No HIV cures at crusades
OPINIONS & COMMENTARIES, The Daily Monitor
ROVING EYE | Kevin O’Connorhttp://www.monitor.co.ug/sunday/life/life05205.php
May 20 - 26, 2007
I did not attend Benny Hinn’s crusade, this weekend, as the claims of such pastors to heal and perform miracles are nonsense. However, I did go to a Morris Cerullo crusade in Kampala in the late 1990s.
I was disgusted at the suggestion that a person could be cured of HIV/Aids, and even worse, in order to be healed they first had to give money to the organisers. None of these “miracle” claims ever stand up to rigorous scientific testing.
At the current time there is no cure for HIV/Aids. Though the taking of anti-retroviral drugs greatly reduces the level of the virus in the body, and can mean the person has a life expectancy of normal length.
Furthermore, to suggest that the power of prayer combined with monetary donations can cure Aids is highly irresponsible. If people are told they can be cured, and they believe it, they may no longer practice safe sex.
Thus the likes of Benny Hinn (or should that be Benny Sin?) are working against the admirable efforts of organisations such as TASO and the Straight Talk Foundation who have made such huge contributions in the fight against the Aids epidemic.
The giving of money forms an integral part of most crusades. Is it any coincidence that many of the big pastors are extremely wealthy men and women? And who should be the next American pastor to visit Kampala, but the appropriately named Pastor Dollar.
As Business Week magazine has pointed out, Creflo A. Dollar “has been dubbed by critics as ‘Pass The Dollar’ and ‘Cashflow Dollar’ for his ostentatious displays of wealth.” He owns two Roll-Royce cars and flies around America in a Gulfstream-3 private jet.”
Kayanja
Pastor Dollar is no doubt a role model for our own Pastor Robert Kayanja. Kayanja similarly oozes and drips wealth. According to the Red Pepper he owns:
l Rubaga Miracle Cathedral
l Highway Holiness International, an NGO with many American links
l Robert Kayanja Ministries, an NGO with over 1,000 branches in Uganda and the US
l A house in Chicago
l Businesses in the US
l Innumerable Mercedes Benz and land cruisers;
l A private jet
l A magnificent house at Ggaba on the shores of Lake Victoria
Money is obviously very important to these pastors. Perhaps this explains why WCNC USA reports that Morris Cerullo is facing federal charges of tax evasion which include that “Cerullo lied on his income tax returns, omitting more than US $500,000.”
The report continues: “The federal prosecutor said that the money in question came from offerings at breakthrough rallies and speaking fees. The feds tells us Cerullo used that money as his own. If convicted, Cerullo could spend up to nine years in prison and pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.”
Religion certainly can play an important role in providing support to people suffering from HIV/Aids, other ailments and the very many harsh challenges that life can throw at human beings. But it should not be used to provide false hope. To repeat, there is no known cure for HIV/Aids, and one certainly won't be found at a religious crusade in the Mandela National Stadium.
kevin@imul.com
The rise of televangelism
http://www.monitor.co.ug/sunday/life/life052010.php
