via Pandagon -- Benny Hinn lets the bodies hit the floor

[Katherine Brengle]

This is both amusing and deeply disturbing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lvU-DislkI

Benny Hinn wiki - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny_Hinn
Benny wants a jet? http://www.pamshouseblend.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=84

[Donnachaidh]

1. another snake oil salesman

Who's going to save US from the likes of him?

[tridim]

2. Guys like this would never succeed without a dirt stupid audience

And his is the dirt stupidest. Thank you organized religion! :eyes:

[bleedingheart]

4. well ya know...thinking hurts...and takes effort

and those folks would rather Mr. Hinn do that for them...gives them more time for dooling...

[TlalocW]

3. I really wish some skeptic would get up there

And refuse to go down. If you brace yourself, Hinn pushing your head isn't going to do shit.

TlalocW

[Katherine Brengle]

6. muahaha - that would be pretty funny.

[tridim]

7. No doubt it's happened already

It would just be a matter of editing it out of the video, telling the live audience that non-believers simply don't want to be "healed" followed by Hinn's goons tossing the guy in the dumpster.

[Coyote_Bandit]

8. I'm told

that you can always make somebody go down by placing the back palm of the hand under the tip of the nose as you push back. The effect is that the head goes back first and then the body follows.

[TlalocW]

11. What do you mean, "back palm?"

Anyway, it doesn't look like that's what's happening - he's pressing on their foreheads, and the people are obligingly falling backwards. I remember reading a story by James Randi where he and a pretty big friend went to a revival and got up on stage, and Randi (who was in his 60s and not that big) resisted and didn't go down until they pushed on his head with one hand and reached around with the other hand to his lower back to put pressure there. They couldn't get his big friend down.

That's what I want to do. Completely resist and when the evangelist gives up, I'll turn to the congregation and yell, "I'm stronger than God!!!"

TlalocW

[Coyote_Bandit]

13. I heard this tale

from an ORU theology student who was discussing this very topic.

There are different ways in which preachers lay hands on people when they pray. The casual observer will not notice the difference. It is true that Hinn typically only touches the forehead with the tips of his fingers. That is all that is necessary for someone who is openly suggestible. Sometimes he doesn't even do that - he simply breathes into the microphone and folks within an entire section will simultaneously fall backward into their seats. I saw him do that in the ORU Mabee Center about 15 years ago more or less. I couldn't believe what I was seeing (and it was quite a funny sight from the nosebleed seat I occupied on the back row of the upper balcony) - I laughed so hard my ribs were sore for a couple of days afterward. If you watch him you will notice that he sometimes lingers before folks who are not quite as suggestible. You will notice that sometimes he uses more force than at other times. You will also notice that sometimes he uses his full hand - tips of the fingers touching the forehead with the back of the palm (heel of the hand) resting just under the tip of the nose. You may not see this on ministry videotape as it is probably edited out (no desire to suggest that anyone is less than completely receptive to the man now is there?) - but you will see it if you happen to watch him live and in person.

I don't know much about martial arts or wrestling or various combat techniques but I am told that the area near the tip of the nose is one of the areas that is often used to control the rest of the body. There are a lot of nerve ending there. There is also a myth that the nose cartilage can be forced into the brain cavity and the injury can be fatal.

[TlalocW]

15. I'm in Tulsa as well

I work as a balloon twister/magician on the side, and I have freaked out so many ORU students with tricks. One woman truly believed I had magical powers. I talked about this attitude with the owner of one of the magic/costume stores in town, and he said that he's surprised I haven't run into anyone who refuses to see a magic trick on religious grounds.

Anyway, I'm a big fan of James Randi and debunking in general and like to educate people on how these scams are pulled off, and when I run into these people, if I have time, I'll not explain the trick that I showed them but do another one which I don't mind revealing the secret to so as to get them to think "magically." I'd really like to go to an event like this and see if they could move me as I weigh 230, lift weights, and used to wrestle in high school. If they do get me going backwards, the evangelist is coming with me so I can get 2 points for a takedown. :)

On a somewhat related note, I ordered some movies lately from Amazon.com including, "Fletch Lives," which has him at one point investigating a televangelist and going up on stage during a broadcast of the show to be saved. The televangelist convinces him to admit he's a sinner, which Fletch does (comically - "No polaroids") which gets him applause from the audience. He looks out there to acknowledge them, and when he turns back the televangelist has his hand up just inches over Fletch's forehead, ready to slap it on Chevy's head. There's such a classic Chevy Chase take there as he reacts to the hand. It never fails to make me laugh.

TlalocW - Takedown, takedown... 2 points!

[Coyote_Bandit]

16. I never cease to be

both amazed and appalled by some of the religious kooks in the Tulsa area. I think the Rhema bunch is the scariest and kookiest of the lot. I think the Victory Christian Center crowd is the most manipulative, abusive and power seeking. I try to keep track of them and their shennigans. I've found ***some*** of the ORU kids to be the best of the bunch. Not sure if it is still true but there used to be an active Young Democrats chapter at the school. I worked with some of those kids in some local campaigns several years ago.

I enjoy the thought of some of these kooks being freaked out by a magic trick or two. Let me know if you ever decide to take an evangelist/preacher down for the count. I'd love to see it.

:evilgrin:

[TlalocW]

19. I tend to stay away from ORU

Except when a friend who hasn't visited me first comes into town. Then I make him go through the six-rooms-in-a-circle tour of Oral Robert's life in the prayer tower for shits and giggles.

Rhema is full of kooks, and you can't trust the bastards. I have more than one acquaintance that did thousands of dollars worth of work (computers, consulting, whatever) for Rhema bigwigs who then refused to pay them because the Rhema people decided the people who did work for them weren't "right in the spirit." A friend of mine and I think we've figured out Rhema's "big" scam: They intentionally try to bankrupt their students. From what I understand, Rhema students are encouraged to start their flocks early. While they're doing that, Rhema is making them buy shitloads of 30-page paperbacks written by the founder that cost $65-$85 each along with regular tuition and other books. Once they graduate, they've got a flock and don't have money to move anywhere so they set up their church in their house, then in a strip mall and eventually build a church, probably tithing a large percentage of the church's money to Rhema. That's why there are so many churches in the greater Tulsa area.

That same friend used to like to prank call the Victory Christian Church during their live broadcast call-in shows. She called once claiming she was thinking of getting an abortion so she was immediately put on the air with the hosts who prayed with her, etc. She's pretty good at verbal manipulation so she got them going down a path of questioning that she wanted, and they were giving her advice amidst the questioning, and at one point they asked, "You just need to find a good man to take of you unlike the guy who ran out on you. Where did you meet him anyway?" She replied, "Oh, it was at your church." She was quickly let go so they could take other calls.

The attitude towards performance magic is strange. I once went into Mardel's because I was looking for tiny manila envelopes for a magic trick, and I thought they would have some of the kind that you put offerings in during collection time at church. I asked a sweet little old lady if they had some, and she led me to them, and as I was looking at them, she asked me what I wanted them for. She probably thought I was a youth minister or something, but without thinking I said, "A magic trick." She visibly stiffened and lost her smile, and I thought, "Ooops. Forgot where I was... Well, might as well go all the way." I then told her that it was a trick involving putting five cards, a five dollar bills, and a poker chip in the envelope and pulling them out and letting a spectator put the poker chip on the card they wanted, and I would bet them the five dollars that I predicted what card they would choose. She quickly went away as fast as she could. I got the act of gambling, tools of gambling, mind-reading, and basic magic in that trick for her. If only I had somehow worked in sex, it would have been perfect. :)

TlalocW

[tridim]

14. I'd punch him back

If he strikes first it's self defense.

[lumberjack_jeff]

5. Benny "the crusher" Hinn

He could make a killing in WWF.

... But there's something mildy amusing at watching fundies fall voluntarily on their asses while wearing their best clothes.

[BlooInBloo]

10. Benny "the moocher" is more like it - lol!

[nealmhughes]

17. Smoky took Ben down to China Town and showed him how to kick the gong around. . .

[BlooInBloo]

9. I like watching the jesus shows sometimes - the drama can be engaging. They're so serious!

[madrchsod]

12. the movie"leap of faith"

is based on these guys..in fact steve martin "toured" with benny for a month for "background" into his character.notas good as elmer gantry but pretty dam close

[KamaAina]

18. He's ripped off enough money. Why doesn't he buy himself a decent rug?

That bird's nest on top of his head looks like he got it at Wal-Mart.

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

20. Not even the fundies like Hinn

Many deeply religious evangelists find his theology irrevocably flawed and his sideshow tactics an embarrassment.

When I first got my own puter and realized that I could research all the preachers I'd been tracking on TV for years, Benny and Robert Tilton were two of the first I looked up. I was surprised to find that, at least in the US, they are more widely reviled than I had expected, given the amount of air time they bought. Tilton's pretty much gone under, but Hinn continues to rake in the suckers.

My favorite site for keeping tabs on dangerous religious characters is rickross.com, and he's got a lot about Benny. It is a fantastic resource for learning about cults of every size and stripe; I highly recommend it.