[Originally posted at Bene Diction Blogs On, Feb. 26, 2010]
Todd Bentley could try a career in magic. Now you see the lady on his website, now you don't. Is it prestidigitation...or sweeping something under the rug?
Earlier this week, the evangelist had an announcement and video link in an e-mail to his e-list, titled "Medical doctors verify woman's stage four cancer gone"
If you look at the link in the archived e-mail, you will see a screencapture of Todd with a woman, presumably the woman who was healed.
The video, I was told by someone who saw it, seemed a little fishy. For example, I was told, the paperwork from the doctors seemed unclear, and the woman in the video gave no indentifying details about herself that would allow people to check into her story.
Okay, I thought to myself, I'll need to check out the video when I have a moment later this week...but I just tried the link and the video has disappeared!
Taa-daa!
Todd Bentley put an explanation up yesterday on Twitter:
IamToddBentley: For those wondering about the cancer video. She is healed still The young lady requested we remove video for privacy reasons 1 day ago from Twitterrific
Mmm hmmm...
A woman who wanted to tell an entire church about her healing, now is shy about publicity. Not the kind of thing that the people who were healed by Jesus did in the Bible, but if she wants to be private about her healing, that's her right. Not a great witness, though.
If pulling the video leads people to wonder how valid the healing was, and whether Bentley knew that the "healing" would not pan out, I guess that is too bad for the evangelist. Perhaps "verify twice, share the video once" might be an idea to consider.
And now for Todd's next magical trick...