"I'd be a fool to be in this for the money"
About this Quote
The line is a defensive magic trick: it asks you to see humility while it palms suspicion. Benny Hinn, a televangelist whose ministry has long been shadowed by questions about wealth, drops "I'd be a fool" as a kind of preemptive strike. The phrasing concedes the charge just enough to look honest, then pivots to absolution: if the money is so obviously not the point, only a cynic would keep bringing it up.
Intent matters here. He's not making a claim that can be audited ("I don't take money"); he's making a claim about motive, which is harder to prove and easier to perform. "In this" is deliberately vague: is it ministry, television, the travel circuit, the brand? That ambiguity lets the sentence cover everything without committing to anything. The word "fool" also relocates the argument from ethics to competence. The question isn't whether fundraising practices are right, but whether they're smart. If critics focus on finances, the insinuation is they misunderstand how "calling" works.
Context completes the effect. Prosperity-adjacent ministries often require constant persuasion: persuading viewers that giving is faith, persuading donors that the leader's lifestyle is incidental, persuading skeptics that scrutiny is persecution. This line plays all sides. To believers, it signals sincerity and sacrifice. To the uncommitted, it offers a shrug of plausibility: who would do this just for cash? And to critics, it's bait - argue back, and you sound petty, obsessed with money rather than miracles.
It's a sentence built to launder doubt into loyalty, using modesty as PR.
Intent matters here. He's not making a claim that can be audited ("I don't take money"); he's making a claim about motive, which is harder to prove and easier to perform. "In this" is deliberately vague: is it ministry, television, the travel circuit, the brand? That ambiguity lets the sentence cover everything without committing to anything. The word "fool" also relocates the argument from ethics to competence. The question isn't whether fundraising practices are right, but whether they're smart. If critics focus on finances, the insinuation is they misunderstand how "calling" works.
Context completes the effect. Prosperity-adjacent ministries often require constant persuasion: persuading viewers that giving is faith, persuading donors that the leader's lifestyle is incidental, persuading skeptics that scrutiny is persecution. This line plays all sides. To believers, it signals sincerity and sacrifice. To the uncommitted, it offers a shrug of plausibility: who would do this just for cash? And to critics, it's bait - argue back, and you sound petty, obsessed with money rather than miracles.
It's a sentence built to launder doubt into loyalty, using modesty as PR.
Quote Details
| Topic | Honesty & Integrity |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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