From yesterday's Tampa Bay Times
Holy hell: Todd in affair with nanny<table width="90%" border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td valign="top" width="80%">
Revival preacher is accused of “sins of the flesh” by his ministry.
By Sherri Day
sday@tampabay.com
Todd Bentley, the unconventional Canadian preacher who ministered to tens of thousands of people at a Lakeland revival earlier this year, has been having a relationship with the live-in nanny to his three children, his ministry says.
Bentley, 32, left Lakeland abruptly in August after leading the Florida Outpouring, a revival that lasted more than 100 days and attracted at*tendees from around the world. The services centered on prophesy and faith healings.
When Bentley left Lakeland, Fresh Fire Ministries leaders announced that Bentley and his wife, Shonnah, were separating, but maintained that sexual immorality did not factor into that decision.
Now, in a letter just released to supporters, Fresh Fire leaders de*scribe a different scenario: “Todd Bentley has demonstrated himself unfaithful to his wife by entering into a relationship with another woman while still legally married. He has consumed more alcohol on a few occasions than is prudent or becom*ing (of ) a Christian leader. ... His sins have been sins of the flesh, and we do not defend them.”
Fresh Fire leaders say they wrote the letter in an attempt to answer lingering questions about what led to the downfall of the tattooed re*vivalist with a classic bad boy-gets*religion salvation story.
Bentley had claimed at the Lake*land revival that God was using him as an instrument to heal the sick. At one meeting, the National Post of Toronto reported, he took a run at a professed cancer patient and plant*ing a knee hard into the man’s gut. The man fell to the floor, grimacing.
At another meeting, Bentley laughed about kicking a woman in the face in order to help deliver God’s healing touch. He waved letters in front of his audiences, claiming they were written by relatives of people declared dead. Their dead kin had risen, he explained, after being ex*posed to his sermons via TV broad*casts.
The directors’ letter also laid bare their displeasure with Bentley’s ac*tions since he left Lakeland: The preacher had agreed to submit to counseling by a group of ministers but has not yet done so.
Bentley remains “resolute” in his intentions to divorce his wife, the di*rectors wrote. The said they do not condone the impending divorce or Bentley’s ongoing relationship with the nanny, who once was a Fresh Fires intern.
“While it has been maintained that no physical contact happened between Todd and the former female intern until after he filed for legal separation from Shonnah, in the board’s eyes, the nature of the pres*ent relationship between Todd and his former staff member is that of adultery,” the letter says.
Lynne Breidenbach, former spokeswoman for Fresh Fire Min**istries, resigned in August, just as Bentley left. She said she was uncom*fortable with the direction his minis*try was taking.
“It’s a very sad situation,” she said, “but this is what happens when people are allowed to minister un*checked.”
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Holy hell: Todd in affair with nanny<table width="90%" border="0" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td valign="top" width="80%">
Revival preacher is accused of “sins of the flesh” by his ministry.
By Sherri Day
sday@tampabay.com
Todd Bentley, the unconventional Canadian preacher who ministered to tens of thousands of people at a Lakeland revival earlier this year, has been having a relationship with the live-in nanny to his three children, his ministry says.
Bentley, 32, left Lakeland abruptly in August after leading the Florida Outpouring, a revival that lasted more than 100 days and attracted at*tendees from around the world. The services centered on prophesy and faith healings.
When Bentley left Lakeland, Fresh Fire Ministries leaders announced that Bentley and his wife, Shonnah, were separating, but maintained that sexual immorality did not factor into that decision.
Now, in a letter just released to supporters, Fresh Fire leaders de*scribe a different scenario: “Todd Bentley has demonstrated himself unfaithful to his wife by entering into a relationship with another woman while still legally married. He has consumed more alcohol on a few occasions than is prudent or becom*ing (of ) a Christian leader. ... His sins have been sins of the flesh, and we do not defend them.”
Fresh Fire leaders say they wrote the letter in an attempt to answer lingering questions about what led to the downfall of the tattooed re*vivalist with a classic bad boy-gets*religion salvation story.
Bentley had claimed at the Lake*land revival that God was using him as an instrument to heal the sick. At one meeting, the National Post of Toronto reported, he took a run at a professed cancer patient and plant*ing a knee hard into the man’s gut. The man fell to the floor, grimacing.
At another meeting, Bentley laughed about kicking a woman in the face in order to help deliver God’s healing touch. He waved letters in front of his audiences, claiming they were written by relatives of people declared dead. Their dead kin had risen, he explained, after being ex*posed to his sermons via TV broad*casts.
The directors’ letter also laid bare their displeasure with Bentley’s ac*tions since he left Lakeland: The preacher had agreed to submit to counseling by a group of ministers but has not yet done so.
Bentley remains “resolute” in his intentions to divorce his wife, the di*rectors wrote. The said they do not condone the impending divorce or Bentley’s ongoing relationship with the nanny, who once was a Fresh Fires intern.
“While it has been maintained that no physical contact happened between Todd and the former female intern until after he filed for legal separation from Shonnah, in the board’s eyes, the nature of the pres*ent relationship between Todd and his former staff member is that of adultery,” the letter says.
Lynne Breidenbach, former spokeswoman for Fresh Fire Min**istries, resigned in August, just as Bentley left. She said she was uncom*fortable with the direction his minis*try was taking.
“It’s a very sad situation,” she said, “but this is what happens when people are allowed to minister un*checked.”
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hno:
