There is a difference between one who claims to heal and holds public meetings to aggrandize himself in the public eye and who occasionally find someone who has the faith in Jesus Christ to be healed through His grace, which is what I hold that Mr. Hinn and his like do, and one who, by the authority of God shared by Him, anoints as the scriptures teach to bless the sick that they might be made well by His authority.

The kingdom of God is one of wisdom, order and authority, not one of circus shows and flashy jewelry.

The problem with setting up some human being as being “holy” in some way is that that person is going to be no more holy than anyone else, which is to say not holy at all.

There are only truth and ignorance.

“And whoso shall ask it in my name in faith, they shall cast out devils; they shall heal the sick; they shall cause the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak, and the lame to walk.” Doctrine and Covenants 35:9

“And whosoever among you are asick, and have not faith to be healed, but believe, shall be nourished with all tenderness, with herbs and mild food, and that not by the hand of an enemy.” D&C 42:43

We believe that the power and authority of the priesthood (the Authority of God shared with man) contains within it the power to heal, by the faith of the giver and receiver. Without going into great detail, I have been part of such things and testify that they are real. I’m sure that some could have been present at these things and thought they were a “placebo” effect.

Do I think that “faith healers” such as Benny Hinn accomplish some good? Maybe. But let’s just say that I believe they have no power or authority but that those few that they might “heal” have faith in and of themselves to believe that God can heal them, which He can.

Don’t get me wrong: I’m not suggesting that Benny Hinn is legitimate, or that these tent shows are the way to go about this. I’m merely saying that, despite the fact that most of these faith healers are frauds and do what they do merely to get people to give them money, faith healing does actually happen, and I suspect that the reason it happens is the placebo effect.

As for what Benny Hinn is doing, he’s putting on a show. And that’s part of the deal. The way you motivate people to heal themselves is to convince them that God will do it for them. And you convince them of that by putting on a show. As for whether Hinn is praying when he tells people to walk, no, he’s putting on another part of the show. It’s not a prayer because he’s not talking to God, but to the afflicted person. He would tell you he’s encouraging them to accept the gift of God, but I’d say that he’s encouraging them to heal themselves. He’s not suggesting that he’s casting a spell by the sound of his voice, but rather that God has already healed the person. This hearkens back to the Biblical stories of healing, in which Jesus always tells people they’re healed and to get up and walk.

In the Episcopal Church, we have healing services all the time, but instead of doing it the way Benny Hinn does it, we use the form in the Book of Common Prayer and annoint people with oil. I’ve conducted some of these services myself, and have seen healings that might or might not have been miraculous; certainly, they were very welcome to the people who received them. That doesn’t make me a faith healer, it simply means that, either by the grace of God or because the person believed they’d be healed, they were. I’ve always figured it was more placebo than divine intervention, but who knows.

Look at the story again. A “spell” is simply making something happen with the sound of your voice alone. Hickey is saying “Stand up and walk! Stand up and walk!” Does that sound like a prayer to you?

Not to say that it’s bad or anything. By all means, cast whatever spells you want. But there are groups out there who view any mention of sorcery or spellcasting as akin to blasphemy and devil worship. And I just like reminding them that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. The folks who used to practice magick, many got converted to Christianity, and magick is still well and alive in our society today.

The traditional Christian theory of faith healing is that one is healed not by the faith of the healer, but the faith of the person being healed, which is impressive enough to God for God to heal the person. The faith of the healer is irrelevant.

The pentecostals, at least the sub-part of them who handle snakes, say the same thing about snake handling, that it is the person’s faith that prevents the snake bites from being deadly. That way when someone gets bitten and dies, all they have to do is say “His faith wasn’t strong enough.” When I was growing up, we used to use that phrase as a joke. Whenever someone got hurt by something, we’d always say that their faith wasn’t strong enough.