"As soon as God healed me, I could see better."

[LiberalAndProud]

The Price of Healing: [font size="1"]Reprinted from the Los Angeles Times July 27, 2003[/font]

But finances aren't the initial question in viewers' minds, Hinn says. The first question they ask him on the street is: Are you and the healings real?

For William Vandenkolk of Las Vegas, the answer is no. Sitting cross-legged in front of a big-screen TV, the 11-year-old squints through Coke-bottle glasses at a Miracle Crusade video made more than two years ago in which he starred as a boy who miraculously recovered from blindness. "I liked it at first because I thought I was being healed," says William in the living room of his aunt and uncle's home.

On the screen, Hinn bends down to William, his hands on the child's face. "Look at these tears," says Hinn, peering into the child's eyes. "William, baby, can you see me?"

Before more than 15,000 people in a Las Vegas arena, William nods. In a small voice, the boy says: "As soon as God healed me, I could see better." Hinn, an arm wrapped around William, tells the audience that God has told him to pay the child's medical expenses and education. People weep. Today William is still legally blind and says his sight never improved, and that his onstage comments were wishful thinking.


http://www.trinityfi.org/press/latimes02.html

There is a tragic truthfulness in William's words.

[MarkCharles]

1. Pretty disgusting, I think.

And that guy made $89 million last year doing things like this?

Talk about snake oil salesmen and con-artists in the name of religion!

[onager]

2. If you really want to get disgusted, watch this...

The 2001 HBO documentary "A Question of Miracles."

Profiles Benny Hinn and the German faith-healer Reinhard Bonnke.

The Hinn segment follows the parents of a 10-year-old boy with terminal brain tumors. Their doctors had told them the best thing they could do was keep the kid at home and make him as comfortable as possible until the inevitable happened.

But on Hinn's advice, they dragged the poor kid all over the country to Hinn crusades. The parents were already poor and were a lot poorer when Hinn finished bleeding them dry - even advising them to put their "love offerings" on their maxed-out credit cards.

On-camera after the boy dies, the parents say the tumors may have been caused by "generational sin" or a curse. And where did they get that idea? "Pastor Benny!"

At a Bonnke crusade in Nigeria, he whipped up the congregation by saying they were cursed by witchcraft/evil spirits, and only Jebus could save them. "Whipped up" is an understatement - Bonnke's congregation went seriously out of control and 15 people were crushed to death.

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[MarkCharles]

3. Thanks but no thanks....

Actually, I think I saw that a while back.