Torben Sondergaard, a world-famous evangelist from Denmark
has been imprisoned in the U.S. for the past eight months (as I speak) without being charged with any crime.
His supporters have released videos which feature Torben talking by phone from inside the facility
where he pleads his case, and asks why the courts, the media
and even the churches of America are not outraged at his treatment.
Surely this is religious persecution of the sort that America would condemn
if they heard about it in any other country besides their own.
I have no direct contact with Torben or his supporters, nor with his detractors.
All I know is what both sides have released on the Internet
and it puzzled me that neither side was coming forward with an explanation for his prolonged imprisonment without charge.
It seems that certain anonymous individuals
have made some incredible claims about Torben being involved in people trafficking
and in smuggling guns to and from Mexico.
There does not seem to be a shred of evidence for either accusation
and he has not been charged with either of those offences nor with anything else.
In fact, when reading the kind of hateful stuff that the cult-busters and their ilk are writing about Torben
it becomes obvious that, if he so much as scratches his head
they are going to see something sinister in it, and shout that he is a heretic, a psychopath
or (most likely) a con-man.
To be honest, we Jesus Christians have examined Torben's style in the past
and we felt that his attempts to share his faith are extremely suss, if not outright dishonest.
He specialises in what he calls "kick-starting" faith.
He trains the laity of his movement, called "The Last Reformation"
to go out into parks and shopping centers and approach people
asking if they suffer from any kind of pain.
The first amazing discovery for his students
would be just how many people will report that they DO have some sort of pain.
Then Torben's followers get the pain sufferer
to rate the pain from one to ten before they offer to pray that the pain will go away.
Sure enough, (often after several attempts)
the people suffering from pain announce that it has dropped dramatically
sometimes disappearing altogether.
Torben cautions these amateurs not to mess with people who have real sicknesses
but just to center on what he calls "kick-starting" faith
which is little more than a demonstration to his somewhat naive students
of how easy it is to get other people to do or say what you want them to do or say...
even if some of them are just doing it to get you to leave them alone
or possibly to make you feel better about what you have just done.
Torben himself does similar things with regard to supposedly casting out demons.
In Australia he claimed to have cast a demon out of a nine-year-old girl suffering from autism
simply because she said something along the lines of "I feel good" after he prayed for her.
When it was shown that the girl was still autistic
Torben's defence was that he had not said that he would heal her as such...
just that he would cast a demon out of her.
Hardly the sort of thing you would expect Jesus or his apostles to have done or said in the Bible!
But none of this explains why he has been held in custody in Florida, for eight months
without being charged with any crime;
nor why no one seems outraged in either the churches or the media because of it.
So here is the explanation as I understand it at the moment:
Torben's tormentors in Denmark actually succeeded in getting legislation through there
(which, by the way, included specific mention of him)
making it illegal to involve children or mentally ill people in his often quite traumatic exorcisms.
I believe the legislation put other restrictions on people who pass themselves off as faith healers as well.
Apparently the move to pass this legislation
was based largely on testimonies from disgruntled "believers"
who refused medical treatments after being told that they were healed, only to have their conditions worsen.
The situation certainly is an awkward one for the authorities.
They don't want to stop someone from actually doing miracles and healing people
but neither do they want religious con-men to be making matters worse
by pretending to heal and cast out devils when they are doing little more than playing psychological tricks.
Well, obviously, from Torben's perspective
(and that of many of his followers, who believe he really can do miracles)
he was being persecuted.
Now, he could have moved from Denmark to some other country in Europe where such rules did not exist
but he felt more attracted to the U.S. where there not only is immense tolerance for religious oddities
but where the money to be made from religion is higher than anywhere else in the world.
So his family packed up and moved to the U.S., presumably on tourist visas
and claimed asylum soon after they arrived, on the grounds that Torben was being persecuted in Denmark.
They were free to stay on in the U.S. while their application was being processed.
And here is where the picture starts to become clearer.
Visitors to other countries do not automatically receive all the rights of local citizens.
Tourists sometimes experience this at Customs
where individual employees can make some very arbitrary decisions
against which you have little chance of appealing.
You are at their mercy, and they can kick you out of the country at the drop of a hat.
If you don't like the way you are treated
you have the option of leaving and returning to your home country, but little more.
And your home country will usually fight to defend your right to leave.
But, if you are seeking asylum, the bottom line is that you do not WANT to leave the country
and the country you are in will often test the seriousness of your fear about what would happen back home
by making things unpleasant where you have come for shelter.
Torben and his family enjoyed two years of pretty much free rein in the U.S.
while the authorities pondered how to treat his application.
During that time, it seems that he conducted "tent crusades" across the country
where he preached and practiced the sort of things that he had been famous for doing in Denmark.
There were, of course, some very angry ex-members
who had joined with some despicable people whom we Jesus Christians have encountered in the past
and whose morals are much lower than anything that we have seen in religious scammers.
Such people apparently sent anonymous tips to the U.S. authorities...
first, that Torben was a gun smuggler, and later that he was a people trafficker.
As ridiculous as the accusations seemed, the authorities were obliged to check them out
and so Torben was asked to appear at a meeting with immigration authorities in Florida.
Thinking that this had to do with him being granted asylum
Torben hurried from where his family was in California, to the meeting
only to find that he was to be "detained" until his application for asylum had been fully processed.
Now, it is quite possible that his tent crusades
while waiting for the paperwork to be processed
had offended the authorities as well.
It certainly did not help that he had been openly challenging mandates to wear masks
as a deterrent to the spread of covid.
Perhaps he thought that applying for asylum in Florida
would put him in the best state to get a sympathetic hearing
without realising that the asylum application is not dealt with by state authorities.
So there he was... not arrested... not charged... but "detained".
His reference to most of the other people at the center having left the facility over the past eight months
suggests that it is more of an immigration detention centre than a prison.
He had originally asked for refuge from serious persecution in Denmark
and so the authorities had the option of "protecting" him from such persecution (whether real or imaginary)
by placing him in a facility where other people seeking visas were also being housed.
Surely Torben was free to initiate steps to leave...
if he had decided at any time that he wanted to go back home to Denmark.
His choice was over whether he would be more comfortable in Denmark
or more comfortable in a U.S. detention center while awaiting approval of his application.
Can you see how it all makes sense?
And can you see why people in the know are not expressing outrage?
Such an explanation could have easily been given by his supporters
but, instead, the public has been led to believe that a grave injustice has occurred.
This kind of exaggeration does not reflect well on a ministry which seems to do a lot of that.
A few days ago, Torben was told that his application had been denied.
However, he is still being allowed to stay in detention (at the expense of U.S. taxpayers)
rather than being deported, while he appeals that decision.
The judge, while noting his religious beliefs and his concerns about not being free to practice them in Denmark
allegedly was concerned about the wider implications if people could gain permanent residence in the U.S.
on the basis of such claims.
Could a Muslim family, for instance, seek asylum in America
because they live in a country where they are not allowed to circumcise their daughters
if they maintained that such circumcision was consistent with their religious beliefs?
Over the years, many faith healers in America
have also been through the courts on the basis of harm that has come from people believing they were healed
and thus no longer seeking medical treatment.
This is not a new concern in legal circles.
Now, please understand that we are not defending the people who have been telling lies about Torben
in an effort to get him locked up.
We have suffered as the result of similar accusations about ourselves over the past year
and it took that long for the authorities to investigate all of the lies
and conclude that there was no evidence to support any of it.
We expect that there will be more of this in future
as dark forces marshal against anyone who believes in God.
It makes sense for all believers to look at the situation there in Denmark (and other Scandinavian countries)
and consider how we personally would fare if the legislation was directed against OUR religious beliefs.
But we must also accept that such legislation may be needed
in order to deal with people who really are doing things that distort and abuse religious freedom.
Let us all pray for wisdom in knowing how best to react
in relation to the many issues that come into play in this area.
Now, we would urge Torben to examine his own claims about having supernatural powers
to see if he has been guilty of exaggerating those powers
in ways that Jesus himself would never have done.
In the meantime, however
here is a link to a video including a phone interview with Torben from the detention centre
in which one of his supporters urges people who disagree with some of his beliefs
to lovingly consider the implications for all of us
who are trying to live our lives in obedience to the teachings of Jesus.
I don't agree with all that the video says, but I think it is worth watching in order to get a fuller picture.
And if you are interested in watching the video we previously did about Torben Sondergaard's ministry
you can click on that video link as well.
Thank you for listening and bless.