Anti-trafficking charity, Hope for Justice are yet to respond to serious concerns raised HERE and HEREabout their founder and ex-CEO, Ben Cooley. US-based charity, Sole Hope who provide health support in Uganda are yet to respond after THIS guest blog raised concerns of the charity’s racism, financial mismanagement and mistreatment of staff. Current Hope For Justice CEO, Tim Nelson is implicated within harm Sole Hope caused staff, and has also not responded to any of the articles.
Many questions have been raised about Ben Cooley’s conduct, the relationship between him and his successor Tim Nelson and their setting up of a consultancy firm, and his personal and professional relationship with US-based charity Sole Hope. UK-based readers may be more familiar with Hope for Justice, US-readers will probably be more familiar with Abolition International, Christian singer songwriter Natalie Grant’s charity. In 2014, Abolition International merged with Hope for Justice.
In mid-December, Sole Hope announced their UK launch in THIS Instagram video, headed up by UK-based Phil Smith. Their founder, Asher Telleen, is currently in a relationship with Hope for Justice’s founder and disgraced CEO, Ben Cooley. Hope for Justice remain unwilling to disclose what Cooley was sacked for, unlike 24-7 Prayer, who late last year offered transparent communications HERE about allegations of serious misconduct by their International Team Leader Mike Andrea, in his work at Global Generation Church in Kent (the allegations against him can be found on THIS blog from Steph Dickinson). Recognising that there may be others who have been hurt, 24-7 Prayer’s initial statement says, “anyone else who wishes to make any kind of complaint to come forward by contacting Elisa Alberto, one of our trustees, via the dedicated email: contact@igniteand.com. Any communication will be handled discreetly and with confidentiality.”
24-7 Prayer seem to be handling the situation with transparency and responsibility, seeking to ensure others who may have been harmed can make a disclosure if they choose to. 24-7 Prayer is a Christian prayer movement; they are not an organisation working to address abuse, particularly abuse towards women. And yet, they have taken strong, transparent action regarding allegations of abuse. Which is why it is deeply disturbing that Hope for Justice, an organisation set up primarily to address men’s abuse and violation of women, has never taken such steps.
While we remain in the dark about why Ben Cooley was sacked, questions persist about whether his behaviour involved power misuse (particularly towards women), whether any of his sackable behaviour constituted sexual harassment, and whether it involved misuse of charitable funds. What we do know from THIS guest blog is that Cooley did have an extra-marital affair with Asher Telleen. The impact on Ben’s wife Debs and their daughters must be brutally painful; particularly given that Debs co-founded Hope for Justicewith Ben and will have given much of her life since then to support the charity. That Cooley’s behaviour took place during a global pandemic must compound the challenges his family face.
By refusing to honestly answer questions about Cooley’s sackable conduct, Hope for Justice are facilitating Cooley in rebuilding his platform. It is unclear whether efforts he made to build his own platform while at Hope for Justice were paid for out of his own pocket, or whether they were funded by Hope for Justice and worked on by Hope for Justice’s staff. If the latter is the case, questions must be raised about whether this was a legal or ethical use of Hope for Justice funds and whether Hope for Justice required Cooley to pay back any funds spent on personal platform building when he was sacked for gross misconduct.
In mid-October, Ben Cooley disclosed on his Facebook page painful information about his childhood. Messages flooded in from across his network, cheering him on and offering support, including high profile voices who have remained silent about Cooley’s gross misconduct. Apparently Ben Cooley deserves more support than the wife and daughters he has abandoned. Using a personal history of having been a victim to perform a bait and switch that allows Cooley to no longer be the bad guy is not only manipulative, but it perpetuates the harmful myth that being abused makes someone more likely to be abusive; stigmatising victims and colluding with abusers.
Ben Cooley is not the victim of a spiritual attack, he is a perpetrator of harm. He has harmed his family, the organisation he founded and the witness of the Gospel. While redemption has always been part of the Christian tradition, the cheap grace which refuses to acknowledge the horror of sin and the pain humans choose to cause other humans devalues the Gospel and colludes with powerful men. Hope for Justice, for all their values and fancy name have diminished hope and are refusing transparency to ensure that justice cannot be done.
Jesus’ words in Matthew 23:27-28 come to mind, “Woe to you…you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean. In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”
In July 2021, Hope for Justice’s current Interim US Partnerships Manager Drü Collie (ex-husband of Cooley’s current partner Asher Telleen) publicly endorsed Cooley on LinkedIn: “Ben is a big mind. He thinks about things that the rest of us overlook. As a result, he created an international organization and led his team to discover deeper insights and world-changing ideas. Ben is business savvy and that is complemented by his creative acumen, fastidiousness, and mastery of storytelling. He’s a pro and is definitely someone you want on your side of the table.”
I cannot imagine how painful it must for those who have been hurt by Cooley, including his wife and children, to know that current senior Hope for Justice staff are supporting Ben.
Back in February 2016, Mark Bailey stepped down from leadership of New Wine (a UK-based Christian event and network of churches) after he had an extramarital affair. When powerful men have affairs, it is always an abuse of their power. There is a Christian moral imperative to remain in marital faithfulness, but when someone (almost always a man) has high power and status, an affair will inevitably be conducted with someone less powerful. In order to maintain that affair, the powerful man will misuse his power with others within the organisation, lying and manipulating those around him. In Christian contexts, that manipulation may include misusing and abusing spiritual or theological principles.
Just over a year after being removed from New Wine leadership, in May 2017, Mark Bailey was employed as Strategic Partnerships Director at Hope for Justice. An organisation dedicated to addressing some of the most egregious forms of power misuse (human trafficking) employed a high profile Christian leader who had misused his power. This role was a bridge to Bailey becoming Lead Pastor of Cheltenham-based Encounter Church in January 2019. It is interesting then, that in November 2021, New Wine and Hope for Justice announced a partnership, with Hope for Justice sponsoring their 2022 leadership conference. Given that Hope for Justice employed New Wine’s disgraced most senior leader less than five years ago, this seems an interesting approach to take.
Phil and Sarah Smith began leading Manchester-based Vinelife church in 2008. It became a Jesus Culture affiliated church in 2015. And in March 2021, the church announced, in a now deleted post:
“On Monday 8th March, Phil (Smith) made us aware of unfaithfulness in his marriage that had happened over a period of time. The Trustees and Senior Team agreed that this conduct was unacceptable and incompatible with his role as Senior Leader and during an ongoing HR process, Phil offered his resignation on Thursday 11th.
Sarah will take a period of compassionate leave. We are fully committed to supporting her and the children at such a difficult time and to helping both Phil and Sarah navigate the path toward restoration for the whole family.”
The passive language within the statement is interesting. Phil did not actively cheat on his wife, there was a passive “unfaithfulness in his marriage”. But putting that aside, it is interesting that Sole Hope UK will be led by the same Phil Smith, who less than a year ago was removed from church leadership after having an affair.
Another interesting turn of events relates to Ben Cooley’s parents, Anne and Chris Cooley. They run New Hope Uganda (UK), set up to provide “Fundraising and sponsorship to support a Christian charity in Uganda which provides education, health and welfare services.” Their organisation’s registered charity number is 1171909. It transpires that this charity number is no longer called New Hope Uganda UK, but is instead the charitable number for Sole Hope.
Sole Hope’s US-Board has five members. Asher Telleen (Ben Cooley’s current partner), Bridgitte Hatfield, Jessica Faulkner, Gareth Henderson (whose name is wrongly spelled on their 990 form) and Tom Lister. Gareth Henderson was previously a Board member for Hope for Justice’s project the Slave Free Alliance, while actor Tom Lister was Hope for Justice’s UK Partnerships Coordinator; having previously completed a Europe-wide cycle with Ben Cooley to raise funds for Hope for Justice in 2013.
Having been sacked from Hope for Justice for gross misconduct, Ben Cooley seems to be growing influence and power throughout Sole Hope’s US and UK work. This is concerning given that he was fired, less than a year ago, for conduct that remains unknown and could be related to sexual harassment and financial mismanagement. Those concerns grow in light of Ben Cooley’s and Tim Nelson’s willingness to take $1000s in consultancy from Sole Hope while Ugandan staff survived on a 25% pay cut. Though perhaps Tim Nelson’s business relationship with Ben Cooley sheds some light on why Hope for Justice remain unwilling to be transparent about Ben Cooley’s gross misconduct.
Thankfully, it seems that those who have been hurt by Sole Hope have a hope greater than the organisation they worked for, but it is likely that many will have lost a significant amount of hope for justice given the way that Hope for Justice has behaved.
I don’t bring light to this situation because I want to bring into disrepute the church, Christian charities or individuals. There is a quote from an unknown writer on my wall that is often falsely attributed to Augustine. It says, “Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.”
I am angry at the harm that has been caused. I am angry that influential Christians continue to support Ben Cooley. I am angry that there is so little justice for those who have been hurt. My hope is rooted and found in Jesus whose love is for all and whose ministry empowered the powerless; overturning tables and speaking truth to the powerful. And it is in Him that I take courage to challenge these individuals and systems, forever taking heart with confident hope that in the end, Jesus has overcome the world.
Some questions:
- Do Sole Hope supporters and staff know that Ben Cooley seems to have amassed an inordinate amount of power over both the UK and US Sole Hope boards?
- When will Hope for Justice live up to their name and enable justice by being transparent about why Ben Cooley was sacked?
- Why are some Hope for Justice staff still supporting Ben Cooley?
- Why does Ben Cooley seem to be establishing a club for powerful Christian men who misuse their power and cheat on their wives?
- What responsibility do the Sole Hope board have for safeguarding the organisation against unfaithful men who have misused power representing Sole Hope?
- Should New Wine be in partnership with Hope for Justice now this information has come to light?
- When will those who are still supporting Ben Cooley begin to hold him to account for the harm he has caused?
Other posts:
Pre-this one:
- Why did Hope For Justice remove Ben Cooley?
- More questions about Ben Cooley
- Guest blog: My Sole Hope story
Post this one:
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