THE HURT OF HEALING

Faith healing is big business. Oral Roberts in the 40s and 50s, Kathryn Kuhlman in the 60s and 70s, and Benny Hinn in the 90s are but a few of the key players in a half-century of jam-packed meetings and crusades. Today, the healing business is not only marketed through books and tapes, but with modern technology, unashamedly merchandised on television. But is it really all that it appears to be?

Those who view telecasts such as Benny Hinn’s This Is Your Day see spectacular displays of apparent miracle after miracle without being aware that the programs have been carefully edited. What they see is Hinn running back and forth upon the stage, counting empty wheelchairs, roaring, “This is your night for a miracle. Look at someone next to you and say it!” What they don’t see is the number of victims leaving the crusade in the same wheelchair in which they arrived or with the same physical affliction.

Several months ago, Hinn brought his traveling “healing” road show to an Assembly of God “Signs and Wonders Conference” in Springfield, Mo. At the conclusion of the service, this writer, along with a colleague, waited at the church auditorium’s two exits, watching to see how many empty wheelchairs left the building. Although dozens of occupied wheelchairs made their way from the crusade, not a single empty one passed through either of the two exits.

Not only is what the television audience sees edited, what the live audience sees is carefully staged. Those who are terribly deformed, children with Down’s syndrome, amputees and the like are kept from the stage and out of sight of TV cameras.

Carol McGraw, of the Orange County (California) Register, discovered this painful reality when she reported on Jordan Sheehan. Jordan, at the time of her report, was a 2-year-old who suffered severe brain damage as a result of a fire. He was in a coma for two months. He cannot swallow, talk or move. Jordan’s parents and grandparents thought that if they could get the child to Hinn’s healing crusade and have him prayed over, the miraculous would surely come upon the child. But, according to McGraw’s report, Jordan never experienced the miraculous touch from Hinn, and he and his family were cautiously kept from the stage. (See further, “Faith in His Hands,” Orange County Register, Dec. 5, 1995, Accent, pp. 1,6.)

This restricted perspective is not unique to the contemporary faith healing scene. According to Wade H. Boggs, “Mrs. Aimee Semple McPherson’s practices also left much to be desired. Before the sick were entitled to stand in her healing line, she required them to apply for a card from her mother, Mrs. Kennedy, who permitted only those who appear to be good healing risks to present themselves on stage for anointing and prayer” (Faith Healing and the Christian Faith, pg. 21). And then there are other maneuvers that make the healer appear more competent than he is. Hinn and his ilk are skilled in working their followers into a pinnacle of mental, physical and spiritual frenzy. Yet these periods of pandemonium in emotion-packed auditoriums are never the time or place to pronounce terminal diseases cured. In many cases, the complicated diagnosis of these illnesses required days, weeks and even months by trained and skilled medical personnel with the latest in equipment. To claim a healing without the benefit of the same procedures and care is nothing less than foolish and misleading. Boggs says of this gimmick:

“It is extremely easy for the layman to be misled regarding the exact nature of a disease. No layman is qualified either to diagnose his own sickness, or to determine whether he is completely healed. Public testimonials of healing at moments of great excitement and emotional stress are worthless. ... Most often, the improvement lasted only as long as the spell of excitement lasted” (ibid., pp. 22, 30).

Although written 40 years ago, Boggs’ words are just as, if not more so, applicable today. The heightened emotional level created among the crowds of people attending such crusades places the faith healer in a win/win situation. In what can be regarded as sheer acts of desperation, the sick take that “leap of faith,” hoping the miraculous will materialize, thereby allowing the faith healer to parade them as a trophy back and forth across the stage. The 20,000-plus faithful in the arena, in addition to the potential millions viewing by telecast or videotape, believe a healing really has occurred.

However, when the victim returns home and the reality of the affliction remains, no one is the wiser. And even if the truth leaks out, it is easy to shift blame back to the afflicted one’s unconfessed sin or lack of faith or, if all else fails, Satan himself.

Less than a year before her own death, Kathryn Kuhlman brought one of her healing services to St. Louis. One driver from a fleet of chartered buses that brought people to the meeting from a near 200-mile radius of the city, noted:

“‘She doesn’t always succeed,’ said a driver from Chester. ‘My bus was pretty quiet on the way home last year [after her service]. But for some of those people a little inspiration does wonders, if only for a little while. I had a guy last year who was dying of cancer. He got up on the stage and said he was healed. He died a week later’” (St. Louis Post Dispatch, 5/4/75, “Praying, Hoping, Waiting...”, pg. G11).

To the thousands packed in the auditorium, this man with terminal cancer was just one of many who supposedly walked from the service healed of his infirmity. In reality he was not, despite Kuhlman’s declaration: “God ... has more than enough healing power for everyone in this great auditorium” (ibid.). This same scenario can be applied to untold thousands, perhaps millions.

Apologist Robert M. Bowman, in a brief, yet powerful, article, presents a biblical exegesis of James 5 that rebuts the more prominent expressions of the healing proponents. His examination of twelve faulty concepts commonly presented within the faith healing camp shows there is no support from this epistle for modern faith-healing crusades. The most salient points are:

“(1) There are no itinerant healing ministries, since in James elders are called to come to the sick (v. 14); the sick are not called to come to the tents of the healer. (2) There are no gifted healers in the congregation, since again it is ‘the elders’ without distinction that are to be called; evidently people with gifts of healing (I Cor. 12:9) were not common. (3) There are no healing services, since again the elders are called to the sick. Scheduling the Holy Spirit to come to one’s church at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday nights to perform healings is alien to the Bible” (The ApoLog, May 1996, pg. 1, emphasis in original).

Christians can and should look to God for healing. And yes, sometimes our petition for physical deliverance may come through the miraculous. God is not restricted by the limitations and inabilities of the medical profession. However, other times it may not be His will to intervene supernaturally. For God has also provided gradual healings through doctors and medicine. And then there’s the tenable reality that perhaps it is not God’s will to heal at all. Ephesians 4 contains no office of “healer.” Healers are, in reality, a 20th century mania for mysticism and media. Healers thrive in that artificial environment.

Faith healers purport to pray for the afflicted, but their conduct demonstrates that they prey upon the afflicted. As the smoke clears and the dust settles on the healing crusades, the disappointment left behind has, in so many cases, resulted in tragic consequences. False hope is no hope at all. Expectations that are based upon promises from the seducing minds of faith healers and not upon the sure Word of God, will eventually lead one into the depths of despair and depression.

It is cruel to impart the physically impaired with yet another affliction. Those who leave these crusades without healing now face not only physical infirmity but doubts about their spiritual well-being. This can be debilitating to their faith if they come to believe that God does not love them as much as the others who left the crusade apparently healed.

The theology of the “health gospel” is itself unhealthy and will inevitably lead to a sick Church. Richard Mayhue, vice president and dean of The Master’s Seminary, considers the Church’s lack of discernment and naivete’:

“Tragically, our world offers very convincing counterfeits of the real thing. Even more tragic, in our eagerness to see God work, we as Christians sometimes flock to anyone who claims a miraculous healing. In doing so, we trivialize genuine divine healing — we accept man’s deceitful illusions in place of God’s divine intervention” (The Healing Promise, pg. 39).

Christians should not disparage claims of supernatural healing when the people of God sincerely pray. Churches should regularly seek God on behalf of the bruised and hurting. These things should not be abandoned because of the deluge of counterfeits and charlatans targeting the gullible. We must avoid the hurt of healing and avoid the “superstars” who perpetuate that hurt.

—MKG

© 1996 - PFO. All rights reserved by Personal Freedom Outreach. This article may not be stored on BBS or Internet sites without permission. Reproduction is prohibited, except for portions intended for personal use and non-commercial purposes. For reproduction permission contact: Personal Freedom Outreach, P.O. Box 26062, Saint Louis, Missouri 63136.

For more information on the doctrine and practice of this controversial faith healer, see:
The Confusing World of Benny Hinn