Wayne Bent, the so-called New Mexico Messiah, was sentenced today to 18 years in prison as a result of his Dec. 15 conviction for criminal sexual contact of a minor when he lay in bed naked with two teenage girls who were part of his New Mexico cult, The Lord our Righteousness Church.
Bent, 67, said before he agreed to lie naked with the two underage girls, he warned them it could have serious consequences. “When the virgins came to me and asked to lie naked on my bed, I told them that this would open up the seven last plagues,” he said. “It surely did. I told them that this would enrage the natural world. It did. I told one of the young ladies that it might kill me to follow her requests. I asked her, ‘Would you still ask these things of me if it would kill me?’ She said ‘Yes,’ revealing the Spirit that had taken up residence within her. God spoke through her and made His premonition known at that time.”
Bent, in claiming he is the Son of God, claims with his sentencing that the messiah has been crucified anew and predicts a dire outcome for the world. “He [God] also showed me why the world had to convict me. It was because they were now going to be convicted by the heavenly court and found guilty for all of their hidden offenses before heaven. They convicted the Son of man and now they were going to be convicted.”
The judge in the Taos courtroom suspended eight years of Bent’s sentence, meaning he must serve 10 years in prison.
Bent has posted a 17-page response to his conviction on the church’s website http://strongcity.info/index.php/blog/entry/my_trial_and_my_resolution/#more-1.