[Originally posted at Bene Diction Blogs On, June 24, 2010]
Todd Bentley, on his Twitter feed today, is talking up the possibility of a reality TV show on the Discovery channel in the United States.
He tweets:
Pray for a awesome opportunity. Discovery channel has approached us on a new Reality series. Let's take gospel to the world.
\about 5 hours ago via Twitterrific
IamToddBentley
Todd Bentley
Given Todd Bentley's record of deceit and prevarication, it is mind-boggling that a TV network would consider a reality show about him. Has Discovery done any research on him at all?
Of course, reality shows are not "real" as producers and directors selectively use footage to create "good guys" and "bad guys". What makes this proposed project a little scary is that there is no way that Bentley will agree to it without his having editorial control of some kind.
The only reality in a Discovery show that we will see are the "good parts".
But, when TV goes in search of reality, as in the ABC Nightline profile of Bentley and "Lakeland"--which scuppered the "revival"--both the good and bad is shown.
We could hope that the "other side" of Todd would squeak out...but I am not hopeful, should this come to pass.
How much "reality" may we expect?
Any reporter wanting to dig into what Bentley is doing now will be told "Just watch the show" and be refused access. Which would be a shame.
Meanwhile, also on Twitter, Bentley, here cooking steaks on his fancy barbecue, wrote a day ago that he had "closed" on his house. A while back, he had tweeted that he was building his "dream house".
A far cry from being down to his "last $20" roughly two years ago. Does "low profile ministry" really pay that well?
(Added the photo from Twitter - BD)
UPDATE: Evidently "low level ministry" pays not too badly, according to a video that Bentley friend Jason Hooper has put up on Twitter.
In the video, Todd Bentley talks about the new "commercial grill" that he just bought for himself. If it disappears, Hooper called it "Billy Mays meets IamToddBentley" after the late infomercial star.
I've typed in Bentley's description of the grill, and on the Internet, you can buy grills like his description for between $2,000 and $6,500 U.S..
If you happen to be thinking of his starter wife, Shonnah Bentley, and kids back in Canada, this is very interesting. You could wonder, say, whether college funds have been started for his kids. Given Bentley's house, fancy grill and new ministry headquarters (which he talks about in another video blog), it's a reasonable question.
Jason Hooper compares Bentley to Billy Mays. It may be an apt comparison, as Bentley has often taken the infomercial approach--buy his tapes, videos, come to his courses, and swell things will happen to you.
We can be grateful that Bentley is not old enough to remember Tom Vu! ;)