50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God (16 page)

The small man with the big stage presence is now in full stride. He
keeps singing that same word, "hallelujah," over and over. This repetition,
combined with dramatic organ music, feels hypnotic. Perhaps it is. Hinn's
eyes are closed now. One of his hands slowly extends toward the audience. Occasional shrieks rise and fall from the crowd. Some of the
believers begin to twitch. Some cry. Many of them reach up with outstretched fingers. Trembling hands flail wildly. It's as if the believers are
clawing at heaven, hoping to find a way in. Up on the stage, just twenty
feet in front of me, Hinn continues singing that entrancing one-word song.
My eyes dart about frantically trying to take in as much of the emotionally charged scene as I can. I'm adrift in a swirling sea of belief and the
tide is rising. The emotional power of the moment is so intense that even
I, a nonbeliever, feel slightly disoriented. The crying and the screams are
louder now. A woman near me falls to her knees and begins convulsing.
She looks as though she is reacting to severe electrical shocks.

Hinn sings on, "Hallelujah . . . Hallelujah . . . Hallelujah."
Although I am skeptical of his ability to facilitate supernatural cures I
can't deny the emotional power of this presentation. His voice, the
music, and the crowd he commands all combine to create a potent psychological cocktail.

Suddenly, Hinn stops pacing and his illuminated figure freezes
against the black sky behind him. He announces that the Holy Spirit is
now with us. It's healing time. New waves of moans and mumbled
prayers sweep across the audience. Many believers begin "speaking in
tongues," that incomprehensible "language" that some believers claim
their god enables them to speak. Hinn continues to work the moment
like the master he is. His words are slow and gentle. He is like a kind
father talking to his child. Hinn's smile glows. The stylish gray hair
never once moves, even as the night winds blow across the stage.

"God heals today!" declares Hinn. "I don't know why they fall
under the power. It just happens."

Hinn's eyes shut tight as he again extends his hand toward the
mass of people before him. "Some will feel electricity, some will feel
heat all over their body, some will feel vibrations."

"Take your healing now. Take your broken body, your broken life
and fix it. Just look up and say, `Fix it!"'

Contrary to what most people who have seen Hinn on television
probably assume, this is when the "healings" occur at his services.
Believers are not "healed" during Hinn's flamboyant touching action
on stage. Those who appear with him on stage have already experienced their "miracles" while back in their seats. Apparently, that is the
only reason they are allowed to go onstage in the first place. The
people who end up making contact with Hinn are a very select group
who claim to have already been healed by their god. On stage, Hinn
merely applies a sort of final touch to complete their experience. And
what a dramatic touch it is.

In assembly-line fashion, the flamboyant Hinn goes to work.
Assistants feed him believers alternately from both sides of the stage.
At times the pace seems frantic as if there is a time limit or some dead line to meet, but this only adds to the excitement. Hinn touches the
face of a woman who says she had been addicted to drugs for many
years. She trembles violently and then collapses into the arms of a man
behind her. Now she is "free" of the addiction demon, declares Hinn.
The crowd cheers wildly.

The rapid-fire touching continues. A young boy is "cured" of
chronic eczema, says Hinn. Arthritis, diabetes, a heart condition, and
many more ailments are "healed" by a god and certified or finalized by
Hinn this night. I notice that when believers react strongly by shaking
uncontrollably and falling down with above-average flair, Hinn usually
instructs his assistants to pick them up so he can knock them down
again. Believers in the audience explode with approving applause in
response to these double and triple doses of the "Holy Spirit."

Hinn repeatedly credits his god for the "healings." This is an
important detail. Hinn wields this incredible power on stage but then
humbly denies having any power at all. I suspect that it makes him
even more appealing to believers who might otherwise suspect that he
is a little too godlike for their tastes. "I have nothing to do with this,"
Hinn says. "I am even more amazed than you are."

After a couple of hours of watching Benny Hinn in action up
close, I was pretty sure that he was not a middleman or conduit for a
god. I saw nothing to convince me of that. Everything I observed
could be explained as nothing more than an audience that was predisposed to play along with a carefully choreographed performance.
Remember, Hinn had more than two thousand years of tradition
backing him up that night. It is not difficult to imagine how easy it can
be for a revered holy man, of any religion, to whip up the emotions of
a crowd made up almost entirely of true believers. They came with
expectations and Hinn catered perfectly to those expectations.

Call it one man's charisma, gullibility run amok, or maybe the
touch of a god. Whatever one concludes about an evening spent with
Benny Hinn, his power to stir emotions cannot be denied. Hinn tours
the planet "healing" believers and promoting Christianity. He is supported by millions of fans and his ministry's annual income reportedly exceeds one hundred million dollars. One cannot address popular faith
healers without also addressing the issue of money because there
always seems to be lots of money changing hands whenever they
come to town. The night I saw him, Hinn became defensive when it
was time to "pass the plate," or in this case, pass the very large and
deep plastic buckets.

"When you give, it doesn't go to me," he declared. "All of it goes
to the ministry. Not me, my wife, or my children ever touch one cent."

Hinn explained that the most important reason he asks people to
give him money is so that God will "bless" them for it. "If you have
problems, if you want to get out of debt, then give tonight. God said
`give and it shall be given unto you.' God cannot bless you until you
put something in His hand."

Hinn then informed the audience that his ministry accepts donations by checks and credit cards. Scores of assistants fanned out into
the crowd with big buckets. "Don't just give," he added, "Sow, so that
you can reap a mighty harvest!" This is an interesting point Hinn
makes at his services because it seems to eliminate any element of
altruism from the donation. According to Hinn's claim, giving to his
ministry is more like an investment than anything else. The promised
payoff from a god seems to be the primary motivation to give, considering the emphasis Hinn places on it.

Hinn encourages believers, even those who are struggling financially, to "give to god." But how exactly does one "give to god"? Is
giving to Hinn really the same as giving to a god? I humbly suggest
that believers think long and hard before giving money to any person
who is enjoying an extravagant and luxurious lifestyle that is far above
their own. Clearly Benny Hinn is not sacrificing much, considering
that he lives in a mansion, flies in a private jet, drives luxury automobiles, and wears shoes that probably cost more than my monthly mortgage payment.

Enough about money. Is a god really doing any healing at a Benny
Hinn event or anywhere else? Do gods really heal us if we ask them
to? Many believers have no doubt that their god can and does heal. There must be millions of stories, sincerely believed, about prayers
working to cure the sick. But, of course, no one talks much about all
the prayers that failed.

If stories of faith healings prove that a particular god is real, then
it means many other gods must be real too because numerous gods
have been credited with miraculous healings since the beginnings of
civilization. Anecdotes simply aren't good enough because every religion has them. Scientific studies might be able to answer the question.
But there has never been a single credible scientific study that conclusively shows that faith healing or prayer works. Some studies have
been hyped up in the news in recent years but upon further analysis all
of them have been found to be unconvincing. In fairness, this is a very
difficult thing to test. I'm not sure if it can ever be tested to everyone's
satisfaction. Everybody is different and no disease or injury is exactly
like any other. People may not be aware of it but most illnesses and
injuries heal on their own and doctors aren't sure why. When Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Jews, and other believers recover from
illnesses and injuries there is not necessarily a good reason to credit
their gods, even if medical science can't explain it. Sometimes the
human body just comes through on its own. There is still much to be
learned about the immune system, for example. Therefore defaulting
to the explanation that some unusual recovery must be the result of
divine magic is premature.

One indication that faith healing is not a real phenomenon is that it
just hasn't caught on despite centuries of hype spread across numerous
religions all over the world. Yes, millions of people believe in it. Yes,
some refuse medical treatment in order to gamble their life on prayers.
But many more millions of believers are not convinced that it works
and their actions show it. With the exception of people living in
extreme poverty who have no choice, most believers in developed
nations head straight to the emergency room when they cut their foot
open on a piece of broken glass, for example. They are not content to
pray for the skin to come back together infection-free. They find the
nearest doctor as fast as they can. Why? If their god can cure AIDS and cancer, as many claim, then why not a simple laceration? Why aren't
hospitals staffed with shamans and preachers rather than doctors and
nurses? If faith healing really worked wouldn't we all be relying on it
by now? After centuries of claims and stories of healed people, we
would know for sure by now if the claim is valid. There would be no
skeptics left. Furthermore, if one group of believers had a god that was
real and consistently cured their diseases, then everyone would have
noticed it and joined their belief system long ago.

Clever skeptics point out that the gods never seem to be able to heal
amputees. Why is that? Surely some unfortunate guy who lost his leg
in a car accident and some little girl who stepped on a landmine deserve
divine healings at least as much as that drug addict whom Benny Hinn
and his god supposedly cured. I can't speak for every nonbeliever, but
I think that would do it for me. I would believe in a god who could
regenerate flesh and bone right before my eyes. (Visit the "Why Won't
God Heal Amputees?" Web site to read more about the gods' inability
or unwillingness to heal people who are missing limbs.)

My skepticism about faith healing's ability to work as advertised
does not mean I do not recognize the potential for it to offer some kind
of meaningful boost to a patient's emotional state and maybe even aid
healing in some cases. Yes, faith healing probably does help sometimes but not necessarily in the way believers think it does. It is not
difficult to imagine faith healing "working" via the placebo effect. The
placebo effect is a widely known phenomenon but still not fully understood. It occurs when a person seems to benefit from a medical treatment that is not really a medical treatment. Taking a sugar pill in place
of real medication is the classic example. It seems that simply going
through the motions of treatment, and believing that it is a valid treatment, helps some people heal from some illnesses sometimes. Something apparently happens between the mind and body that aids
healing. This is the power of suggestion and it might explain some
cases where people have claimed that faith healing helped them. But
the placebo effect makes it difficult or impossible to know for sure if
a god or the power of suggestion was responsible for any benefit. And we can never forget the possibility of a natural recovery that might
have occurred with or without faith healing and the placebo effect.
Finally, I have noticed in personal encounters that many believers will
credit their god for improved health even though they were being
treated by a doctor and taking medication at the same time they were
praying for a cure.

I should add that I am well aware that faith healing, whether it
works or not, can be comforting to someone who is hurt, frightened,
or desperate. I know firsthand because I was once "healed" while
lying on my back semiconscious in the middle of a street. I had been
riding my bicycle when a careless driver pulled out in front of me. I
was going too fast to steer around him so I hit hard and was launched
like a space chimp. I'm fairly athletic, however, and reacted well, successfully pulling off a move so cool it would have impressed an
Olympic gymnast. I managed to plant one hand on the car's hood as I
sailed by. This helped to stabilize my flight and gave me a better
chance of flipping my body far enough around to land on my feet on
the other side of the car. Unfortunately, my moment of supreme athletic grace was followed by what may be the dorkiest belly flop in
human history. My feet rotated too far under me and I crash-landed
hard in the street. I was out for a minute or so but when the fog began
to lift I discovered that my wild ride was not quite over.

On my back and looking up at the night sky, I saw that I was surrounded by several very large Jamaican women wearing shiny dresses
and fancy church hats. Apparently they had just finished a worship
service at a nearby church and were eager to practice what they had
just heard preached. Circling above me like angels, or maybe zeppelins, they shouted: "Lord, heal dis boy!" "Come Jesus and help 'im,
now!" said another. "In Jesus's name we pray!"

I was dizzy, hurting, but also quite flattered. "How sweet," I
thought to myself. "They don't even know me and yet they care
enough to try and heal me right out here in the middle of the road." I
was touched. Despite the pain, I felt good.