because the cynic in me agrees that he wouldn't be stepping down if the "unhealthy" part of the relationship didn't include inappropriate sexual conduct).
To be fair, though, part of my lack of interest also could be the fact that I've heard bits and pieces about these revivals and have not really cared to hear any more.
Posted by: The Christian Cynic | August 22, 2008 5:36 PM
Don't aardvarks have, like, really serious nails? I don't think I'd want one pissed off at me--which might could happen you was to try entering into an unhealthy emotional relationship with one.
Posted by: democommie | August 22, 2008 7:34 PM
What horrible quotes. I didn't think think this 'move' in Lakeland was 'of God' particularly, but if you think this means the claims of Jesus Christ are true or untrue then you're wrong. Read the New Testament with an open heart and mind and see the only man who ever lived who did not do anything wrong at all.
Allan Clare, Bristol.
Posted by: Allan Clare | August 23, 2008 5:34 AM
No, it means that Christian claims of moral superiority are untrue. We don't know what claims Jesus made, if any. All we have are accounts from his followers about what he supposedly said and did, written decades after the purported fact.
I have read it and found it was not credible. Just another piece of religious propaganda intended to deify a cult leader after his death.
Posted by: DaveL | August 23, 2008 7:18 AM
People who do things that violate common behavior in one way (healing the sick, writing great books, being highly charismatic, making great discoveries, etc.) will usually violate common behavior in other ways (sexual behavior being the most obvious). So don't be surprised when this happens.
I wonder if anyone has ever done studies on the relation of great accomplishments and the flouting of conventional morality? Would we find that those who keep the rules of conventional morality also have a common and conventional level of accomplishment in the rest of their lives? Is it easy to be "good" when you lack the drive or talent to be anything other than average ?
Posted by: William | August 23, 2008 1:34 PM
Sorry, completely a non sequitur but -
There is a very mod tower, perched high atop a cliff overlooking the vast concrete rock-platform of the docks here, that is used to co-ordinate all the ships in the 'working' part of the harbour, colloquially it is called "The Pill". This is because (drum-roll, please) it controls all the berths in Sydney (drum-fill). Thank you you've been a great audience I'll be here all week &etc, :) -DJ
Posted by: DingoJack | August 23, 2008 2:25 PM
You definitely want a candidate that is not afraid of aardkark.
(it's a GWB/pun ... nevermind)
As to the other quotes - powerful men in churches attract women like powerful men everywhere. Back during my mis-spent youth, all the girls wanted to marry a pastor. Why? Because then they get to be boss of the other girls.
Posted by: Paul Murray | August 25, 2008 5:00 AM
Well,
What I have to say is not from me, but something I learned when I was a very, very young boy at biblle school.
"He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her."
"Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother´s eye."
Jesus Christ
This is my GOD. What is yours ?
Posted by: Marcus Gandier | September 8, 2008 2:48 PM