From: MGriffo@aol.com
Personally, I have problems with Benny Hinn...there have been a number
of
incidences of scandal as well as false techniques he's used to obtain
information within his ministry. He also tends to be the type
who will blame
the individual for not believing enough if a miracle doesn't happen.
Evangelist Hinn shares plans for healing center
Packed Reunion Arena told $30 million needed to build park near TexasStadium
10/30/99By Jeffrey Weiss / The Dallas Morning News
Flamboyant television evangelist Benny Hinn offered a packed Reunion
Arena
his ambitious vision for Dallas on Friday: a $30 million spiritual
healing
theme park near Texas Stadium.
"Our generation does not really know who the great healing evangelists
are,"
he said. "You will, you will."
Mr. Hinn is famous for his trademark white suit and healing crusades
where
he and his followers say miracles are routine. The "World Healing Center"
would become a place, he said, where such miracles also would be easilyfound.
"In these gardens, an atmosphere will be built," he said.
Mr. Hinn's Reunion "miracle service" was his first major appearance
in
Dallas since he moved his headquarters to Las Colinas this year. Every
seat
in the arena was filled, plus more than 1,000 seats on the floor. Thousands
more were turned away.
While most of the audience was from the Dallas area, some came from
as far
as Little Rock, Ark.
As the music started at 6:45 p.m., police were called to clear a crowd,
including a man on crutches, from one door.
Poppy Carrillo of Lubbock had arrived at the arena at 2 p.m. and had
gotten
a seat with her mother. She left the arena to retrieve medicine from
her
hotel room and was not allowed to re-enter the arena when she returned.
"What makes me frustrated is there is a chair in there with my Bible
on it,"
said Ms. Carrillo, who has lupus. "My Bible's getting ministered to.
That's
one less person to be blessed in there."
Those who didn't get in missed a computer-generated tour of the proposed
park. Mr. Hinn said that if donors come up with $30 million in the
next two
years, they would see a multimedia center built like no other.
Located near Texas Stadium and the University of Dallas, it would cover
about 50 acres. It would include a sculpture garden of life-size bronze
statues depicting scenes of healing from the Bible, including piped-in
music
and dialogue.
It also would have a two-story "hall of faith" with small theaters
that
would feature re-creations of the services of famous evangelists, two
chapels of theaters for children, a "prayer healing chapel" where people
would be available for prayer 24 hours a day and a prayer tower where
prayer
requests would be prayed over all the time.
Donor cards distributed Friday night had donor blocks pre-printed for
amounts that started at $100,000 and went down to $1,500.
Mr. Hinn's ministry has raised more than $50 million a year. Critics
say
this plan is just a way to get more money.
"It's just another gimmick," said Ole Anthony, head of the Dallas-based
Trinity Foundation, a group that has investigated televangelists Robert
Tilton, W.A. Grant and others. "People are desperate, and he's just
selling
them false hope."
But Mr. Hinn offered a different explanation. The garden will be a
place
where God's people "can come and see his miracles for generations to
come,"
he said.
Mr. Hinn said that work will start on the gardens in January if $5
million
is collected by Dec. 31.
Mr. Hinn has become a well-known television evangelist with a distinctive
style. His This is Your Day show airs several times a day on TBN, which
is
available in about 100 million homes. His broadcasts reach 128 countries.
His healing services - part preaching, part theater - are his most
popular
and his most controversial. He blows on followers, rubs his trademark
white
jacket over his body and flicks it at the audience, and he says he
has
witnessed miraculous recoveries from a long list of diseases.
Detractors, including Mr. Anthony, compare Mr. Hinn to a snake-oil
salesman.
Mr. Hinn was not available for comment Friday after the service. And
the
crowds that packed Reunion Arena seemed to have nothing but faith in
the
power of Mr. Hinn to connect to the Holy Spirit.
"We just want to be a part of the experience,," said the Rev. Anthony
Ray of
Houston. "It's the anointing that's on his life."
He had no doubts that Mr. Hinn was for real, he said. "You'll know
a tree by
the fruit it bears," he said, then stretched his arms out toward the
packed
throng.
Mr. Hinn announced this year that he was moving his ministry headquarters
to
the Dallas area. He has since rented temporary office space in Las
Colinas.
His television production facilities remain in Aliso Viejo, Calif.
Mr. Hinn had said in June that he would continue to preach in Orlando
at his
World Outreach Church, a church that drew about 12,000 worshipers a
week.
But last week, a spokesman announced that Mr. Hinn's church had been
sold to
and merged with an neighboring church.
A spokesman said that Mr. Hinn does not plan to start a new church,
either
in the Dallas area or in California.
According to the spokesman, Mr. Hinn plans to be in the Dallas area
about
one week a month.
Mr. Hinn's schedule for the next six months, posted on his Web site,
includes planned crusades in Guatemala; Tampa, Fla.; the Philippines;
Malaysia; Phoenix; and Little Rock. Friday's event was the only one
scheduled for the Dallas area.
But during the service, he said the size of the crowd suggested he
needed to
return, maybe to Texas Stadium.
Those left outside Friday would probably welcome the chance to fill
a larger
place. Many stayed for hours after the service started. Some prayed
or sang
hymns in small groups. A few harassed the ushers at the doors.
That resentment was un-Christian, Ms. Carrillo said.
"I'm sure the Marilyn Manson fans treated those poor ushers better
than
these Christians have," she said.
Staff writer Katie Menzer contributed to this report.
