Spoiler alert: I’m an alumnus of Liberty University. Yes, that one.
This morning a friend of mine, also an alumnus, sent me this:
Liberty University Institute of Biblical Studies — Benny Hinn Ministries
At Benny Hinn’s site, we see what appears to be an announcement of a partnership with Liberty University, along with an 11 minute video interview to that effect.
Regardless of the conclusions you may jump to, I can solidly say I never expected to see those two names in the same sentence. Hinn is a documented huckster with a terrible fiscal reputation (so far as being lumped in with a U.S. Senate investigation into his alleged financial activities) and a streak of bad theology, including lots of failed “prophecies” of Jesus’ return.
Don’t get me wrong: I love Charismatics, and a good Bible education should be available to all. But Hinn is different. He is in a class of his own. His track record speaks for itself.
You don’t even need to be a Christian to see that kind of behavior for what it is. Benny Hinn steals money from poor people whom he convinces he can supernaturally heal from serious diseases just by touching them –and furthermore teaches that to doubt this power will lead to God withholding money/life/happiness from said poor people. Meanwhile, he’s a very rich man, proFITing from his false proPHECy.
Now, a few hours after I saw the announcement, the allegation spread across the interwebs: “Liberty University is partnering with Benny Hinn!”
Well, hold on. Liberty was lightning quick to release a statement to explain:
Liberty University is not partnering with Benny Hinn. Liberty transferred the operations of Liberty Home Bible Institute, a non-accredited biblical studies certificate program, to Mr. Dan Reber a number of years ago. It is our understanding that LHBI’s new operators are working with Benny Hinn but LHBI is no longer operated by Liberty University. Mr. Reber was granted certain licensing rights to use Liberty’s name because the Liberty name was deeply imbedded in LHBI course materials. He was also required to obtain permission from Liberty University for any changes in marketing of the courses and Liberty University is investigating to determine whether this new marketing approach violates the terms of its agreement with Mr. Reber.
1) Ronald Godwin, the Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs and Provost of the University, was quite present in the video and fully affirming. He has significant authority to make academic and business decisions. He is a very high-profile representative of the school. His very presence in this announcement flatly contradicts Liberty’s statement.
2) Hinn’s press release, website, promotional materials, and the diploma in the video itself (see above) clearly says “Liberty University” –NOT “Liberty Home Bible Institute.”
3) At the very end of the video, the words Dan Reber USED were “someone asked me, ‘you’re going to do a partnership with pastor Benny?’ And I said, ‘To reach this world for Christ, absolutely yes.’” So…how does that jibe with the big, bold headline of Liberty’s statement: “Liberty not partnering with Hinn”?
Um, guys….factual statements that are self-contradictory, much?
Possibly the worst part: the pitch seems conflicted. On Hinn’s side, we hear something like a sales pitch: “Pastors around the world are being persecuted and their churches are being shut down because they don’t have ministerial credentials. Well, have we got a deal for YOU!” But, on Reber and Godwin’s side, it seems less like a sales pitch (though that’s still there) and more like an educational mission. At best, we’re getting mixed signals, here. And it’s hard to miss the dollar signs in Hinn’s eyes.
Now, maybe there’s a pragmatic consideration. Maybe Liberty struck a deal with Hinn to teach solid Bible material to the large network of people he holds in his circle of influence. It would be a wonderful thing, after all, to reach folks who have been hoodwinked by Hinn’s Prosperity Gospel/False Healing/Seed Faith/Date-Setting “ministry.”
And that would be a pragmatic way to go about it, sure. But the cost of such an exchange is legitimizing Hinn’s long history of using the gospel and evangelism (and falsely proclaiming he has the supernatural power to heal people just by touching them) for his own financial gain. That has been his life. Regardless of the branding or actual ownership of the program, Liberty is giving a stamp of approval for Hinn’s fraud.
Benny Hinn is a false prophet. You don’t do business with the false prophet. You rebuke him for money-grubbing, or you cast the demons out of his medium and tell him to hang it up. At least that’s what happened in Acts 8 and 16.
Instead, under this arrangement, Hinn is essentially a vendor for Liberty Home Bible Institute, and he gets to tie in his World Healing Fellowship and resulting ministry ordination in a credibility piggy-back.
From a business standpoint, for the parties involved that would be a “win-win.” And, if you believe this move could positively benefit people in a spiritual growth sort of way, then it’s a Michael Scott-style “win-win-win.”
And, if you’re Benny, you’ve just created a new revenue stream for your “ministry,” so it’s a “win-win-win-Hinn.”
There are a lot of people out there who jump at bad news on Liberty because they want to believe the worst. Because they hated Jerry Falwell. Because they want to see the school fail.
I want to make it clear that I’m not one of those people. I hold two degrees from Liberty. I have a lot of skin the game, here. I am actually eager to see Liberty succeed within the purity of its own stated vision to produce “Champions for Christ.”
I am motivated to say something because I care, and not because I want to destroy. If I wanted Liberty to fail, I would just sit back and refuse to stick my neck out to say anything.
Because, if my observations hold water and those three points above are valid, Liberty is doing a splendid job of messing this up all by themselves.
There is admittedly something wonderful about the potential to take in those among Hinn’s congregation and exposing them to the contents of LHBI’s courses, particularly the THEO and BIBL 104 courses, which are rigorous and will no doubt shed light on at least some of Hinn’s falsehoods.
But if that is actually the motivation here (and I doubt it, I think the business case is stronger), then I worry that Liberty has risked too much for that goal. I also worry that Liberty (or at least the decision-maker behind this deal, which I assume was Dr. Godwin) is actually operating from an assumption to accept Hinn as legitimately evangelical.
If that is the case, then it’s a bad move.
The goal of spreading the gospel around the world is awesome, and it sounds good. I hope for the best.
But unfortunately, this really looks to me like a case of Liberty leveraging its legitimate diploma and ministry to bolster Hinn’s phony ones.
(Originally posted at http://matthewgrantmcdaniel.com/liberty-university-benny-hinn/)
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