29 October, 2007

Heckler at Benny Hinn Miracle Service: "Don't Slay Me Bro!"

Hampton, Virginia - At a recent Benny Hinn Crusade meeting in Hampton things did not go as smoothly as many would have hoped. Hinn's "Miracle Service" met at the Hampton Coliseum before a packed house, and while almost the entire audience was overjoyed by the opportunity to witness Hinn in action, one man came with a different agenda. Bailey Truden, a college student at Virginia Tech, showed up at the service with one thing in mind; to mock Hinn and disrupt his "Miracle Service."

Truden entered the service pretending to act like all of the other participants, with a smile on his face and a song in his heart. He filled out the visitors card given to him by the ushers as he entered and took his seat next to the excited worship participants. As the service began, he stood up clapped his hands with the rest of the people, and even managed to force out a few tears at emotionally appropriate moments. The music time went on for close to two hours, but Truden patiently waited for his moment. It was when things began to settled down and Hinn took the stage to "preach" that Truden seized upon the opportunity to strike.

"As brother Hinn stood up to speak, everyone one was quiet and focused, waiting expectantly for what was about to happen" said Ellen Pitts, who witnessed Sunday's events. "This loud voice broke the silence, and this man was screaming out something that I couldn't understand."

A tape of the program shows Hinn for a moment becoming confused, and then becoming angry. A transcript of the incident is as follows,

Hinn: "Hallelujah, what a wonderful moment of peace (sings the word peace several times), can't you feel..."
Truden: (Screaming somthing)
Hinn: "I'm sorry, sir, you're going to have to be quiet."
Truden: "You're a fake. You're a joke."
Hinn: "Get him out of here! He's a servant of Satan!"

The tape then shows the confrontation continuing for about a minute before Hinn finally screams "enough!"

Hinn himself jumped off of the stage and ran towards Truden. Truden tried to run but members of the security force grabbed him. Truden resisted violently, flailing his arms and legs and screaming at the security officers. But it was when Hinn arrived that things became even more chaotic. Hinn approached the restrained Truden with the microphone in his left hand and his right hand extended towards him, ready to lay hands on him. When Truden saw him coming he began to shout "Don't slay me bro! Don't slay me!" It was at that moment that Hinn reached down and touched Truden, immediately causing him to fall to the floor and shake violently. Everyone cheered and Hinn shouted "Hallelujah" and began singing the hymn "How Great Thou Art."

Truden remained unconscious for the remainder of the service and was escorted off the property only after all of the other worshipers had left. He was sternly warned not to come back again, or else Hinn would have to "slay him" again.

TBNN attempted to contact Hinn's office for comment, but calls were not returned. It was discovered that the University of Florida Security Office has contacted Hinn about helping out with security during an upcoming speak by Senator Jonathan Edwards.

12 comments:

Eric said...

Tom,

Is Bailey Truden a Pinhead or a Patriot?

Elder Eric

Richard said...

Hahaha. Don't taze me, bro! Good stuff.

Darrel Davis said...

Anyone here know what you call Uncle Benny's hairstyle?...A Hinn Doo! That just slays me! ooops! *thunk*

Anonymous said...

"Truden remained unconscious for the remainder of the service": The only way to get through a Hinn crusade!

Richard said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lvU-DislkI

:)

Anonymous said...

1 Chronicles 16:22

Richard said...

Dr. D, on what grounds do you equivocate what Benny Hinn does with the prophets of God?

Just wondering.

Brother Slawson said...

For you researchers (or maybe this is an easy one), I'm just curious, is there anything scriptural about calling pastors "annointed"? Where did that come from?

Anonymous said...

I think of anointing in the OT as pertaining more to kings, and the only relation I saw (so far) between anointing and preaching in the Bible was the prophesy of the Messiah, recounted in Luke 4, where Jesus says He is anointed to preach (among other things). Of course, He is prophet, priest, saviour, son of God, and King, so His anointing is a bit different from our Televangelists! So I don't know if this is where it came from (or from just the idea of a "special" calling), but it's not apparent to me that the modern application of the word is appropriate. Yet I hear the word so much in some arenas that I just think we must have a bunch of oily preachers running around!

Richard said...

Eric, I hear the phrase here (TBS/TTU) quite a bit...I was also wondering if there was a New Testament basis for claiming that a particular speaking has been 'anointed by God' to do whatever it is their doing.

Anonymous said...

This piece is just loaded with satire! I'm sure I missed some of the satirical allusions, but the ones I saw were hilarious. I wish we had a Senator Jonathan Edwards.

Unknown said...

Dr. Diangelo

Matthew 7:15