First, what makes you assume that all those donations are intended to help the poor? No doubt some are, but most are intended to defray the expenses of spreading the Gospel, the "Great Commission" Jesus left for us. Religious people do not have to apologize for their efforts to help those in need. They did a heck of a lot more and sooner than government in helping disaster victims, for example those affected by Katrina. Second, why do you single out religion but let governments and the UN off the hook? The problems you identify are not ones created by lack of money, not considering the trillions the developed world has pissed away on foreign aid. Rather, they are problems of corruption, waste, fraud, misplaced priorities, socialism, communism, war, etc. An eternal question faced by religion is why does God allow tragedies to take place? Some will say the victims brought it on themselves by sin or lack of belief, others will say that God gives us free will and what we do with it is our problem, others will throw up their hands and say we can't be expected to understand His ways or why He does or doesn't do something.
Stealing is not only a sin, but a crime. If you and 69,000 others think he stole money, could you please explain why he is not in jail?
god wants him to steal the money? maybe satan protects him? the question was why would god, being the all knowing supposedly loving deity that he is, allow it to happen?
the government also wastes a lot of money but in this instance we are trying to answer the question as to why god allows a proven fraud take money from people in jesus name and spend it on himself. "An eternal question faced by religion is why does God allow tragedies to take place? Some will say the victims brought it on themselves by sin or lack of belief, others will say that God gives us free will and what we do with it is our problem, others will throw up their hands and say we can't be expected to understand His ways or why He does or doesn't do something." some of us will look at the same evidence and will conclude that there is no god working out there or if there is he is not worth of worship.
No, the question is, and I will repeat it, if he stole the money, why isn't he in jail? If you can't answer that question, it may just be that your constant accusations that he is stealing reveal just about all that we need to know about your quest for 'the truth', and 'honesty'.
I'm happy to concede that any time you have people getting money from other people, that some percentage of them will be crooks, frauds, etc. I don't really know much about Benny Hinn, so I don't feel comfortable addressing his situation. Why do you think it is God's responsibility to regulate all this? If God prevented wrongdoing, that would pretty much negate the concept of free will. How would God distinguish between the righteous and sinners? If these evangelists are using God's name to defraud people, I am confident that they will be called to account. This is a situation that has plagued the church from the earliest days. Even Jesus received criticism over use of donations, as fhl cited above in the matter of the perfume, and he answered that the poor will always be with us, but that He would be there only for a short period of time. The bottom line for Christians is that yes, it is important to help the poor, but salvation through Jesus Christ is more important.
Can a person who preaches the word of God, live in a multimillion dollar house, have a fleet of luxury cars, own a private jet... and still fill the shoes of being Christ like. I think not, imo.
Well, it's not for us to judge. Clearly, his congregation doesn't have a problem with it. Honestly, I probably would have a problem if my pastor expected to live like that, but if he built a church with 30,000 members and won people to Christ like Bishop Jakes does, maybe not. Ex-NBA star David Robinson is assistant pastor at a mega church in San Antonio. He's probably a lot richer than T. D. Jakes. Would you have a problem with him? Anyway, no one is forcing you to go to Bishop Jakes' church or contribute to him. Isn't that what's important?
In all honesty, yes. As a Christian I don't believe another person who claims to be Christian, can actually be Christ like, if they are so greedy as to posses great wealth when there are others physically suffering. I think scripture is pretty clear about that. Lifting people up to be saved is only a part of doing good works.