The National Secular Society has reported a newly registered Christian charity to the regulator after its chair claimed “the devil will come in” if wives refuse their husbands sex.
It also broadcast a sermon implying being gay should be treated as a mental illness.
Wellspring Ministry registered under the charitable purpose ‘the advancement of religion’ in January. Its registered address is in Southwest London but the church itself is in Reading. Charities are legally required to act for the public benefit.
‘You do not have authority over your body’
In a 2022 sermon titled ‘END TIME MESSAGE & SEX’, chair of trustees Bienvenue Hombessa, who also goes by Ben Bienvenue, tells married women in the audience: “you do not have authority over your body”. The sermon is available on the charity’s YouTube channel.
Men in the audience can be heard saying “amen”, but Hombessa rebukes the women for not being loud enough: “I can’t hear you sisters, no I can’t hear you”.
He goes on: “Within the context of marriage, your body, sister – it does not belong to you.”
“If you keep saying no – once fine, twice fine, three times the devil will come in”, he warns them.
He tells husbands: “If your wife is not your first sheep, if your wife does not listen to you, you better get out of the problem.”
In a 2025 sermon titled UNDERSTANDING SEXUAL IMMORALITY’, Hombessa claims “sex in marriage is a right”, not an “if, but or perhaps”.
He says men and women should not kiss before marriage: “A man kiss a woman in [sic] the mouth, it will make him vomit”.
Men who dress as women “revolting” and “repulsive”
In the same sermon, Hombessa laments that “the things that used to be forbidden is [sic] allowed”, including gay marriage.
Hombessa goes on to say gay people used to be taken to an “institution” and given an “injection”. Gay people used to be considered “mentally unwell” but “today it has become normal”, he laments.
The video description says Hombessa provides “deliverance (the casting out of demons)” and “Spiritual Warfare for yourself or others”.
He says men who dress as women are “revolting” and “repulsive”, but there is “nothing you can do against them”. They have the law “protecting them”, he complains. Our “whole civilisation” is “absolutely antichrist”, he says.
Hombessa also bemoans that the bible is ‘no longer read’ in American schools because “women protested”.
Government recognises “absolutely shocking” misogyny at religious charities
Most recently, the NSS raised concerns about Hatch End Islamic Centre after a preacher claimed it is “mandatory” for a wife to “do the housework” and “serve” her husband. The Commission provided the charity with “advice and guidance”.
Last year, the Government said the cases cited in the NSS’s Mission and Misogyny report, which documents misogyny promoted or condoned by charities registered under the charitable purpose of ‘the advancement of religion’,were “absolutely shocking”.
Cases include An-Noor Masjid and Community Centre, which the NSS reported to the regulator after it hosted a sermon last year that said a man can hit his wife if she refuses to give him intercourse.
Last year, the NSS also reported Christian charities for promoting ideas that homosexuality “will destroy us”, is a “degrading perversion”, and can be ‘healed by Jesus’. All three charities received “advice and guidance”.
NSS: ‘Advancement of religion’ allowing misogyny and homophobia “to be spread with impunity”
National Secular Society spokesperson Alejandro Sanchez said: “It is entirely unsurprising to find another religious charity implying that women cannot refuse sex and that gay men are mentally ill.
“The charitable purpose ‘the advancement of religion’ is allowing misogyny and homophobia to be spread with impunity. It must be removed.
“Short of this, the Government’s recent proposals to empower the Charity Commission to shut down extremist charities should be implemented as a matter of urgency.”