Mike Bickle, Bill Johnson Accused of Brushing Aside Sexual Abuse Complaint+ Insists ‘I Was No Longer In The Leadership’
One thing we keep on learning from the whole Mike Bickle/International House of Prayer debacle is that issues of possible sexual abuse or sexual impropriety were often raised with leaders in good faith and then either ignored or passed off for the next person to deal with. One such person is ‘prophet’ Bob Hartley (right), who helped start IHOPK, was known to Bickle (left) and was finally banned from attending IHOPKC’s prayer room after a fresh round of allegations of sexual misconduct came to light just days ago.
Former IHOPKC leader Michelle Seidler alleges that in 2016, she complained about Hartley’s sexual misconduct to Mike Bickle and Bill Johnson of Bethel Church in Redding, California, where Hartley was ministering to at the time.
Mike Bickle allegedly did nothing and later denied being told. Bill Johnson sent an email informing folks that Hartley was no longer allowed to minister among them but did not say why or escalate or expose Hartley further.
In 2022, it was more of the same. Another woman contacted Dave Thomas, a staff member at IHOPKC and a board member at Deeper Waters, one of Hartley’s ministries, with more allegations against him. Thomas confirms that allegations of sexual misconduct were made against Hartley and that he resigned as a result but says no one at IHOP wanted to get involved. Thomas insists he told several leaders about the allegations, including Mike Bickle, Bill Johnson, and others, but Johnson allegedly said he couldn’t do anything since Hartley wasn’t on staff at Bethel and also had a lot on his plate with his wife Benni being sick with cancer.
As for Bickle, Rebecca Hopkins, writing for TRR, received a statement from him after questions were raised about the 2022 incident:
“I had one short conversation with a man who informed me that Bob and a lady were in a dispute and the man wanted IHOP leaders to get involved.
I told the man that I had resigned from IHOP in 2020 so I was no longer in the leadership and so that that (sic) Bob Hartley was not a part of IHOP nor was he under the IHOP leaders and the lady to my knowledge was not on the IHOP staff.
So, I told the man that he need (sic) to identify the group that Bob recognized as his leaders. I did not know who that group was then nor do I know that info .”
Put away, despite being a national leader with tremendous power and influence, having access to all the players who have a large platform, who personally knows all the leaders at IHOP and likely has them all on speed dial, heard allegations that a woman was making claims about a prophet known to them and who routinely participated in their prayer room.
Rather than use his position to act, encourage investigation, and expose a predator, he did nothing but make excuses, pass the buck, and wash his hands of the matter.
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