Official Seeks Ban on 'Kick in the Face' Preacher

Todd Bentley says Holy Spirit moves him to violence
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 5, 2012 5:13 PM CDT

What to do with a tattooed evangelist who tries to cure people by kicking them in the face? Todd Bentley, a Canadian based in the US, plans to tour the UK this month—but Labour MP Malcolm Wicks says no way, the Daily Mail reports. "His visit can do nothing but harm and I would be grateful for any measures you can take," he told Home Secretary Theresa May. Bentley is scheduled to kick things off at a 400-seat London auditorium on August 30.

Bentley is a story in his own right. Convicted at age 15 of sexually abusing a 7-year-old boy, in 2008 he launched what the Mail calls a Christian "revival" in Florida with his Fresh Fire Ministries. His healing techniques include kicking a colon cancer sufferer in the stomach and pushing a man so hard that he lost a tooth. In a YouTube video, Bentley describes kicking "this older lady" in the face under orders from the Holy Spirit. "I inched closer and I went bam! And just as my boot made contact with her nose, she fell under the power of God." (More evangelist stories.)

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