MUMBAI, INDIA, February 6, 2004: This report in the Indian Express says, “It’s going to be the biggest gathering Mumbai’s seen recently: bigger than Sonia Gandhi, bigger than Bal Thackeray, and ten times bigger than the recently concluded World Social Forum (WSF). To frenetic activity — Mumbai can’t supply enough chairs so Pune is chipping in — and growing controversy, American evangelist and faith-healer Benny Hinn is scheduled to hail the lord before a million of the faithful on the doorstep of the city’s gleaming business district, the Bandra-Kurla complex, between February 13 and 15. The alarm isn’t coming from the Hindu or Muslim fringe. The opposition is coming from the Catholic church. The Archbishop of Bombay, Cardinal Ivan Dias, has issued a statement to his flock, urging them to stay away.
“Mr Benny Hinn, despite his popularity on TV shows, is not accepted even by many of his own colleagues … it will be wise to strongly discourage your parishoners from attending his programmes,” Cardinal Dias said in a statement. The Cardinal spoke of Hinn’s “false prophecies, his alleged vision of angels and contact with the dead, his emphasis on the prosperity of the Gospel and exaggerated physical healings.”
But Hinn clearly has a torrent of support, from a raft of evangelical churches scattered across India’s hinterland to Mumbai’s high society (there are seats set aside for 170,000 in the VIP gallery and parking for 60,000 cars). Governor Mohammed Fazal has confirmed his attendance. “Praying for India,” declare the posters that have taken over Mumbai’s railway stations and walls. At the ground, carpets are being laid out along its 1.2 km length and 32 giant video screens are being erected. The man responsible for spearheading the year-long preparations is Gul Kripalani (60), a prosperous seafood exporter — he lives in an exclusive sea-facing flat near the Gateway of India — and chairman of the Indian Merchants’ Chamber.
Hinn is acclaimed among his followers for his ability to heal physical ailments and his dramatic speeches around the world have attracted millions of people searching for a miracle, ends this report.
HPI Adds: Cardinal Dias is indeed correct when he says that Benny Hinn is “not accepted even by many of his own colleagues.” There has been, in fact, concerted efforts to investigate Benny Hinn by the Christians themselves, particularly his claims of miracle healing. According to these investigators, they could not find a single provable incident of a miraculous healing, even using the cases given by Hinn’s own organization. By “provable,” they meant that the person had a physical ailment previously diagnosed by a medical doctor and that a medical doctor certified after the “miracle” that the ailment was cured. There is a whole industry of Christian anti-Hinn material on the net, in print and on CD. Click here as a starting point, with an article by a Christian entitled “Benny ‘the Fraud’ Hinn” which also includes references to other resources.
That said, the editors of HPI have seen a video tape of Benny in action on stage and it is quite a performance, spectacularly produced and very entertaining, though bordering on the bizarre at times. Watch Benny have the power of the “anointing” come over him and knock down whole sections of the audience with a wave of his coat. On the tape we’ve seen, he’s “curing” people of AIDS and cancer, though his workers carefully screen out anyone from coming on stage who has too visible an illness where the “cure” should be apparent to the eye. They also will take people at the door who want a healing, place them in a wheelchair provided by the organizers, get them on stage, heal them, and they stand up and walk (which they always could), leaving behind the wheelchair. We don’t know if that one will be used in Mumbai, but it is really effective TV. Once in Africa Benny claims to have raised a man from the dead.
Hindus concerned about his presence might take the same approach as the Christians themselves, in investigating faith healings done by Hinn and trying to find a single provable case.
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