``Rodney Howard-Browne is using sociopsychological manipulation tactics to make people think they've encountered God.'' ``What he is doing is not harmless,'' he says. He calls Howard-Browne ``nothing but a good stage hypnotist.'' He also hosts ``Bible Answer Man'' on more than 100 Christian radio stations nationwide. He's president of the Christian Research Institute in Santa Margarita, Calif., a nonprofit countercult ministry. THOSE REACTIONS make Hank Hanegraaff's blood boil. Why would God want people to laugh and cry and things like that? But when you're healed deep inside your heart and spirit, there's a release that comes.'' ``When he prays for me, there's such a power from God that flows through him that it overcomes me and I can't stand on my feet,'' says the 25-year-old nanny. The three- year program trains evangelists for pastoral and missionary work. Laura Corson was so struck after seeing Howard-Browne a few years ago in New Hampshire that she quit her teaching job and moved to Tampa to attend his River Bible Institute.
``It's a spiritual high I never want to come off of.''
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``It's better than doing crack cocaine it's better than drinking alcohol,'' says David Wilson, a 38-year-old carpenter and former substance abuser who now attends the River. Although holy laughter has caused quite a controversy in charismatic circles, historians say it has been around for centuries. The movement has swept churches in Lakeland, Pensacola, Southern California and Toronto. Some are so affected they feel physically unable to get up, stuck in what they call ``Holy Ghost glue.'' These believers say they are ``slain in the spirit.'' It's not uncommon for worshipers to break into uncontrollable ``holy laughter,'' shaking with mirth, dancing in the aisles or falling to the ground. Here, he serves the new wine of Christ, and they get drunk with joy.
Nearly 1,000 people spend about four hours in a service led by ``the Holy Ghost bartender,'' as he calls himself. Howard-Browne is the pastor of The River at Tampa Bay, a high-energy, racially mixed church in Tampa he founded in December 1996. Now, he and his family live in one of New Tampa's most exclusive gated communities. He came to this country in 1987 with just $300. The 38-year-old simply calls himself ``a boy from South Africa that God sent to America as a missionary.'' A circus ring leader making a good living. A manipulator leading followers into a cult. ``With Brother Rodney, what you see is what you get,'' says Joe Cruse, a church associate.``The man is the genuine thing.''Ĭritics paint a different picture.
A man of God leading this country into a much-needed spiritual awakening. ``This could have a ripple effect through the whole United States and possibly the world.'' Allan Jackson of First Park Baptist Church in Plainfield, N.J. ``I think God is using Rodney Howard-Browne as his servant to orchestrate a great dramatic move of the Holy Spirit,'' says the Rev. In the New York City area, more than 2,000 churches across denominational lines - including Episcopalians, Baptists, Lutherans and Catholics - have signed on, offering their services and support for the effort.
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Thousands of volunteers, including many from the Tampa Bay area, will roam the streets by day, giving away tons of food and clothing to the needy, along with free tickets to the nightly meetings. Howard-Browne, a big man with big ideas, wants to fill the 19,000-seat arena every night with ``the unchurched and spiritually lost.'' The revival - called Good News New York - will cost up to $10 million, including $3.2 million for arrangements at the Garden. On July 7, many across America will ask that question when the Pentecostal preacher from Tampa opens his six-week revival in Madison Square Garden.įor 24 nights, he will lead what is being hailed as the largest religious event in Manhattan since Billy Graham took his historic crusade to the world-famous arena in the summer of 1957. Now he heads to the Big Apple for a six-week crusade to win souls. Holy Ghost Bartender Tampa preacher Rodney Howard-Browne, who serves up the new wine of Christ, has been leading controversial happy-hour services for years.
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