Benny Hinn's second coming
by Terry Joseph
'Trinidad & Tobago Express'
Friday, May 5th 2006
As revealed this week through press advertising, Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha (SDMS) General Secretary, Sat Maharaj and I have at least one thing in common - sneering incredulity at claims by Pastor Benny Hinn that he is a medium for dispensing miracles scheduled by God.
Pastor Hinn, whose inaugural visit here (February 1999) attracted huge crowds, has carded a second coming from May 19, which his ministry's website describes as among its biggest overseas engagements this year, much the same language used to trumpet an April 2005 three-day crusade in Lagos, Nigeria, which ended in vulgar bacchanal, upon realisation that revenue fell far short of expectation.
Reviewing the fiasco in the BBC's Focus on Africa magazine, Sola Odunfa painted Hinn as remonstrating on the third day, screaming into the microphone: "$4 million (US) dollars down the drain,'' fuming because only one-sixth of the promised seven million subscribers showed up, rendering redundant a plane-load of equipment flown from the US.
The SDMS is not alone in alleging Pastor Hinn's healing episodes are "nothing but theatrics designed to maximise revenues'' but might be among the first calling upon Prime Minister Patrick Manning to ban him on legal grounds, citing violation of the Summary Offences Act, presumably larceny by a trick, a depth of concern was not shared by clerics of other religious persuasions.
Readers should be warned that delving further into this column may occasion personal peril. During his television programme (This Is Your Day) of November 21, 2001, another occasion on which God gave him direct instructions, he publicly promised to "place a curse on anyone who dares to speak a word against this ministry.'' If it be any comfort, the same voice had, on December 31, 1989, told him Fidel Castro would first demit office due to failing health and then die, all during the 1990s.
It must be the widely documented string of Pastor Hinn's unfulfilled prophesies that angered the SDMS which, at rough count, has already topped the $20,000 mark in press ads designed to discredit the self-acclaimed miracle-healer.
Yesterday, they stepped up the pressure, advertising a free 3-DVD set of investigative reports detailing Pastor Hinn's controversial claims of a business partnership with God, citing sources of journalistic integrity, including Inside Edition, CBS' 60 Minutes, HBO and the most damning of all, NBC's Dateline.
Aired last July, the Dateline programme exposed Pastor Hinn's obscenely opulent lifestyle, far from the image normally appointed to a bondservant of God, showing ministry money frittered away on vanities like shopping sprees, private jets and luxurious living, the latter largely enjoyed in his TT$63 million California home, a seven-bedroom/eight-bathroom mansion overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
The report supplied evidence of Hinn's ministry approving spending TT$720,000 per month to operate and maintain his private jet and surface transportation in a choice of Mercedes Benz vehicles costing TT$500,000 apiece. In an especially astonishing segment of the expose, NBC showed invoices from hotels across Europe, where Hinn stayed exclusively in royal or presidential suites.
In 2003, en route home from a European crusade, during a layover in Milan, Italy, for refuelling of his jet and allowing for pilot rest, Pastor Hinn selected a hotel suite, said to be the largest on the continent. The "room'' offered 5,400 sq ft of living space, including a 100-foot long indoor swimming pool outfitted in genuine marble, "essentials'' costing TT$63,000 per night.
These expenses may not cause an appreciable dent in Pastor Hinn's ministry, given its annual take, estimated by NBC investigators at TT$630 million but some findings about personal and family expenses are superlatively outrageous.
In an especially expensive month in 2003, petty cash disbursements to family members included an unexplained TT$146,000 to his wife (who is a paid employee of the ministry), TT$8,000 to daughter Jessica, an additional TT$17,000 to her fiancé for babysitting the pastor's son, Joshua and TT$150,000 for transportation to a crusade in Annaheim, a mere 25 miles from his home.
NBC said it only scratched the surface of Hinn's money and magic, noting that none of the so-called miracles could pass agreed criteria for such description, alleging instead fraud and deception of the gullible-a seemingly self-replenishing stock of suckers.
But all this is purely academic, as devotees will no doubt show up at the Savannah in even greater numbers this time - fulfilling prophesy most often associated with the second coming of holy men. |
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5/28/06 5:09 PM
