Posted on 01/24/2005 10:20:39 PM PST by Gengis Khan
BANGALORE: For three days now, the city has groaned under the weight of the Benny Hinn show. Many of the apparently healed have justified the need for the mega event despite the multitude of problems. But the jury is still out on whether Hinn is a fraud or someone with connections to the Lord.
Questions on people's minds regarding Hinn's healing methods and utterances indicate that all may not have been above board. Sample these: Why were only those cured allowed on stage? Colonel Samuel (retd) suffers from immobility of the right side of his body. Hoping for a miracle, he, with wife in tow, managed to shuffle up to the stage. Only to be jostled away by an organiser, who said: "Only if you are healed can you go on stage. If you're not healed by Jesus, your time has not come." Are they really cured forever? Why are there no doctors from city hospitals, but mostly from Hinn's ministry? What actually is the miracle? What is his modus operandi?
Neither Hinn nor his stooges have any answer except a tepid one, faith. One question that will probably never be answered is how many of the healed will wake up one of these mornings, after Hinn has left for greener pastures, feeling unhealed? Like all faith healers, Benny Hinn Inc. is unwilling to put the healing claims to scientific scrutiny.
Pre- and post-healing medical records can tell the truth, but nobody is volunteering this information; neither are they keeping a count of those healed. Responding to TOI's query on some people rushing to the stage for a cure, Hinn said: "This is psychosomatic healing wherein the mind is capable of enabling the body to think itself healed. Even before I come on stage, there have been cases where people have been healed; the music, prayers and atmosphere add to it."
Hinn's organisers had a different take. They said prayers were responsible for the healing and miracles.
Even before Hinn's visit, rationalists had voiced apprehensions about mass hysteria that can overtake a person and claim a cure. Explains magician KS Ramesh: "I have made Ganesha drink 10 litres of milk. I have performed the healing operations that psychic surgeons perform, but I tell people it's magic and there is no religion involved. Faith is a multi-million industry."
Hinn's ministry is an opulent one, making $100 million a year globally; of this, Rs 15-20 crore is raised by the Indian chapter alone. When Hinn said, "I have met the Pope twice," someone wondered aloud, "Why can't he cure the ailing Pope then?"
Nevertheless, Hinn will continue to reap the harvest of his Bangalore show till another prayer meet in Hyderabad in February 2006.
As many as 15,000 people who were allowed to get up close and personal with Benny Hinn's healing touch over the past three days were given sick passes, at a local church, well in advance of the event. This could be why only a chosen few were allowed to experience the healing powers at the three-day Festival of Blessings event of the US evangelist. The 15,000 sick passes were distributed at the Full Gospel Assembly of God Church, witnesses told The Times of India.
People were told three months ago that a certain pastor and healer by the name Benny Hinn would come. "We were told that whoever was sick in body and spirit could enroll himself for the healing," P Gangamma, a volunteer at the FGAG church stated.
Gangamma herself could not get a pass despite reportedly suffering from a uterus complaint. "I have a uterus problem and I don't know why they aren't taking me in for the healing," she said. Like Gangamma, there were Joseph Raja, Jennifer Nelson, Asha Pamreche and Satish Bambalgi, who were similarly not given access to Hinn's miraculous healing session.
A man, who was accompanying his cerebral palsy-affected son, said: "I will do anything to get my two-year-old son cured. I only want Hinn to touch him because I believe he will be cured. I have been coming to the programme for three days now, but could not meet Hinn."
The choice of people to be healed by Hinn was highly selective, which has cast a shadow of doubt on whether the healing was for real or a mere show. N Bharath, a paralysed man from Madhya Pradesh who was among the chosen lot, told TOI that he was asked by Hinn's American volunteers about how long it had been since he stood on his feet. When Bharath replied that it had been 13 years, the volunteers refused to allow him access to the healing.
He was among the thousands of people who came with hopes of getting cured but were turned away by Hinn's healing redtape. On Sunday, hundreds of people had to make way for a plethora of VVIP platinum pass-holders .
I find it interesting that the only people who whine and complain are those people who DON'T BELIEVE.
The secret is easy, Jesus said, "only believe". Since you don't .. you don't have to worry about being healed - you won't be. So what's the problem.
You assume the Crouchs are not frauds themselves. Your overall trust in them might be a bit misplaced. I am not going to say that all of their programming is unBiblical, because some of it is very Biblical; but much of it is not. And I would not be quick to disparrage any of their employees without knowing them as individuals.
I believe the healings are in Christ's name, not Hinns.
There have been a long list of healers that I believe were also healing in the name of Christ and I do not believe that goes against scripture at all.
Never trust a man who doesn't trust his own hair.
I don't know that all their programing has to even be religion. They can promote twinkies on a non-religious program and I don't think they would have broken a commandment.
I do think they consider real all the programing put forth as ministry though.
If you heard me whining or complaining, you're hearing things. The tone in my voice was contempt, utter contempt.
By the way, the Crouch's are not frauds. My own mother volunteered down in Tustin as one of the people who prayed with and for those that called in. She and much of her prayer community from church and others volunteered when it was close to nothing.
They are very real and sincere people despite how surreal it can all seem sometimes.
Poor thing!
Poor thing!
Unlike the thieving Preacher Hinn.
True they solicit money to pay the bills and grow the ministry as do all modern day preachers of all faiths. People have to pay for buildings, employees, travel, production, witnessing materials and other stuff.
Giving is requested and not required by force.
Where do you get that he is thieving from?
wow even Benny Hinn was passing the queer slam on poor ole Paul Crouch,,,,,,,,,
« « TODAY'S QUEER DAY NEWS » »
September 13, 2004
Paul Crouch gay sex scandal rocks Trinity Broadcast Network
Paul Crouch, the founder of the world's largest Christian broadcasting network, sought repeatedly to prevent a former male employee from going public with allegations of a sexual encounter between them eight years ago. Crouch, 70, president of the Trinity Broadcasting Network, reached a $425,000 settlement in 1998 with Enoch Lonnie Ford, the former worker, and Crouch later won a closed-door ruling when Ford tried to violate a provision of the settlement that barred him from discussing the alleged encounter. The claims could damage the Orange County-based Christian broadcasting empire Crouch and his wife began in 1973. The network, which depends heavily on donations, reaches millions of people around the world. San Mateo County Times
When Rick Jones, an ordained minister and former cop, heard his boss talking about another minister's gay sexual activity with an employee, he "got up and walked away," the Los Angeles Times reported on its front page yesterday. "I didn't want to hear gossip." But his boss was televangelist Benny Hinn, a staple on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, and Hinn was talking about TBN founder and president Paul Crouch. And the Los Angeles Times has reported that it's no longer gossip—it's a tale of attempted extortion, litigation, and tragedy. We're admittedly fixated to a scandal that just might turn into the biggest thing since Jim and Tammy Bakker fell from grace
...And thou shalt set up tents for the multitudes
and in them shine your brightest spotlights
and bring them singing and chanting up on stage
where thou shalt take credit for My work
that thy coffers may overflow with coin and currency
that ye might get a decent hairdo.
(Book of Showmanship; Ch 1, verses 4-9)
Where do you get that he is thieving from?
A reasonable question. Here's a place to start:
Benny Hinn: Healer or Hypnotist?
So what came of it all and what was the truth?
Throughout history charlatans have cloaked themselves in religious garb.
he paid the guy off with hush money,, end of story and what was he doing up there at the cabin with the guy alone anyway?,, open one of your blinded eyes at least
Barry Karr owns that site and makes money from books by trying to debunk Christianity and is aligned with many atheist groups all over the net.
You expect an atheist to validate God through science these days do you?
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