It must have been the presence of Benny Hinn’s “publicist” that caused the interviewer to pretend to ask Hinn probing questions like this one on ABC News last night:
“Are you taking advantage of people?”
Huh?! Let me rephrase that question for you—and would someone please distract the “publicist” with a platter of bear claws long enough for me to get it out?
“Mr. Hinn, after 30-plus years of ministry you have not offered proof of one verifiable miracle in your crusades. You receive a salary in excess of $500,000 per year from a secretive ministry run by family members and friends. You travel in a private jet and stay in hotel rooms worth upwards of $5,000 per night. You appear regularly on TBN and promise viewers that they will receive wealth, spiritual protection and salvation for their family members if they give you and TBN their money. Many of your donors are the poor and elderly, with limited financial resources. Trained hypnotists and illusionists who attend your crusades claim that they use the very same techniques to manipulate suggestible people in their audiences. …
… Is there any possibility you are not taking advantage of people?”
One of the most intriguing (and disappointing) themes of Israel’s past that biblical authors emphasize is God’s people’s failure to fulfill the bottom line of the Abrahamic covenant–”I will bless all nations through you.” Instead, they were what we call in modern terms “a bad testimony”, and the pagans they encountered are ironically portrayed as more righteous in their dealings.
A perfect example of this is Abraham’s encounter with Pharaoh in Genesis 12:10-20. To make a long story short, Abraham is afraid that Pharaoh will kill him and steal his wife Sarah, so he passes her off as his sister. Pharaoh brings Sarah into his household and loads Abraham down with gifts, but soon begins to suffer God’s judgment in the form of diseases and discovers Abraham’s cowardly lie. Sarah is returned to Abraham and the two leave Egypt with the gifts Pharaoh had given them.
In a recent broadcast on TBN, Benny Hinn retells this story, but check out his twisted and self-serving interpretation of the account. For Benny, this story is turned around and used as an example of how God used Abraham’s trickery of Pharaoh to bless Abraham, not an example of how Abraham’s cowardice brought shame on God’s name. Ultimately, Benny encourages the audience that “your Pharaoh is on the way to give you that money.”
The stereotypical image of a shaman is that of a painted witch doctor squatting before a smoldering fire fingering a handful of jade amulets.
Not so fast.
The Western version of the shaman wears a tailored suit and harnesses the power of modern technology. He stands before a TV camera as an expert mediator between the the audience and a complex spirit world, offering formulaic solutions to problems both banal and catastrophic. With a nose tuned for predicting disaster, he warns of the failure of following his instructions carefully. His words leave little room for mystery: A + B = C.
However, from what I hear from missionaries familiar with shamans, there is only one key difference, between him and the loinclothed witch doctors of the East: they usually do not ask for money; he always does.
This clip is from Tuesday night of TBN’s Fall Fleece-a-Thon.
