Benny Hinn -- Attendance At One Crusade Doesn't Provide Full Picture

I would like to attempt a feeble reply to the two letters attacking popular Christian healer Benny Hinn, who was at the Tacoma Dome two weeks ago. I say "feeble," since no one can do it justice in a few words. Many people need to have that follow-up to healings which is presented if one keeps going to healing crusades, and keeps going more than one night.

For instance, your religion reporter went to the first night of the Tacoma Dome crusade, and thus missed the testimonies of multiple physicians backing up earlier healings. The Hinn people did not try to answer your reporter when asked for proof, probably knowing that the media exaggerate, give half truths or even outright lies (your reporter did not do these things, but he did miss the second night when the physicians' and patients' and patients' families' testimonies were given.) In the Hinn magazine, more patients' and physicians' testimonies are given.

But what is really impressive is to see a "before" and "after" miracle, as I did at the Oklahoma City crusade. I was sitting on an aisle when a small child, probably under 5, walked by holding a woman's hand, moving with the distorted gait which indicates some form of palsy or dystrophy. I noticed him, along with the many others who arrived with some form of crippling.

The next night, the child appeared on the stage with a perfectly normal gait, and a physician testified that he had been diagnosed with cerebral palsy. To see a miracle like this, one must "wait on the Lord," that is, be present, patient and even endure the hardships of long travel and many hours of waiting on uncomfortable chairs. I suppose there could be "natural" explanations of this event: Did the child have a twin? Was the doctor who testified willing to lie before 19,000 people? Is there a new drug which totally eliminates the visible signs of cerebral palsy?

The proceeds from the crusades go to finance overseas rallies in poor countries in Africa, Asia and South America, as well as paying for television time in Russia and other mission fields. Benny lives on a salary from his Orlando church congregation. Even his enemies say he's straight about that.

If one follows Benny Hinn for a while, eventually one no longer is as interested in the miracles, but listens to his teaching of the Word of God, which is what he intends. Mariel Strauss Seattle