PUBLISHED SUNDAY NOVEMBER 16, 1997
Copyright 1997 The Pensacola News Journal. All rights
reserved
Secrets inside the 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.
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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.
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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."
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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.
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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.
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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.
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The revival service's spiritual messages and methods have
distressed many devout Pentecostals and given rise to much criticism among
theologians and Bible scholars.
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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.
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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.
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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. .