LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY nebris)

Late Night Christian Shows

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY jenfer47)

People are discussing Benny Hinn on another forum, so I contributed this essay:

Benny Hinn has placed death curses on his critics! Admittedly, I have a bee in my bonnet towards Hinn. My aunt donated to his ministry generously for over a decade before she finally succumbed to Alzheimer's. Her constant "witnessing" drove a wedge between her and her family - and also her boyfriend, who was himself a Christian but just didn't want to get married again. It made me sad, as she had been such a nice person back when she was a "sinner" - one who had genuine insights into life, not just regurgitated sermons! In retrospect, she may have turned to the church for structure as her own mind began to fail. But no one from that church came help when she could no longer write a check. - Jeni

http://wittenburgdoor.com/archives/bennyhinn.html
http://wittenburgdoor.com/archives/lastword-168.html
http://wittenburgdoor.com/archives/theheretic.html
Hinn hypnosis

http://www.pfo.org/prophecy.htm
As a teenager, Hinn traveled with a drama group. He was known as a showman.... He learned his skill well. His prophecies on Dec. 31, 1989 were all a stage play.... Hinn evidently knows that his kind of a show feeds the sensational and fuels his followers’ emotions. As in his “healing crusades,” he has taken them on yet another adrenalin and endorphin high. These kind of highs become addictive and make one less able to discern. Judging from his congregation’s response (heard on the cassette tape) they loved every second of it.

http://wittenburgdoor.com/archives/theheretic.html
"All we want is for Benny Hinn to make good on promises he made to me in 1993," says Ole Anthony, president of the Christian watchdog organization. "He promised he would stop airing fake healings, that he would medically verify all healings, that he would wait six months after the healing before putting it on TV, to make sure it was authentic. He said he would do all these things, and he's done none of them.

http://wittenburgdoor.com/archives/theheretic.html
A Houston woman who thought she was cured of lung cancer ("It will never come back!" Hinn told her) rejected her doctors' advice and care – and died two months later....
Even sadder than the people who think they're healed are the ones so sick that Hinn's employees never allow them to be seen on stage. People suffering from paralysis, brain damage, dementia and the like – people who couldn't possibly make any "demonstration" on stage – are rejected at a screening session held backstage.
In two cases journalists have tried to verify all the healings at a particular crusade. For an HBO documentary called A Question of Miracles, researchers attended a Portland, Oregon, crusade at which 76 miracles were claimed. Even though Hinn had agreed to provide medical verification of each one, he stonewalled requests for the data, then eventually responded 13 weeks later – with only five names. HBO followed up the five cases and determined that a woman "cured" of lung cancer had died nine months later, an old woman's broken vertebra wasn't healed after all, a man with a logging injury deteriorated as he refused medication and a needed operation, a woman claiming to be healed of deafness had never been deaf (according to her husband), and a woman complaining of "breathlessness" had stopped going to the doctor on instructions of her mother.

http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/exposes/hinn/general.htm
At one crusade, a man Hinn had "slain in the Spirit" fell on a prostrate elderly woman and broke her hip, resulting in her death. The lawsuit was settled out of court.... An elderly Hinn follower was turned away from one entrance to ARGO Stadium in Sacramento, CA because she had not given enough money to enter there. Later, on the stage she was "slain in the Spirit," and while she was lying on the floor a huge man, likewise "slain," landed on top of her, breaking her leg. In 1993 in Basel, Switzerland, Hinn prophesied over a man with cancer that he had many years to live. He died two days later. In Nairobi, Kenya early in May 2000, four patients released from a hospital to attend Hinn's "Miracle Crusade" died while waiting for prayer....

Benny Hinn: "I see quite something amazing. I see rows of caskets lining up in front of this TV set and I see them bringing them closer to the TV set and as people are coming closer I see actually loved ones picking up the hands of the dead and letting them touch the screen and people are getting raised as their hands are touching that screen. With this program -- I'm not talking about my program -- I'm talking programs, plain programs aired -- the glory of God will be so on TBN that there's going to be divine resurrection happening as people bring their loved ones to the TV set."

Hinn prophecy: “The Spirit of God tells me an earthquake will hit the east coast of America and destroy much in the Nineties.” [Oh well.... Fidel Castro was also to die in the Nineties! - K.]

http://www.rickross.com/reference/hinn/hinn2.html
The Miracles and the Money

http://www.cbc.ca/fifth/main_miracles.html
Fifth Estate: "Do You Believe in Miracles?"

http://www.wittenburgdoor.com/godstuff/dateline_hinn.html
Video excerpt from a "Dateline" expose. Hinn has a private jet and stays at hotel suites charging thousands per night; he racks up $6,000 clothing bills and $900 dinner bills - all paid for by donations to his ministry.

http://www.pfo.org/oldhouse.htm

http://wittenburgdoor.com/archives/theheretic.html
But there's an even darker side to Hinn and his organization. In 1998 two members of his inner circle died of heroin overdoses. In 1999, after one of his many vows of reform, he fired several board members and hired an ex-cop named Mario C. Licciardello to do an internal investigation of his ministry. Licciardello was the brother-in-law of Carman, the popular Christian singer, so many think Hinn considered him "safe." But Licciardello did such a good job – taking hundreds of depositions and getting to the bottom of the heroin use – that Hinn then sued him. While Licciardello was still his head of security, the ministry filed a lawsuit demanding that all his files be turned over and sealed, because their public release could result in the end of the ministry. One day before Hinn was supposed to give his deposition in this case, Licciardello had a mysterious heart attack and died. The Hinn organization made an out-of-court settlement with Licciardello's widow, which included sealing the court papers.

http://wittenburgdoor.com/archives/theheretic.html
Older women living alone are the number one demographic group when it comes to sending money to television ministries.

http://www.wittenburgdoor.com/archives/lastword-152.html
Our church here in Dallas includes many who were formerly homeless. Some of them had given money to televangelists, but were turned away when they asked for help in their time of need. We tried to talk to some of these televangelists but the walls were impenetrable. As we collected more and more information about them, we saw the same pattern develop in each one. We established a hotline for victims of televangelists at 1(800) 229-VICTIM and received thousands of calls.

http://wittenburgdoor.com/archives/airmen.html
The money that pays for mansions and silk suits and limos is blood money. It was earned from the honest labor of hard-working men and women. And it is being burned at the rate of $2,500 an hour for the aviation fuel to propel yet another slick pretty boy to yet another spa. Meanwhile, Grandma mails another check to bless the ministry. All is well.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY cheap_laugh)

Curtesy, IFILM The women is Televangelist's Benny Hinn's wife....

and for more Fun....

http://www.valleyskeptic.com/bennyhinn.html
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/3/story_317_1.html

x-posted to cheap_laugh

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY nebris)

From AlterNet

( As conservative Christianity spreads beyond U.S. borders, the views of the far right begin to influence politics in developing nations. )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY ns_kumiho)

This was being handed out on Ohio State's campus today... One was thrust into my hand along with some spiel about a special being filmed:

Project Tocsin has a very interesting article on their blog page regarding godcasters that is in reference to a recent article on the main group in the US coordinating "godcasting" groups, televangelists and the like. (The original Harper's article is available here as part of their "Soldiers of Christ" collection on dominionism.)

Specifically, the Tocsin article details a national conference of "godcasting" broadcasters by the National Religious Broadcasters, which included an awards ceremony at which an FCC employee received an award:

The convention opened on Saturday evening with an awards ceremony highlighted by the prestigious Chairman’s Award which was something of a paradox as it was “for serving the Christian community in a distinguished and exemplary manner,” but it was given to a nonbeliever, homophobic talk radio host, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, who received a standing ovation. She acknowledged the award by saying she was “just a Jewish girl from the Bronx,” and that “we both serve the same God.”

Another award which one would think raises conflict-of-interest issues was given to Federal Communications Commission Chief of Media, Roy Stewart, the senior staff person who handles all broadcast matters. He accepted his award saying, “It is you who should be honored.”

FCC spokesperson David Sisk said the bureau had no policy about FCC employees receiving awards from those whom they regulate that everyone including the FCC commissioners receive awards all the time. Also honored as TV program of the year was Pat Robertson’s 700 Club.

This so far makes two confirmed dominionist-friendly regulators in the FCC--the other being advisor Penny Nance (whose connections to dominionist groups are thoroughly documented here.

The really worrying thing, however, is that Roy Stewart is head of the Media Bureau of the FCC (which is the division that regulates both radio and television stations, including LPFM stations). Per the FCC Phonebook he is still employed there, and per the Media Bureau's bureau chief listing he is Senior Deputy Media Chief of the Media Bureau. Roy Stewart is also--notably--Chief, Office of Broadcast License Policy. (In other words, the very guy who accepted the award from the National Religious Broadcasters is the very guy who sets official FCC policy for who gets and who doesn't get an FCC broadcast license.)

Disturbingly, the FCC also apparently sees no conflict of interest in receiving awards from dominionist "godcasters" (many of whom are blatantly hijacking LPFM licenses to set up barely regulated "godcasting" networks and would in fact be applying for LPFM and translator licenses from the Media Bureau itself).

We may have just found direct evidence of collusion between dominionists (and the hijacking of LPFM licenses) and the FCC itself. I'll keep you all posted.

( References for NRB and dominionist links )

Specifically, a new project that should be useful to people researching dominionism.

My inspiration was in updates for the "Big List" (via an accidental discovery whilst searching for info re my last post to Dark Christianity re toughened college standards in California and how dominionist education doesn't make the cut anymore)...

...among other things, it appears there are a surprising number of front groups for some dominionist denominations, in particular the AoG (I know of at least seven or eight, there are probably far more).

I know some other groups nominally associated with dominionism that are known to be coercive religious groups (such as the Unification Church/Moonies) have front groups numbering in the hundreds to thousands, as do some other coercive religious groups like Scientology; I have also read in multiple pages on studies of coercive religious groups that the existance of hundreds of "front organisations" may in fact be a hallmark of larger coercive religious groups in general.

So, with that:

( Dogemperor proposes the first mapping of dominionist front groups, featuring the specific group I walked away from )

Anyway, if we could get folks working on mapping the various groups associated with dominionist groups/denominations in such a fashion it might well be easier to show (among other things) evidence they're *definitely* trying to hide something. :3

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

This Frank Rich column in the New York Times has some interesting things to say:

WHEN there's money on the line, cronies always come first in this White House, no matter how great the human suffering. After Katrina, the FEMA Web site directing charitable contributions prominently listed Operation Blessing, a Pat Robertson kitty that, according to I.R.S. documents obtained by ABC News, has given more than half of its yearly cash donations to Mr. Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network. If FEMA is that cavalier about charitable donations, imagine what it's doing with the $62 billion (so far) of taxpayers' money sent its way for Katrina relief. Actually, you don't have to imagine: we already know some of it was immediately siphoned into no-bid contracts with a major Republican donor, the Fluor Corporation, as well as with a client of the consultant Joe Allbaugh, the Bush 2000 campaign manager who ran FEMA for this White House until Brownie, Mr. Allbaugh's college roommate, was installed in his place.</blockquote>

The questions are starting to be asked, folks. The important part is that we keep asking them and keep people from burying them.

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

From the Yurica report:

Grooming Politicians for Christ

Evangelical programs on Capitol Hill seek to mold a new generation of leaders who will answer not to voters, but to God.

By Stephanie Simon
Times Staff Writer

August 23, 2005

WASHINGTON — In the blue and gold elegance of the House speaker's private dining room, Jeremy Bouma bowed his head before eight young men and women who hope to one day lead the nation. He prayed that they might find wisdom in the Bible — and govern by its word.

"Holy Father, we thank you for providing us with guidance," said Bouma, who works for an influential televangelist. "Thank you, Lord, for these students. Build them up as your warriors and your ambassadors on Capitol Hill."( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY ordos45)

So I was here on the couch, flipping through the channels, when I found the 700 Club talking about their massive prayer offensive referred to as Operation Supreme Court Freedom.

The basic idea? Pray for God to 'remove judges from the Supreme Court quickly". The CBN link, in it's Pledge Points to the right makes a point of using the word "Retirement" rather than death after that last time Robertson prayed for the removal of justices...

http://www.cbn.com/special/supremecourt/prayerpledge.asp (CBN homepage, the pledge to pray against the Court)

http://www.patrobertson.com/PressReleases/supremecourt.asp (Pat's homepage, press release)

http://mediamatters.org/items/200501040010 (Media Matters)

http://prayeralert.org/alertarchives/alert-030704.html (The Capitol Hill Prayer Alert Foundation)

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY sunfell)

Pastor Ted Haggard, of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, has given some pointers to his congregation about how to behave for the media, according to this article

Colorado Springs-based Focus on the Family has long been a media magnet, for obvious reasons: Any organization willing to take on an enemy as wily as SpongeBob Squarepants is bound to receive attention. But lately, another Christian institution in the area -- New Life Church -- has joined Focus in the national spotlight. The sizable amount of coverage New Life has garnered to date will be supplemented by plenty more in the coming months, and thanks to a Springs-based blogger known as Non-Prophet, outside observers can learn how insiders have been preparing for the onslaught.( Read more... )

LJ-SEC: (ORIGINALLY POSTED BY anarchys_savior)

Watching the CBN is like stepping into an alternate dimension. It's freaky at first, then a little funny, but at the end it's just really disturbing.

They were talking about the eeeeeeeeeevil 'homosexual agenda' again. One minute, good lil Christians were the persecuted minority, the next minute CBN portrayed them the triumphate majority that will overcome all evil in America.

So which is it? Are the majority or the minority? They need to make up thier minds.