O Canada.
Did someone up there fail to get the memo that the National Enquirer isn’t exactly the most trusted outlet on earth?
Apparently not. Kenneth Kidd of the Toronto Star released the following report this morning.
There’s a new televangelist soap opera.
Reports this week suggest a still-married Benny Hinn is now romantically involved with Paula White, another television preacher with a colourful past.
Here’s a quick review for those who don’t know the people involved. Benny Hinn is best-known his healing healing and television program This Is Your Day. Earlier this year, his wife filed for divorce. Paul White is the pastor of Without Walls International Church in Tampa. In 2007, she and her fellow pastor/husband Randy divorced.
Back to the Toronto Star’s story, I couldn’t find the so-called reports. Take a quick scan of Google news, Yahoo news, whatever you use, and you probably won’t find any mainstream reports of this alleged affair either. I am in no way defending or condemning Hinn or White, and I am not suggesting that they did or did not have an affair. From a journalist’s perspective, the point is, where do these reports come from?
The closest “report” I could find was a brief in the National Enquirer teasing you to pick up its next issue with a spread on Hinn/White. Here are the first few sentences of the National Enquirer story:
Married TV evangelist Benny Hinn is hiding a shocking secret love affair from his flock!
In a blockbuster exclusive sure to rock the worldwide Christian community, the Enquirer has learned the popular televangelist recently sneaked off with fellow minister Paula White for a romantic trip to Rome.
We caught the couple walking hand-in-hand out of the five-star Hotel Hassler, where Pastor Benny was booked into the presidential suite under a false name, on July 13.
Although the 57-year-old multimillionaire faith healer and host of TV’s “This Is Your Day” is separated from his wife Suzanne, the couple are not yet divorce.
Rick Hiebert blogs that Swedish Twitterers are also posting on Hinn.
Yes, the paper broke the John Edwards mess, but reporters still have an obligation to follow up and do their own reporting. I guess there was a small attempt:
Neither Hinn nor White could be reached for comment Friday.
That’s nice.
Unfortunately, the Star’s 600 words on Hinn and White’s background and the sidebar by Rick Sznajde on “Other televangelist troubles” give added weight to the story. Keep in mind, there’s a big difference in most people’s minds over “reports suggest” and “the National Enquirer reports.”
But please keep watching. Help us spot mainstream reports.
That is, if there are any out there worth reading.
 | Posted at 10:51 pm |  Print
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Comments (32) |
July 24, 2010, at 11:29 pm
Thanks for the link Sarah.
Big fan.:^)
Blog on!
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July 25, 2010, at 12:09 am
TheToronto Star Newspaper is reporting it also but that may be from what they read in the Enquirer. It’s so much fun to follow the evangelical soap operas. Hinn just emailed all of his followers begging for money erase a 2 million dollar deficit. I wonder if he’s getting house in Dana Point in the divorce or not. it’s been very quiet about the divorce……hope the settlement terms get to be public.
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July 25, 2010, at 2:00 am
Of course the National Enquirer is also vastly overstating matters when they say that this revelation will “rock the worldwide Christian community” — that community is already so used to these goings-on in American televangelism that all this will elicit is a slightly embarrassed yawn — whether it’s true or not.
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July 25, 2010, at 2:11 am
Sarah, Thank you for the story. I enjoy GetReligion’s links to many stories, as well as its dissecting stories from a journalistic perspective. Where I differ with tmatt (and possibly others) is where he states in the next post that “This is a pro-journalistic weblog.” I am pro-consumer.
I see nothing wrong with selling what people will buy. Public figures must deal with publicity, and often invite it, even if seemingly negative. Many entertainers (and I would argue that Hinn is primarily an entertainer) believe the adage that “there is no such thing as negative publicity.”
I wouldn’t be surprised if Hinn, through intermediaries, planted this story. So when you close your post by reminding us that “…there’s a big difference in most people’s minds over ‘reports suggest’ and ‘the National Enquirer reports’” that’s fine, but perhaps neglects the possibility that the Enquirer isn’t the originator of these “reports?”
As a consumer, I believe that “insiders” like you can educate the rest of us a bit regarding push versus pull, how much stories are pushed by interested parties or pulled by editors & publishers who think they are somehow of value to society or simply will sell. This ties in to the JournoList issue, discussed on other posts, or the omission of the “religion angle” in certain stories or neglect of religious stories altogether (that is, the decline of the “Godbeat”).
As a consumer, it doesn’t bother me when journalism “sells out” and targets stories toward a specific audience. Instead, I am bothered by the pretense that “mainstream” news organizations aren’t pushing a particular perspective. Like you, I wish they would be more above-board in specifying the source of “reports” or citing anonymous “experts.” So this Hinn story may be salacious or unreliable but that’s OK, at least we’re not dealing with Eternal issues or important temporal matters (such as choosing a President) based on journalism that is opinion disguised as fact.
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July 25, 2010, at 2:54 am
I used to know a reporter for the National Enquirer. He said their unofficial motto was “Don’t ruin a good story by asking too many questions.” It seems that might be the motto of someone in Canada, too.
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July 25, 2010, at 10:39 am
Is this more indicative of a trend in newspapers to swipe stories from each other, rather than do reporting of their own?
Maybe the “Toronto Star” hasn’t got the resources to cover the ‘godbeat’ on its own any more, so it is relying on seeing coverage in, um, the “National Enquirer”?
Or more likely, this is a case of “What’s a good gossipy headline that’ll draw in the punters? What are the scandal sheets covering? Ah, that’ll do!”
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July 25, 2010, at 10:55 am
Hinn has at his website the following: Pastor Benny Responds to False and Misleading News Reports
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July 25, 2010, at 1:29 pm
The National Enquirer broke the John Edwards affair story, and more recently the Al Gore massage therapist story. They can be faulted for salacious interest in private sexual activity, but they were accurate.
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July 25, 2010, at 1:59 pm
Thanks, Sarah. I think you nailed it.
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July 25, 2010, at 3:37 pm
In a press release Hinn claims, “I was invited by Vatican officials to visit the Vatican to discuss future ministry opportunities there.”
I doubt the Vatican would want to work with Hinn. A Vatican spokesperson should be able to verify if such a meeting took place.
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July 25, 2010, at 4:07 pm
The National Enquirer is just as worthy of acceptance as genuine news as any other paper these days. As Perpetua said, they are the ones who covered the John Edwards and Al Gore story when no one else said anything. I would not in the slightest be surprised if the National Enquirer is on the money with this one. I trust the morality of televangelists as much as I trust the truth-telling of mainstream newspapers.
“Don’t ruin a good story by asking too many questions.”
That isn’t the motto of the National Enquirer. That is the motto of all newspapers.
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July 25, 2010, at 6:14 pm
Jettboy (#11), exactly right.
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July 25, 2010, at 8:04 pm
When I saw “Canada”, I thought you folks were going to be commenting on the “dog takes communion” story. Also reported on, quite badly, by the selfsame Toronto Star, as it happens.
http://tinyurl.com/2d7m2lf
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July 25, 2010, at 8:54 pm
Paula has at her website the following: Pastor Paula Responds to False and Misleading Article
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July 25, 2010, at 9:19 pm
Were these two letters written by the same PR executive?
Can’t help but notice that the title of both press releases contains the phrase: “responds to false and misleading…”
I look forward to finding out more about this Benny Hinn/Vatican summit…
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July 26, 2010, at 12:47 am
I can shed some light from an insider’s perspective, but I’m not going to risk my job by giving my real name and email address.
His divorce was NO shock. He and Sue had been living apart for months…almost 2 years.
The explanation on both Benny’s and Paula’s website are too similar not to have been written by the same person and I guarantee those aren’t Benny’s words. He would never use a term like “the optics of….” Give me a break! The man can’t even use the term “either/or” correctly when making comparisons.
As he has in the past, he’s stretching the true (evangelastic) as the very least about this as well as other past issues like his son’s rehabilation, Sues problem with prescription drugs, his expensive lifestyle and ridiculously expensive hotel suits, and on, and on.
He and his executive team will do anything to keep the game alive.
As a supposedly “Christian” leader and man of God he should have known better and avoided EVEN the appearance of impropriety. It’s disgraceful.
Read the Enquires article. They never call the story a lie but they fein outrage and use lawyer-speak to deny the allegations. But they never call the whole thing a lie. They’re splitting hairs. And if he was there to see the Pope or Vatican officials, why would he use a false name at the hotel? It’s sleazy.
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July 26, 2010, at 12:49 am
Probably off-topic, but there’s a story around here of an old-style fundamentalist Baptist preacher a century ago named J. Frank Norris. He hated Catholicism with a burning passion: whore-of-babylon, pope’s the anti-christ, and all that stuff. He actively campaigned against Al Smith in the pulpit and on radio because Smith was a Catholic.
However, after World War II, his hatred of Communism overwhelmed his hatred of Catholicism and he did actually meet with Pope Pius XII, who was also a fervid anti-communist. From here:
In September 1947, while on a tour of Europe, Norris secured an audience with Pope Pius XII and declared that the pope was “the last Gibraltar in Europe against Communism.” Thereafter, Norris took the position that communism was more dangerous than Catholicism, and some of Norris’s erstwhile allies, such as T. T. Shields, criticized him for his “folly.”
All of which is to say that Benny Hinn meeting with Pope Benedict would not be unprecedented.
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July 26, 2010, at 1:01 am
Benny has met with the Pope before. Twice with past Popes. Not sure if he’s met Benedict or not. But he definitely is connected and has had official business with the Catholic Church.
When I said “if he was meeting…” I didn’t mean to question the purpose of the trip. He definitely was there to meet with the Vatican. My point is that if he was there for official business why use an assumed name? You only do that when you’re hiding something. He always travels with a security detail and Rome is safe compared to other parts of the world we have traveled to, so he didn’t do it as a safety precaution. I think it underscores the intent that the article talks about. I wasn’t there and don’t know Benny’s heart, but it looks horrible.
I will also repeat the points made previously that as the rest of the media has become lazy, the Enquirer has had two recent scoops with Edwards and Gore.
They may be a cheap rag, but they’re doing real investigative reporting that others papers won’t or don’t do.
Benny was scheduled to appear at Paula Whites service in a few weeks as a guest speaker. That even was quickly erased from the Benny Hinn website a coupe days ago. If there was no impropriety, why would he cancel that engagement? What’s to hide or be embarrassed about if it’s all up-and-up?
Billy Graham would NEVER be caught in a situation like this. Sad.
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July 26, 2010, at 9:42 am
As an American living in Canada for almost 30 years, let me inform you that THE TORONTO STAR is one of the two major national newspapers. It did an excellent job several years ago reporting on the abominable “Toronto Blessing”, which was headed up by Hinn’s old colleague John Arnott, who was also recently embraced by Todd Bentley, the ersatz “Signs and Wonders” magician whose divorce and remarriage to his secretary is evidently putting him right on track now to resume his ‘Miracle Ministry’. As for ‘The National Enquirer’, far from being unreliable, I have kept its classic issues on Bill Clinton & Monica Lewinsky, in plastic, as collectors’ items. The ‘Enquirer’ broke the story. Take a hard look at ‘The Globe’ and its current coverage of the Kenyan birth certificate. Then Google Obama’s political sabotage of the Kenyan government. Mr. One-World-Dictator can’t wait to get his suspect fingers in every international pie. Google Larry Sinclair, while you’re at it. The connection with all this is that TRUTH IS UNPLEASANT. I prefer to shout it from the rooftops, rather than hide my head in the sand.
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July 26, 2010, at 11:19 am
Benny Hinn has been photographed with Pope John Paul II in what appears to be a receiving line. And he’s had a couple of Israeli prime ministers on his television program…
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July 26, 2010, at 6:27 pm
Go to http://www.BennyHinn.org. There is a full and complete statement about what the Enquirer is calling a “torrid affair”.
Unfortunately the truth is usually a lot more boring than the fiction the Enquirer tends to peddle.
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July 26, 2010, at 6:43 pm
Did you catch the Enquirer’s line about Benny Hinn checking into the hotel under an assumed name? It is as though it is a Pulitzer Prize-worthy “gotcha” which implies guilt in some monumental, overwhelming way.
Can you imagine Benny Hinn checking into ANY hotel in the world under his own name? No well known person (or even semi-well known) in his/her right mind would use a real name on such things as hotel registrations.
What’s next…because he has an unlisted phone number or doesn’t plaster his name on the front of his home that we should therefore assume that he is guilty of all sorts of unmentionable mayhem?
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July 27, 2010, at 2:34 am
Mountain Woman, There is no need to use a false name in one’s hotel registration. One can request secrecy and it is easily granted.
Benny mentioned that his family members and staff were there. Do you really think if they actually were there…that Benny would be publicly holding Paula’s hand..with his still being married…and having requested all his followers to pray for the reconciliation of his marriage?
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July 27, 2010, at 1:27 pm
I’m going to jump in here and ask that we stick to journalism coverage, the article at hand, ethics, etc. Keep your opinions about Hinn to yourself.
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July 27, 2010, at 2:26 pm
I have no informed opinion on the private lives of Mr. Hinn or Ms White, but I do take issue with the claim that an affair between the two would “rock the worldwide Christian Community.” The vast majority of the world’s Christians would have little interest in those two. THey’re just not that big among Catholics, Orthodox, Lutherans, Anglicans or the Reformed.
It might be of interest to know that for several decades the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Christian Unity has maintained a dialogue with Pentecostals. Talking with them and getting an invitation to meet the pope is a sign of neither theological or moral approval. Hinn may well be someone they reached out to as part of that dialogue.
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July 27, 2010, at 2:27 pm
To paraphrase a Fundamentalist slogan, “The National Enquier wrote it, I believe it, and that’s that.” LOL
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July 27, 2010, at 5:57 pm
There is nothing sleazy about using aliases for well known people to check in hotels. I have worked for several and this is very common practice. When you are well known…you have no idea how many people (hotel employees, fans, news people, want information, want to see you, want to talk to you, want access. They would be stupid to use their own name.
Normal, everyday people have no idea of the continuous distractions they must deal with, and the amount of security and confidentiality required for a well known person just to have a good night’s rest without some crazed or curious person showing up at your door in the middle of the night.
Wise up and stop being so doggone critical and suspicious of everyone. You want to believe something is going on, so there is absolutely no explanation that will satisfy you.
Pastor Benny and Pastor Paula have both issued their statements. Whether they were written by the same person or not, who cares? Whether a lawyer or CEO issued the statements, is irrelevant. This is their position.
The people that believe in them will accept the statements, stand with them, and believe the best. The non-supporters who are attacking them, will of course, believe what they want. Friends don’t require explanations, and enemies want believe them.
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July 27, 2010, at 6:04 pm
Hand holdinding can be created with Photoshop.
Working with graphics, I understand how easy it is to shop for body parts. I did it for years. If I had a good headshot…I can put it on this photograph to replace he not so good one. If the suit coat was wrinkled, I can take off the suit coat from another photograph and replace it. You can even add people to photographs who were not even there. It is so easy. This is the National Enquirer. It sells more papers if the are holding hands than if they were just standing there talking.
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July 27, 2010, at 9:00 pm
Oengus: “Hinn has at his website the following: Pastor Benny Responds to False and Misleading News Reports”
Apparently the original page for the link I had originally provided has now disappeared and the link has now been redirected to the top level page at bennyhinn.org
I can only speculate why.
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July 30, 2010, at 11:40 am
Thank you ! I appreciate your words. Keep up the good work.
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August 5, 2010, at 5:50 pm
Benny Hinn is an excellent teacher. He has brought my understanding of God’s word to a new level. I feel very sad about this article. This can not be easy for his congregation or for his family to understand. However, he did give a good explanation for his behaviour on TV this morning and I believe every word he said. It rang true in my spirit. He is a wonderful teacher who is full of encouragement and I hope he continues on with his Ministry for a long time. Maybe some good will come out of this press and more and more people will tune in and learn about their creator (God). If you are seeking an everlasting life and peace and tranquility and a friend (Jesus/God) then Benny is your guy. Please tune in and hear him preach. He is absolutely fantastic and so is Paula.
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August 18, 2010, at 12:10 pm
I am so tired of you people judging, and condemning, Benny Hinn and Paula White.Why do you look to them as Jesus,Benny is a man and Paula is a woman and both of them are divorce so what is the problem if they walk and hold hands, is that mean that they are having an affair? why you people are so malicious, I was walking one day and a guy from my office was walking with me and talking he had his hand around my neck, and my hand was around his waist, do that mean I am having an affair with that guy? I heard some one said that small mind discuss people.I listen to him I love his ministry and God did not pull the plug off him he is still working for God in spite of all the accusation that was made against him. So you Ms Sarah will have to try harder to bring down his Ministry. He was called by God to preach and that is what he is doing.The Pope love him and the Vatican love him and you know what Jesus love him more, because he is the only one to judge us and Ms Sarah in spite of all your allegation about Benny and Paula Jesus love you too.And who with out sin throw the first stone at Paula and Benny.And Ms Sarah remember the bible say that God is a just judge and he get angry with the wicked every day.
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