Hank Hanegraaff



Hank Hanegraaff is the host of the Bible Answer Man radio program.

He has a reputation as a voice of intelligence and moderation within evangelical Christendom, due to his frequent denunciation of the excesses of the likes of Todd Bentley, Benny Hinn, Bob Larson, Kenneth Copeland, Paul Crouch, and other evangelists of the sensationalistic, name it and claim it persuasion. He was also one of the more vocal skeptics of satanic panic claims, the satanic ritual abuse scare, the militia movement, and the Y2K scare among other things.

His reputation as a voice of moderation unfortunately gives him a platform to promote creationism, intelligent design, global warming denialism and overpopulation denialism, and opposition to any abortion (including birth control pills which he falsely says are a very early-term form of abortion). He also has an annoying tendency to engage in sophistry when callers ask him questions about things Jesus clearly teaches (such as pacifism and voluntary poverty), explaining them away somehow.

During the 2008 election season in an unusual (for Hanegraaff) foray into rank political partisanship, he ran ads on his show beginning, "The Bible is under attack", then playing a sound clip from Barack Obama where Obama asked which part of the Bible is appropriate to base public policy, noting that slavery is condoned in the Old Testament book of Leviticus. Allegedly this was Obama "attacking" the Bible. Hanegraaff did not, strangely enough, include any of the sound bites of John McCain on the same subject. Although he has in the past bent over backwards to keep politics off his show, he blew his cover with that one, which gives one a pretty good indication of what milieu he is operating in.

His views on issues like abortion and creationism are largely a function of the evangelical belief system he comes from; however, he is actually a pretty good source when looking for information refuting some of the wackier claims circulating within Christendom. He splits his time on his radio show between defending things like creationism and Biblical inerrancy on the one hand, and refuting and debunking crank practices and beliefs within evangelical Christianity on the other. In the latter area, at least, he is a good source.

He is president of the Christian Research Institute which he allegedly hijacked on the death of its founder, although his supporters dispute these claims. He is the father of 12 children (9 his own and 3 adopted).