Contact: Pastor Dustin Segers, Coalition of Concerned Bloggers, ChristianResearchNetwork.com, 336-848-7197

MEDIA ADVISORY, July 28 /Christian Newswire/ — Pastor Dustin Segers submits the following and is available for comment:

How safe are our blogs? That question was raised again when on the evening of July 26, 2008, a popular religious blog was shut down by an Internet service provider. A complaint filed by Christian author and apologist, Richard Abanes, claiming that one article on the religious opinion site, Apprising.org, had slandered him, caused the web host, IPower, to send its publisher, Ken Silva, a 48-hour warning to remove the offending piece or be taken down. In that the piece was not believed to be slander at all, but rather religious and theological opinion, he refused to be forced into censoring his site by Richard Abanes. The site went down.

There are serious implications here for all bloggers, regardless of what sort of blog they publish. Anyone who has a complaint about your views can claim that you have engaged in slander and the ISP Terms of Service usually allow for the companies to remove your website if you don’t take the material in question down. The First Amendment means nothing in these cases. ISP’s cannot and will not explore the claims of slander and simply notify bloggers to remove whatever is causing the problem. This opens the door for anyone to censor what a blogger writes online.

Everyone who values the right to read and publish blogs on the Internet has a vested interested in the issue. There is growing concern in the blog world over this, and a number of servers are popping up that offer “First Amendment” hosting. These are web hosts which require a court order before they will remove someone’s website. Their day has clearly come.

21 For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps,

22 WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH;

23 and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously;

24 and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.

25 For you were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls.

7 Actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?

8 On the contrary, you yourselves wrong and defraud. You do this even to your brethren.

9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals,

10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

11 Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

12 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.

17 For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.

17 Now I urge you, brethren, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and hindrances contrary to the teaching which you learned, and turn away from them.

18 For such men are slaves, not of our Lord Christ but of their own appetites; and by their smooth and flattering speech they deceive the hearts of the unsuspecting.

14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

15 Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you;

16 however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.

17 Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.

18 For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ,

19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.

20 For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ;

21 who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.

A new faith healer is making headlines for his claims of supernatural powers, but conservative evangelical leaders warn that Todd Bentley is a fraud and a false teacher.

Bentley, leader of a revival that began in Lakeland, Fla., this spring, is known for his multiple body piercings and tattoos, his violent healing techniques, his claims of angelic visions and “holy” laughter and “holy” vibrating shakes. He even claims to have raised dozens of people from the dead.

In one YouTube video, Bentley, who is Canadian, can be seen kneeing in the stomach a man with stage 4 colon cancer. When the man bent over in obvious pain from the blow, Bentley said, “I had to be obedient to the Lord, sir, but I believe that colon cancer is coming right out of your body now.” In other videos, Bentley explains how he kicked an elderly lady in the face, banged a crippled woman’s legs on a platform “like a baseball bat,” choked a man, “leg-dropped” a pastor, and hit a man so hard it dislodged a tooth — all because God supposedly told him to do so.

The Associated Press said it could not confirm any of a dozen cases in which Bentley’s ministry claimed medical verification for his miracles.

Bentley claims to be visited regularly by angels, including a 20-foot-tall angel in his apartment on one occasion and on another occasion an angel that knocked him out of his body. One angel’s name supposedly is Emma. Bentley also says that Jesus Himself appears to him.
…
Bentley claimed on another occasion to have been transported four to five hours into the future to see what would occur at a revival meeting he was scheduled to lead.
…
Sometimes, portions of his service are spent with him lying on the stage laughing, with the audience — all supposedly caught up in the Spirit — laughing, too. Other times, people lay on the stage jerking violently and appearing as if they’re experiencing a seizure; supposedly they are simply full of the Spirit.

Bentley recently announced that he will be leaving the Lakeland meetings in order to conduct meetings overseas. His last day at Lakeland is scheduled for Aug. 23.
…
Bentley claims he has the anointing of the mid-20th-century preacher William Branham, a faith healer who denied the Trinity and “prophesied that by 1977 all denominations would be consumed by the World Council of Churches under the control of the Roman Catholics, the rapture would take place, and the world would be destroyed,” Hanegraaff’s website states.

At a recent Bentley healing service in Louisville, Ky., attended by Baptist Press, claims of the blind being healed, the dead being raised and visitations from Jesus were all on display.

In an evening service July 17 at Evangel World Prayer Center, Bentley claimed that several dramatic healings had taken place earlier that day.
…
Baptist Press noted at least five people in wheelchairs in the meeting who appeared to remain uncured throughout the service.
…
“I want to hear you contend for your miracle because the power of God, that healing anointing is here right now, and God is beginning to move and we’re releasing that river of healing right now,” he said.

At the time of the offering, Bentley suggested attendees would not receive a blessing unless they gave generously.

“People get stingy when they give, but they want a generous blessing,” he said. “I’m telling you, there’s something about you reap what you sow. So you think about that as I sow. You think about what God wants you to plant as a revival seed.”
…
But while giving his testimony later in the evening, Bentley said he heard the Gospel from the Bible many times as a teenager but could not believe without a supernatural experience. He was saved only when God spoke audibly to him in his drug dealer’s trailer and told him that was his last chance to make a decision for Christ, Bentley said.
…
Bentley was called to ministry, he said, in 1998 when a “glory liquid honey cloud” came through the kitchen of his apartment and into the living room. It rested over his head, and the “manifest tangible presence of God” did not leave his life for three months. During that time Bentley was “slain in the Spirit” from four to 12 hours per day and saw many visions, he said.

After the three months were complete, Bentley said Jesus appeared to him on Mother’s Day and told him he would never return to secular work again.

“[Jesus] said, ‘I have a ministry for you, and it begins today, Mothers Day 1998.’ He said, ‘You will go all over the world, and you’re going to bring a healing revival,’” Bentley said.
…
He added that Benny Hinn and other faith healers influenced him in ministry.
…

20 But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation,

21 for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

Americans Martin and Gracia live as missionaries in the Philippines for 15 years with their three children. For their anniversary, the couple book the trip of a lifetime to Dos Palmas resort a vacation turn nightmare when militants kidnap them from their hotel room. Martin, Gracia and 18 other hostages are captured by the Islamic extremist group Abu Sayyaf. For months, the hostages are forced to hike through the thick jungle with little food. During 200 days in captivity, most of the hostages are freed for ransom money or escape, but three are beheaded. The terrorists continue to hold Martin and Gracia for over a year, demanding $1 million for their release. After a gun battle with the Philippine army, Martin is killed, while Gracia escapes. She reunites with her children and returns two years later to testify against the surviving captors.

6 Therefore, being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord–

7 for we walk by faith, not by sight–

8 we are of good courage, I say, and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.

9 Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him.

10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.