PUBLISHED SUNDAY NOVEMBER 16, 1997
Copyright 1997 The Pensacola News Journal. All rights reserved
Brownsville Revival
Leaders shield
finances, make many false claims
By J. Lowe
Davis
Assistant managing editor
PENSACOLA -
- The numbers
are amazing: Millions of visitors, millions of
dollars, thousands of souls.
- The claims are heart-warming:
crime curtailed, addiction overcome, sickness
healed.
- The leaders are captivating: An
ex-convict-junkie converted to evangelism; a
visionary and prophet dedicated to revival.
But how true is it all?
- Is
Pensacola's Brownsville Revival all that its
leaders say it is?
- Are the leaders who and what
they say they are?
The News Journal sought to
answer those questions in a four-month
investigation into the 2 1/2 year-old revival.
The investigation focused on the revenue and the
spending, the leaders' backgrounds and
lifestyles, the revival's methods and messages,
and the revival's claims about healings, crime
reduction and charity.
Much about the Brownsville
Revival is unquestionable: Millions of people
from far and near have attended the
four-nights-a-week revival Many have had an
emotionally and spiritually stimulating
experience there.Many have been baptized. Many
have made a commitment to change their ways and
live closer to God.
But much about the revival, as
a business and a community influence, is
questionable, and the answers cast it in a far
different light.
Among the News Journal
findings: --The revival did not begin the way
Pastor John Kilpatrick and evangelist Steve Hill
say it did. They say it was a spontaneous and
overwhelming move of God and that everyone there
felt it. But a videotape of the first service,
plus the accounts from members who were there,
reveal otherwise and indicate the revival was
well-planned and orchestrated to become a large
and long-running enterprise.
- Money is flowing,
information is not. Brownsville leaders
refuse to disclose revenue and spending
details, beyond an abbreviated,
generalized financial statement that
shows the church taking in $6.6 million
in 1996. Not even members of the
congregation are allowed to look at the
books.
- Revival leaders are
generating fortunes. The top four
ministers have set up their own nonprofit
corporations selling their own
revival-related merchandise, such as
books, tapes, T-shirts and bumper
stickers. The merchandise is sold both
inside the church and via mail order.
Only one of the corporations is paying
sales tax.
- Hill's autobiography and
oft-told stories about his outlaw past
are contradicted by facts and by police
records. He admitted to the News Journal
that he fictionalized parts of his book
for "impact."
- Hill's claims that most of
his ministry's revenue from the revival
goes to missions and charities is
contradicted in his ministry's financial
statement and Internal Revenue Service
return. His assertions that his financial
books are open are untrue; he would not
share key information with the News
Journal and sought to discourage
questions.
- Kilpatrick has retreated
from close contact with his flock while
rapidly moving up into a luxurious
lifestyle outside Pensacola. His new
home, at an Alabama location he tried to
keep secret, has barbed wire, a security
guard and a metal gate. Months before an
injury that kept him at home for weeks,
Kilpatrick had ceased to keep office
hours and had delegated his pastoring
duties to assistants.
- Hill and Kilpatrick both
have taken advantage of opportunities to
conceal financial information. Both put
"$10 and other good and valuable
consideration" on their deeds as the
price they paid for their new properties;
Alabama allows people to do that if they
wish to avoid public disclosure of the
purchase price.
- The revival service's
spiritual messages and methods have
distressed many devout Pentecostals and
given rise to much criticism among
theologians and Bible scholars.
- Kilpatrick has sought to
silence dissent and criticism by
prophesying -- announcing he is voicing
God's own predictions -- that the critics
would die or suffer.
- The revival's benefits to
the Pensacola community are either
overstated or untrue. For example: Top
law enforcement officers cite data
disputing the revival leaders' statements
that the revival has reduced crime.
Social service agencies report having to
serve a large influx of impoverished
people who were drawn to Pensacola for
the revival but who have been turned away
by the church. Drug treatment centers
report drug problems are on the rise, not
dropping. Mental health centers report
treating more out-of-town people than
ever before, and most of them are people
who came to Pensacola for the revival.
Residents and businesses in the
impoverished parts of the Brownsville
community report that the church has done
nothing for the area and refuses requests
for help.
- The revival's claims about
healing are unsubstantiated by medical
documentation. The revival touts cases in
general but does not provide names or
specifics. The News Journal found people
who said they had been cured and healed,
but none had medical proof from doctors.
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