lpetrich

Benny Hinn had a Greek father and an Armenian mother; he was born in Israel in 1953. He went to Canada with his parents in 1967, and to the US some time later.

So that's why he has that southern-European appearance.

auto-da-fe

I dated a pentacostal one time, and she convinced me (oddly enough with some rather un-christian promises of what we would do after) to go to some church thing. We were pretty close to the front row, and when the guy started speaking in tounges, and people started falling down, i had never seen it before, i laughed and laughed until my girlfriend and her parents got really pissed. my GF told me they would ask me to leave if i didn't stop at which point my "You don't really believe this shit do you" comment was heard by the preacher (or whatever they are called in pentacostal land) and he tried to make an instant beleiver out of me.... after about 10 seconds i got up and walked out of my own accord.

Rushianbeing

That's what I like to hear.

Derec

The real question is: did your GF follow up on her promisse or was she too much pissed off?

I have never heard anyone speak in tongues. Maybe I should try to catch this Benny Hinn guy on TV sometime.

UMoC

scombrid

You've never heard somebody speak in tongues? That's awful.

Bobby T.

Be sure and catch the tongue speaking sound clips and the pastor gas videos.

mike_decock

I think you need to hear it in person to get the full effect. Go to a Pentecostal Church and experience it first hand. Even when I was a Christian I thought it was creepy.

-Mike...

trillian

People fall down because they have been put into a suggestible state of consciousness. These techniques were first popularized in the 18th century by Anton Mesmer (hence the term mesmerize). He made people fall down too! And he didn't say it was any god.

Music, speech patterns (ever notice how preachers like that talk the same way?), a large crowd, and lighting all contribute. They are basically under a mild hypnosis.

Benny Hinn could never do his healings randomly on the street or at the beginning of one of his "shows" because it cannot work that way.

The healings are semi-real too because the power of suggestion CAN make your pain diminish- but the underlying problem will remain and the pain will come back after the suggestion wears off in a few days. Then you must come back to him and give him more money!!!! Certainly he has sent some people to an early grave who refused medical treatment after thinking they were healed by him. Great scam huh?


trillian

scombrid

I grew up in a stiff old Southern Baptist church and went to gradeschool run by even stiffer Episcopalians (The Episcopalians were much more educated on the whole I might add, hence my parents selecting an Episcopal elementary over the school run by Baptists). Anything remotely charismatic was regarded as lunacy by both groups.

A coworker at the tree farm where I worked through highschool was full on Assembly of God charismatic. His group had split from the Church of Christ because they weren't nutty enough. He tried his damndest to get me to services when I started expressing displeasure with religion. He swore his flavor was totally different, not boring, and would have me won over to christ for good. I get the feeling I'd have run out of there screaming. All I knew at the time was that they were weird. I didn't know at the time that they were a couple of serpants away from belonging in Tennessee.

mike_decock

My parents are Ass. of God missionaries. Out of all my 7 uncles and dozens of cousins, I think I have 1 uncle and 2 cousins who aren't charismatic Christians. The rest are missionaries, preachers, youth pastors, etc. Sucks to be me, sometimes .

-Mike...

Ispikes

In the church that we used to go to this sort of thing was fairly common. I recall one time when I still believed, this visiting pastor was praying for me and was trying to get me to fall over. I just kept stepping back (they push your forehead), and back. He eventually gave up on me and went to pray with someone else.

On Benny Hinn, most of it appears to be conditioning - people hear that he can "slay people in the spirit" and so when he makes certain moves they all fall over. I heard once that some preachers (consciously or unconsciouly) manipulate natural instincts in humans to acheive "manifestations"

And yes, when you step back and look at it. it is "as funny as hell"