My husband Irv made his final exit of the New Age and returned to Christ at our first Benny Hinn crusade in Anchorage Alaska.  After that, we attended many Hinn crusades and also went to his program tapings in Southern California, and seven times we sang in his Crusade Choir.  I became well enough known to some of his aides that it became a natural occurrence that they prayed for healing of my eye, which eventually occurred at Benny's brother Henry's church in Vancouver B.C.

We too disliked the incessant raising of money but we wrote it off as necessary to fund the very expensive missionary work and crusades.  Benny's lavish lifestyle also made us "wonder", but we saw healing that was real.  We could not tell if all the headings were real, but we did see some that impressed us.  The most impressive was a tiny boy
who walked all twisted up because of a neurological disorder, who walked right in front of my seat at the Oklahoma City crusade.  He was only five and did not look like an actor--and his walking pattern would have taken a genius to learn to accomplish, if he were a "fake".  He was completely healed that night.  Also, I met several people in audiences who had been healed at previous crusades, and who talked to me about how it happened.  

Benny always impressed me as a showman who knew that some of his stuff was show business, and admitted it, but was also "real" and a true advocate for God's plan.
Some purists would say that this cannot be acceptable, this mix.  However, the number of people who actually were encouraged in their Christian walk was very high.

I don't pay any attention to Benny now, but I accidentally happened on his TBN show the other night, and I too was impressed, as you were, with the anointing which was there after all these years.  He wasn't even talking about healing, but about reaching the lost in the short time left.

Being myself "flawed", I can accept that God uses another "flawed" person, Benny, who would be the first to admit that he is flawed.

I agree about Sid Roth.  His ministry is "various", and usually he too is promoting someone's book, but the other night I came on him unexpectedly while channel surfing, and he was interviewing a sincere gifted man who had no book to sell.  I watched the whole program.

A more serious problem would be if Benny's "gift" was due to Satanic influences, which no one can say for utterly sure.  We can be deluded.  This is one reason Irv and I stopped following Benny's program and stopped going to his meetings.  

But he does take the gospel nearly worldwide. There are still some places he can't go, of course.  But few preachers today travel the world as far as he does and are seen by as many eyes as see him.  Missionaries, humble and unknown, may be closer to our hearts, but Benny does his part with the equipment God gave him.

Why defend him when there others more heroic?  Well, there could be a few little black sheep among the white ones at God's throne, who did their work even if it seemed
slightly ridiculous at the time.