Hallelujahs but faith healer claims few of the afflicted leave disappointed

Press, 18 May 1988, Page 21

Hallelujahs but faith healer claims few of the afflicted leave disappointed

Stories:

KEN COATES

Photographs: SEAN CARR

At a time when some American faith healers and evangelists have a battered image, a onetime bricklayer from England is still travelling the world claiming miracles.

The Gospel, according to Melvin Banks, aged 50, from Chippenham, in Wiltshire, comes in a form that is “open, honest and sedate.” In contrast to some of the more flamboyant of American hallelujah preachers, Melvin has the manner of a senior shop floor-walker, or insurance supervisor. He says he won’t have fanaticism, and limits his enthusiasm to shouts like, “Healed by the blood of Jeezus!”

The Rev. Melvin, who off duty wears a pink cardigan, with matching pink-striped shirt and grey carpet slippers, ran a crusade in Christchurch for six days recently. He claimed two thirds of between 600 and 700 people he prayed over were healed to some degree. He continues in Australia, including sessions near the World Expo at Brisbane, “to catch an international type of crowd.”

Melvin Banks insists he is absolutely honest, straight, with, “an immaculate record.” In contrast, the troubles of the evangelist community in the United States include:

© Millionaire evangelist Jimmy Swaggart who sobbed for forgiveness after being caught out sinning with a prostitute. © Television faith healer the Rev. Peter Popoff, who fooled millions by appearing to receive information from God on sick people, was exposed. It was revealed that Popoff’s wife transmitted by radio information on names, ailments, addresses, as well as stage directions, from outside the auditorium. (She watched on closed circuit TV, and inside, the miracle man appeared to be divinely inspired.) Popoff told his congregation that “Bernice Manicoff” had cancer of the uterus, and Dr Jesus would burn the cancer cells out of "her” body. Bernice was a plant, a 118-kilogram postman in drag. Popoff hired wheelchairs for those with various complaints, but who could walk. These people could then jump from their rented wheelchairs when

called on after being “miraculously cured.”

Another TV healer in the United States, Walter Vinson Grant, who dresses in expensive, well-tailored business suits, monogrammed shirts and elegant jewellery, has been investigated. "Calling out” a sick person, giving name, ailment, name of doctor and so on, which was represented as a gift of the Holy Spirit, was found to have been achieved by clever deception. People were spoken to early, and details memorised.

Grant had crib sheets prepared backstage to prompt his memory. He claimed to make the leg of a person with one leg shorter than the other, grow. He did it by a simple trick — loosening a boot (preferably a cowboy boot), and pulling it slightly off the foot, making that leg appear longer than the other. The shortening was achieved by simply pushing the boot firmly back on.

None of this kind of blatant hocus-pocus was evident at the week night meeting held by Melvin which I attended (unknown to the faith healer). Those seeking healing were asked to fill in “divine healing cards,” giving name, address and illness. These were openly read from by Melvin.

There was no dramatic throwing away of crutches, blind suddenly seeing, or jumping from wheelchairs.

But to some he appeared to bring relief. As Melvin laid his hand on their heads,he asked if they could feel pain leaving. Some people answered “yes.” Pain disappeared from her arms, a woman said; another stretched her arthritic fingers and said only a little pain was left. A young woman who said she had a bad back injury, said she had no pain now.

In the absence of any medical examination before and after, could what happened be described as miraculous? Of course, answer the believers to whom medical examinations are not relevant. In spite of conspicuous failures, be-

lievers are predisposed to insist the faith healer can be the instrument of miracles, and call on God’s power. The roots of faith healing lie in the Bible. In view of the references to lepers, those with palsy, lameness, paralysis, blindness, dumbness and even raising from the dead, the sceptic runs the risk of being labelled “Ye of Little Faith.” When an illness has a psychosomatic component, a patient may be helped by a healing session, especially if he believes in the healer. A woman with elbow crutches was prayed over. Melvin asked, “Lord, that those worn-out hips be relined,” and said there was tremendous power going into them.

The woman, assisted by a man at either side, was urged to walk up the aisle, lifting one crutch into the air. As she walked with difficulty, she said apologetically: “I can’t.” Another woman, obviously in pain, who had been weeping earlier, had a bowel problem. “Jesus heal the inner cut,” exhorted Melvin.

The woman slowly walked back to her seat, covered her eyes, her face ravaged with pain. Much depression and fear was evident that night, Banks said later in an interview. But many received comfort, compassion and hope. And in some cases the healing process would have begun. “I am an ordinary preacher with an extraordinary gift from God,” the faith healer asserted.

Anything could happen in America,- and what Popoff did would never happen in England because of the constant scrutiny from press and television.

But Banks thinks that sometimes the investigators should be investigated. “In any area of life you have people who go wrong — Jesus had doubting Thomas,” he says. “Even a good man can fall. Popoff was a charlatan, but Swaggart was a good man who fell.”

From the money he collected,

Swaggart, who was a tremendously powerful preacher, fed 1 1 / 2 million people a week in India, according to the English preacher. Swaggart was not a charlatan or a crook, says Melvin Banks who does not know the American personally, but considers he should be forgiven. That’s what the gospel is all about.

And what’s more, Melvin Banks says members of an American Church in Vancouver, a small town in Washington state (opposite Portland, Oregon) have pleaded with him to visit the United States and help improve the dented public image of evangelists with his sincere ministry.

“I have never healed in America, but late this northern summer I will go and help put things right.” As for the leg-stretching trick, Banks says it was “very dubious.” If he was asked to heal a person with one short leg, he would ask him to take his shoes off, then after praying, would make him walk.

“We are very open, and ask whether the person feels any better.” Melvin Banks has a sheaf of newspaper clippings from throughout Britain and New Zealand. The theme in all is the same: “Miracle Man Returns,” “Pensioner Walks Again Thanks to ‘Power of God’,” “1000 Flock to Healer.”

The very sick, blind, crippled and ailing come, along with those with the age-old afflictions, arthritis, back and hip pains, neck twinges and stiff joints.

One of Melvin’s most spectacular healing claims was in the studio of Radio Pacific in Auckland.

“I healed a crippled woman there, in front of the presenter,

on the programme, and she was dancing about the studio,” he says.

Marvellous things happen, he adds, warming to his subject. Sometimes people bring a handkerchief beloning to a sick person which he prays over, or one is sent through the mail. Why? Is it in the Bible, replies Melvin, giving a quick reference. (Acts 19 says handkerchiefs and aprons used by Paul were taken to the sick, and diseases were driven away.) Pressed, he says this is not necessary, but it gives people a point of contact and faith is released when a handkerchief is touched.

“To me a migraine is no more difficult to heal than a cancer,” he says. Blit cancer cures are fewer because there are many more of arthritis and similar complaints. Melvin claims that two-thirds, or around 400, of all the people who lined up at his Christchurch meetings were “cured in some way.”

Many got hope and peace, he says. No-one else cares about them but here someone loves them prays for them, does his best for them. There was the mother of the two-year-old child who gripped his hand with hope when her little boy who could not walk stood for a moment. It is not a forlorn hope to trust God, and if you get this in the end, it is worth hoping, he argues. But what of the miracles? Could it be mind over matter? Why come to him, if people could get it somewhere else? he counters.

“I am trusting something will happen for the woman with worn-out hips,’ he says. “They have to grow, though they could spring out, as God could make them.”

Melvin Banks claims few people go away disappointed. They may leave with something they never had before — being in touch with the divine element. In crass material terms, Banks seems worth his weight in gold. Why not medically examine miracle cures before and after, convincing everyone, and then deal with thousands, thus having a huge amount of money spent on medical bills?

Examination of people would

be impossible because he deals with hundreds, he says. People are ill and that’s it. He refers to doctors as “the opposition.” He says he has saved the National Health scheme in Britain hundreds of thousands of pounds and does not charge. But he seemingly belongs to an exclusive club — Melvin Banks claims he is one of only five faith healers in Britain.

Other clergymen say prayers “and get little healings, but God has specialists and he has a special gift handed down the centuries.”

So what sort of a guy is this ex-brickie? He travels with his wife, Lillian, and says he is an ordained Assemblies of God minister. Unlike many American evangelists, he does not ask for money during -his healing sessions, though he does put in a mild plug for tapes and books. He writes two religious books a year.

He would be in the Holiday Inn- rather than “this humble abode,” if he were in it for the money, says Melvin, referring to the comfortable city flat lent by a Christian couple for his stay.

At the service I attended an appeal was made by the local pastor for funds for the faith healer’s visit.

“We try to do Third World countries,” Melvin adds, and refers to missions to Zulus in South Africa and people in jungle areas of Malaysia. In France he has had 200 to 300 people witing in line for healing. He does not speak French, but has an interpreter. “I live a simple life and don’t over-eat,” he says. He does not drink or smoke, and at meetings asks for cigars, cigarettes and any pornographic material, all of which is burned at the finish. Melvin Banks says he prays for three hours a day and tries to

read nine chapters of the Bible, “every word of which I believe.” He claims to fast, that is, goes without breakfast or tea before a healing meeting, “but I may have a good supper afterwards.” Sometimes he fasts for three days.

In contrast to American evangelists and their often luxurious lifestyle, Melvin says he tries to live modestly. “In England, the thinking is not as extreme as in America.”

Once, a reporter from the sensationalist “News of the World” Sunday newspaper kept hassling about what car he drove (A Ford Grenada), but soon stopped when a woman was healed.

The faith healer has an answer to the danger of people who consider themselves healed coming off medication, such as a diabetic who stops taking insulin. Staff at his meetings are told to tell people not to stop taking medication without consulting their doctors, he says. Pain-killers, he considers, are in a category of their own, and people can decide for themselves whether they decrease the do-

sage, or stop altogether, in line with what has happened. Occasionally, some think they are healed when they are not, says Melvin. But a miracle of healing can come first and faith later.

People return for prayer, and for healing. One woman came to a meeting every night for nearly a month, and only on the twentyeighth night was she healed.

Even Muslims come to him in Britain, and some are healed — “God is merciful,” he says.

Praying for 40,000 people a year in 10 countries, filling the Crystal Palace football ground with 18,000 people, can be hard work which Melvin Banks admits is exhausting. He plans to retire at 60, but may have a big.healing centre in Britain. He talks of the possibility of weekly meetings at a chapel, “like the Pope.” The former boy preacher from Wiltshire, who claims the blind see, the stone-deaf hear and the lame and crippled walk, works hard. Saving souls is as much his business as healing. On both counts, it seems that nothing is impossible with faith.

Miracle claim

in radio studio