Daily U.S. Taxes to Israel and the Palestinians
Fiscal Year 2007

During Fiscal Year 2007, the U.S. gave more than $6.8 million per day to Israel and $0.3 million per day to the Palestinians.

From: If Americans Knew
via: The Galloping Beaver

Good post at Wade Burleson’s blog about trouble at the SBC Southwestern Seminary. (not that they aren’t famous for getting themselves into it)
I miss a guy very sharp guy named Ben who wrote for the now defunct SBC Outpost who saw this coming. Ben had to walk away, and given the hate and anger hurled at him for telling the truth, he merely joined many over the years driven from the denomination.
Burleson has made news because he has taken serious flack for standing up to extra-biblical edicts (and has remained an insider die hard SBC loyalist) who is coming out with a book which will detail what’s continued to gone wrong; particularly in his area of expertise - SBC mission management. He has shown grace and honesty in face of hatred from his own, and that is a rare trait.
I’ve never commented on his blog. It’s a very inside place, but I have have found myself admiring his love for missionaries while I’ve prayed these missionaries won’t be called to Canada.
Canada don’t need the grief, cultural legalism and fundamentalist baggage which continues in the ongoing conservative purge, or stressed out missionaries who are subject to the whim of mind changing trustees.
Canada has enough problems of our own.

I’ve posted before on the lax attitude of SBC leaders who think it’s okay to pad resumes with diploma mill hand outs. I’ve posted on the unwillingnessand inability of the SBC to address clergy abuse and their on-going campaign to vilify victims.
Burleson is a reminder that while the SBC is narrowing itself into oblivion, there remain good pastors and congregants in the denomination.
However I don’t believe the fallout and damage from those who have hi-jacked the SBC is over, that is not the message I hear from those who are denominational watchers and Baptist experts.

If Southwestern (one of 6 accredited SBC institutions) drives itself into the ground financially, I don’t know how much it will be missed by those fed up with and battered by fundamentalism. It will be just one more of what will probably be hundreds of US religious institutions facing on-going economic changes and failure in North America.

About SWBTS
Another accredited SBC seminary Southern; headed by Al Mohler is facing a 3 million dollar shortfall and announced cutback in December.

Rick Warren, a grad of SWBTS who likes being called ‘America’s pastor’ and who is giving the invocation at the presidental inaugeration, recently said his critics who objected to his involvement in political issues, engaged in hate speech and suffered from ‘Christophopia.’

Peter Kirk at Gentle Wisdom wonders whether a Todd Bentley Facebook page which showed up the same time a Bentley MySpace did a few weeks ago is legitimate.

Again there is no proof or confirmation that this is genuinely from Todd.

True.  Kirk isn’t sure the Bentley MySpace page is Bentley’s either, as a fan and follower is inclined to be less suspicious about it than the Facebook page, “The Official Todd Bentley Facebook Page.’ If this is not Bentley’s or authorized and officially condoned by Bentley then misreprentation is occurring. Kirk had this to say about Bentley allegedly surfacing on MySpace.

It is certainly true that someone has set up a Myspace page in Todd’s name. This appears to be new, with a signup date of 16th December 2008.

I cannot confirm what is stated in the post, that the Myspace page has been set up by Todd himself, or at least by someone acting on his behalf. There is surely the possibility that this is an unofficial page set up by someone wanting to blacken Todd’s name even further - or my a misguided supporter. But it does look quite genuine.

Peter Kirk made a fair observation- looking over the Facebook Eula, (end user licence agreement)  Peter Kirk’s concern could have merit; whoever set up the site (if it wasn’t Bentley or authorized by Bentley) they are allegedly writing as Bentley, uploading allegedly Bentley owned pics and selling Bentley product.

The “One of The Fan Page Admins” at Facebook says they went to work for Fresh Fire Ministries Canada and couldn’t get a visa,  headed back to the US, worked at Lakeland selling Bentley product; and they are now selling Bentley product through a Bentley Facebook page.

From One of The Fan Page Admins:

Discussion page # 4:After the internship I tried to stay in Canada so I had to apply for a visitors visa (couldn’t find a Canadian to marry, lol). I waited forever, got a job with Fresh Fire (ministry I did my internship with) so I thought surely God would hook me up with the visitors visa. Nope! I was denied. I thought I had done something wrong, like being punished or something, no clue why I would have thought that. Any how I got hired by fresh fire to travel in the US and handle their product…

Product links go to Bentley’s private company  Sound of Fire Productions.  Bentley is no longer President of Fresh Fire Ministries so why is it a stretch to question why a former Fresh Fire person is selling Bentley product?  Has he authorized this person to set up this Facebook page, use his name sell his stuff, use what may be Bentley’s photos and reprint at least one of Bentley’s articles in full? Without author authorization isn’t that illegal copyright violation?

These are all apparent violations of Facebook terms:

“You represent, warrant and agree that no materials of any kind submitted through your account or otherwise posted, transmitted, or shared by you on or through the Service will violate or infringe upon the rights of any third party, including copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity or other personal or proprietary rights; or contain libelous, defamatory or otherwise unlawful material.”

Bentley’s stuff is his, now that he is no longer president of his former Canadian Fresh Fire Ministries, his product has been transferred to his parents private site.  

Is  the Facebook acknowledged admin in further violation?

“register for more than one User account, register for a User account on behalf of an individual other than yourself, or register for a User account on behalf of any group or entity;
impersonate any person or entity”

And this:

“use or attempt to use another’s account, service or system without authorization from the Company, or create a false identity on the Service or the Site.”

And this:

“You may not post, transmit, or share User Content on the Site or Service that you did not create or that you do not have permission to post”

Facebook Marketplace Eula:

“You may not list any item for sale, lease or rent that is not in your possession or that you do not have the right to sell lease or rent at the time the item is listed.”

“You must own or otherwise have the right to use all photographs used in any Listings, and such photographs must accurately represent the item involved in your transaction.”

Peter Kirk can make his concern known to Facebook. Though Facebook requests the person allegedly being misrepresented (Todd Bentley) should do so,  what if Bentley doesn’t know? I’m sure Facebook pursue legitimate concerns from concerned citizens. I don’t Facebook, those who do, have a right to express their uneasiness to the Facebook company.

http://www.facebook.com/copyright.php

Rick Hiebert of The Western Standard:

Todd Bentley, the infamous Canadian faith healer whose Lakeland, Florida revival collapsed last summer, appears to be sticking a toe into the Internet waters, seeing if it is safe for him to swim. I can report, though, that there is evidence that the evangelist may have decided to forsake working though a charity.

I guessed a few weeks ago in a post that Mr. Bentley would instead develop his private company, Sound of Fire Productions, as an outlet for his materials. Well, over the Christmas holidays, his ministry, Fresh Fire Ministries, closed its online bookstore. Also, the only materials that FFM is promoting on its website have nothing to do with Mr. Bentley at all. (Has Mr. Bentley been given his walking papers? I don’t know. Perhaps Fresh Fire is delaying the announcement in order not to cause a slump in donations.)

Meanwhile, over at the Sound of Fire Productions website, now Mr. Bentley is offering his later CDs and DVDs for sale, where he wasn’t before. Perhaps it is the last of his stock from the book tables at the revival.

I think that Mr. Bentley is setting up going private as a “Plan B”, and that he would prefer working through some sort of charity. However, I do note that Oral Roberts, during his faith healing days in the 1950s and early 1960s, used a private company, Healing Waters, Inc., as a base for his work. Todd Bentley, as a company, would be workable. He could sell everything, as he does now, and demand an “appearance fee” up front for doing his work at a church. Having sat in his audience while Mr. Bentley talked up the blessing of giving to his work, I suspect that he would still receive what he calls “Pentecostal handshakes”, and still have people sticking money into his pockets as he talks, to get the particular blessing from God that he is speaking about at that moment. I saw this happen. He could get donations without having to issue receipts. So, perhaps he might prefer not having to answer to tax authorities at all.

Hiebert has been bang on about Bentley in the past and noted his private The Sound of Fire Productions site (administered by Todd Bentley’s stepmother) and owned by Steven Stanczyk, a BC artist who is known for his work with Cry Africa, Heidi and Roland Baker who are part of Global Harvest Ministries (C. Peter Wagner’s NAR headquarters). Bentley who apparently has been hiding out in California since being exposed by Nightline had announced he was divorcing his Canadian wife and his Canadian charitable site Fresh Fire Ministries (which his wife’s family works for) released a statement about severing their ties with him in November.

A couple of things have happened recently. Todd Bentley has a new MySpace page activated mid-December where once again, he not only re-invents himself, but had moderator control (his last MySpace page was a free for all) and it is what people call a fan page, where content is moderated. He lists himself as from California and single among other things. As followers know Bentley is scheduled to undergo ‘restoration’ at Rick Joyner’s Morningstar location this year and to that end Bentley’s MySpace page has his scripture twisting up on restoration.

Fresh Fire Ministries Canada has removed most of Bentley’s former products from their site. It can now be found at Sound of Fire Productions. So the soon to be in-laws are out of the loop and Bentley and his parents are running their own company. (The site has been around since 2004) and it’s IP is out of Orlando Florida where GodTV moved it’s US headquarters and close to the property purchased in the Lakeland area by Fresh Fire Inc in 200. Sound of Fire Productions Whois:

Registrar History:
1 registrar
NS History:
4 changes on 5 unique name servers over 5 years.
IP History:
6 changes on 5 unique name servers over 5 years.

Whois History:
7 records have been archived since 2007-09-04
Owner:
      steve stanczyk
      steve stanczyk 
      314 34909 old yale rd
      abbotsford, BC v3g2e7
      Canada

Administrative Contact, Technical Contact, Billing Contact:
      Sound of Fire Productions
      Darcia Bentley 
      Box 1163
      Ladysmith, BC V9G 1A8
      Canada

Bloggers who have followed this are identifying a young woman as Bentley’s mistress. Her picture was taken by Abbotford photographer Laura Merz. Merz supplied Canada’s ChristianWeek with at least one Lakeland revival photograph. I’m not going there, if she is the mistress she can identify herself. Having said that, I agree with the thinking that the news about Bentley’s affair was leaked when it was (after public exposure of the lies about healing etc) for the benefit of the New Apostolic Reformation network. Releasing information about ‘the affair’ took public attention of the core issues, heresy, lying, false doctrine, false manifestations, prophecies and man made ‘revival’. It’s easier for NAR leadership to continue to deceive, and I’ve no doubt soon we’ll see claims from the top down in the New Apostolic Network that Bentley has been restored.
Rick Joyner has the media facilities and the show will be cross-platformed once again.
NAR needs him, money isn’t coming in like it used to and there are new groups of people to take from, abuse, spiritually bind and harm.

So where did the 2008 money go?

The New Apostolic Reformation Movement

Dear Lord, So far this year I’ve done well. I haven’t gossiped, I haven’t lost my temper, I haven’t been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or overindulgent. I’m very thankful for that. But in a few minutes, Lord, I’m going to get out of bed, and from then on I’m going to need a lot more help. Amen

The New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) is a dominionist aberrant branch of neo-pentecostalism, often called Third Wave/Joel’s Army.

The Vancouver Salvation Army appears to have succumbed to this authoritarian new age gnostic heresy, by willfully training and sponsoring apostle/shepherding/covering heretical teachers at The War College: leaders from 2006-2007 and from what the page says into 2008.

The War Collogege Board of Reference: General Shaw Clifton, General Eva Burrows, Stacey Campbell, Wesley Campbell, Lieut-Colonel Don Copple, Dr. David Demian, Commissioner Wesley Harris, Commissioner Phil Needham, Major Chick Yuill.

Faculty: Major Jamie Braund, General Eva Burrows, Michael Collins, Jonathan Evans, Faytene Kryskow, Jeni Parsons, Colonel Earl Robinson, Aaron White.

Visiting: Major Doug Burr, Commissioner Wesley Harris, General Eva Burrows, Major Janet Munn, Major Richard Munn, Captain Robert Marshall, Elaine Gillingham, Ian Gillingham.

 All courses are required for graduation. Content is subject to change.

The Battle School is happy to partner with C. Peter Wagner’s Institute. If the Salvation Army is choosing to move into neo-pentecostal beliefs, there goes the organization. If this is their choice, this is not a charity orthodox Christians can support.

I find it almost impossible to believe The Salvation Army in Canada would permit this heresy.  A couple of Sally Ann’s in the US have also jumped into ‘The River’.   More at Talk2Action.

The Vancouver curriculum is here. To see an institution such as the SA succumbing to the extra-biblical delusion NAR teaches is shocking.  You might as well waste your charitable giving to the good the Sally Ann does and just buy stuff off the Elijah List or support people such as  C. Peter Wagner, Todd Bentley, Dutch Sheets, Rick Joyner, God TV… with the tithes they demand.

My question to the Salvation Army is this: why not just train with Scientology - NAR is just as spiritually and sociallly damaging and heretical to the core. 

New Apostolic Reformation
Third Wave
Manifest Sons of God - Joel’s Army
Kingdom Now Theology
C. Peter Wagner
Cephas Files -extensive look at C. Peter Wagner’s organizations, teachings and plans
Cross+Word - Trish Tillen’s extensive apologetics on these movements

The Canadian Salvation Army Mission and Statement of Faith and Values
The War College Strategy and Goals (Third Wave/Dominionist)

Stacy Campbell - one of the leaders listed by Canadian Salvation Army War College giving one of her false prophecies. As you can see by the Sally Ann Mission statement, The Salvation Army encourages a healthy spiritual, emotional, mental and physical lifestyle. Deception, lying and delusion is not that lifestyle.

I’m glad Christmas is over.
Did family stuff this year for the holiday, and it was stressful. Funny how we tend to fall into old sibling rivalry patterns. Aware of that built in flaw, I tried this year to stay more in each moment and be more conscious of my patterns of re-acting instead of being pro-active. There were unexpected moments of joy,  and I am grateful. When I messed up, I was forgiven and I forgave myself.  
Got home and slept for 14 hours, woke up to the end of a dream with an old gospel song ringing through the dream building I was wandering through…”Until Then.” 

Today I’ve actually watched TV, something I do rare do deliberately  - flipped over to The History Channel and sat like a zombie in front of the Axman series.  I think I’ve now seen them all.
I finally figured out what Sherm was laughing at over Christmas - Impolitical has it listed - #1.

Jordon Cooper hasn’t been taking a break from blogging , and he has his top ten list of favorite bloggers up. I can’t do those kinds of lists, they’d be too long.:^) 
Religion Dispatches has a top ten list for end of the year reading, PJ Miller noticed the top stories of 2008 as chosen by The US Religious Writers Association.   LT posted his top blog stories of 2008 and I’ve been thinking about what he said, because his responses and  concerns more closely mirror mine and we have similar observations about currents in Canadian culture. I tend to direct my attention intensely to a few things rather than many.  When LT puts his mind to a topic, it is well covered. Two is not less than a top ten list.

The two stories I’d pick here at BDBO for 2008 would be the Lakeland Revival and Mercy Ministries International.
I think Lakeland and Mercy Ministries International grab my attention not only theologically and spiritually;  I’ve been intrigued with how media played and plays an important part of each story.  They grabbed my attention because of the harm done in God’s name. 
In the case of Lakeland, it was the relentless, controlled cross-media use, the planned, organized willful trolling for needy unaware people.  
Equally interesting was the surprisingly strong  online outcry from mature believers all over the world. The voices of Christians from various streams, denominations and cultures giving solid apologetic responses was something even the most organized well financed effort could not silence. While I think there will be more man-made revivals, more leeching and robbing as our economic situations change; I think the church universal has learned to use the same tools, in a triage of Love I’ve only ever seen so powerfully on local levels until this year and this event. 
I remain struck with the brazen unholy boldness of authoritarian greed and how skillfully we can be manipulated.

In the case of Mercy Ministries International I was impressed Australian media did not give up on a couple of courageous women who stepped forward and said ‘this was abuse.’  And because a few wanted so much to reach a place of health and inter-dependence, more have stepped forward and said, ‘me too.’ This story has continued to eat away at the edges of my consciousness for a couple of reasons.

While a few reporters in the US have attempted to point out what is flawed with the MMI model, they have not been able to crack the home base; the response from this ‘ministry’ has been no less relentless than Lakeland toward critics. If that is not a warning flag I don’t know what is. Rather than acknowledge harm and openly address failure and personalities; the tactic has been to put out positive spin. The techniques used to try to silence critics have been zealous.  As the economy continues to tank I think groups such as Mercy Ministries International will be able to get away with quiet abuses - and desperate families and young women will acquiesce; for without knowledge, awareness or the financial ability to seek alternatives, what are the alternatives?  I think it is important to ask any group we seek help from at least the following questions:

1. Do you abide by a Code of Conduct that outlines client rights? Can I have a copy?
2. Do you have professional indemnity and public liability insurance?
3. Are you a financial member of an accredited professional body?
4. Do you receive regular professional supervision and guidance?
5. Are your qualifications from an accredited program?
6. Have you completed your training as a counsellor?

What are your top religious stories of 2008?