Was it preaching, money or both?
New Vision
Publication date: Friday, 3rd July, 2009
By Patrick OyuluTHE screaming headline, Benny Hinn lost sh4b in Uganda published on Thursday, shocked me. It was like shouting "FIRE" in a crowded prison cell.
I don't mean to condemn anyone because I believe everyone is entitled to their beliefs, but it is rather strange for someone to tell me that Benny Hinn sunk billions in these crusades when he toured Uganda and expected a profit!
Tell me, did Benny Hinn and his colleagues sit down and come up with a business plan to make money from Uganda, DRC and South Africa, in the guise of preaching? Was it preaching or the money, or both? Talk about killing two birds with one stone!
Had Benny Hinn carried food relief and donated to Karamoja, had he brought boxes of Tami flu to fight an impending H1N1 pandemic, had he donated mosquito nets to pregnant women, had he sunk billions of shillings to promote his crusades, I would think otherwise.
Crucially, if we knew that this was purely a money making venture, we would probably understand. But I simply do not understand how Christians are being taken for granted by people with ulterior motives. Never has there been a time where we've seen a complete exploitation of the terms offering and tithe like we are seeing these days, especially by globe-trotting, private jet evangelists.
The problem is, many spiritually believe in these evangelists and are torn apart by countervailing forces, their emotions only as authentic and sincerely felt as their reflexive irony allows them to be. They are invested yet detached, a paradoxical result of being both over-informed and essentially powerless.
Each and every day, new Christians
are pulled, kicking and squealing, into the fray. If life was a tradeable commodity, its market value would be at a historic low, with the bottom a long way down. But like sheep, folks still respond in numbers.
When a pastor was quoted as saying without skipping a beat that, "These days it is hard to get free things" in response to questions about charging entry fees for a sermon, that sound you heard, was a cock crowing three times except backwards. The poor flock was disowned of all the nerve, for money!
As if this wasn't enough, Benny Hinn pushed the envelope talk further when he was quoted as saying, "Most people are poor in Africa and it affected the recent crusade" (read: affected sales). To me this sounded like evangelical speak, but with an alcoholic delivery.
I just sat with my mouth agape. Did I read right? Benny Hinn should be ashamed to be talking cash flow instead of how many hearts and souls got converted.
Benny Hinn and his type should come to Africa, to practically help that needy child in an IDP's camp, to help that mother that would do with surgical gauze and gloves in a clinic in Busiro, to help feed those 190 plus HIV-infected children at Keep a Child Alive in Namuwongo.
Uganda needs practical deeds, not people who come and talk while beaming back to an international television audience, all talk no action and worry about the top line and bottom line revenues. And the flock should wake up and stop being manipulated like sheep. It amazes me that these followers are so vulnerable! How about a soldier in downtown Mogadishu? Wake up people.
Instead of preaching to convert that one soul, evangelists are thinking about the numbers and pockets. It is like we are going through a species-wide correction with evangelists changing the true values of preaching.
Help me God before an ATM is installed in my church!
