Spring 1991

The first personal attack against me came at the Easter conference in 1991. I was called to a meeting with Steinar Bratlie, Erling Ekholt and others. They wanted to bring charges against me before Sigurd Bratlie. The whole set-up of this meeting was, to put it mildly, rather strange for me. Erling Ekholt, whom I had helped so much over many years, wanted to attack me because the real estate market in Oslo had crashed. My business partner was present as a sort of witness to the condition of our company. They did not succeed in these accusations, even though they asserted that there was another anonymous person who had evidence worthy of a se­rious charge. After a while, I asked to be excused. I was sup­posed to lead a youth meeting that was about to start, and I needed to go. Sigurd Bratlie replied that if that were the case, he would leave too.

On Friday, April 5, 1991, we were invited to a meeting at Sigurd Bratlie’s home. The unknown accuser who had been referred to at the meeting at Brunstad turned out to be Steinar Hansen, the son of Enok Hansen. Sigurd Bratlie wanted two people present to act as witnesses, in addition to his wife. These were Sverre L. Riksfjord and Bernt Aksel Larsen. By pure coincidence, we had discovered what Steinar Hansen had planned to present as evidence. Basically, he was of the opinion that I had borrowed money “over my head,” and that there was an unrealistically high appraisal value on our prop­erty. He had, in fact, checked this at the registry and found that I had considerably high bonds using the property as col­lateral. So before the meeting, I was able to inform those who were to attend as witnesses what my actual loans were. The amount was really quite modest. Moreover, the bonds that Hansen considered evidence of huge debts were nothing more than empty bonds, without any underlying debt. I used these bonds to provide the required security in connection with the contracting work, and they had not yet been deleted.

The meeting at Sigurd Bratlie’s home progressed in more or less the same way as the meeting at Brunstad. Steinar Hansen was forceful. He brought gross accusations and called me a swindler, among other things. What he didn’t know was that my silent witnesses had detailed information about the subject of his accusations. When Steinar had fin­ished, my witnesses laid out the facts, and everything col­lapsed as a ridiculous misunderstanding. Sigurd Bratlie be-gan to lose patience, and when after a while talk arose of new, previously unknown circumstances, he demanded to have it in writing. On April 8, Steinar Hansen wrote four new counts of indictment and handed them to Bratlie. These accusations were, by and large, taken from the company accounts. To be-gin with, there was the matter of parking fines, which they asserted I had not paid by the first deadline, and that I had used company money from late-delivery fees to pay them. The next claim was that I owed the church 10,000 crowns. This was quickly shown to have been paid back long ago. The last two points were about failure to pay taxes and fees.

Sigurd Bratlie summoned everyone to a meeting on April 12, and those who attended were Steinar Hansen, my busi­ness partner; Steinar Bratlie, my bookkeeper; Bent Risnes; Erling Ekholt; and a number of others who had some kind of connection with the matter. Bernt Stadven was supposed to lead the meeting, but it turned into a rather weird encounter. My bookkeeper maintained that Sigurd Bratlie had given a message in which he said that people who owed money (or, in any case, in the manner that I did) were not to serve in the church. Then came a good deal of back and forth discussion about what Bratlie currently thought and had previously thought about the question. To their great dismay Bratlie—who was present, and crystal clear—knew more about what he had spoken than they did. On top of this, there were ques­tions about the state of the company’s finances and my own private finances. They were extremely interested in whether the company or I personally would be able to pay the company’s debt, or whether we were on our way to bank­ruptcy. As far as my opposers were concerned, going bank­rupt would be clear evidence of my immorality and would place me on the outside. I had spoken with my parents long before this. Their house in Grefsen was now worth quite a bit, and they were prepared to contribute the capital, if necessary, to prevent others from suffering losses. When I was able to say that I had sufficient capital, and had had it available for a long time, my opponents were greatly disappointed. By this time, our company crisis was behind us, and these envious men seemed to have lost the battle totally.

The meeting was adjourned, but I asked to talk with Erling Ekholt one on one. I wanted to go through our history to­gether and try to make him see how ridiculous this had become, and how far from the gospel he had now deviated.

Soon after this, my parents traveled to Horten to visit Johanne and Trygve Sandvik. Liv Stadven was their only child, and Johanne was my father’s older sister. She was then eighty-five and blind, but of completely sound mind. As soon as my parents entered the room, she said that they didn’t need to say a thing, but that recently there had been a tremendous battle in the spirit world. She hadn’t heard anything about what was happening from Bernt or Liv Stadven, but she had sensed in her spirit that some people were out to get me. She proclaimed that the battle was over and that no one would be able to do me any harm.

Things did not settle down in Oslo, however, and Olaf Bekkevold’s involvement became more clear. On Monday, May 6, I was called to a meeting with Olaf Bekkevold at Sigurd Bratlie’s home, where Bekkevold was informed that he was dismissed as joint-leader in Oslo. On the following Tuesday, he gathered his troops, and they went to the Wednesday meeting armed with a plan to confront Sigurd Bratlie in public.

Ironically, on this fateful Wednesday evening, we had a cri­sis with our sewer pipe at home. I owned a house together with another church family, though sadly this brother was part of Bekkevold’s group. So I was on my own with the sewer problem and couldn’t possibly go to the meeting. Another brother came to my home to get me out of the sewer trench—almost using threats—trying to get me to go to the meeting so that I could get even worse sewage thrown at me at the meet­ing hall in Ryen. I stayed home and fixed the pipe, to the joy of my family and my neighbors.

At the Wednesday meeting on May 8, Sigurd Bratlie started by speaking against backbiting, but Olaf Bekkevold’s people quickly came up to the pulpit. One after another they came with their complaints against me and Sigurd Bratlie, showing their support for Olaf Bekkevold at the same time. Sigurd Bratlie sat quietly and listened, and when there was a brief pause, he encouraged the friends to be bold and make use of the opportunity. Olaf Bekkevold spoke later in the “séance,” claiming that “no one needs to speak on my behalf, but if Kåre Smith is allowed to continue the way he is, then the church will be destroyed.”

On Friday, May 10, Sigurd Bratlie held another brothers’ meeting at 35 Vogtsgate. Olaf Bekkevold was asked to bring four witnesses with him. There were three other brothers there too. At that meeting, Olaf Bekkevold’s Wednesday night message was read aloud in its entirety. One sentence in par­ticular was referred to: “As for the outcome of his business—that in itself is not so important. This is more about his spiri­tual situation.”

Olaf Bekkevold was given the floor and asked to clarify just what it was about my spiritual situation that was so bad. There was a long pause. We sat there in total silence and waited . . . until he excused himself, saying his mind had suddenly gone blank. So a number of the previous accusa­tions were brought up again. One of the things Bekkevold previously alleged was that I was teaching the young people to drink. This was supposed to have taken place in Australia—where I had never been. A young brother who was present spoke at the meeting about when he had been on a flight with Olaf Bekkevold, that Bekkevold had drunk both their glasses of wine.

After a little while, Sigurd Bratlie asked Bekkevold if he would stop his backbiting. After some hesitation, Bekkevold agreed. Then Bratlie said that he would like to reinstate him as an elder. Bekkevold took my outstretched hand, and after­wards we had a prayer meeting.

Bernt Aksel Larsen, who had been present the whole time, drove Sigurd Bratlie home from the meeting. He wanted Bratlie’s opinion as to whether, in his eyes, Olaf Bekkevold had really been backbiting. Bratlie replied as follows: “I don’t think it is possible for me to destroy Olaf with too much good­ness.”

The reconciliation didn’t last many hours. Once he was back among his own, Bekkevold called Bratlie, wanting a new confrontation. This time he wanted to resign as elder. His wish was granted, and Sigurd Bratlie called for another broth­ers’ meeting on Tuesday, May 14, for all the brothers in the church. This time Bratlie had a different strategy. He went up to the pulpit and said that he would like everyone who was thankful for Kåre Smith’s ministry to come forward and sing a song. Almost everyone came forward, including—ironically enough—Olaf Bekkevold. Thus, everyone who wanted to talk about parking fines and all my other “sins” had the wind taken out of their sails.

At the beginning of June, Sigurd Bratlie traveled to a con­ference in Ohio in the USA. A number of brothers thought he should remain in Oslo, the situation in the church being what it was. With an unshakable faith that God was steering every­thing, Bratlie had a bit of fun with those who were so unbe­lieving that they thought he should stay home. Several other Norwegian brothers also traveled to the conference. One morning at the breakfast table, the subject of the accusations against me was broached. Bratlie then peered up from his breakfast and said: “A number of people are trying to attack Kåre, but they won’t be able to find anything. What will hap­pen now, on the other hand, is that God will raise up an ex­ample for the coming generations.” There was silence at the table.