Dietrich Bonhoeffer had plenty to be concerned about with Nazism and a German Church that leaned towards a cheap grace. Justin Taylor, on his blog site, Between Two Worlds, posted a Nightline interview with Benny Hinn. It is interesting how Hinn worms his way out of providing adequate answers for his lack of medical verification to his “miracles” and to his lavish lifestyle.
How would Bonhoeffer react to Benny Hinn? I would guess that Bonhoeffer would be horrified that a “Christian evangelist” would cheapen the grace of Jesus. 


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October 28, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Mark
Bonhoeffer inherited from his Lutheran heritage a deep distrust of and disgust for fanaticism, Schwärmerei. I have forgotten the source–maybe somewhere in Letters and Papers from Prison, but there is a passage mentioning his suspicion of American revivalism, saying there is something almost demonic about it–it looked too much like the way Hitler could sway a crowd. There are several disparaging references to “Methodismus” in the letters–by which he means the emotionalism that was characteristic of the Methodist revivals.
Some of this may be attributed to B’s Prussian, aristocratic, Lutheran heritage, aspects of which he learned to outgrow. He did, for example, enjoy the enthusiastic worship and singing at the Abyssian Baptist Church in Harlem. But he would not have become tolerant of Hinn’s theological aberrations nor his demagoguery.
Beyond the healing crusades and the mass appeal, Hinn’s false prophesy given in the 1990’s that God would destroy the homosexual community in America with fire from heaven would put him in the same camp with the Nazis.
October 28, 2009 at 6:22 pm
bryanaloha
Well said Mark! The church in Harlem did “loosen” DB up a bit, and he even shared some of the songs he learned in Harlem with his seminary students years later.
DB would have had some harsh words about Hinn or anyone like him.