The Dark World of Megachurches

i was raised as a catholic but i wouldn't really describe myself as religious today i had never heard of things like mega churches 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 gulfstream jet and it turns out that that jet is just one of a fleet of jets that he owns along with a boathouse 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 rich men had plenty of money i'm going to show you that jesus was a wealthy man that pretty much one of my shameless costs most people's house i got 22 chandeliers in the house they're extremely green they don't need matches they don't need jets god told me to have that plane 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 dollars i want you to imagine how many people could be fed how many homeless could have places to sleep the fresh swell of all fresh fresh fresh fresh fries televangelism is still thriving if you were willing to pay the price you could talk directly to god [Music] when i remember my own personal experiences inside of a church what comes to mind was definitely not this at times it's 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 mega church by definition a mega church is just a church that has a larger than average congregation normally of 2 000 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 duplantis who sat with copeland as they both justified their

purchases of private jets and then the second one i purchased was in january 2004 benny hinn who claims to be able to perform miracles who fills up stadiums and broadcast 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 rolls-royces and expensive real estate taboo 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 right 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 mega churches

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 god's 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 is payback time bible says i know you love the lord so you you qualify for for prosperity next you have the

act of tithing the initial concept of tithing was this idea that you give one tenth 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 mega churches 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 writes i sent him my first hoots offering two weeks later i received watch this two thousand four hundred dollars 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 no 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 gonna be set free from alcohol because of your thousand dollars and i'm going to ask you to sew an exceptional and uncommon seat of one thousand dollars click on that donation button to sew 1 144 so god has given you the harvest and the harvest off the seeds you've sown you can't expect a harvest if you don't sow seed spiritual physical or financial it's surreal and it generates a lot of money on january the 12th of

2008 kenneth copeland ministries took possession of a gulfstream 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 hangar upgrading the existing runway and purchasing special gulf stream maintenance equipment or how about creflo 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 dollar 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 percent of what i'm doing conveniently that message obviously

allows them to make even more donations but these preachers they don't just live lavish right they they put it on full display do you think jesus christ would roll around in a rolls royce uh 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'm you're staying right now one of the fanciest hotels i am you wear nice very nice clothing so [Applause] [Music] the wealth of these preachers they're not seen as gross or hypocritical in fact they're seen of 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 twenty go up to seventy eighty a hundred raise that amount and watch what god will do because don't you stop sewing offerings well they won't let us go to church well email it in there text 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 [Music] [Applause] 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 million dollars 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 fellows said okay i was what 150

million dollars i said that's an insult 150 million dollars that's an insult 150 million too small do they know what they're doing you know 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 themselves insane in the long run like type of cognitive dissonance just seems too much to bear but at the end of the day i'm never gonna 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 [Music] benny hinn hinn is probably most well known for what he calls his miracle crusades hin 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 he says oh thanks for the anointing who are you

people in the audience will cheer there are others who are 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 kostihin is the nephew of benny hinn and he's

worked with his family sometimes as a catcher himself in 2017 kostihin came forward with a testimony of his time spent in benny hinn'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 kostihin really believed in what he was doing you know but he only had doubts when he started finding contradictions in what he was teaching and what he was finding in the bible grace bruhler 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 hen's ministry if you could have a miracle what would you want it to be just walk is that what you want chris just to

walk grace's mother brings her daughter to one of his 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 estate's investigation into hints 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 henry him whispers something to her then justin is told to step aside in another documentary from 2001 hbo were given full access to hins 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 ashnil and his parents as they are desperate to have their child healed by one of his miracles we

expecting miracle we're expecting america the prakash family are recent immigrants to america ten-year-old ash neal 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 ashnaw'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 ashnil's face and says expect the miracle dear jesus the lord's gonna touch you young boy days after

the event and ashnil still wasn't healed it didn't happen i was not even discouraged i i know it's god's plan you know i can stake my life on pasta many hints words and god spoke to me last night at the at the colosseum center where the crusade was going on and he said donate him another two thousand dollars 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 recognized 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 uh left eye as well i know that you told me that billy then attempts to cure his eye loosen that after all the 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 you ready i was blind and now i see and the crowd cheers it's like 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 is healed since the event so again what are we witnessing when we see things like this [Music] 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 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 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 [Music] 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're 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 believeth 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 trance-like 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 that will i do the crowd is full of ecstasy the joy in the audience is a 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 take it you will 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 you know 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 will 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 the 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 have wondered why sometimes someone comes in and comes out of a wheelchair and 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 ashnil from the hbo documentary seven weeks after attending hinn's miracle crusade expect the miracle he passed away do you feel in any way that any hymn has let you down no 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 pastor benny 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 will 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 hinn 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 thousand dollars i think it's offense to the holy spirit to place a price on the gospel i'm done with it any hymn 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 sow seed in the lord's work so god can bless you and reward you for us now 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 hin 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 you know prosperity theology receives a lot of criticism inside of christianity and outside hey man you know you're a piece of right you know right yeah 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 [Music] 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 that ought to be giving our money 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 mega churches it's also home to the trinity foundation a leading watchdog ministry founded by ollie anthony that carries out investigations into some of the conducts of the biggest televangelists it was only 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 you know 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 if you think the world of prosperity preachers and mega churches 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 head salute you