[Originally posted at Bene Diction Blogs On, Dec. 31, 2009]
Todd Bentley wants *you* to attend his next webinar on January 12, according to his Twitter feed:
A couple of days ago, he tweeted:
We need you. The hungry and thirsty. Live audience at morningstar for revival webinar and service. Jan 12 700 pm.Will be impartation service 9:48 AM Dec 30th from Twitterrific
I wonder if he will be carefully screening his entire audience to make sure that they are properly sensitive to the upcoming "outpouring". No critics or other riff-raff.
He's done something similar before, at Lakeland. Except that now he can get the exact audience he wants.
Marcus Pittman, who was banned from Todd Bentley's Twitter feed, is an evagelist who has worked in media. In a extensive and revealing post that he wrote after visiting Lakeland last year, he explained how, by using deceptive seating arrangements and camera angles, Todd Bentley and his friends gave a misleading impression to their TV audience about what was happening at the revival.
I can add a bit of evidence that also demonstrates that he knows what he is writing about. In Stephen Strader's book on Lakeland, there is a photos section. I noticed something recently in one of the photos. The photographer shot the worshippers right close to the stage, who would have been the ones that people saw on television. Prominent in the picture is Jessa Hasbrook, who you'd probably know as the present Jessa Bentley.
We can wonder if Bentley feels that he will be able to dispense with the flashing "Applause" sign, traditionally stuck somewhere above and behind television cameras. By stacking his audience, he could.