Forget Stanton's Minneapolis revival - give to RAM instead

Most really good revivals take place in the South. Southerners, as everyone knows, are more emotional and like a lot of hootin' and hollerin' and jumpin' up and down - especially in church.

So, I was surprised to read about a revival in Minneapolis. Minneapolitans, being from Minnesota, are notoriously reserved. Unlike James Bond's martinis, they don't mind being stirred a little bit, but they don't like being shaken. Church is a place where you sit quietly and listen and try not to snore.

Most religious people in Minneapolis are Lutheran or Catholic or some other normal religion. They favor bake sales and smorgasboards and potlucks. Religious services have lots of candles and robes and quiet.


Well, it turns out that the guy doing the revival stuff is an evangelist from Australia. A year ago, that wouldn't have made sense to me, either, 'cause I thought Australians were pretty stuffy, too. Then I met some Australians in Paris. They aren't stuffy. They were full of fun and liked to party!

Doug Stanton is the revivalist from Australia. He heads up Doug Stanton Ministries International. He's been in Minneapolis for six months. That means he was there when things were really bleak and cold. Maybe he came to heat things up? Stanton has been holding his services at an old theater in Brooklyn Center in north Minneapolis.

Supposedly about 400 people show up most nights and Stanton claims over 10,000 have attended the revival since he started back in the "dead of winter." But he's bringing life to the staid Minneapolitans!

In fact, says Stanton, "There's a real sense of revival, and lives are changing. Our heart is to see the church revived. If the church can be revived, then the world can be [reached]."

I wonder what it means for "the church" to be revived? Is he talking about fundamentalist churches or does he have hope for the Lutherans and Catholics, too? What do revived churches do besides trying to "revive" other churches? Are revived churches of any use to a needy world? Or do revived churches just work to get people to believe a particular religious dogma?

I've got lots of problems with Stanton. According to Charisma magazine, he is proclaiming to the world that "the terminally ill are healed, tumors disappear and hundreds of Christians have been spiritually revitalized."

Methinks that is a crock!

I don't know about the "spiritually revitalized" business, but if the terminally ill are being healed and tumors are disappearing, there ought to be solid medical evidence proving this. How much you wanta bet he can't provide any such thing?

In other words, he just another con artist, another Elmer Gantry, who's raking in money from the stupid and the gullible!

If, in fact, people were healed of illnesses that had been diagnosed as "terminal," or if, in fact, people had their tumors disappear, the word would spread, there would be standing room only every night and doctors and medical personnel from around the world would be flocking to his meetings!

Unfortunately, it's all bullshit.


Compare this to the organization, Remote Area Medical, featured on CBS "60 Minutes" last night. Remote Area Medical, led by Stan Brock, sets up medical clinics in areas where the need is greatest. Today, that means the United States!

Remote Area Medical brings hundreds of volunteer doctors, dentists and optometrists to a community for a weekend to serve the hundreds of people who show up in the middle of the night to wait in line with a number, hoping desperately they will be called. Usually, 2,500 people are seen in a weekend.

It is said that there are 50 million people in this country either without medical insurance or who are under insured and thus cannot obtain the care that they need. Tumors go untreated. The terminally ill die. The unseeing continue to be blind. Those who can't eat because of rotten teeth, continue in their misery.

The people of Minneapolis would do better to send Stanton back where he came from, and give their money and support to programs such as this and to work for providing proper health care in this country.

Donations, by the way, can be sent to Remote Area Medical. Click here for more information.