Derren Brown, the ‘innovative entertainer’ has captivated audiences for years with his mind games, illusions and trickery. His latest project was shown on Easter Monday on Channel 4 in the UK and targets so called ‘Faith Healers’.
In trailing the programme Derren says 'You are about to see a world where greed and deceit raise their ugly heads, where lives have been needlessly lost and where hope, the most precious gift of all is pedalled at a price....’ The project featured an actor being given a crash course in biblical heresy, shown techniques on manipulating audiences and taught charlatan trickery on how to appear to heal people from deafness,blindness and shortened limbs.
In trailing the programme Derren says 'You are about to see a world where greed and deceit raise their ugly heads, where lives have been needlessly lost and where hope, the most precious gift of all is pedalled at a price....’ The project featured an actor being given a crash course in biblical heresy, shown techniques on manipulating audiences and taught charlatan trickery on how to appear to heal people from deafness,blindness and shortened limbs.
Thought 1:
If people are manipulating the vulnerable and needy to satisfy their ‘Greed’ then I’m with Derren in wanting them to be exposed. Certainly the people shown on the programme wouldn’t be given any opportunity to speak from platforms of any churches I am aware of.
If anyone is knowingly claiming ‘cheap tricks’ as miracles from God, then they need to be brought to account. Lies, manipulation and deceit have no place in the Gospel of Jesus.
Thought 2:
There were significant generalisations in the programme that reflected a real lack of research. The programme showed circumstances where audiences were manipulated into believing miracles were being witnessed. In the hours, days and weeks following, the longevity of any relief from their physical disability would become sadly clear.
But there is a danger that many truth loving, people of integrity, with hearts of compassion and lifestyles dedicated to serving the needs of the vulnerable could be implicated wrongly. I and thousands of other Christians in this country will regularly pray for ill people or those in need. Our motivation for doing so is:
1. A compassion for the persons pain, need or disability
2. A belief that God, who we believe designed us, can be a masterful physician and repair things that go wrong
Does everyone get healed? No. But some do and if the researchers had so desired, they could have found medical documentation of ‘unexplained miracles’ that have resulted in cured patients. I’m deeply saddened that there are those in our world who use trickery to con people, but I’m encouraged by those who follow the example of Jesus and faithfully pray with others to genuinely help them find comfort, hope and healing. These are not faith healers – they are compassion filled Jesus followers!
Thought 3:
There are questions to be asked about the ethicality of employing techniques of deceit to expose deceit. A number of times in the programme it was clear that the production team were uncomfortable with the lies they were spinning to try and pass off the actor as a ‘faith healer’. Was this justified or was it just the ‘best angle’ to create a controversial TV programme? Maybe Derren cares so much about exposing this issue that he took no money from it but I suspect these dubious ethics maximised the programmes popularity and earned the production team a nice little earner.
Has the programme changed anything?
Not really. As long as the world has both greedy and needy people within its borders there will be unscrupulous attempts to manipulate and take advantage. All of us, particularly the church should ensure we are not indifferent to such practise and oppose them when seen. However the programmes generalisations may cause some confusion by failing to refer to the featured examples as extreme and unwelcome to the large majority of churches and we could take this opportunity to respond by telling good stories of genuine hope and healing found, not in the crossed palms of a slippery con man, but in the palms that were on the cross.
If people are manipulating the vulnerable and needy to satisfy their ‘Greed’ then I’m with Derren in wanting them to be exposed. Certainly the people shown on the programme wouldn’t be given any opportunity to speak from platforms of any churches I am aware of.
If anyone is knowingly claiming ‘cheap tricks’ as miracles from God, then they need to be brought to account. Lies, manipulation and deceit have no place in the Gospel of Jesus.
Thought 2:
There were significant generalisations in the programme that reflected a real lack of research. The programme showed circumstances where audiences were manipulated into believing miracles were being witnessed. In the hours, days and weeks following, the longevity of any relief from their physical disability would become sadly clear.
But there is a danger that many truth loving, people of integrity, with hearts of compassion and lifestyles dedicated to serving the needs of the vulnerable could be implicated wrongly. I and thousands of other Christians in this country will regularly pray for ill people or those in need. Our motivation for doing so is:
1. A compassion for the persons pain, need or disability
2. A belief that God, who we believe designed us, can be a masterful physician and repair things that go wrong
Does everyone get healed? No. But some do and if the researchers had so desired, they could have found medical documentation of ‘unexplained miracles’ that have resulted in cured patients. I’m deeply saddened that there are those in our world who use trickery to con people, but I’m encouraged by those who follow the example of Jesus and faithfully pray with others to genuinely help them find comfort, hope and healing. These are not faith healers – they are compassion filled Jesus followers!
Thought 3:
There are questions to be asked about the ethicality of employing techniques of deceit to expose deceit. A number of times in the programme it was clear that the production team were uncomfortable with the lies they were spinning to try and pass off the actor as a ‘faith healer’. Was this justified or was it just the ‘best angle’ to create a controversial TV programme? Maybe Derren cares so much about exposing this issue that he took no money from it but I suspect these dubious ethics maximised the programmes popularity and earned the production team a nice little earner.
Has the programme changed anything?
Not really. As long as the world has both greedy and needy people within its borders there will be unscrupulous attempts to manipulate and take advantage. All of us, particularly the church should ensure we are not indifferent to such practise and oppose them when seen. However the programmes generalisations may cause some confusion by failing to refer to the featured examples as extreme and unwelcome to the large majority of churches and we could take this opportunity to respond by telling good stories of genuine hope and healing found, not in the crossed palms of a slippery con man, but in the palms that were on the cross.
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