he presence of Craig Portwood was claimed to be the reason that Chris left the Christian Media Network. As previously noted, Craig came to work for Christian Media in October of 2000. Chris and Sharon had already moved out, and Craig came to stay in the guest cabin and work nights as the evening board operator.

As soon as Craig came into the picture, he and Chris clashed. Chris immediately began to regularly criticize Craig to me. He told me his work was bad, or he's lazy, or just about anything he could think of. Chris repeatedly told me that Craig has a "dark spirit."

There were even occasions when Chris simply decided not to do the work he was paid to do. During one installment of the American Voice broadcast, at the end of the show host Francis Steffan remarked to Chris that he was surprised he didn't get any on-air phone calls. It turned out that Chris was talking to friends on the call in number through the entire show and didn't want to be interrupted.

Craig Portwood immediately saw through Chris Blodgett - thus replacing Susan as the primary target of his maliciously manipulative slanders. Craig forthrightly told me that in times past he had indeed used marijuana. He stated that he had been clean for some time. I grilled him on his current status, and he assured me that he was not smoking grass, and that he had never smoked it and come to the studio or done a broadcast. I took him at his word.

Because Susan and I had both smoked marijuana and taken drugs for a number of years before the Lord delivered each of us from that bondage, I know very well that such behaviour cannot be tolerated. Indeed, Chris Blodgett openly bragged that he was a former drug addict (we don't even know if that was true at this point). What we do know is that in the early days of his association with us, Chris had said that he smoked some "grass" in Nevada not terribly long before he came to Christian Media.

Apparently, Craig's open admission gave Chris the ammunition he wanted to attack and try to maneuver Craig out of the network. Chris claimed that Craig was broadcasting while he was loaded. Chris Blodgett told Ralph Haaff as well as me that he "knew" Craig was smoking dope. Chris has never seen Craig smoking marijuana, and he has no evidence at all to back up his accusations. His hidden attacks on Craig are, therefore, highly suspect as he has already stated how much he "hates" Craig Portwood.

Not once have I ever seen Craig smoking pot. Not once have I ever seen Craig intoxicated. Not once have I ever smelled any marijuana smoke on him. Conversely, I have Craig's word on the matter and he has never given me any reason to doubt it.

Chris made no effort to hide his hatred of Craig. On one broadcast, Chris did a Bible study on how you can't be a Christian and hate your brother. The next day, he privately stated how much he "hates that lazy fat ass" (10) - referring to the stocky Craig Portwood.

Late last year, Craig decided to move to California to marry a long-time friend and supporter of the Christian Media ministry that he had been corresponding with. He had met her at one of my speaking engagements. Leslie Flory had a very troubled history of emotional difficulties, but God was working His life out in her.

She had frequently written some rather disturbing letters to Christian Media, and Chris intervened and began to answer them. I personally read at least a dozen letters from Leslie, and some of them were disjointed, and even downright bizarre. Chris corresponded with her by letter and by telephone, and a somewhat strange letter writing relationship had developed. She once drove all the way up to Oregon from Central California to attend a Bible study with Chris. At that meeting, Chris sought to cast evil spirits that he claimed had possessed Leslie Flory.

Chris and Sharon both told me that this woman had evil spirits. I knew she was eccentric, but I attributed most of her difficulties to emotional problems. She said she had been married to an abusive man who was involved in the occult. There is more, but I do not wish to injure her with details in the event she reads this work. She is a fragile soul and needs our prayers. Chris sought to become a pastoral figure to her, but she shied away from him.

It turned out that Craig Portwood had met her years ago at one of my speaking events. After Chris heard that a romance had begun between Leslie and Craig, Chris threw a temper tantrum. He hit one of the tape recorders in the studio in disgust. At the same time he was visibly venting his anger over the impending marriage, he spoke to Ralph Haaff and told him how "happy" he was that the marriage was forthcoming! (11) It may be that Chris realized that even though he would lose his Svengali-like grip on one member of "his" flock, he would at least be rid of Craig. We later found that Leslie was privately tithing to Chris, and so Chris knew that when she married Craig Portwood, a reliable monthly check would come to an end.

Although I learned a great deal of this later, it was more than obvious that Chris continued to find Craig particularly threatening to his position, and continually tried to undermine Craig's position with me. In retrospect, I see now that I was the ultimate target all along.

After Leslie and Craig were married in California and set up house there, Craig insisted that Leslie stop the "mail-order counseling" with Chris and sought to work out their lives together before the Lord. After a brief period, the Lord seems to have moved on their hearts and they decided to come back to Oregon. Craig called and asked if we could still use him in the ministry.

I told him we didn't have room in the cabin because he and his new wife have a teen-age daughter, but if we could locate quarters nearby, we would be delighted to have him back. This was clearly a setback for the Blodgetts, and Chris was furious about the return of Craig Portwood. By this time, the Blodgetts were back to working on getting rid of Susan. Now they were going to have Susan and Craig both watching his secretive manipulations.

Meanwhile, we had already brought in Doug Hudson to replace Craig on the night studio shift. Chris hadn't yet started in on Doug, but with three people on the premises (Doug, Craig, and Susan) that weren't under the influence of Chris Blodgett's machinations, Chris was steadily losing ground in his increasingly transparent effort to seize control of the Christian Media ministry. I didn't know it at the time, but by this point Chris had begun to feed information to Steve Quayle and Bill Brumbaugh in what can only be characterized as a determined effort to destroy the Christian Media ministry. Chris threatened to leave the ministry if Craig came back.

When Craig and Leslie moved up to Oregon, Chris immediately turned up the heat. He immediately told me again how much he seriously disliked Craig and insisted that Craig should not be allowed to come back to Christian Media. Chris had already told me months before how much he distrusted Craig even before he moved to California to get married, so this was nothing new. Chris again told me that Craig was "dark" and his return would provide Satan with a "breech" in our spiritual defenses.

Almost immediately after making the move here, Craig and Leslie had a terrible fight and Leslie announced she was leaving him. Craig hadn't been back to work for a week when this occurred. The day Craig told me that Leslie had left him, I urged him not to make any hasty moves. Go home and try to work it out, I said. The next morning Craig called, and Leslie's brother had driven up from California the night before with a truck, packed up their worldly goods, and moved! Because Craig had sold his vehicle in Oregon to consolidate, Craig was left with no car in an empty house they hadn't lived in for a full week.

We had to drive over to pick him up to come to work. Leslie immediately turned to Chris with classic marital tales of verbal abuse, and more. We were saddened to hear of their pain.

Chris and Sharon immediately seized on the now extremely unstable Leslie to use as a weapon against Craig. Sharon quickly called Kathy Haaff to continue the now regular pattern of gossip. Sharon specifically stated that Craig had been in bed with his wife and her daughter smoking marijuana! Kathy and Ralph both related that the picture painted by Sharon was that the daughter was very young girl.

The truth is, Leslie's daughter is an immature 17 year old who had her own bedroom and this entire tale is a complete fabrication. I do not know precisely what Leslie told Chris and Sharon, but I now understand that they routinely "spin" every bit of information in an effort to further their long range plan. Sadly, Leslie is now in a vulnerable position with Chris Blodgett in a position of influence. The simple truth is a marital split is a private matter and should not be intruded upon unless the parties desire some form of intervention in an effort to reconcile the couple. To use either party for a political agenda is reprehensible, so we've had very little to say to Craig (or Leslie) on the subject. Unfortunately, Blodgett smelled blood over this emotional trauma.

At this same time, Chris was murmuring to the Haaffs about Craig. "What would you do if you knew someone was smoking pot then goes on the air to preach the word of God?" is an exact quote of a statement that Chris made to Kathy Haaff on the telephone. (12) This conversation occurred after the first of the year when Craig came back to Oregon with Leslie. During this same conversation, Chris then decided to go ahead and include Susan in his accusations, so he told Kathy that both Susan and Craig were smoking pot. Once again, I have thoroughly examined the matter and found the accusations to be baseless.

However, during this particular accusation, the Haaff's written notes included a crucial detail. Chris told Kathy Haaff that the Blodgetts' "friends from Colorado saw Susan in the woods smoking pot." (13) I have previously mentioned our friends from Colorado, but they never met Chris and Sharon Blodgett as the Blodgetts were out on tour when Dale Currey and his wife stayed with us. In the Steve Quayle/Bill Brumbaugh version of this lie, the folks from Colorado were said friends of Bill Brumbaugh. They weren't, and the only people besides Susan and myself that even knew this couple stayed with us was Chris and Sharon Blodgett. If you think this through, it means Chris is the original author of this lie.