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	Sect Leader Arrested on Sex Charges By Ona Zachary eFluxMedia May 7, 2008 http://www.efluxmedia.com/news_Sect_Leader_Arrested_on_Sex_Charges_17269.html Wayne Bent, who also goes by the name of Michael Travesser, is the leader of an apocalyptic sect called The Lord Our Righteousness Church. According to The Associated Press, Bent was arrested Tuesday on three counts of criminal sexual contact of a minor and three counts of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, Department of Public Safety spokesman, Peter Olson, said. The arrest took place two weeks after state officials had removed two girls and one boy from Bent's New Mexico compound. The church leader has updated the sect's website to reassure its members. "Jesus had not committed any crimes, so the authorities had to invent some crimes to crucify him over. It is the same for me also. I have committed no crimes, but many crimes are being imagined and concocted in the minds of men to try and kill me again," Bent wrote. He also claims that God revealed to him in 2000 that he was the Messiah. Tough job for Bent, one might say. Bent's son, Jeff Bent, backs his father and is sure that the accusations are not true, although the sect leader admitted to have slept with his son's wife. "He hasn't done anything wrong. He hasn't committed any crimes. I don't question that there are things that have happened here that are shocking to people's cultural norms, but ... the things that have occurred here are not illegal," said Jeff Bent. Wayne Bent also admitted to having sex with his followers and lying naked with virgins. However, John Sayer, a former member of the Lord Our Righteousness Church, told CNN affiliate KOAT that he left because Bent wanted to sleep with his daughters, aged 14 and 15 at that time. Wayne Bent is a former Seventh-day Adventist that parted from this church and founded his own in 1987.
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