A pastor at Bethel Church has been positioned on administrative breeze away following allegations of clergy sexual abuse from a frail pupil. The church has initiated an independent investigation into the foremost claims, emphasizing their...
A pastor at Bethel Church in Redding, California, has been positioned on administrative breeze away after he turned into impartial today accused of clergy sexual abuse.
Sarah, a frail pupil of Bethel’s Supernatural College of Ministry (BSSM), alleged that Ben Armstrong, a pastor and Overseer of Prophetic Ministry at Bethel Church, sexually abused her when she turned into a 23-twelve months-old intern in 2009, irrespective of being fancy a non secular father to her.
Sarah told hosts Blaise and Christina on the Wake Up At Bring collectively podcast how “sexual boundaries were crossed” when she and Armstrong slept within the same room after at his sibling’s condominium.
“Here is my first sexual experience. Intercourse never came about. Kissing never came about because I didn't need that to happen, and I turned into in a neighborhood to cease it to some stage, but sexual boundaries were crossed that I didn't cease,” she recalled.
Sarah also eminent how Armstrong brushed apart the incident as a “spiritual assault.”
“Moreover, I have in mind the subsequent morning being fancy panicking and him pronouncing fancy, you realize,
you realize who we're to the prophetic and mystic coast, to our other folks,” she quoted Armstrong as pronouncing. “‘You realize how foremost we're. This turned into precise a non secular assault, and we handed. fancy we do now not favor to present an clarification for anyone. We didn't accept anything.’”
She shared that there turned into a 2d incident where Armstrong sexually abused her after getting her drunk and animated her over to his condominium whereas his wife turned into away, and he it sounds as if despatched his younger other folks away to a decent friend’s condominium irrespective of first and necessary telling her that he wanted her wait on with them.
“He pulled me into the room... dragged me into the room with him...he is pulling me, and I have in mind pronouncing 'no' out loud,” recalled Sarah.
In a recent assertion launched by Bethel Church, Armstrong confessed to a “actual failure” in 2009 whereby he and Bethel Church leaders described the affair as "consensual" and “willing”. Despite first and necessary stepping down from ministry at the time, Armstrong turned into indirectly reinstated into a management characteristic following a multi-twelve months technique of repentance and restoration, Protestia reported.
The church, alternatively, issued a 2d assertion announcing that Armstrong turned into positioned on administrative breeze away after the recent allegations surfaced, and an independent third-occasion investigation will steal place.
“This step ahead is no longer a verdict, but a compulsory measure intended to reflect the care and sobriety with which we design issues of this nature and our favor to characteristic in transparency and truth. We are also for the time being reaching out to other folks who get introduced these allegations to mild,” the church talked about.
“We are actively taking part outside counsel and independent experts to wait on accomplish obvious thorough, just, and trauma-told processes. We are committed to neatly being and accountability as we pursue spiritual, physical, and emotional safety all the scheme by our group.”
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On the origin published February 16, 2026.
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