Miracle merchants Benny Hinn swindled?
By Dele Shobowale (Vanguard)

RELIGION is the opium  of the peoples" wrote  Karl Marx 118-1883) and no country in the world proves the veracity of this statement better than Nigeria.

And no religion has demonstrated it, for better or for worse, than the Christian religion. Before you start throwing stones, please remember that it is my religion also. Furthermore, no branch of the religion has been so addicted as the Pentecostal group ( a.k.a. born again).

Today, no new church in that group gets established without advertising its ability to manufacture and market miracles. As if we don't have a surfeit of "men of God" in Nigeria,
it has become fashionable to import miracle workers meaning that even when the commodity is miracles, we prefer the imported brands. And so it came to pass a few weeks ago, another merchant came into Nigeria and invested four million dollars in a venture hoping, not to save souls for Christ primarily, but to make a tidy profit.

Unfortunately, he did not reckon with the sharp guys in Nigeria serving as his middle men. History will record that one Benny Hinn, a miracle merchant, came in 2005 and left Nigeria poorer than when he came in.

To me there was only one miracle in that episode: that the man who promised to make the blind to see was not clear-eyed enough himself to foresee that he was in for a swindle.
Benny Hinn's treatment of Pastor Adeboye
 Bola Adewara

At the end of the crusade, one of the fall outs is Benny Hinn's treatment of the Chief Host, the very well revered General Overseer of Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye.

Perhaps Rev. Benny Hinn could be excused because he is not an African where we pay homage to men of God on account of the beauty of God in their lives.

He could still be excused because he has stayed for so long in America where respect means nothing, where, we were told, children could tell their parents "don't be silly", and that would be taken as a mere correction or a caution from child to father. In Africa, we don't do that to biological parents, how much more spiritual parents, and a highly revered one like Enoch Adeboye.

It is not the lot of this e-magazine to fight for Pastor Adeboye. What we are saying here is a mere cursory observations which would do our equally revered Benny Hinn a world of good if he desires to still maintain the respect christians in Africa have for him.

Apart from the fact that his claim of $4million (rather than $1million) was found to be a hoax, and a hoax that nearly destroyed the image and ministry of a rather too ambitious and equally respected preacher like Bishop Obembe, Benny's treatment of Pastor Adeboye through out the three-day crusade was less than charitable.

Never heard of a culture that disrespects a generous host like Adeboye. That Benny shunned Obembe throughout the crusade was understandable. But shunning the GO, who sat quietly throughout for the three days is sacrilegious.

It was an insult when Benny said "I don’t know your name, but they say your name is Bro. Enoch, come let me pray for you.”

Let the truth be told: Benny Hinn couldn't have said he has not heard of Redeemed Christian CHurch of God. I don't know the level of his education. I don't know if he watches other television apart from TBN. But I'm sure he is not reading the bible alone 24/7.

I'm sure if educated ministers of God would visit any country, they try to know one or two things about the country. Redeemed Christian Church of God is Nigeria's number one church today. That blessed ministry is represented in so many parts of the world, with so many branches in Europe and America. It is one of the fasted growing ministries in the World. Adeboye might not be as popular as Rev. Benny Hinn because he is not using television to advantage, but who could discountenance what the Lord is doing at Redeemed?

Benny was flown to the camp ground in a helicopter for the three days. He had ample opportunity to see what the Lord is doing in that vast expanse of land. What is happening there couldn't have been achieved by the power of flesh. I don't know, but I certainly hope that Rev (Dr.) Benny Hinn is not envious of Adeboye's achievements.
Controversy Diversionary
PFN founding President

THE founding President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, Apostle James Boyejo, has described the controversy over the Benny Hinn Crusade Fund as diversionary.

He made the statement just as the panel set up by the incumbent President of PFN, Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, to look into the way money was spent during the crusade gave the Chairman of the Local Organising Committee, Bishop Lanre Obembe a clean bill.

The panel, according to reports has however been reconstituted. The new panel which has been given up till July 8 to submit another report comprises of Bishop Wale Oke, Mrs. Osa Oni, the auditor of PFN and the legal adviser of the Christian body But the founding president, according to sources said the Christian body has al­lowed itself to be dragged on for too long into a controversy that was unnecessary.

The source quoted Boyejo as saying: "I do not know why the body of Christ has allowed itself to be dragged on for too long on this matter. It is an unnecessary diversion and it is hindering the work of God.

" Benny Hinn who came into the country to hold a crusade of such magnitude has continued with his life. He has been going about holding several other programmes and you will not even hear him complain about the programme. But Nigerian pastors have allowed the controversy to drag on for too long. This is really unfortunate."

After three weeks of meticulous investigation, the first probe panel set up by the PFN exonerated Bishop Obembe from spurious allegations of financial impropriety. The panel noted that adequate financial records of the crusade were kept with audited accounts and statements of affairs produced by an independent chartered accounting firm. The panel also noted that only $lm was made available to the LOC by the Benny Hinn Ministry.