BENNY HINN, FAKE HEALER?
by Jojo Robles
Manila Standard, The Phillippines
February 12, 2005
Is American evangelist Benny Hinn a fake faith healer? And if he is,
do we really need any more of his kind?
A Web site () put up and maintained by a man
calling himself Pastor Yves Brault has some interesting comments about
the visiting evangelist, who is currently in Manila for a series of
prayer/healing rallies.
Brault has written a 232-page book called The True Face of Fake Faith
Healers (2000, $ 19.95 at amazon.com), in which he accused Hinn and
other prominent American evangelists of using “mesmerism” to con people
seeking miracle cures for various ailments during their prayer rallies.
Brault claims to be a pastor who gained first-hand knowledge of Hinn’s
brand of fakery when he and his family moved from Montreal, Canada
to Orlando, Florida, where they became members of Hinn’s church. The
author also alleges that Hinn’s methods are popular among American
evangelists such as Kathryn Kuhlman, Aimee Semple McPherson, Morris
Cerullo, Jim Bakker, Rodney-Howard Browne and John Avanzini.
In November 2004, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. ran a story on
Hinn’s ministry in a program called “The Fifth Estate.” According
to the network’s Web site (), Benny Hinn was born Toufik
Benedictus Hinn in the coastal city of Jaffa in Israel in 1952. He was
one of eight children born to an Armenian mother and a Greek father.
According to the program, the Greek Orthodox Hinn family migrated
to Canada, settling in Toronto in 1968. Benny, who by this time was
a young teenager, began attending Georges Vanier high school, north
of Toronto.
At school, Benny befriended a group of religious students who
introduced him to prayer meetings and teaching of the Gospel. Benny
eventually became a Born Again Christian, despite concerns and initial
opposition of his family.
When he was 21, he attended a healing service in Pittsburgh headlined
by evangelist Kathryn Kuhlman. She would become a major influence on
his life, so much so, that he emulates her style to this day.
* * *
Benny Hinn began his healing ministry in Toronto by hosting his own
evangelical program on local television. His success in Canada inspired
him to travel with his healing missions. In Orlando, Florida he met
and married Suzanne, the daughter of a local pastor and it was there
that Benny Hinn began to build his evangelical empire.
Today he is known as Pastor Benny, “one of the best-known and possibly
richest televangelists in the world. Each year he travels the world
conducting so-called miracle healing crusades that are very closely
patterned to a rock concert tour,” the network said.
It also noted that some Christian groups have been critical of Benny
Hinn for misinterpreting scriptures on a number of occasions. The
Apologetics Index, an online resource on religions, says he has been
criticized by a number of Christian watchdog groups for not joining
the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.
The council is the leading accreditation agency that helps Christian
ministries earn the public’s trust through adherence to seven standards
of accountability. It has over 1,100 members, including Pat Robertson
and Billy Graham. Benny Hinn refuses to join.
Under US tax laws, the Hinn Ministry is not legally obligated to make
its finances public because it is a religious organization. Benny
Hinn insists that every penny is spent on God’s work.
But The Fifth Estate obtained confidential financial records from
inside the Hinn ministry and quoted a forensic accountant who said
“it would be hard to persuade me that you had to incur that kind of
expense in order to accomplish a business objective.”
The expenses include stays at the prestigious Lanesborough Hotel,
next to Buckingham Palace and frequented by celebrities such as
Madonna and Michael Jackson, and cash tips amounting to $ 5,000 to
the staff of the Savoia Hotel in Milan, Italy.
* * *
In an an e-mail to members of Philippine media recently, Pastor
Brault warned Pinoys about Hinn and his alleged criminal activities.
Brault quoted a letter that he alleged was written to him by another
disenchanted former member of Hinn’s church.
The letter-writer noted that Hinn will be holding his “miracle
crusades” in Manila at the Luneta grandstand on Feb. 11 to 13. “As
an ex-member for two years of Benny’s church, I feel compelled to
inform you of Benny Hinn’s real source of power. Do not be fooled
if you see others who appear to be healed from ailments like back
troubles, heart conditions, even asthma because these are ailments
that mesmerism can also relieve.
“Mesmerism, discovered in the 18th century by Fran Anton Mesmer is
best defined as follows: The capacity of raising the emotional state
of a person or a crowd to an abnormal but controllable intensity.’ It
is also referred to as controlled hysteria.
“Benny has disguised this old hypnotic technique with the religious
term anointing’ and people are duped. In Benny’s crusades, most of
the individuals who falsely believe to be healed have only one goal in
mind, and that is to get on the platform and to be touched by Benny.”
Brault claims that in a crusade in Calgary, Canada, Benny told a
woman she was healed from AIDS. The same woman died of aids a few
weeks after the crusade.
He also related the case of Amanda and Mila Prakash, an Indian couple
who pledged $ 2,000 to Benny Hinn’s ministry after their son Ashnil,
who was terminally ill, was “healed” when the evangelist laid hands
on him in a crusade held in Portland, Oregon. When Ashnil died,
the Prakashes were devastated, Brault claims.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
www.fakefaithhealers.com
www.cbc.ca