Thursday, 11 February 2010
I found this very enlightening about how Word Faith operate - not just
Benny Hinn.
Issue # 177, Sept./Oct. 2001
“Who says I am not under the special
protection of God?” --Adolph Hitler
We were as surprised as everybody else
when HBO compared televangelist Benny Hinn to Adolph Hitler in a special
program last spring.
But now that they’ve made the
comparison, we can’t explain how we overlooked the resemblance for so long.
The comb-over hair should have been a
dead give-away. And here’s a description we ran across of an early Hitler rally
by Newsweek magazine in the 1930s: “Women faint when, with face purpled and contorted
with effort, he blows forth his magic oratory.”
Blows forth? Yep. That could definitely be Benny.
We decided the cover of our magazine
should do
justice to this new revelation, but the scale just didn’t quite work. So we substituted Charlie Chaplin’s character in The Great Dictator for Adolph himself, and it balances just right.
justice to this new revelation, but the scale just didn’t quite work. So we substituted Charlie Chaplin’s character in The Great Dictator for Adolph himself, and it balances just right.
Antony Thomas, producer of the HBO
special called America Undercover: A Question of Miracles, brought together
specialists in psychology, neurology and theology to take a look at the
techniques of crowd control used by Hinn and a German evangelist, Reinhardt
Bonnke, and compare their style to Hitler’s.
Interspersing clips of their crusades
with footage of Hitler at the Nuremberg rallies, the similarities couldn’t be
denied.
Here are excerpts of the dialogue:
Professor Marcel Kinsbourne, neurologist: “The steps of soldiers marching in the streets. They are marching in unison. ... Large numbers of people, all together with a single purpose. Perform-ing single acts in lockstep. They are like one organism. That is the pitch to which the organizers bring the people. They bring them to persuade them to do something that individually they might not do. Like charge into battle. Risk death to bayonet the enemy.”
Professor Marcel Kinsbourne, neurologist: “The steps of soldiers marching in the streets. They are marching in unison. ... Large numbers of people, all together with a single purpose. Perform-ing single acts in lockstep. They are like one organism. That is the pitch to which the organizers bring the people. They bring them to persuade them to do something that individually they might not do. Like charge into battle. Risk death to bayonet the enemy.”
Antony Thomas, narrator: “Or leap out
of their wheelchairs?”
Kinsbourne: “Or leap out of their
wheelchairs. If that’s what God ordained.”
Professor Michael A. Persinger,
neuroscientist: “Effective speakers, people who can manipulate crowds (for good
or bad) have similar characteristics. So when we look at the Bonnkes, the
Hinns, the Hitlers, the Nuremberg rallies, the operations are very similar.“
The program then examines the
experiments of psychologist Irving Kirsch of the University of Connecticut. He
wanted to know if it was possible to create a situation in which everyone is
susceptible to hypnotic suggestion or trance.
Out of 60 volunteers in his experiment,
a small number could resist the hypnosis until he played a trick on them. He
told them they would hear faint music, as his assistant secretly turned up an
audio tape to a barely audible level. Then he told them the room would begin to
turn red. His assistant turned a knob that created a reddish glow.
“Even the resisters became deeply
hypnotized,” Thomas explains. “And many remained susceptible even after Kirsch
had shown them how they had been deceived by the music and lights.”
Using clips from a large Hinn crusade, Thomas explains how the
evangelist calls especially susceptible people up onto the stage, “and they
serve as Kirsch’s music and lights, confirming and reconfirming everyone’s
expectation of a particular response to the faith healer. The audience has
fallen under his spell.”
I traveled to Germany in 1997 to film a
documentary on Hitler’s occult influences, and watched an entire archive of
film footage from the Nuremberg rallies. The fuehrer set the correct mood with
torches, fireworks, thunderous martial music and mesmerizing chants meant to
lead the crowd to suspend critical judgment. Hitler held the rallies late in
the evening when the audience would be tired and their resistance lowered. He
entered suddenly with a flourish. His words seemed charged with electricity,
his voice alternating from a soft, intimate whisper to the shouting of one
possessed.
Sadly, this kind of manipulation can be
found at any Benny Hinn rally, as he encourages his followers to “let every
guard down; become completely open,” and the intensity of the service rises and
falls according to a psychological script. Don’t get us wrong here. God really
does heal, and there is a real presence of the Holy Spirit. But it’s healing
that can be verified. And it’s a presence that is not dependent on any special
“atmosphere.”
During several investigations of Hinn’s
organization, we’ve had people from his intimate circle volunteer information.
Two of his bodyguards, a year after they had been fired by him and were helping
us in an investigation, still felt Hinn had a special anointing, a special
power that could heal people. One said, “Yeah, I’d still take a bullet for
him.” The other agreed. This was after they told us Hinn takes an amphetamine
pill to boost his “anointing” before going onstage. Only after two more years
could they shake off the spell enough to see the reality.
It was similar to a phenomenon I saw at
a gathering of old Nazis in Bavaria on that research trip to Germany. Old men
with flowing tears, singing the forbidden Nazi songs and lifting their beer steins
in salute. They were still susceptible to a 60-year-old hypnotic suggestion,
even though it had failed them.
Still, the spell isn’t foolproof.
One woman who formerly had been a
generous donor to Hinn happened to be parked at the rear of the stadium before
one of his crusades. She watched as a large truck backed up to the service
door, and a crew unloaded 30 or 40 wheelchairs. “Put them up around the stage,”
she heard a Hinn supervisor say.It shattered the spell forever.
Addition Nov 2014
Anyone who reads this, who is
still in Word of Faith, I strongly urge you to leave it now. They are
charlatans and wolves, deceivers and thieves and are dragging you into heresy.
They are also NOW dragging you into Rome and Papal worship. If you do not believe
me then please check this latest article written in November 2014:Rick Warren and Word of Faith's Full Apostasy Is
Complete. Mystery Babylon Is Taking Even Greater Shape Before Our Eyes
Labels: False Teachers and Prophets, Heresy Watch, Prosperity False Doctrine, Rise Of Apostasy, Word Faith
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