#767: Benny Hinn

Benny Hinn is a televangelist, faith healer and sith lord of apparently staggering popularity and influence, whose main goal seems to be to wait for Billy Graham to die so that he can take over what he deems to be the leadership of evangelical fundamentalism in the US, for God has shown him that Graham’s death will mark the beginning of a huge American revival of religious fervor (meaning, of course, that you should start sending the money you send to Graham, to him instead).

Hinn is a notorious promoter of the prosperity gospel. So if you send Hinn your money God will reward you, and he even has anecdotes to back it up. He does his performances in large stadiums that are televised on his “This is your day” program, called “Miracle Crusades”.

Hinn is also a notable faith healer. He has even issued his own version of the Bible, The Master's Healing Presence Bible, with added bits and quotes. Apparently it is “filled with the miraculous and the powerful manifestation of God, and color-code the sections that deal with “healing, the Holy Spirit, faith, prayer and, the presence of God.” He charges you $90 for a copy. Of course, it is rather likely that Hinn is a fraud more than he is a crackpot (those are not mutually exclusive). In 2001, HBO’s America Undercover tried to follow up 5 of the people Hinn had allegedly healed at a particular crusade, but when HBO checked back a year later, none of the parishioners had been healed at all (two had died). Hinn, of course, blamed the dismal results on HBO. In reality, his assurance that his victims are well after his faith healing is rather likely to lead his victims to abort the treatments and medication schemes they are already using, so it is definitely not an innocent matter of innocuous faith. CBC later exposed Hinn’s tendency to use his church’s money for private purposes, and for employing security guards disguised as men from the church to keep genuinely sick followers away from the stage so he doesn’t need to deal with them (or risk being exposed to something that he cannot heal). Even his efforts to combat the “twin evils” of Islam and secularism seem primarily to be schemes to make money.

Furthermore, Hinn has a long track record as a false prophet, having forewarned that God would destroy the homosexual community in America in 1995, that America’s East Coast would be destroyed by earthquakes before 2000, that Fidel Castro would die during the 90s, and that God had given him a vision that thousands of the dead would watch the network and be resurrected by touching the television screen.

There is a comprehensive Benny Hinn resource here.

Diagnosis: Certainly a loon, probably a fraud, and definitely a spineless, slithering monster, Hinn’s power seems no to be waning despite the fact that he is repeatedly exposed for what he is. Extremely dangerous.