This open letter was written in Danish with the main focus on Denmark. But as this is much bigger than Denmark and has influenced people all over the world, we decided to translate this into English.
16 nov 2023
Open letter to church leaders, congregations and organizations.
I pray that this letter may be received with an open heart.
I realize it may not be easy to receive this letter from me after everything that has happened. I don't want to come across as someone who is without fault either. I am aware that I could have done many things differently, which, of course, I regret.
I am writing this as a cry for help and hoping that some mature church leaders in Denmark will help us get to the bottom of this together. A hope that in exposing the lies, there can come understanding, forgiveness, and reconciliation. All for the benefit of God's kingdom in our country.
I hope that this letter will be the start of a group of leaders that can sit down with me, look at the evidence, and help judge this as Paul says here in 1 Corinthians 6:5:
"Is it so that there is not a wise man among you, not even one, who can judge between his brethren?"
The quote we just read is something Paul says in his first letter to the church in Corinth, where he writes about how they, as brothers, should not prosecute one another. Yes, how will they one day be able to judge the world if they cannot even judge among themselves? Paul saw it as a disgrace that those in the congregation could not judge things internally but instead went to the world outside the church, and there were lawsuits against each other. Feel free to read 1 Corinthians chapter 6 yourself.
I now want to ask the same thing to the congregations in Denmark: Is there anyone in the church of Denmark who can help so that it does not have to end with lawsuits and an embarrassing testimony for the whole of Denmark?
Because that would not benefit the kingdom of God and how the world looks at the church from the outside.
At its core, the case is about why I left Denmark and how I suddenly ended up in prison in the USA for over a year. The case is also about the lies I have been exposed to for many years now, lies that have spread around the church in Denmark.
So far, for several years, I have let it be and given it all over to God and instead focused on the good that He does.
The fact that I now reveal what has been going on is in no way due to bitterness or a thirst for revenge, not at all. I have learned to forgive my enemies, as Jesus has called me and all who follow him.
But these lies have reached a completely different level, turning to criminal acts, such as lying to Danish authorities, the FBI, Homeland Security, etc. These lies have had enormous consequences for my family, the ministry, and myself.
What has happened is of such a nature that the ordinary course of action for us would be to take legal action against those involved. I am especially thinking of André Jao Højer, the son of the Pentecostal priest in the Viborg Pentecostal Church, Ruben Moore Højer. André is the main perpetrator behind many of the things that have happened in Denmark and the main reason why I ended up in prison in the United States.
When I mention his name publicly for the first time, it is because we have chosen to take it a step further. We have just published a timeline on our new website, TorbenSondergaard.com, which shows what has happened and includes documents and names that have not been shown publicly before.
As you can read on the timeline, for many years after we were forced to fire him, André Jao Højer purposefully tried to destroy me and our ministry through manipulation, lies, and deception.
Through his father, Ruben Moore Højer, a Pentecostal priest in Viborg, he has also influenced many in the leadership of Danish church life.
André was also a big part of the program "God's Best Children," shown on TV2 in 2019. "God's best children" was devastating for me and my reputation in Denmark, and it meant that we were forced to close our center in Thisted. The programs also gave the organization InsideOut a breakthrough, which soon after began to receive financial support from the government. Shortly after I left Denmark, André became chairman of InsideOut, which works closely with Frikirkenet. As chairman of the organization InsideOut, André has been able to use his newfound power to spread a lot of false information about me to the authorities in Denmark and the USA, as well as influence FrikirkeNet through his lies and manipulation.
To show some of the power André still holds today even though he is no longer chairman of InsideOut, in week 44 of 2023, there was a good article about my case in the Christian newspaper “Udfordringen”(i.e., “the Challenge”) (written by former editor Henri Nissen), the new editor Simon Thidemann was contacted by André, who somehow managed to get Simon to withdraw the article. The fact that they retracted the article was put on the newspaper's front page the following week. Something that has never happened before. This happened even though we did not mention André by name and even though we have documentation for every claim in the article. Our lawyer also read through the article before it was published to make sure nothing was said that was incorrect. But Simon Thidemann, who never contacted us to see the evidence, chose to do what André asked and withdrew the article.
When we now come out with names and a timeline, it is because we see no other way out.
This has all gone way over the line, and it's time for the truth to come out.
How far we have to go with this also depends on whether there is someone in the church of Denmark who will step up and help get to the bottom of this. Because this, through André, has spread into the government and the management of FrikirkeNet.
It is now time for us to clean up everything that has been happening for so many years - things that are still happening.
I would prefer this to be something we can sort out internally within the church. This is because we believe it will be best for the kingdom of God.
If we can't solve it internally, I unfortunately see no other way out than to publicly present it and go to court. Yes, a third way out is, of course, to do nothing, which I have done for the past seven years.
I have not defended myself. I have again and again given it all over to God, who is the one who will one day judge the living and the dead. But now we experience precisely that it is God who brings it all forward. God wants to expose these lies, which I am thrilled about. He has opened the door to a strong Legal Team, and we are sitting today with a lot of evidence of what happened and who was involved.
I believe that God desires to handle much of this internally in the church so that true repentance and forgiveness can come and that we must learn from this together.
As I said, I am also not without fault in this, which I have written, and I have learned a lot during this time.
I want to end by saying that although I see no future for us in Denmark, I still have a great need for Denmark.
Our prayer is that this may be a new beginning for our country.
Feel free to share this letter with pastors, church leaders, churches, and organizations.
You can contact me at info@torbensondergaard.com.
God bless you
Torben Søndergaard