Saturday, July 12, 1997

New spirit-filled revivalism sweeping the country

By JIM JONES Fort Worth Star-Telegram

FORT WORTH, Texas - A woman laughed uncontrollably. A man leapt from a front pew of the church and began spasmodically jerking, his arms flying up and down.

"In the name of Jesus, let it bubble up. Let it bubble up out of your belly," encouraged Rodney Howard-Browne, 36, a burly, long-haired evangelist from South Africa as he stood at the lectern of Calvary Cathedral near downtown Fort Worth last week.

Howard-Browne, who calls himself "the Holy Ghost bartender," was dispensing quick shots of the spirit-filled revivalism that is sweeping the land from Toronto, Canada, to Pensacola, Fla. Often the revivals are marked by "holy laughter," or people falling backward as they are "slain in the spirit," and miraculous healings.

The Pentecostal-style revivals which have received attention in national newsmagazines and on network television are going on in various cities in the United States, Australia, Europe, Africa and Asia.

Some discount the spirit-filled revivals as overblown emotionalism and refer to the "holy laughter" manifested by Howard-Browne and others as nothing more than religious hokum.

But many Christians see the protracted revival meetings marked by unusual signs of the spirit as a new "Great Awakening" similar to two far-reaching spiritual revivals that swept America in the 1700s and the 1800s.

"I may offend you, but I'm here to serve up the new wine of the Holy Spirit," Howard-Browne told some 2,000 people at Calvary Cathedral, where he preached to near-capacity crowds during a four-night revival. "Some of you have been drinking vinegar so long you look like a pickle."

His one-liner brought new pockets of staccato laughter from around the church auditorium. Others sat quietly or applauded and yelled "Amen" and "Hallelujah" during the worship service which lasted more than three hours.

The Rev. Bob Nichols, who as pastor of Calvary Cathedral invited Howard-Browne, says he believes that the revival movement and holy laughter are "mostly good."

After the laughter died away at 11 p.m., some 200 people of different races and income levels came to the front of the church for prayer with the evangelist.

"The bottom line is that people are being changed," said Nichols.

Busloads of pilgrims are flocking to a revival at the Brownsville Assembly of God in Pensacola, Fla., that has been going on since June 1995. Its emphasis is not on "holy laughter," but people cry, dance, sing and fall to the floor as they are "slain in the spirit." Its leaders say thousands of lives have been changed and miraculous healings have occurred.

Before Pensacola, the major destination for those seeking spirit-filled blessings was the Toronto Airport Vineyard Church, where many labeled the experience of holy laughter "the Toronto Blessing."

Closer to home, a 17-week spirit-filled revival recently occurred at Calvary Temple in Irving, where the Rev. Don George is pastor. Evangelist Marcus Lamb, also president of Dallas TV station KMPX/Channel 29, preached at the revival.

"We did not have a lot of the holy laughter, but there was some," Lamb said. "But many were slain in the spirit and there were many healings reported. We had prostitutes, a male stripper and a topless dancer come to know Christ."

Lamb said the British Broadcasting Corp. filmed the Irving revival and is sending crews to a continuation of the revival at Christ for the Nations auditorium in Dallas in August.

Nichols said his Fort Worth church has been in a state of revival since Howard-Browne first preached a series of meetings there in 1993 that went on for six weeks.

Critics of the revival wave include Hank Hanegraff, president of the Christian Research Institute in California and author of "Counterfeit Revival," released recently by Word Publishing.

"People are looking for God in all the wrong places," Hanegraff said in a recent telephone interview. "They look for shortcuts to spirituality and are being worked into altered states of consciousness where they jump up and down and laugh hysterically."

"What is really happening is psychological manipulation through the use of peer pressure and the power of suggestion, " Hanegraff said.

Hanegraff, in his 315-page book, criticizes evangelists Howard-Browne, Benny Hinn, John Arnott and several others for their tactics and labels the so-called new Great Awakening the "Great Apostasy."

While pastors and parishioners are traveling to "power centers" like Toronto, Canada, and Pensacola, Fla., looking for a quick fix, the solution is found in the fundamentals, he wrote. "While multitudes clamor for a massive revival, what the body of Christ desperately needs is a mighty reformation."

During the meeting recently at Calvary Cathedral, many in the congregation didn't respond at first, but began warming to the occasion as Howard-Browne kept on preaching until about 11 p.m.

A young woman left her seat and began running and leaping around the sanctuary. About 20 others followed her as the congregation applauded. A man in his late 20s who had been joining the others running through the church leaned on a back wall to rest, breathing heavily and still engaged in unbridled laughter.

"Run only one way," Howard-Browne advised. Then he broke into a frenzy of laughter, left the lectern and ran up the center aisle of the church, laughing all the way.

Hanegraff contends that such outbursts are orchestrated by the atmosphere produced by the charismatic revivalists.

"Immoderate laughter is contagious; so is yawning," Hanegraff said. "What these evangelists do is ask people to suspend their critical thinking process. They say that God offends the mind to reveal the heart."

Hanegraff said the new revivalism focuses too much on "feel good" religion.

"Christianity is not about self-aggrandizement," he said. "It's about self-sacrifice. All kinds of people are turning on to Jesus Christ, but few are willing to march by his creed and help others."

Emotional religious expression is not new, Hanegraff says in his book. He notes that in the 1740s laughter broke out during revival meetings conducted by John Wesley and he attributed it to Satan.

During what was called the Second Great Awakening in the early 1800s, there were many instances of falling, jerking, barking like dogs and holy laughter, he writes.

Hanegraff doesn't see the phenomena as either divine or demonic but merely as "psychological manipulation."

Adherents of the new wave of revivals scoff at such criticism. They say people's lives are being changed for the better. The laughing, running and leaping are signs of spiritual joy, they say.

"It's been a positive for us," Nichols said. "Anything that turns people's hearts to Jesus Christ is good."

Nichols said he has experienced holy laughter on occasion.

"I laughed last evening" during the revival, he said. "There was great rejoicing. . . . I see it as excitement of the heart."

Grady Haynes, a longtime member of Calvary Cathedral, which is interdenominational although its ministers are ordained by the Assemblies of God, said he and others were skeptical about the "holy laughter" advocated by Howard-Browne.

"I was somewhat critical of it when he came to town," said Haynes, communications engineer for the church. "But he is really a man who believes what he says. I've never personally rolled on the floor and laughed. But this is real. This is legitimate."

During an interview, Howard-Browne said he's not concerned about Hanegraff and other critics.

"Dogs bark, but the caravan keeps moving," he said. "Around the world an awakening is taking place. There is revival on a global scale. A little voice like Hank crying in the wilderness can't stop people being thirsty for God."

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