I just read that Todd Bentley is separating from his wife. Much though I have deep reservations about the style of ministry Bentley is into, I can't help feeling sorry for him and his wife. They operate in a part of the Christian world that is extremely judgemental towards people when fractures in their marriages become public knowledge. It's one thing to endorse and support the idea of a strong family; it's quite another to put people in the situation where they feel it's better to continue to put a good face on a sham marriage than to have the courage to face reality. I guess the thing that makes me feel queasy is the idea that the integrity of the situation then becomes less important than whether you get "found out". 

I have no doubt that there'll be plenty of disclaiming going on in the next few weeks while people attempt to protect their religion from the disillusion of human brokenness.  There will be the sickening sight of those who have enthused over the bizarre Lakeland "outpourings" now dissociating themselves from it as they realise that the spiritual hero they've constructed is just a guy who shouts a lot, and whose marriage is falling apart.

It would be better, in my view, more holy and more loving, to grasp the fact that true religion only begins at a place of brokenness; that there is no such thing as a level of anointing in spirituality that innoculates us from being thoroughly human. As a wise friend of mine used to say, "the ground is level at the foot of the Cross."

Me? I still don't like Bentley's religion, and have no reason to defend it. I much prefer being human to being religious. But I'm not going to use his personal situation to flay him with. I started the day with a prayer for him and his family.