Hostility towards Christians and biblical teachings isn’t hard to find these days. Psalm 2’s statement that the nations rage against God seems familiar.

On July 24, a Christian pro-life protestor, Bevelyn Williams, was sentenced to over three years in federal prison for taking part in a demonstration outside an abortion facility in New York City. The U.S. Department of Justice is now prosecuting her under the FACE (Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances) ACT, rather than pursuing the vandals who have targeted more than 80 pro-life pregnancy centers nationwide.

Last year Jessica Bates, a Christian mother in Oregon who feels called by God to adopt children, was banned by the state from becoming a foster mother because she wouldn’t encourage children in her care to harm themselves through transgender ideology.

Torben Søndergaard, a Christian ministry leader from Denmark, has been watching persecution and lawfare rise in America and across the West. He knows it all too well himself, having faced vicious lawfare and media demonization in Denmark several years ago. And he sees more of it coming our way.

Personal Persecution

In 2019, Søndergaard left his native Denmark for the U.S., having been hounded out by hostile forces. According to a timeline on Søndergaard’s website and prior reporting by The Stream, two men, (André Højer, an insider who was sabotaging his ministry, The Last Reformation [TLR], and Franck, the obsessive, married ex-boyfriend of an single woman who turned to Christ through TLR’s ministry), joined forces to take down the ministry. As a result, Søndergaard and TLR became the subjects of a documentary featuring Franck, national negative media attention, an update to the criminal code made specifically to target Søndergaard’s ministry practices, and numerous investigations by various government agencies responding to anonymous “tips.” Søndergaard and his wife grew concerned about the possibility of losing custody of their minor children.

Søndergaard, his wife, and two youngest children fled to America in 2019. At the time, he felt God told him persecution was coming to America and to help the church here get ready. When he then saw attacks against Donald Trump in the media, the stolen 2020 election, and the deceptive messaging around COVID, he recognized it as the kind of staged power play he had experienced in Denmark, he told The Stream.

The people making trouble for Søndergaard in Denmark ramped up their attack when he came here, he says. So he became the victim of lawfare in America as well, being confined in an immigration detention center in Florida for 412 days. Søndergaard was told his arrest by an immigration officer was related to concerns that he was smuggling weapons from Mexico. Then he learned he was incarcerated because he had allegedly overstayed his three-month visa to be in the U.S. Søndergaard says this is false because he filed for asylum before the 90 days was up — but his visa was quietly canceled before it expired. Søndergaard told The Stream that eventually his opponents tried to create a case against him based on the idea that he was a human trafficker. That accusation kept him locked up while illegal immigrants in jail with him got out on bond, he says.

One year ago, Søndergaard was released. Now ministering in Mexico and South America, the 48-year-old says his detention is a lesson for the church concerning coming persecution. A new video released Thursday by TLR reveals further details on the slander Søndergaard says led to irreparable harm to him and his family. It is the last video in a four-part Revealing YouTube series, explaining the unjust persecution behind Søndergaard’s troubles in Denmark and the U.S., which The Stream reported on at the time.

Last Installment in Persecution Series Released

This closing episode highlights footage from the deposition of Paul May, against whom Søndergaard filed a defamation lawsuit in December 2022. May provided evidence that the same people causing trouble for Søndergaard in Denmark continued to persecute him in the U.S. The lawsuit was settled this March, with May agreeing to remove his defamatory videos and never publish anything defamatory against Søndergaard again.

The “Human Trafficker” Label Kept Him Locked Up Without Bond

Edited footage of the deposition shows May repeatedly referencing a former member of TLR’s staff, André Højer, as the source of his defamatory information about Søndergaard. In the previous episode, TLR had said it fired Højer because he lied about others to get them removed from the ministry.

May, who previously had a falling out with Søndergaard while he was attending TLR’s ministry school, created a YouTube channel attacking him, and then was contacted by Højer, he said. Soon May was in touch with an immigration officer who asked him to file a human trafficking complaint against Søndergaard on the basis that his ministry makes use of unpaid volunteers, which was characterized as slave labor.

The “rogue agent” was then able to list Søndergaard as a national security threat and arrest him, then cite “national security” concerns to evade questions from Søndergaard’s lawyers, the video alleges.

“With lies, he managed to get me put up as a national security threat, so I had no chance to come out on a bond, and that was one of the main reasons I stayed in jail for as long as I did,” Søndergaard told The Stream. The TLR video series says Søndergaard had received anonymous messages when he arrived in the U.S. saying even more trouble would come to him in the States than in Denmark. The threats proved accurate.

Upon his release from confinement, Søndergaard was deported. As a reminder that he’d been marked as a “national security threat,” two federal agents escorted him back to Denmark. From there he immediately flew to Hamburg, Germany, where his wife welcomed him with tears. She had received word that he was being deported and immediately left the Florida campsite where she had been hiding with their two daughters, Søndergaard told The Stream.

YouTube Series Documents How the Persecution Unfolded

The four-part YouTube series builds on itself to tell the story of Søndergaard’s persecutions in Denmark and then the U.S. Parts 1 and 2, which came out in December 2022, highlight how a Danish documentarian used misinformation and two undercover journalists to frame Søndergaard. One journalist repeatedly tried to get him to take a large sum of money; Søndergaard refused and said to give it to the ministry instead.

The documentary badly damaged Søndergaard’s reputation in Denmark and led to legislation targeting his public deliverance ministry, even though he says no one had previously complained about his practices. (The Bible records Jesus and His disciples doing the same things for which Søndergaard was attacked. Did Jesus also perpetrate “psychological violence” when he cast out demons in public?)

In Part 3 of the YouTube series, which came out in May 2023, TLR says that two individuals (Højer and Franck) hate Søndergaard and are seeking to ruin him. Part 4 details through May’s deposition how May aided Højer and an immigration official in persecuting Søndergaard in the U.S., leading to his imprisonment.

The video ends with an admonition to pray for our enemies and to overcome evil with good, and a statement that TLR hopes the series has opened viewers’ eyes to the “devastating effects of slander.”

“Torben is not alone in facing this issue,” TLR explains in a voiceover. “Many Christians around the world have also become victims of slander. We hope that by sharing Torben’s story, you’ll better understand the battle we’re all facing.”

Prepare for Persecution

Søndergaard’s advice to believers is to be prepared for persecution and to focus on the Kingdom of God. “We will suffer for a short time,” he said, “and then we will have an eternal glory and a treasure in Heaven that is awaiting us.”

He advises all to live innocent lives. Innocence may not fully protect believers, as lies and slander can be used against us, but it will help not to have anything that persecutors can use against us, Søndergaard says.

“Everyone who follows Christ will experience persecution — Jesus said that,” he explains. Jesus says in John 15 to his disciples “You do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. … If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.”

Believers might experience hostility or misunderstanding from their family members about the Gospel, Søndergaard says, as Jesus did. If they buck against their own religious leaders as they seek to be faithful to Scripture, they might experience hostility, as Jesus did. And increasingly, believers might experience hostility from our own government in the form of lawfare, he warns, as Jesus did when the Romans got involved and sentenced Him to death through a sham trial. He advises people not to be afraid, but to be wise, innocent, and to trust in God.

Søndergaard wrote a book while locked up, using paper and a security pen that is too flexible to be used as a weapon. 412 Days will release on Sept. 14.

 

Aliya Kuykendall is a staff writer or The Stream. You can follow her on X @AliyaKuykendall and follow The Stream @Streamdotorg.