Kathryn Kuhlman
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Kathryn Johanna Kuhlman (May 9, 1907 – February 20, 1976) was an American
faith healer and
evangelist.
Personal life
Kathryn Johanna Kuhlman was born in
Concordia, Missouri, to
German-American parents.
[1] She was
born-again at the age of 14 in the
Methodist Church of Concordia, and began preaching in the West at the age of sixteen in primarily
Baptist Churches.
[citation needed]
In 1935, Kathryn met Burroughs Waltrip, a Texas evangelist who was
eight years her senior. Shortly after his visit to Denver, Waltrip
divorced his wife, left his family and moved to Mason City, Iowa, where
he began a revival center called Radio Chapel. Kathryn and her friend
and pianist Helen Gulliford came into town to help him raise funds for
his ministry. It was shortly after their arrival that the romance
between Burroughs and Kathryn became publicly known.
Burroughs and Kathryn decided to wed. While discussing the matter
with some friends, Kathryn had said that she could not “find the will of
God in the matter.” These and other friends encouraged her not to go
through with the marriage, but Kathryn justified it to herself and
others by believing that Waltrip’s wife had left him, not the other way
around. On October 18, 1938, Kathryn secretly married “Mister,” as she
liked to call Waltrip, in Mason City. The wedding did not give her new
peace about their union, however. After they checked into their hotel
that night, Kathryn left and drove over to the hotel where Helen was
staying with another friend. She sat with them weeping and admitted that
the marriage was a mistake. No one seems to know exactly when the
separation took place. In a 1952 interview with the Denver Post Kathryn
said, "He charged—correctly—that I refused to live with him. And I
haven't seen him in eight years." That would put the separation in
1944—which is probably accurate. This means they lived together for the
better part of six years."
[2] She was divorced by Burroughs Waltrip in 1948.
Ministry
Kuhlman traveled extensively around the
United States
and in many other countries holding "healing crusades" between the
1940s and 1970s. She was one of the most well known healing ministers in
the world. Kuhlman had a weekly
TV program in the 1960s and 1970s called
I Believe In Miracles that was aired nationally. The foundation was established in 1954, and its
Canadian
branch in 1970. Towards her latter years she was supportive of the
nascent Jesus people movement which a groundswell of interest in Jesus
among young teens formerly associated with drugs and the
counter-culture.
Following a 1967 fellowship in Philadelphia, Dr.
William A. Nolen conducted a case study of 23 people who claimed to have been cured during one of her services.
[3][4][5][6]
Nolen's long term follow-ups concluded that there were no cures in
those cases. One woman who was said to have been cured of spinal cancer
threw away her brace and ran across the stage at Kuhlman's command; her
spine collapsed the next day and she died four months later.
[7][8][9]
By 1970 she moved to Los Angeles conducting faith healing for thousands of people each day as an heir to
Aimee Semple McPherson.
[10] She became well known for her uncanny gift of healing despite, as she often bragged, having no theological training.
[10]
In 1975, Kuhlman was sued by Paul Bartholomew, her personal
administrator, who claimed that she kept $1 million in jewelry and $1
million in fine art hidden away and sued her for $430,500 for breach of
contract.
[11][12]
Two former associates accused her in the lawsuit of diverting funds and
of illegally removing records, which she denied and said the records
were not private.
[13] According to Kuhlman, the lawsuit was settled prior to trial.
[7]
Death and legacy
In July 1975 her doctor diagnosed her with a minor heart flareup and she had a relapse in November while in Los Angeles.
[14] As a result, she had open heart surgery in
Tulsa, Oklahoma from which she died in February 1976.
[1] Kathryn Kuhlman is interred in the
Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in
Glendale, California.
A plaque in her honor is located in the main city park in Concordia,
Missouri, a town located in central Missouri on Interstate Highway 70.
After she died, her
will led to controversy.
[15] She left $267,500, the bulk of her estate, to three family members and twenty employees.
[15] Smaller bequests were given to 19 other employees.
[15] According to the
Independent Press-Telegram,
her employees were disappointed that "she did not leave most of her
estate to the foundation as she had done under a previous 1974 will."
[15] The Kathryn Kuhlman Foundation has continued, but in 1982 it terminated its nationwide radio broadcasting.
She influenced
faith healers Benny Hinn and
Billy Burke. Hinn has adopted some of her techniques and wrote a book about her.
[16]
In 1981
David Byrne and
Brian Eno sampled one of Kuhlman's sermons in their album
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts.
The track was entitled "The Spirit Womb," a mis-hearing of Kuhlman's
actual utterance "the spirit world." When Kuhlman's estate refused to
license the use of her voice, the track was re-recorded as "
The Jezebel Spirit" with an unidentified exorcist's vocal replacing Kuhlman's.
[17] The original Kuhlman-vocal has been released on a bootleg but not officially.
Healing
Many accounts of healings were published in her books, which were "
ghost-written" by author
Jamie Buckingham of Florida, including her autobiography, which was dictated at a hotel in
Las Vegas.
[18] Buckingham also wrote his own Kuhlman biography that presented an unvarnished account of her life.
[19]
Legacy
For several decades there has been serious debate regarding the
authenticity of Kathryn Kuhlman's ministry. Some would suggest that she
was a modern day
prophet exercising the power of God, whereas others would suggest that she was a
false prophet,
exercising a "spirit" that masqueraded as God. The debate continues
today with many believers upholding Kuhlman as an important forerunner
(including proponents of the "
Prosperity Theology" & "
Faith Healing" movement, such as
Benny Hinn), and with some Christian
cessationist apologists, such as
[20] Hank Hanegraaff of the
Christian Research Institute,
considering Kuhlman to be an influential forerunner of a false
Christianity that robs people of their money and propagates a distorted
substitute of true Christian teachings.
See also
References
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