Is This Man the Anti-Christ?

This is televangelist Benny Hinn. This man is the closest thing that I have found to proof of the existence of a god. Not because his ministry has touched my life and made me want to become a Christian. Quite the contrary... I believe that this man is pure evil. Possibly the devil, or at least the Anti-Christ. The existence of such evil deities may be proof of the existence of the good guy god.
You may have seen Benny Hinn on TV. Televangelists are pretty much all despicable human beings. Benny Hinn is the king of them all. His antics go beyond the usual bible banging, gay bashing, money extorting that folks like Pat Robertson, Jerry Fallwell, or Robert Tilton dish out. This guy takes televangelism to a level of theatrics that, were it not so sad, would be hilarious.
Benny Hinn is a "Faith Healer" who travels all over the world "healing" folks from large metropolitan areas all the way down to poor villages in third world countries. He will pray over these people and then "slay them in the spirit" with a wave of his hand. This is when the people are rendered immobile by the holy spirit and collapse to the ground in what looks a bit like a seizure. He will sometimes wipe out a whole section of people with just a wave of his arm. Often, he'll shout "BAM!!!" ala Emeril. (Just FYI: There is no biblical precedent for such an act. The Holy Spirit shows up in the bible as tongues of flame that positioned themselves over christians heads. They were never stricken down.)
He then interviews them and they always talk about how they are healed by the power of God through his messenger, Benny Hinn. He also tells those watching at home that they can receive god's healing by placing their hands on the TV screen and praying with him. Guy's so good, he can perform miracles through coaxial cable. Then, of course, he let's them know that they should send money so he can continue to do god's work. If you've seen the movie "Leap of Faith", you've seen a pretty good representation of Benny Hinn. Steve Martin should have won some kind of award for that... I digress...
Anyway, there are so many stories about what this guy does, that I would have to write a novel. I don't have that kind of time so I'm going to post a couple of my favorite Benny Hinn stories, and then post some links so you can check him out yourself.

This is one of my favorite stories from the "Typical Televangelist Bullshit" category. Benny Hinn told his followers and viewers that god had given him a plan for a "Faith Healing Center". This center was going to be a place where the common christian could come and visit with a real live faith healer. I can only assume this visit would come with a hefty fee. God had shown him a beautiful location where christians with sickness could come and be healed by their favorite healers, who would visit the location and I guess take up temporary residence there to do their "healing". Mr. Hinn told his followers that he needed money to do gods work and open this joint up. So, his faithful followers sent in like $25,000,000 in contributions for this Faith Healing Center. This was quite some time ago, and no such center exists. In fact, they never even started planning construction. Mr. Hinn says that god changed his plans. Because god does that a lot. I'm sure the good folks who provided him millions of dollars didn't receive a refund... Good thing is, they can still lay hands on their TV's for healing.
HBO did an expose' on televangelists a couple of years ago, and one of those focused on was Benny Hinn. Benny was, at that time, claiming that he was responsible for something like 64 "miracle" healings. However when asked for evidence of such healings, his people were not willing to or able to produce any evidence. The folks over at HBO apparently have a research department, though, and were able to track down a few of those who were supposedly healed my Mr. Hinn. None of them had been actually healed. One of them Benny "healed" from terminal cancer (of the lung, I think). He then told the man, in front of an audience of thousands that God told him that he was going to live a long and happy life. Two weeks later the man died of complications related to his cancer.
But, this was not the most disturbing story from the HBO expose'. They followed another family from some poor village in a third world country. Anyway, this family had a son that was going to die from some horrible disease or another and wanted to go see Benny Hinn after they had exhausted all medical resources. In order to get to him, they had to scrape up every penny that they could. This involved hitting up their extended family, who were all very poor, and selling all of their possessions including their home. They used the money to get a ticket to a Benny Hinn ministry somewhere in their country. They used what they had left to make a contribution to Pastor Hinn's church. They got up to the stage and Benny prayed over them, with much enthusiasm. He then told the father, tears streaming down his cheeks while he held his VERY sick son in his arms, that god had acted through him and the child was healed and would live a long life. You can imagine the joy this family felt, believing that they were dealing with a man of god. I can't imagine the misery that they experienced a couple of months later when their son died.
HBO interviewed this family after their son passed. They asked them how they felt about their experience with Benny Hinn. The father was clearly pissed, as you might have guessed. But, his anger was not focused in the direction you might have expected. I am going to paraphrase what he said here, "Benny Hinn is a good man. We are not angry with him. He tried his best to help us. I don't know why god would let our son die. I feel angry with god."
People are going through this every day. This man makes MILLIONS of dollars with promises of healing. Now, all televangelists engage in this type of extortion. But most of them promise eternal life in heaven, or a better life on Earth. But this guy promises miracles! I even found a transcript where he talks about bringing the dead back to life. No kidding, he says that if you put a dead person in front of the TV and touch their hand to the screen, they will be brought back to life. He flies around the world in his own private jet and takes money from the sick and the old and the desperate. This falls under the heading of "There Oughta Be a Law".



Here are some links to sites that have some good Benny Hinn stories and info. Take a look at these, there is some really good stuff here:
Benny Hinn Info
Deception in the Church
False Prophet Alert (This one is great. It even has clips.)
Benny Hinn, Necromancer
A Bunch of Benny Hinn Story Links
Google search for Benny Hinn (Scroll through and see for yourself.)

It is interesting to note that most of these links are posted by christian organizations. Kudos to those who are smart enough to smell a rat amongst their own leaders.

I find Benny Hinn appalling, reprehensible, and downright disgusting. If I were a Christian, I would be horrified that this man was trying to associate himself with me or my god. But on a strictly human level, I am horrified that this man is allowed to get away with what he does. There truly should be a law against this type of activity. Actually, I believe there a law against fraud. Whether you believe in god or not, with very little research you can clearly see that this man has not created one TRUE miracle. In fact, his "ministry" has probably dissuaded sick people from seeking the medical help that they needed. You can blame this on their own stupidity, but taking advantage of the stupid is not acceptable. Especially from a self proclaimed man of god.
The biggest reason that this man is so noxious to me is that I have a family member who watches and believes in this man. She's been putting her hands on the TV screen, as instructed by Hinn, hoping that her many ailments will be healed. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that she has made contributions to his "ministry". It is sickening to me that this man has been able to influence the life of one of my loved ones. Benny Hinn makes me hope that there is a hell for him to rot in.