How the Toronto Blessing helped build America’s most unusual church

In today’s Big Story podcast, in 1994, a small Toronto church gave birth to a bizarre spiritual movement that spread across the country and the globe. It was known as the Toronto Blessing, and among its many eventual destinations was a church named Bethel in Redding, California.

More than a quarter century later, Bethel is one of the most powerful—and strangest—churches in America, featuring worshipping that has been described as cult-like, flaunting public health orders and claiming evidence of all sorts of supernatural phenomenon. How did this church become so huge? What role did the Toronto Blessing play in its evolution? And how much power do its leaders wield in the United States and beyond?

GUEST: Tara Jean Stevens, host and creator of Heaven Bent

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