Slayed in the Spirit: Bethel Church and the Rise of Christian Supernaturalism

On December 14, 2019, two-year-old Olive Heiligenthal passed away in her sleep.

Olive’s mother, Kalley Heiligenthal, is a worship leader at Bethel Church, a charismatic megachurch based in Redding, California. Following an impassioned worship service the next morning, Heiligenthal took to Instagram and called on the “global church to stand with us in belief that He will raise this little girl back to life.”

And, thus, the stage was set for a resurrection of Biblical proportions.

Founded in 1954, Bethel Church has been a lightening rod of controversy in various corners of evangelical Christianity long before #WakeUpOlive began trending on Twitter.

Bethel Church adheres to a particular brand of Kingdom theology made famous by the Pentecostal Movement at the turn of the 20th Century and modernized by the New Apostolic Reformation. With its emphasis on “Signs and Wonders,” followers believe Christians have the natural ability to manifest the Kingdom of God on Earth through supernatural acts like speaking in tongues, faith healings, prophetic visions, exorcisms, and — in rare cases — raising the dead.

A section of Bethel’s website lists dozens of pages of testimonies of “healings,” and a well-circulated YouTube video…