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Holy Laughter
Definition
Holy laughter is a phenomenon that occurs at
certain Charismatic gatherings.
Some participants (from a handful, to almost the
whole audience at times) find themselves laughing uncontrollably for no
particular reason, sometimes even to the point of falling out of their chairs
and rolling on the floor in convulsions of laughter.
Holy laughter can occur no matter the topic
being addressed by the current speaker from the pulpit - even when the speaker
is expounding on such matters as Eternal Judgment and Hell.
It is taught in such settings that this is a
supernatural manifestation which indicates a special in-filling of the
individual by the Holy Spirit.
Although this phenomenon has been reported in
isolated instances for the past one hundred years or so, holy laughter first
attracted widespread attention in the early 1990s as one of the typical
manifestations involved with the Toronto Blessing movement.
The most prominent individual connected with
this type of behavior was South African evangelist Rodney Howard-Browne, who
styles himself "Joel's Bartender."
This is a reference to the prophecy in the Bible
in Joel 2 regarding the pouring out of the Holy Spirit (Joel 2:28 - 30).
Those who are overcome with Holy Laughter at
Howard-Browne's meetings are viewed as being "drunk with (or in) the Holy
Spirit," and some do behave as if physically intoxicated, to the point
that they are unable to drive home from meetings.
The Lord Will Pour Out His Spirit
28 “And it shall come to pass afterward,
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions.
that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;
your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions.
29 Even on the male and female
servants
in those days I will pour out my Spirit.
in those days I will pour out my Spirit.
30 “And I will show wonders
in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke.
Joel 2:28-30 English
Standard Version (ESV)
Rodney Howard-Browne
Preacher
Description
Rodney Howard-Browne is a Charismatic Christian
preacher and evangelist. He is a pastor of The River at Tampa Bay, a church
which he and his wife founded in 1996, and heads Revival Ministries
International. He was born in South Africa and has resided in Tampa, Florida
since the mid-1990s.Wikipedia
Born: 12
June 1961 (age 57 years), Port Elizabeth, South Africa
Spouse: Adonica Browne (m. 1981)
Rodney Howard-Browne is a Charismatic Christian preacher and evangelist. He is a pastor of The River at Tampa Bay, a church which he
and his wife founded in 1996, and heads Revival Ministries International. He
was born in South Africa and has resided in Tampa, Florida since the
mid-1990s. His revival
meetings are known for congregants breaking into "holy laughter."
Howard-Browne, along with his 3 brothers Mervyn, Bazel,
and Gil, was raised in a Pentecostal family in the cities of Port Elizabeth and East London in
South Africa. His father Frank Mervyn Derric Howard-Browne (1924-2005) was a
cleric, and Rodney became a Christian at age five. In 1981, he met and
married his wife Adonica (nee Weyers). In the 1980s, he volunteered for
Youth for Christ before doing a teaching stint with Ray McCauly’s Rhema bible
school in Johannesburg.
In
December 1989, the family emigrated from South Africa to the United States, settling
in Louisville, Kentucky,
where Rodney soon after founded the Rodney Howard-Browne Evangelistic
Association and in 1991, began holding revival meetings. The family moved
to the Tampa Bay, Florida area in 1994. Rodney's brother Gil went on to
operate Times of Refreshing Ministries, an online evangelical ministry.
In
1996, Howard-Browne founded The River at Tampa Bay Church in Tampa, Florida and has since served as its
pastor. Howard-Browne
and his wife also founded Revival Ministries International in 1997, as well as
the River Bible Institute and the River School of Worship.
Howard-Browne’s
services are characterized by laying of hands and worshipers giggling with
apparent drunkenness, speaking in tongues,
making animal noises, breaking into uncontrollable holy laughter, shaking with mirth, dancing in the
aisles, or falling to the ground.
He refers to himself as "God's bartender" and the "holy ghost
bartender".
Howard-Browne
is credited with introducing holy laughter to Carpenter's Home Church in Lakeland, Florida during a series of revival services
with Karl Strader in 1993. The holy laughter revivals later spread to nearby
churches in Melbourne, Titusville, Stuart and Vero Beach, Florida. He is
also credited with bringing holy laughter to the charismatic Toronto Airport
Vineyard Church (soon after expelled by its parent Vineyard
Church) at a 1994 revival in Toronto, Canada with evangelist Randy Clark, known
as the “Toronto Blessing,"
and a year later, to Assemblies of God (AOG) Brownsville Church
in Pensacola, Florida with
evangelist Steve Hill, at
an event known as the Brownsville Revival.
Howard-Browne also ministered under pastor Mike Rose at the Juneau Christian
Center (formerly known as the Bethel Assembly of God) in Juneau, Alaska, an AOG church that Sarah Palin later
attended after becoming governor of Alaska.
Howard-Browne
first came to national prominence in the US in 1999 when his Revival Ministries
organization rented Madison Square Garden in
New York for six weeks. The event, called Good News New York, was described as
“an effort to achieve a Billy Graham-style faith uprising”, but was “derided in
local media as a giant flop”. It was estimated to cost up to $10 million but
only 3,000 people were in attendance at the 19,000-seat arena. Investigative
journalists in his home town of Tampa reported at the time that since arriving
from South Africa almost penniless in December 1989, his sudden wealth included
a boat, a Harley Davidson motorcycle,
a home in one of Tampa’s exclusive gated communities and access to a private
jet; however, they were unable to find evidence of financial wrongdoing.
Howard-Browne’s daughter Kelly passed away due to cystic
fibrosis in December 2002 at the age of 18. He then vowed that “since the devil
has taken their daughter with this dreaded disease, he would pay with one million
souls over the next ten years”.
In 2012, it was reported that Howard-Browne’s River Church
had hosted political meetings for the Florida chapter of the Republican
Party during the preceding two years, including a rally for
then presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, at which Howard-Browne called for a
national “rising” of Christian Americans “that will not sit idly by and allow
the killing of unborn babies and allow Islam to take over this country”. At the
same event, he described Mormonism as
a “cult” that, in the 19th century, “had death squads that would go around
killing everybody that was not a Mormon”. He later took the remark back, saying
Mormons were “honourable people”.
Howard-Browne's evangelical movement has been rejected as
cult-like by many mainstream Christian organisations, and it has been described
as "a combination of brimstone and fire about God’s power, sprinkled with
hipster references and a conviction that church—like Disneyland—should be 'the
happiest place on earth'." The Christian Research Institute labelled his
operation a “cult” and called the him “a good stage hypnotist” who has made
millions from vulnerable believers. According to the Tampa Tribune, critics have described him as "a
manipulator leading followers into a cult; a circus ring leader making a good
living."
From Wikipedia, the
free encyclopedia
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