I was raised as a Catholic,
but I wouldn't really describe myself as religious today.
I had never heard of things like
megachurches or televangelism or the prosperity gospel.
That was until I stumbled across an infamous interview.
How are you, sir?
We'd just like to ask you about why you don't want to fly commercial.
You've got this journalist that is
confronting this guy called Kenneth Copeland.
You said that you don't like to fly
commercial because you don't want to get into a tube with a bunch of demons.
Do you really believe that human beings are demons?
No, I do not.
And don't you ever say I did get in a long tube with a bunch of demons.
We wrestle not with flesh and blood, but principalities and powers.
Copeland is being confronted about his purchase of a Gulf Stream jet.
And it turns out that that jet is just one of a fleet of jets that he owns,
along with a boat house, a mansion and his very own airport.
This is a preacher that is supposedly
worth hundreds of millions of dollars with an enormous following.
And you're telling me that he is just one of many?
This entire thing is a rabbit hole.
Pastor, what is now the largest church in America.
A weekly sermon watched by more than 10 million viewers on television.
The apostles were businessmen.
They were reaching in and had plenty of money.
I'm going to show you that Jesus was a welcome man.
Had put any money one of my chandeliers costs more than most people's house.
I got 22 chandeliers in the house.
They're extremely green.
They don't need mansions.
They don't need jets.
God told me to have that thing.
Any religious leader who speaks the word
of God, who has more than one suit while someone has no clothes, is a cop out.
Yeah, you know, Larry, I just don't. See it that way.
For $54 million, I want you to.
Imagine how many people could be fed.
How many homeless could have places to sleep.
Fresh, fresh, fresh.
Televangelism is still thriving in this place.
If you were willing to pay the price, you could talk directly to God.
When I remember my own personal
experiences inside of a church, what comes to mind was definitely not this.
Times is like a concert.
And when the preachers come to preach,
it's like a celebrity has just taken to the stage.
Everyone is worshiping together. They're smiling.
They're joined in their faith and devotion.
What we're witnessing is something called a megachurch.
By definition, a megachurch is just a church that has a larger than average
congregation, normally of 2000 members or above.
But when we think of spirituality or forms of it, there's normally a distinction
between spiritual duty and materialistic desires.
Now, I'm not a theologian,
and I'm not going to pretend to be one, but even I remember verses from the Bible
when it came to wealth and building riches.
That it wasn't viewed favorably upon.
But if my memory is correct, then what was I witnessing in this
interview with Copeland and moreover, some of these preachers?
So you've got this preacher, Kenneth Copeland,
who founded the Kenneth Copeland Ministries, along with his wife Gloria.
They own a $7 million home, a fleet of jets,
and their Eagle Mountain International Church has a membership in the thousands,
not to mention their television and online broadcasting.
Then there's Jesse De Plantis,
who sat with Copeland as they both justified their purchases of private jets.
Then the second one I purchased was in January 2004.
Benny Him, who claims to be able
to perform miracles, who fills up stadiums and broadcasts it on networks worldwide.
I'll release it.
Joel Osteen, a very popular figure, especially in Houston, Texas,
where his church resides, who's authored books that have been
on New York Times bestsellers, as well as hosting church services
with celebrities like Kanye West Creflo's Dollar,
who has created fundraisers for his private jets, whose ministry owns two
rolled Royces and expensive real estate taboos.
God is the gateway to the world of wealth.
There's this Instagram page which is called Preachers and Sneakers and it's
literally just preachers next to the cost of the clothing that they are wearing.
Something, something just isn't right.
I keep asking myself how, how is it possible to be this
braggadocious about your wealth as a preacher and have your followers who not
only are okay with it, but help to fund it?
And that was when I found out about the Prosperity Gospel.
What we're looking at is a movement that has seemingly found its way inside
of America's biggest megachurches and being taught by its biggest preachers.
The Word of Faith movement is its name
and its teachings are often referred to as the Prosperity Gospel.
It's a simple idea.
God wants you to be prosperous through
your finances, your health, your marriage and relationships.
In fact, those are things that belong
to you through your faith, if you are willing to receive it.
The Prosperity Gospel often refers to its believers as little gods.
The idea being that we were made
in the image of God and therefore possess a level of divinity within us that allows
us to bring into existence the prosperity that we've been promised.
You are Gods, little g.
You are gods because you came from God.
And your DNA and Jesus DNA are exact.
You're exactly like it.
Sounds amazing.
So how do I earn this prosperity?
How do I access this divine power that I supposedly have?
Well, it starts with your faith.
But if you'll stay in faith,
there will come a point where God will say, enough is enough.
It's payback time.
Bible says, I know you love the Lord, so you qualify for prosperity.
Next, you have the act of tithing.
The initial concept of tithing was this idea that you give one 10th of your wealth
in some way, shape or form to a religious organization.
Most houses of worship are going to rely on the donation of their congregation
in order to continue their operations, especially megachurches.
It's kind of like giving to a charity.
But Tithing, through the teachings
of the Prosperity Gospel, introduces a should we call it a plot twist.
Tithing lays the foundation for financial success and abundance.
Tithing is the way for recession or depression to bypass you.
Here Stephanie from Maryland Rights.
I sent in my first Roots offering.
Two weeks later I received, watch this $2,400.
So now it isn't just about donating your money to a church.
It becomes a case where you're exchanging
your money in return for actual prosperity.
You'll often hear some of these prosperity preachers refer to it as sowing your seed.
The implication is pretty obvious
to anyone who is watching you give us some of your money and in return that value
will be given back to you in some way, shape or form.
It's the harvest.
I want you to go to the phone or online and sow a seed.
Now remember, somebody's son is going
to be set free from alcohol because of your thousand dollars seed.
And I'm going to ask you to sow an exceptional and uncommon seed of $1,000.
Click on that donation button to sow $1,144.
So God has given you the harvest and the harvest of the seeds you sow.
You can't expect to harvest if you don't
sow seeds spiritual, physical or financial.
It's surreal and it generates a lot of money.
On January 12 of 2008,
Kenneth Copeland Ministries took possession of a Gulf Stream jet which was
funded all thanks to the donors of his church.
In fact, KCM wrote a blog post thanking their followers for helping them, quote,
harvest the Gulf Stream, but our work is not done.
To which the blog then proceeds to remind their followers that they still need 17
million more dollars, which will be used for the, quote,
sewing towards the construction of a new hanger, upgrading the existing runway,
and purchasing special Gulf Stream maintenance equipment.
Or how about Chriflo Dollar's infamous
sermon to which he tells his congregation to help him fundraise towards a private
jet, all to the response of cheers and applause from the audience.
If I want to believe God for a $65 million plane, you cannot stop me.
You cannot stop me from dreaming.
See Copeland and Dollars, please. For money.
They're not met with criticism and backlash from their congregation.
It's celebrated and prosperity.
Preachers will obviously say that this
AIDS in their quest to spread their message across to different countries.
If I flew commercial, I'd have to stop 65% of what I'm doing.
Conveniently, that message obviously
allows them to make even more in donations.
But these preachers, they don't just live lavish, right?
They put it on full display.
Do you think Jesus Christ would have rolled around in a Rolls Royce?
I think he would. Let's get a close up of Gloria's ring.
Where am I looking? Right here.
You fly in a private plane? Yes, I do.
You're staying right now in one of the fanciest hotels you ever find.
You wear nice, very nice clothing.
So money.
Money.
The wealth of these preachers, they're not seen as gross or hypocritical.
In fact, they're seen as proof that the teachings work.
It's seen as them actually practicing what they preach.
The extravagant lifestyle.
That's not a mistake or a flaw.
It's a feature of the prosperity Gospel.
Many of these preachers will say
that the funds that they received are used only for ministry purposes.
Osteen, for example, says that he doesn't receive any salary
from his ministry and all the money he makes comes from his book sales.
Look, in some ways, I don't really care if a ministry wants to buy a private jet.
It looks optically hypocritical, but I'd rather let theologians argue over
the contradictions that those actions have with actual religious texts.
I'm more interested in how the money is generated, and it doesn't get more
unethical of a promise than it does with the prosperity Gospel.
If you're accustomed of giving $10,
go to 20, go up to 70, 8100, raise that amount and watch what God.
Will do, because don't you stop.
Sowing offerings.
Well, they won't let us go to church.
Well, email it in their text and give or something.
You get that tithe in that church,
you get that offering in that church, and then you go home and you.
Do what we're supposed to do.
This idea is no different than the Law of Attraction and Manifestation circles
that claim that you can use your mind to manifest any desire that you want.
In fact, it's been argued
that the prosperity theology does have similar roots to the new thought
philosophy that became popular in America in the 19th century.
When I look at Osteen, for example, I don't necessarily see a preacher.
I see someone who's more akin to a self
help motivational speaker that uses God as a proxy.
I am confident.
I am secure.
I am talented. I am talented.
Take a look, for example, at Osteen's New York Times bestseller
book, Your Best Life Now, which is filled with all of these kinds of ideas.
So here's a quote from the very first chapter enlarging your vision.
It's not God's lack of resources or your
lack of talent that prevents you from prospering your own wrong.
Thinking can keep you from God's best.
And the book is riddled with these similar
messages of becoming what you believe and the power of your words.
It's a book. Like many others in the self help genre,
the connection isn't really that hard to see, but it's this sowing your seed
message in the prosperity theology, the idea that you can donate to a church
and in return you can, you know, pay off your rent, pay off your credit card.
That seems particularly stomach churning.
And now this is a message that is being
exported from America to Europe and Africa.
So one of Nigeria's wealthiest pastors is
this guy called David Oyadepo, who is said to be worth $150,000,000.
We are not asking you to give so the church can be blessed.
We're asking you to give so you can be blessed.
Some fellow said, okay, I was worth $150,000,000.
That's an insult.
$150,000,000, that's an insult.
150 million too small.
Do they know what they're doing?
A big part of me believes that Copeland and Dollar, they they truly believe their
intentions are good, even for hundreds of millions of dollars.
I can't imagine someone knowingly,
deceive and hurt other people without just driving themself insane.
In the long run, that type of cognitive dissonance just seems too much to bear.
But at the end of the day, I'm never going to know what their intentions are.
You know, I can only ever see what the consequences of their actions are.
And trust me, you haven't seen the worst of it yet.
Benny Hin.
Hin is probably most well known for what he calls his miracle crusades.
HYNN claims to be able to perform miracles.
He'll bring people to the stage with all sorts of illnesses,
and then with the touch of his hand, they will feel God's power running through
them as they fall back, and these catchers will catch them as they fall.
You had Parkinson's for 15 years since. Who are you?
People in the audience will cheer.
There are others who have stood there in awe with their hands raised in worship.
And Benny Hinn isn't the only one that does this right.
This is a really common practice amongst the prosperity gospel circles.
Glory to God. You're not bound to this chair.
The day will come, you'll walk out of it.
In the name of Jesus.
What is it that we're really seeing here?
Is this an actual miracle?
I would know that there were certain things that were completely deceptive.
Costehen is the nephew of Benny Hin,
and he's worked with his family, sometimes as a catcher himself.
In 2017, Kostihan came forward
with a testimony of his time spent in Benihan's ministry.
The responsibility is to look really good, look really blessed, sell the narrative,
make all the money, and say, look at my life.
If you give to this, if you follow it,
if you obey it, and if you do what I say, god will do it for you too.
He described the lifestyle that he had whilst working with his family.
We lived in a 10,000 square foot mansion
guarded by a private gate, drove two Mercedes Benz vehicles,
vacationed in exotic destinations, and shopped at the most expensive stores.
Costa Hin really believed in what he was
doing, but he only had doubts when he started finding contradictions in what he
was teaching and what he was finding in the Bible.
Grace Bruler was eight years old when she
was featured on an episode of CBC's The Fifth Estate in 2005,
an episode that was specifically investigating Hens ministry.
If you could have a miracle, what would you want it to be?
They can look.
Just walk.
Is that what you want, Grace?
Just to walk?
Just to walk.
Grace's mother brings her daughter to one of Hinn's miracle crusades.
And just as she's about to go to the stage, she's intercepted by what
are called screeners who tell her to step aside.
According to that documentary and an insider, the job of the screeners
is to screen out the people that are severely sick and ill.
There's the story of Justin Peters,
who is an evangelist himself and was born with cerebral palsy.
During the Fifth Estates investigation
into him's ministry, they attempt to get Peters to go on stage as well.
And just like Grace, he is also intercepted by the screeners.
Our hidden camera shows Justin being
stopped by a screener watch as Henryhin whispers something to her.
Then Justin is told to step aside.
In another documentary from 2001, HBO were given full access to Hinsaville.
Events and were even allowed to follow
several cases of supposed miracle healings.
These are people that actually managed
to get onto the stage and claim they'd been healed.
In one instance, the crew follows a boy called Ash Neil and his parents as they
are desperate to have their child healed by one of him's.
Miracles. We expecting america.
The Prakash family are recent immigrants to America.
Ten year old Ash Neil is their younger son.
Two massive brain tumors have reduced him to a vegetative state.
We believe in God, we have faith, and there's nothing impossible for God.
Later in the documentary, Ashton's parents actually attend
the crusade and they're brought on stage to have their child healed by him himself.
Hin gets the crowd to raise their hands
and then he places his hands on Ashley's face and says, expect the.
Miracle, dear Jesus, the Lord's going to touch you, young boy.
Days after the event and Ashnil still wasn't healed.
It didn't happen.
I was not even discouraged. I know.
It's God's plan.
I can stake my life on pasta.
Many words.
And God spoke to me last night
at the Coliseum center where the crusade was going on, and he said,
donate him another $2,000 and which I'm going to do it.
I'm going to do that.
Recently I watched an event from Kenneth Copeland's.
Eagle Mountain church, right.
It's called miracles on a mountain.
It's another miracle healing service.
And in this instance it was hosted by this evangelist called Billy Burke.
And at one point someone is brought out
from the crowd and I thought, hang on, I recognize this guy.
It was Big Nick,
who for those of you that don't know, was an ex member of the popular social
media group the Vlog Squad, which is headed by David Dobrik.
At the event, Nick tells Billy Burke about his blind eye.
I'm blind in my left eye as well.
I know that you told me that.
Billy then attempts to cure his eye, loosen that after all these theatrics
billy then starts to wiggle his finger around and then nothing yet.
Nothing yet.
And Billy hears that and he continues, like trying to help him.
And then when he realizes it doesn't work, he then just tells Nick recite chapters
of the Bible every night for your eye to be cured.
So John, chapter nine, your confession, starting tonight and every night.
You hear me?
Tonight and every night before you go to bed.
Are you ready?
I was blind and now I see.
And the crowd Cheerss.
It's like the miracle actually happened.
Now it's been about seven months since
that event took place and I've looked through Big Nick's social media account
and there's no indication that his eye has healed since the event.
So again, what are we witnessing when we see things like this?
If we are to believe that these people aren't just actors,
which I really don't think that they are what is actually happening.
Consider this if what we're seeing is
really a miracle, why don't these people go to hospitals and heal people there?
Why do they need the lights
and the cameras and the atmosphere and the theatrics to be able to do what they do?
In 2011, Darren Brown ran this TV special program called Miracles for sale.
In this special program, Darren Brown,
who is this self described mentalist and illusionist,
takes this ordinary individual called Nathan and attempts to turn him
into a faith healer, performing miracles in front of an audience.
The idea behind the program was to expose
the fact that what is happening here are not miracles, that it's just a product
of psychology, the power of suggestion and misdirection.
Now, some aspects of faith healing are just pure trickery.
A good example of this is the infamous leg growing trick.
The preacher Todd White is well known for walking around the streets and finding
individuals who supposedly have one leg that is shorter than the other.
And then, miraculously,
White will begin to grow out that person's leg right before our very eyes.
Thank you.
In Jesus name, left leg, I command you, grow right now.
In Jesus name.
Darren Brown teaches Nathan to do this exact trick because it's not a miracle.
The leg growing trick is infamously used by charlatans throughout history.
In fact, a quick Google or YouTube search
will demonstrate how it can be done in several ways, one of which involves
shifting the other person's shoes to make it seem as though a leg is being grown.
If you speed up the Todd White clip of him performing this miracle and you just play
it back and forth, you can literally see what Todd White is doing.
But a big part of faith healing isn't just tricks like this.
In fact, a lot of it is rooted in a deeper part of who we are as people.
By the end of Darren Brown's special,
nathan is able to perform in front of a small audience of believers.
And you can see that he, too, is able to, with just the touch of his hand,
bring people to fall back as though they were touched by God themselves.
To understand how Nathan, who is an ordinary guy, versus Benny Hinn,
who claims to be able to perform miracles, can do what they're doing,
you have to understand the power behind what they're creating in their shows.
From the very moment it begins,
you're joined by a crowd of people united by a particular cause or belief.
There are those in the crowd who are
already in pain, who feel as though something is missing in their lives.
When they are brought together, there is a sense of oneness of wholeness and unity.
Just think about how powerful crowds can be and what it's like to be in one,
especially when you're all joined by a united cause.
You're then brought into this hypnotic or
more specifically, a suggestible and open state.
He wants to heal you because he loves you.
You don't have to pay for it, just ask for it.
The music rises and falls stirring a wave
of experiences and emotions amongst the crowd.
Then you begin to create the expectancy for what is about to come.
All things are possible to him that believe it.
You keep the crowd in this heightened, aroused state of mind.
And as the crowd is ripened
for suggestibility the faith healer acts almost like a conductor for the orchestra
of experiences that people are going through.
A leader amongst a crowd of people in a hypnotic trancelike state is
something that you cannot underestimate the psychological effect of.
Then the healer begins preaching their message.
But don't look for the healing.
Look for the healer whatsoever.
You shall ask what will I do?
The crowd is full of ecstasy.
The joy in the audience the deep feeling as though you're becoming a new person.
You're connecting with that of which is above you.
You expect that when the preacher lays
their hand on you or shouts beggar you may feel God's touch with it.
You've been suggested and primed to believe that that is the case.
And in being so connected to the crowd around you the effects of social
conformity are bound to take place in this trance like state.
You go along with what the preacher's suggestions are.
You do what you are expected to do.
It's no different to what a stage hypnotist does.
The more suggestible you are, the more belief you have, the easier it becomes.
And what's even more interesting is
that in this heightened state of emotions, of euphoria, of adrenaline it's very
possible to feel symptoms being alleviated.
It's possible, even for someone who is
in a wheelchair to momentarily be able to get up and walk around.
But what we are really witnessing is just a moment of mind over body.
The placebo effect is a well known phenomenon.
It's when a patient's condition changes
after receiving a treatment that by no means should have changed their condition.
For example, if a patient expects a pill to do something and is told by their
doctor that it'll help them even if that pill is just a sugar pill
that doesn't do anything it is possible for your own brain chemistry to cause
effects similar to what medication might have caused.
The key word here is expect because
a placebo effect is mostly theorized to be caused by our expectations around a given
treatment expectations that we derive from culture and society.
That's why a placebo that is given as
an injection rather than a pill can be more effective.
Or when you're given two placebo pills
to take every day rather than one it can also be more effective because culturally
we perceive the latter of these treatments to have a bigger effect on us.
That belief and expectancy can be so
powerful as to have physiological effects on our body.
And what more powerful expectation can
somebody have than one that invokes their very own belief in a higher spiritual
being like God, surrounded by others who share that very belief?
What we are seeing is a placebo.
This is why you'll never see any miracle healer or somebody that believes
in the law of attraction, be able to do anything that is beyond a placebo.
It's why you'll never see them be able to restore the limb of an amputee.
And as I've watched your healing crusades,
am I seeing anything that goes beyond placebo?
I've wondered why sometimes someone comes
in and comes out of a wheelchair, walks around, runs around,
and hours later, they're back in that wheelchair again.
The problem is, however, that those who attend the event
and whose problems and illnesses are not healed at the event or return after
the event start to blame themselves that for some reason God didn't want
to heal them, that they didn't have enough faith.
Remember Ash Neal from the HBO documentary
seven weeks after attending Hynn's Miracle Crusade?
Expect the miracle.
He passed away.
Do you feel in any way that any hin has let you down?
No.
Did you ever, in some of your worst moments, think that you must have done
something wrong in the eyes of God to deserve this?
Yes.
I know there's a generational curse.
Maybe it originated from me or
from my parents, because that curse lasts for three or four generations.
Who taught you that?
I hate it.
From Pasadena.
It doesn't square with the Bible at all.
It's a complete scam.
It's utter deception.
Increase your faith,
increase your seed, and store up for the future
so that when these tragedies hit on earth, you would be spared.
It is a deception to a degree that I don't think I've seen before.
And you have to sit there and look at this
all and wonder, surely there's justice to this story.
Right? Surely somebody takes the fool.
Surely there's a happy ending to it.
Surely.
In September of 2019, benny Hin comes out with quite the astonishing announcement.
And I'm sorry to say that prosperity has gone a little crazy.
I think it's an offense to the Lord.
It's an offense to say, give a think.
It's offense to the Holy Spirit to place a price on the gospel.
I'm done with it.
Many whom had decided to leave the prosperity gospel hallelujah.
Right? One of the best lessons that I could give
to people is say, watch what they go back to.
Watch what they give up and watch what they go back to.
Okay? So it's time to give to the Lord's work.
It's time to succeed in the Lord's work so God can bless you and reward you.
Trust me. It's time to give to the Lord's work.
Because giving guarantees our financial protection.
The problem is, once you've generated the type of following and business
and reputation that hin has, changing your ways becomes almost
impossible, and more so because I genuinely believe that most of these
prosperity preachers, they're not intentionally malicious,
they've deceived themselves, even till today.
I question, is this God or is this just me?
The reality is that most of the preachers
that we've mentioned in this video are continuing their operations today.
And when they pass, there's going to be a wave of new
prosperity preachers ready to take their place.
The message is an easy one to spread.
It promises you health, wealth, and happiness.
It makes you feel good.
And what's not to love about that, right?
Look at the comment section below.
And you're probably not going to be hard pressed to find someone defending him or
Copeland or the Prosperity Theology overall.
You'll probably find people claiming that they have seen miracles happen or
that by sowing their seed prosperity really was given to them.
And I'm not delivering any new message here.
Prosperity Theology receives a lot
of criticism inside of Christianity and outside, and you.
Know you're a piece of shit, right? You know?
Right.
They'll still get away with their
teachings because their message isn't for people who are cynical.
It's really difficult to stop their more deceptive actions.
The only thing you can do is go to those that believe in it and steer them away.
And until that happens, the booming business
of Prosperity Theology and faith healing will continue to flourish.
I don't know what you feel about
the Prosperity Gospel, the Health, wealth and Prosperity Gospel,
but I'll tell you what I feel about it hatred.
It is not the gospel, and it's being exported from this country
to Africa and Asia, selling a bill of goods to the poorest, of the poor.
Believe this message your pigs won't die, your wife won't have miscarriages.
You have rings on your fingers and coats on your back that's coming out of America.
The people don't ought to be giving our money and our time.
John Piper is just one of the many
preachers and ministries that actively try and combat the Prosperity Gospel.
And although Texas is home to some
of the biggest megachurches, it's also home to the Trinity Foundation,
a leading watchdog ministry founded by Oli Anthony that carries out
investigations into some of the conducts of the biggest televangelists.
It was Oli Anthony, founder of the East Dallas homeless
Ministry, Trinity Foundation, who masterminded the investigation
and helped expose some of the top televangelists in the country.
You know, faith and religion are powerful things.
Seeing the sense of hope that it can fill a person with or the community
and the purpose that it can inspire towards good causes,
I don't think anyone can look at those things on their own and say they're bad.
A few months ago,
I had burnt out from working, and when that happened,
I felt very cynical about everything that I was doing.
What was the point?
And what helped was having a sense of hope
that those feelings would come to pass and finding purpose in what I was doing
and spending time with my friends and family, hope, purpose and community.
But hope, purpose and community can be exploited.
It can cloud your better judgment just
because somebody dresses the part or sounds the part.
And invokes the word God.
If you're somebody watching this that is a believer in the prosperity gospel,
I invite you to think over and really question, could I be wrong?
A healthy skepticism, I think,
only motivates someone to find the truth, not drift further away from it.
Seek, and perhaps you will find it.
If you think the world of prosperity preachers and megachurches is crazy, then,
my friends, you have to check out my documentary on New Age gurus.
It should be shown somewhere on the screen.
That is arguably where all of this kind of began to form and originate.
And it is just a whole other rabbit hole in and of itself.
But either way, my friends, it is great to be back.
As always. Hand to herd.
Salute.