Thought Theater

Thought Theater previously posted an ABC News expose on televangelist Todd Bentley and his Lakeland, Florida ministry. That posting can be found here. Bentley claims to have healing powers and he's parlayed this assertion into a large following...which has translated into even larger cash donations.

As the ABC piece notes, there isn't any actual evidence supporting any of Bentley's proclamations...yet there is little reason to believe Bentley will cease and desist. Unfortunately, so long as people voluntarily flock to see and support him, his increasingly grandiose pronouncements will persist.

The line between a sincere demonstration of faith and an outright disconnection from reality is on full display in the following video. In the video, Bentley reads a letter to his flock in which it is suggested that his ministry has played an integral role in raising a man from the dead. As if a third party account weren't sufficient evidence of Bentley's deception, he proceeds to unequivocally state, "the dead are being raised".

I've long realized the power that lies beneath our fear of death, but this video takes it to another level...one that ought to be sufficient to question the sanity of the participants. The fact that this can happen in this day and age should lead us to explore the societal factors that enable this type of delusional thought.

I find it ironic that many of the religious leaders who suggest faith is the salve to heal society are actually the ones who are providing the virtual narcotic which is facilitating our neurosis. In this circle of self-sustaining symbiosis, faith becomes the means to deny death (the drug) and the giving of cash to those who produce it (the dealers) is the means by which the recipients (the addicts) insure that it will continue to be available.

I've long been opposed to the war on drugs...but if it could be redirected towards extinguishing this carefully crafted canard, I'd happily enlist. In the end, morality must have self-awareness as its core. Todd Bentley and his ilk are selling anything but.