Todd Bentley's alleged antics covered in Australian newspaper

Posted at Bene Diction Blogs On August 5, 2013

We may be coming up on a holiday in Canada, but I wonder if Todd Bentley may be on his way to becoming a "nine-day wonder" in the English press. No holidays for Bentley for a while if that happens to him.

The Daily Telegraph, a newspaper in Sydney Australia, was so astounded by Todd Bentley's alleged antics--which promise to get him in a spot of bother before his visit to Croydon, England later this month--wrote a story of their own for what I would guess would be their own Sunday edition.

Let's recap for a moment. Todd Bentley is scheduled to visit, Croydon England, near London, starting August 30. The local newspaper, the Croydon, Advertiser, looked on the Internet and learned that Bentley had been imprisoned for molesting a boy and saw one of his wilder testimonies from the Lakeland video, on video. They used this to do a "Can you believe this guy?" sort of story, which you can read here. I noticed the Croydon story and added my own comments here.

Earlier today, England time, the Daily Mail did their own story, moving it forward by noting that a local MP has sent a letter to Britain's Home Secretary, asking that Todd Bentley be banned from entering the country, due to the alleged violent way that he healed people.

Evidently, an editor at the Daily Telegraph in Sydney Australia was amazed too. Their news story on Bentley earlier today quotes both the Croydon story and the Daily Mail story for what I am guessing is their "international news briefs" section. It had the added feature of a video clip of Todd Bentley--a noted fabulist--telling his tales of violent healing.

Two quick comments, before dozens of reporters in England try to bring Bentley to ground if this story "has legs".

Bentley now faces a Hobson's choice. The best way that he can protest that it is safe for him to minister in England is to say that he was lying lie a rug when he shared from the stage in Lakeland in that infamous video clip. That, though, will indicate to potential audiences around the world that he was not above lying spectacularly when he felt it necessary.

The first secular reporter who wrote on Bentley--who not only caught him lying in a flagrantly reprehensible to their readers but also to the readers of a prominent US magazine--would no doubt say "Well, duh!". As would the many reporters and bloggers who have exposed Bentley as the evangelist with no clothes since then.

But if Bentley is to avoid returning to working in a sawmill, he has to try to maintain that he is truthful. Thus he used to do those things, but doesn't do them any longer. That worried authorities in England may not believe.

My second note is a big caution for the press. Do not assume that anything that Bentley says about his past is the truth. He could have been building and building a fabulous tale of the violent stuff he has done in order to please an audience. He once mentioned in an old old sermon tape of his that the only thing he had to his name before becoming born again was the "gift of gab."

I would hate to be Bentley if the British press turns on him as a pack.