Last month, Rhema Bible Church announced the removal of its Chief Operating Officer and Pastor Craig Hagin from his leadership position, citing personal vices that have disqualified him from the ministry.
Craig Hagin is the grandson of the late Word of Faith advocate Kenneth E. Hagin and the son of Rhema Bible Church founder Kenneth W. Hagin.
Built on a 110-acre campus in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, Rhema Bible Church is a prominent megachurch with weekly attendance in the thousands. It also operates Rhema Bible College, which has nearly 2,000 students.
Through the church, Kenneth W. Hagin and his wife, Rev. Lynette Hagin, continue the ministry of promoting the teachings of the famed ‘name-it-and-claim-it’ patriarch, with Lynette serving as director of Rhema Bible Training College USA and general manager of Kenneth Hagin Ministries.
In its initial statement, the church said Craig had engaged in behavior “inconsistent with the standards expected of those serving in ministry leadership,” but provided no further details.
Later, speaking to congregants, Kenneth and Lynette acknowledged that this was not the first time serious questions had been raised about their son’s personal conduct. They reveal they’d confronted Craig about the unnamed issues, but that he denied them. Not believing him capable of the accusations, they initially believed he was telling the truth regarding the veracity of the claims. However, after receiving what they described as undeniable evidence, they terminated him, stating, “He hid this from us. He was living a double life.”
This is not the case, however, according to Craig’s estranged wife, Mia. While the church has been tight-lipped about his termination, she has not, filing for divorce and citing adultery as the cause in her petition.
In an interview with The Roys Report, Mia Hagin said she first learned of her husband’s first affair approximately a year into their 20-year marriage.
She stated that when she informed her mother-in-law, Lynette Hagin, she was told, “Happy husbands don’t stray,” and was made to feel to blame, and was urged to be more sexually available and adventurous to satisfy her husband’s needs.
Mia Hagin further alleged that again, eight years ago, she discovered her husband was paying prostitutes for sex. When she confronted Craig about the number of women he had been involved with over the years, he allegedly replied: “More women than I can count.”
Mia says she approached Lynette again, who insisted she would handle the situation but did nothing of the sort. Instead, she and her pastor husband, Kenneth, concluded that their son was telling the truth and that Mia was lying. Convinced of their assessment and her son’s innocence, her father-in-law and mother-in-law asked her to stop attending family functions and church services altogether.
With accusations of a major cover-up, the story has received widespread attention in Christian media circles. Independent journalist Joshua Simone of Torn Curtain Ministries has covered the developments extensively, and now he and others have been served with a cease-and-desist lawsuit and other legal threats from a third party involved in the fracas.
During one of his videos, Simone cited a Facebook post from a man who discovered that Craig and a woman he’s been linked to (who we’re choosing not to name, as she is not a public figure) supposedly had a car registered together.
In light of this post, Simone speculated, albeit with multiple disclaimers and caveats, that people could “read between the lines” about their relationship, and that:
So, it seems that Craig Hagen possibly had allegedly had a mistress’s car registered in her name. That’s not his wife. His wife’s name is Mia Hagen, and basically and it was parked possibly allegedly at Rama Bible College.
As a result of this postulating, Simone and multiple other parties received a cease and desist letter from the woman in question, citing defamation, harassment, and insisting he doesn’t have permission to “use our client’s names, images, or likeness for any reason.”
The clients are also demanding Simone takes down the video, delete any text messages he has between the two, and make a public apology under threat of a pending lawsuit which will seek legal damages.
Simone has responded to the legal threats, pointing out that he didn’t even do half the things he’s been accused of, and that the nature of the information being asked suggests that Craig or other family members may be behind it.
More than anything, however, Simone is livid that these threats are being made, viewing them as an intimidation tactic designed to keep things covered up and kept in silence- just another example of cover-up culture in the church.
Explaining that he’s not going to back down, he notes in a video about the threat (see below) that he has access to a powerful and prominent legal team.
Ripping up the letter on camera, he vows that he will not be cowed or intimidated by anyone, and that if it’s a fight they want, it’s a fight they’ll get.
So all these people would be left with is worldly tactics that can be bought with money and lawyers etc. and you will and I will tower over you while you lay face down in the dirt. I am not bocking down. I am no punk and neither are any of my podcaster friends as well.
If God is for me, then who would be against me? ..You are playing with the wrong people. This cover up culture is done in the church. And if you think these intimidation tactics are going to work on me, you got another thing coming.
