Bethel Church says it’s remaining ‘respectfully quiet’ amid investigation into alleged clergy abuse
In a statement made in late February, Bethel leaders said the church hadn’t yet chosen an investigative team to look into the allegations made against pastor Ben Armstrong, emphasizing that the church would remain “respectfully quiet on this matter until the investigation takes its course.” Online content discussing an “affair” between Armstrong and a former intern has been removed from various platforms.
After allegations of clergy sexual abuse and grooming were made publicly against Bethel Church leader Ben Armstrong earlier this year, the church said it would be regularly updating the public about “safeguards and processes” to ensure accountability, safety and oversight.
That was more than a month ago, but Bethel leaders still haven’t announced who will be investigating the allegations or responded to questions about the church’s new abuse and harassment reporting process, called Safe Church. Meanwhile, online content about an “affair” between Armstrong and a former intern has been removed in a variety of places online.
Bethel Church is a Redding-based megachurch with an estimated attendance of about 8,500 people, according to its 2025 annual report, making up around 9% of Redding’s population. The church also has considerable international influence — Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry serves thousands of students a year with enrollment from almost 90 different countries, the report stated.
In a series of public notices on its site over the last several weeks, Bethel originally said updates would be shared regularly about “what is being evaluated and new safeguards being put into place to ensure the safety of the congregation and biblical oversight.”
But little information has been released on the church’s website since then. The latest update, released on Feb. 27, said that a “smaller team of senior leaders” has been meeting almost daily to decide on future action. The update stated that an investigative team was expected to be chosen within a week, and that the church would be staying “respectfully quiet” while an investigation takes place.
Shasta Scout reached out to Bethel at the beginning of March asking the church to confirm if a third-party investigator had been hired and requesting specifics about how the church will ensure such an investigator is independent and objective. After multiple follow-up emails, the church still hasn’t responded.
Allegations emerged publicly toward the beginning of February when a former Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry student appeared on a podcast to speak about how Armstrong, who was a revival group pastor at the time, allegedly sexually abused and groomed her while she was his intern more than 15 years ago. She was 23 at the time.
Bethel currently labels the incident as a “moral failure.” According to the church, Armstrong was temporarily removed from ministry after the incident came to light. After he publicly confessed to what he and other leaders have referred to as an “affair,” he went through a “multi-year healing and restoration process” and was later hired as the overseer of Prophetic Ministry. He was placed on administrative leave on Feb. 15.
The woman accusing Armstrong said she experienced sexual abuse, not an affair. Her public statements in February followed allegations made a couple weeks prior by a different former BSSM student, who said Armstrong allegedly touched her inappropriately and groomed her while she was a student. Those allegations became public around the same time that the church admitted to not taking appropriate action in 2019 after allegations were brought forward of sexual misconduct by Christian ministry leader Shawn Bolz, who Bethel had regularly platformed.
In Bethel’s most recent update, leaders explained that reports of abuse or harassment have already been submitted to and reviewed by the Safe Church team, Bethel’s newly-established process to report inappropriate behavior or misconduct. Reports are submitted online through a third-party organization called Mitratech, which turns them over to the Bethel Safe Church team where they’re internally investigated. After investigations into the reports are concluded, Safe Church reports the findings to Bethel’s senior leadership, according to the site.
Shasta Scout asked Bethel to respond to several questions about Safe Church, including how Safe Church is objective given that reports are investigated by an internal church team and findings are provided to senior leaders. The church was also asked what steps it will take in the future to ensure its leaders are held accountable and that allegations are taken seriously. Bethel did not respond to these questions.
Online content is removed from various platforms
In late February, the church reportedly shut down its Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry alumni Facebook page, a forum that was being used at the time by alumni to discuss the Armstrong allegations and share concerns about personal experiences at BSSM. Shasta Scout could not independently verify that the private page has been shut down because it was only open to BSSM alumni, but multiple alumni have been sharing a shutdown announcement that they said was posted on the Facebook page last month.
“While this page may feel like a place to be heard, it is not a space where concerns can be properly reviewed, investigated, or responded to with the care they deserve,” the page’s administrator said in the announcement of the page’s temporary pause, according to screenshots shared by alumni in public spaces. “We are concerned that meaningful experiences and important feedback could unintentionally get lost in the recent increase in the volume of conversation here.”
Screenshots shared by alumni also indicated that the administrator had said on Facebook that the page was being placed on a temporary pause “so we can honor the integrity of the investigation and ensure that nothing significant is missed.” They added that if anyone has a concern or experience to share, it should be reported to the church via the Safe Church process.
Some BSSM alumni have criticized Bethel’s move to shut down the Facebook page, including alum Jesse Westwood, who said in a podcast that the church is “controlling the narrative.”
“They don’t want other victims to talk to each other,” he said in the podcast. “They don’t want to have an open forum where people can talk about their hurt or what happened to them and highlight failures in leadership.”
Bethel did not respond to a request for comment about why the alumni page was shut down.
Videos about Armstrong talking about his “affair” in podcasts affiliated with Bethel’s leaders also appear to have been taken down in recent weeks.
In 2018, Bethel senior leader Danny Silk interviewed Armstrong and his wife, Heather, on the podcast Loving on Purpose, where they discussed how Armstrong was involved in an affair with his intern. The video, which Shasta Scout mentioned in prior reporting, has since been removed from public view.
Multiple other videos that platform Armstrong and his claimed experience with redemption after infidelity have also been removed, including two from the podcast BraveCo, which is hosted by Jason Vallotton, Bethel’s overseer of Pastoral Care. The first video, posted in May of 2023, was titled “Overcoming Infidelity with Ben Armstrong,” while the second video, titled “My Emotional Affair Turned Physical // How I Saved My Marriage After Infidelity – Ben Armstrong,” aired last June.
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“So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw the first stone.” John 8:7
Charismatic leaders threaten to sue Mike Winger
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zh5PCtfVZsE
Remember: Johnson told his CULT members that you could cure the disabled with a (PRAYER AND A HORN BLOW) in the early 2000’s!! Well I’m the VICTIM of this JOKE × 10 times. But I’m still disabled!!
Sexual abuse is against the law. It’s a crime. I understand maybe statutes have run, but why isn’t law enforcement investigating? What we usually see is where there are one or two incidents, there are more. RPD, why aren’t you looking into this??
As far as I know the statutes of limitations on sexual crimes have been dropped. I know of a recent local case where sexual crimes from over 25 years ago were brought. I hate to say it but I suspect that due to the level of “church” members “infiltration” ( for lack of a better word) into local government and other influential positions that have led to the separation of church and state being blurred to the point of obscured, I’m sure there is extreme hesitation to investigate and step on the wrong toes. I’d love to know how they accomplished removing content discussing the topic from “various platforms” beyond taking down their own accounts that is SKETCHY AF.
Somehow “biblical oversight” doesn’t conjure up pictures of anything at all resembling a “safe church” reporting mechanism. And yes, TG, 23 year olds can be groomed; do you think everyone who’s ever been in a cult started as a young child? Critical thinking trumps victim blaming every time. Then again, maybe you really didn’t mean to say what you did.
The most important question that the Shasta Scout has not asked is as follows: Who actually owns the Crystal Cathedral?
Why is this not in the hands of the RPD?
yes indeed, a crime has occured and police, not the church should be investigating. This situation/church sounds like a cult – a billion dollar organization that is a cult.
The facts that have been published do not suggest that a criminal act has been committed or attempted. Nevertheless, there are claims that might constitute a civil tort action because the State of California continues to lengthen the statute of limitations for filing a civil tort action.
Sexual abuse is alleged. That is a crime.
Yes, where is an outside investigator, who would make the research team credible ?
They don’t respond because they aren’t doing anything that helps prevent victims. Same old same old. This isn’t a mega church…it’s a cult.
Bethel is typical MAGA. Use trumpian white Christofascist nationalism Kool-Aid to build a tax-free MAGA corporation to, like Trump (whom they sent money to and endorsed from their pulpit), get filthy rich and, like Trump, cover up their sexual perversions. Typical MAGA corporate economics, paid for by their flock and taxpayers. After all, all that real estate and Maseratis (what, to drive Jeuse around Redding after the secoming comming?) cost real money, and of course, like Trump, Bethel leadership has the concept of using other people’s money down to a tee!
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Keep those tithe’s coming; talk is cheap, it takes money to make Kool-Aid!
Pastor Ben Armstrong should be sent to Bethel’s Healing Room.
I had mentioned a few weeks back that i could not believe the Danny Silk video was still up. It was so sad and cringey watching Silk and Armstrong mansplain to Armstrong’s wife why it was ok to forgive her husband for repeatedly betraying her.
The idea that there is some sort of learned, scholarly, senior leadership that can be trusted at Bethel Cult of Outerspace Starship Grifting is laughable. Locals know that this joke was born in Weaverville by a guy who needed money. Pretending to speak to God and then playing upon the poor is the second oldest profession. That theyve now graduated from simply lying and stealing money from their trusting parishioners to now sexually assaulting them and covering it up moves Bethel from backwoods trashy scam artists to full fledged organized religion.
The wolves packin up to protect themselves . . . and ranchers are worried about cows LOL!
In other news, Pam Bondi and the Justice Department are “investigating” allegations against Donald Trump contained in the Epstein files (or perhaps the past tense “…were contained…” is more appropriate).
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Bethel’s investigation is 100% about protecting the “prophets” and their cash cow, and 0% about protecting the female victims.
Okay, I’ll admit I laughed.
Even though it really is kind of sad…
And how many years were Cesar Chavez’s transgressions supressed to protect the movement? Both bad guys. You have to see both sides of these darn inconvenient coins.
Nick, regarding your silly whataboutism:
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The left is falling all over itself to run away from Chavez as fast as it can following the NY Times’ publication of their very detailed investigation. There will be a huge number of city streets, schools, and nonprofits changing names in the coming months. We’re deeply disappointed, but we’re not blindly loyal to the point of cultish fealty.
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MAGA remains loyal to Orange Mussolini no matter how foul his transgressions. Every time he does something despicable, you guys change your standards to accommodate the crime. You won’t even abandon him for boasting about sexually assaulting women, or his close association with pedophiles (and likely participation in their crimes).
Epstein is a Clinton problem, not Trump. Pedophilia is a Cesar Chavez Prince Andrew problem. Trump has no connection to pedophiles. Just hold your nose and let him finish out his term without making stuff up. There is more dignity in that.
He has no connection to pedophiles, yet there are dozens of pictures of him hanging with pedophile Epstein and pedophile-enabler Maxwell, and he’s mentioned more than 38,000 times in the redacted Epstein files.
My. God.
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Satire?
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Surely it can’t be, but now I am convinced that it is.
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I hate to admit it, but even though I mock those who deserve it, somehow I didn’t see your satire for what it was.
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🤣
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Sure, let’s all hold our noses and just wait for Trump to finish his term.
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Just more winning.
What a nauseating “church”. Even Supply Side Jesus would be offended by these people.
They should respectfully disband and leave town, or we can respectfully start taxing them for city/county revenue
WANTED: Another city that could welcome Bethel and its bedraggled members; apply now, lowest down payment, low interest, no refund.
23 yr olds get groomed? LOL
Please google “Bethel fire tunnels” and “Bethel raising the dead” and view some of the videos posted. The mind control of these young people is prevalent and fierce. Grooming is just a step in another direction by these cult leaders.
There are good reasons why senior principals of corporations can be terminated for having sexual affairs with junior-level employees. The power asymmetry is real, and it opens the door for charges of coercion if the junior employee ends up feeling used, which can be a huge financial liability.
Agreed. That landed funny for me too.