Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Cnafilornia
Posts: 405

The following is an excerpt taken from an NBC Dateline episode focusing on faith-healer and televangelist Benny Hinn.

Do any of you guys believe in this type of thing? Have any of you ever been "faith-healed" or had a similar experience? Do you or your family donate to the cause?

If you don't feel comfortable answering any of those questions, maybe you could tell me how in the hell someone as obviously intellectually gifted as the woman being interviewed in the following piece could get her hands on an "extra" twelve-grand a year to throw at Benny Hinn.

Read on, please:


Benny Hinn: "The greatest thing you can do for your finances is to give to the work of God."

On TV, and at his crusades, Hinn promises that not only will God improve your health, but your financial life as well -- perhaps by getting you out of debt with an unexpected financial windfall. But first, you have to give money to his ministry. Hinn calls it "sowing the seed."

Benny Hinn: "Amen. So expect a financial harvest but you have to sow a seed to see it happen... you may want to call your seed in today. Our 800 number is on the screen." Hinn follower Carlotta Moore told us she sows a seed of $12,000 a year with pastor Benny, and that she expects to be financially rewarded.

Carlotta Moore: "Because the Bible say [sic] what you sow, you gonna reap. Now if you sow good things, you gonna reap good."

Bob McKeown: "But might that mean that if you give money, you get money back?"

Carlotta Moore: "Oh yes, you will get money back. You will get money back. Out of the clear blue sky, checks will come from somewhere. You go to put on a dress or something, or take out a pocketbook up there in the closet. There is $50 or $60 laying up in there. You'll be like, 'Woah, woah, woah. Thank you, Lord.' You understand?"

...

Benny Hinn: "So everything you give this morning is going for souls. Is going for what?"

The crowd repeats: "Souls."

And many of his faithful, like Carlotta Moore, say they have no doubt that's true.

"We're not giving it to Pastor Benny, we're giving it to the ministry to do the work the Pastor Benny has been entrusted to do," says Moore.

...

The Hinn ministry also spends a great deal on pastor Benny's lifestyle when he's on the road.

These records show hotel suites for well over a thousand dollars a night and transatlantic flights on the Concorde -- at more than $8,000 round trip. That is, before pastor Benny began flying in a multi-million-dollar private jet.

But Hinn contributor Carlotta Moore says that use of money given to Hinn's church for God's work is just fine with her.

"I'm pretty sure NBC's man that owns NBC probably got his own jet and multimillion dollars," says Carlotta Moore. "Probably got houses here, houses there, and this that and the other. And I believe that the preachers of the gospel, I believe they should live better than even NBC's president."

...

But Benny Hinn's followers may not know about how all of their donations are spent. For example there's Hinn's palatial new home, now being built for $3.5 million in an exclusive gated community overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The plans call for more than 6,000 square feet -- 7 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms and a basement garage with enough space for ten cars. Who's paying for that? Not pastor Benny. That mansion on the Pacific is considered the Hinn ministry's church residence or "parsonage," and the ministry is picking up all the expenses for land, construction, even property taxes.

The ministry says the house is a good investment, but Paul Nelson of ECFA says Benny Hinn should be concerned about the perception of that house deal. He says the expenditure of millions of dollars of church money on a house for it's leader, is almost unprecedented.

Bob McKeown: "Are you aware among your membership of any church residence, parsonage, that is worth $3 million?"

Paul Nelson: "I am not aware of that."

Bob McKeown: "Not Billy Graham's..."

Paul Nelson: "I don't believe so. No."

Bob McKeown: "...residence? Pat Robertson's?"

Paul Nelson: "I don't believe so."

However it managed to pay for his house. Benny Ninn's ministry has apparently had problems finishing other special projects.

Since February of 2001, the Hinn Web site has been soliciting donations for a new orphanage to be built in this little town outside Mexico City saying it would be finished "soon."

But when we checked in Mexico, more than a year-and-a-half later, we could find no sign of any construction. But the Hinn web site kept promising that construction would be finished in, "a few short months."

That was news to the local official in charge of construction in the town, who told us the Hinn ministry hadn't even been issued a building permit yet.

What we did find, however, was this sign -- curiously not in Spanish, but English -- attached to a house the ministry called it's 'temporary orphanage,' which appeared to be empty.

The Hinn Web site continued to solicit donations.






Opinions?


redguard@blackvault.com

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: my mother's bloody womb
Posts: 7148

i think that even intelligent people have a basic fear of what happens to us after we die. sometimes that fear manifests itself in hysterical reasoning such as the example above. that doesn't make her stupid- just obsessive over death.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Beatrice, Nebraska
Posts: 18816

I've been forced to watch those nutball evangelists on TV out of boredom (and it was the only channel I could get with my antenna) and it was a laughing joke. They whore themselves out worse than a 12 year old Taiwaneese girl.

"Praise God, now give me all your money!"

A lot of religions have that tithe thing where you give 10% of your income to the Church, as dictated by the Bible. This is supposedly part of getting your soul to heaven, or some such nonsense. In most other cases that would be considered blackmail or at least extortion, but it seems making people pay for a ticket to an imaginary Forever Ever Land isn't a crime. Like false advertising is.

I especially loved the part where she was like, "and one day you'll put on your dress and find some money you didn't know you had in your wallet," and she claims that would be the work of God for giving $12,000 to the Church. Come on! First off, that's a pretty crappy trade. $12,000 in exchange for maybe finding $50? What are we doing, converting it to Pesos? Secondly, perhaps maybe God didn't plant any money and you just forgot, or miscounted, the money? I don't think that's the work of God, and if it is, then I truly am blessed by the Lord Almighty.

It's quite scary how quickly these people will just throw their money away for a chance to get to heaven.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Minneapolis, MN
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i saw that dateline. it's all quite obviously a scam. taking advantage of stupid people is nothing new though.

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35669

Benny Hinn is obviously a plot of Jerry Falwell's to make him look sane.

Although if I really thought that spending cash would get me to heaven, I might do it. Heaven looks like a pretty sweet deal, worth a little investment.

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Registered: Aug 2001
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quote:

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Originally posted by Dingle
taking advantage of stupid people is nothing new though.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: Beatrice, Nebraska
Posts: 18816

quote:

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Originally posted by Smug Git


Yeah, I hear that caff got taken by some tee-shirt hawking shysters who took the dough and never stumped up the shirts. They made a lot of money on that scam, I hear, living like princes and all that. The ringleader, a right lanky bastard, can even afford to buy high-octane for sniffing nowadays.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Cambridge
Posts: 7113

Benny Hill is the real crook here. Poisoning my mind with his catchy theme song.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location: zanzibar
Posts: 10477

did they investigate the man's hair? that is more shocking

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35669

quote:

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Originally posted by Caffeine
Benny Hill is the real crook here. Poisoning my mind with his catchy theme song.

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