Review of Danny Silk’s Book ‘Unpunishable’

This book has some sound teachings here and there.

Here is a link to his book: Unpunishable: Ending Our Love Affair with Punishment (2019).

This post has a companion piece. In his 2009 book reviewed at the link he introduced his “unpunishable” thesis:

“Wham!” “Click–it’s over!” My Review of Danny Silk’s Book ‘Culture of Honor’

Shawn Bolz wrote the Foreword to the 2019 book, and his life is a disaster.

Now let’s begin.

Chapters 1, 2, 3 on dismantling the punishment paradigm are the naive section. Silk believes that if the church were to move away from punishing transgressors, then they could repent, reconcile and be restored. Evidently holding abusive and predatory pastors to high standards is punishing them. Those three terms make up chapters 8, 9, 10. The middle section, chapters 4, 5, and 6 on the various biblical covenants, is not so bad, unless I want to get picky, but not in this review. .

Silk quotes from Hebrews 12:1, 3-8, 11 (p. 106), which speaks of correction, but the problem is that he uses The Passion Translation, which has proven to be fraudulent and filled with errors. Of course it mistranslates v. 6, which quotes from the Septuagint (pronounced sep-TOO-uh-gent, a third century B.C. translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek). The Greek is clear: it means to whip or beat or more broadly discipline. TPT softens the term a lot with “training,” as if God is a life-coach. No, Hebrews 12 3-11 is about punishment but with a redemptive purpose, to turn us into his sons and daughters.

Please see these video posts about The Passion Translation, published by the Minor Prophets:

The Passion Translation is Worse Than We Thought

Charismatic Pastors Respond to The Passion Translation

What “Dr.” Brian Simmons is doing with his translation is awful. He’s getting rich from his errors and misrepresentation of his credentials.

The worst section of Silk’s book is the last one. It is mostly about Jonathan Welton, whose life has turned into a disaster even today. Silk writes: “He had read my books and was eager to have me bringing the message of healthy, honoring relationships and culture to the students of his online Bible school, Welton Academy” (p. 149). I imagine one of his books Welton had read was Culture of Honor (2009), which restores fallen ministers in an honor paradigm (as opposed to a punishment paradigm). The restoration seems easy, which is why Silk wrote in his 2009 book “Wham!” “Click”!. Simple!

No wonder Welton loved the book (assuming he read it). He gets to be restored to ministry if he can just convince his counselors of his genuine repentance. He is unpunishable, which involves his facile and naive restoration to leadership in the church.

“Wham!” “Click–it’s over!” My Review of Danny Silk’s Book ‘Culture of Honor’

But the worst concept in Silk’s book is a missing word: victim.

Let me highlight it: victim.

He came close to it in chapter 7 on the five E’s, which are empathy, empower, explore, educate, expect. Explore means to look into who is affected by the problem. I expected Silk to discuss at length the women Welton wounded, but Silk barely does (pp. 150-52). The people affected are the family, the church, and so on. The whole section is about Repentance, Reconciliation, and Restoration of Welton, and nothing more about the victims.

This is a massive oversight. Maybe Silk believed at the time that the manipulative women were in the way of Welton, who named an academy after himself. Or maybe Silk believed they were seductresses and Delilahs, and Silk had to rescue the male leaders from these jezebels. They were little props who could be ignored in the bigger storyline, the drama of Welton’s restoration. The victims of his grooming were tossed aside.

Towards the end of the long struggle to restore Welton, Silk believes that Ben and Heather Armstrong have been restored, and people trust them. What about Welton? The Armstrongs can serve as a success story for him. Silk writes: “I hope and expect nothing less to be the case for Jonathan and Karen [Welton]. My goal in sharing their story, which is still very much in process, is to invite you into that same journey of repentance, reconciliation, and restoration” (p. 190).

It’s good to know their story is still in process in 2019, but at the time of this book review (June 2026) Welton is still UNREINSTATABLE. He needs to go out and get a regular job, possibly in sales, like real estate or at a high-quality car dealership.

In May 2026, Bethel Church, Redding, put out a statement that distinguishes restoration and reinstatement. Yes to restoration to God, always. But reinstatement to leadership no, or possibly no, depending on the rules that were broken and for how long. The restoration / reinstatement distinction is sound and contradicts Silk’s basic confusion that all restorations of “mighty” (my word) men of God work out to be the same: restoration to relationship with Christ and to leadership.

God can forgive and restore anyone to a right relationship with his Son, but not reinstate them to leadership. There’s a difference between the two:

Restoration to God ≠ Reinstatement to Ministry

On p.16 Silk used the word “affair” to describe yet another illicit relationship between a predatory pastor at Bethel school and an intern who had been living with the pastor and his family as if she were a member of the family. Word of advice to all pastors’ wives: don’t take a young woman who is not a minor into your home to live. Your husband may have designs on her.

In any case, the uneven power dynamic between a pastor and a parishioner does not make it an affair. It is predation. It is grooming. Even seduction and manipulation.

Mr. Silk’s next book needs to be about restoring the victims of the unequal abuse from a leader to a follower. Predatory pastors exist and can never be restored to the pastorate. Untrustworthy.

Maybe the next book, if he writes it, can be titled along these lines: Unreinstatable: Ending Our Naive and Sometimes Dangerous Love Affair (No Pun Intended) with Reinstating Predatory Pastors and Leaders and Ignoring Their Victims, and I Promise to Stop Obsessing over a Non-Punishment Paradigm As If This Is a Wonder Cure

That absurdly long title has a message: let’s flip the emphasis 180 degrees from protecting and focusing on the abusive clergy towards the victims. It seems Jesus did this in his ministry–coming against the religious leaders and ministering to the oppressed and needy.

In the end I do not recommend the 2019 book Unpunishable, because it is outdated now in 2026. But buy it only if you intend to critically evaluate the foolishness and naivete of the hyper-charismatics. Then you may be able to lead people away from the harm they inflict on the church, particularly the victims of clergy sexual abuse and other forms of clergy abuse.

Please see these exposés about Jonathan Welton and Ben Armstrong and Bethel, Redding, and Danny Silk:

Ron Cantor:

She Said It Was Abuse. They Called It an Affair (June 3, 2026)

Ben Armstrong Victim Tells Story of Grooming, Abuse from —My Thoughts (February 14, 2026)

The Minor Prophets:

Bethel’s “Unpunishable” Doctrine Is Reckless and Wrong. (May 21, 2026)

Bethel’s Book Platformed a Wolf and Silenced His Victims (May 18, 2026). The book is Unpunishable.

Wake and Win Podcast:

“I Have the Receipts…” || Eric Speaks Up about Welton and what people need to know (June 23, 2026)

Is Jonathan Welton Still Lying? (June 5, 2026)

This woman changed her mind about Jonathan Welton after THIS… (May 29, 2026)

14 Years. 12+ Victims. Why Is Jonathan Welton Returning to Ministry? (May 26, 2026)