Review of Danny Silk’s ‘Unpunishable’

This book has some sound teachings here and there, but Mr. Silk cannot let go of his naive thesis of a non-punishment paradigm that leads to all sorts of restorations and wonders (the book claims).

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

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

My Take on the Shawn Bolz Situation

Now let’s begin.

The chapters on dismantling the punishment paradigm (1, 2, 3) 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 (chapters 8, 9, 10). The middle section on the various covenants is not so bad (chapters 4, 5, 6).

He 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. 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 with a redemptive purpose, to turn us into his sons and daughters.

Please see these video posts published by Minor Prophets:

The Passion Translation is Worse Than We Thought

Charismatic Pastors Respond to The Passion Translation

What Simmons is doing is awful. He’s getting rich from his fraud 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 this facile and naive restoration to leadership in the church.

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 fully expected Silk to discuss at length the women Welton wounded, and Silk barely does (pp. 150-52), but the whole section is about Repentance, Reconciliation, and Restoration of Welton, and nothing more about the victims.

This is a massive oversight. Maybe Silk believes the manipulated women were in the way of Welton, who named an academy after himself. Or maybe Silk believes they were seductresses and Delilahs, and Silk has to rescue the male leaders from these jezebels. They were little props who can be ignored in the bigger storyline, the drama of Welton’s restoration.

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 UNRESTORABLE. He needs to go out and get a regular job, possibly in sales, like real estate or at a 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 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

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.

On p.16 he 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 as if she were a member of the family. Word of advice to all pastors’ wives: don’t take in a young woman into your home to live. Your husband, the pastor, may have designs on her.

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

Or maybe Silk’s next book, if he writes one, can be titled along the lines of Unreinstatable: Ending Our Naive and Sometimes Dangerous Love Affair (No Pun Intended) with Reinstating Predatory Pastors and Leaders and Ignoring Their Victims and While Promising to Stop Obsessing over a Non-Punishment Paradigm As If This Is a Wonder Cure

In the end I do not recommend the book Unpunishable, because it is outdated now in 2026. 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 Welton:

Minor Prophets:

Bethel’s Book Platformed a Wolf and Silenced His Victims (May 18, 2026)

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)

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

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Review o C. Peter Wagner’s Book ‘Churchquake’

Review of C. Peter Wagner’s Book ‘Apostles and Prophets’