Texas televangelist Benny Hinn refused entry to Britain
Pastor Dale Morgan
From The Times
October 3, 2009
*Texas televangelist Benny Hinn refused entry to Britain*
Out in the cold: Benny Hinn had been due to speak to thousands of
Pentecostal Christians at the ExCel Centre in London
Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent
An American Christian preacher has been turned away from Britain,
leaving thousands of people stranded at an evangelical rally in London
this weekend.
Benny Hinn, from Texas, who draws large crowds to his Pentecostal
revival rallies, was turned back at Stansted airport under new rules on
visiting ministers of religion.
Many thousands of Pentecostal Christians travelled from across Britain
and Europe and booked long weekend breaks in the capital’s hotels for
his mission at the ExCeL exhibition centre in Docklands, East London,
which had been due to begin on Thursday night.
They were left disappointed after Border Agency officials turned him
back when he landed with his private jet because he had failed to obtain
a “letter of sponsorship” from a church.
Instead, Mr Hinn flew on to Paris and tried to enter Britain at Luton
airport but was again turned back. He was on his way back to France last
night.
Jill Masefield, who lives in Bristol, said that she and thousands of
other followers had been left waiting for Mr Hinn to appear at the free
preaching event, not knowing why he had not appeared.Instead, another
pastor preached and requested donations of up to £1,000.
“He’s been coming here for years and years,” she said. “I think it is
very unfair that they have blocked him now. It has cost me a fortune in
hotel bills and I feel we have been led up the garden path. It is
extremely unfair.”
The Benny Hinn “fire conference and miracle service” was scheduled to
last three days. Among the “miracles” the Texan preacher performs are
those in which he instructs participants to “let the bodies hit the
floor”. The routine is featured on YouTube videos that show the devout
falling down backwards, “slain in the spirit”.
A spokeswoman for ExCeL said thatMr Hinn had been turned back at
immigration and would not be coming. Staff at the exhibition centre were
meeting last night to decide whether to provide another evangelical
preacher in his place.
Mr Hinn has visited before without any problem but the Home Office has
changed the rules for ministers of religion. He fell foul of tier five
of the new points-based system for all visitors to Britain, which came
into effect last November. One of the aims of the new rules was to
combat extremism and prevent teachers of religious hate entering the
country.
A Border Agency spokesman said: “Under the UK’s tough new points-based
system, religious workers must obtain a valid certificate of sponsorship
prior to arriving in the UK. These rules are designed to make sure that
a legitimate sponsor is linked to each application to enter the UK for
work purposes.
“These rules are applied objectively and clearly set out for travellers.
People who arrive without the required documentation can be refused
entry to the UK.”