Bethel Church of Redding, California is currently embroiled in a leadership scandal.

Once their poster child for a restored leader following moral failure, Ben Armstrong (BA), is back in the spotlight for alleged lies and Clergy Sexual Abuse allegations. To Bethel Church’s credit, they have put Ben Armstrong on administrative leave as they investigate these disturbing allegations. And these allegations are VERY disturbing, indeed!

Here is the alleged Clergy Sexual Abuse victim speaking out about her story:

To summarize:

We have a story about an intern, Sarah, who was brought into the Armstrong household and intentionally groomed as a spiritual “daughter.” Many disturbing points exist in this story including BA giving a sexual hug without permission and an instance where BA isolated Sarah, got her drunk, and dragged her to the bedroom against her protests.

Adding to the disturbing nature of this story is the official story presented to the community about it. When this inappropriate relationship went public 16 years ago, Sarah was wrongfully shamed as being an equal party in an “affair” with BA.

This was NOT an affair!

Assuming Sarah is telling the truth–and I believe her–this was sexual assault and Clergy Sexual Abuse.*

I am grateful that Bethel Leadership is taking this latest revelation seriously and have put Ben Armstrong on administrative leave. As a pastor connected to this leadership network, I am grateful for that step and yet I am sadden more wasn’t done earlier.

It should not have taken this long for them to have taken action. They turned a blind eye to the power imbalance between BA and Sarah, the intern, for over a decade choosing to characterize this as an “affair.” Instead of loving BA well by exposing this label as a lie and calling him to repent of abusing his power, they chose to soft pedal the situation making Sarah out to being a temptress as opposed to the victim she was. This put an unjust burden on Sarah. My heart breaks for her in all of this.

Making it worse, here is an interview in 2018 between a senior Bethel Leader, Danny Silk, and the Armstrong’s extolling their story as an example of godly restoration (link here).

Two things are of note from this interview:

1. Ben Armstrong was known by the leadership since he was three years old.

Two points from this: 1) This means BA had relationship capital with senior leadership that Sarah did not have. 2) I suspect this extensive history with leadership led to some blind spots.

It is hard to hold a friend accountable for bad behavior. However, godly leadership NEEDS to do this to keep the sheep safe.

2. Sarah is treated as THE THREAT!

Notice the story about Heather Armstrong, Ben’s wife, running into Danny Silk’s office once seeing Sarah at work at Bethel’s coffee shop. This communicates to us that Sarah is perceived as a threat. She is so dangerous that one must run away from her.

Now, I get this impulse. Generally speaking, it feels safer to blame the “affair” partner when dealing with marital infidelity than to hold your cheating spouse accountable. You are not emotionally invested in the affair partner; you are in your cheating spouse. A wise and godly pastor would recognize this impulse and provide gentle correction.

A misdiagnosis of the situation creates unsafe circumstances for everyone. Sarah is not the one who abused her power. BA did. That is not part of this conversation, which means BA remains the actual threat and danger, as he cannot begin to repent without identifying this sin.

Un-punishable or unsafe?

We need to be careful not to create a culture where we protect the powerful making their victims bear the costs of their sins and shame. Removal from leadership of someone who has abused power is not punishment but prudent correction necessary to protect the sheep. This is what loving the sheep well requires.

My hope is Bethel leadership will learn from this situation and put policies into place to protect the vulnerable. I love my brother and sister ministers in the Bethel Leadership Network and remain available for conversation if any of them would like input from someone with over a decade of experience helping infidelity abuse victims.

 

 

 

 

______

*I speak as a pastor, NOT a lawyer.