A test of 'Miracles'; Soul-searching HBO documentary studies those who give and receive faith healing

It has become an Easter media ritual: Assemble a group of archaeologists, biblical scholars and theologians and ask them the same, age-old question: "Who was Jesus?" A new HBO film this weekend, however, answers that question through the eyes of a very different group of people. They are the sick, the lame and the dying, for many of whom Jesus was - and still is - the Great Physician. In the Gospels, they were the model believers, the ones whose faith was rewarded with restored sight or health. Does such healing occur today? Examining that question is part of the agenda of filmmaker Antony Thomas in "A Question of Miracles," an outstanding documentary airing at 9 p.m. Sunday on HBO, following "The Sopranos." "A Question of Miracles" is one of at least three Easter-related programs airing this weekend: There's also "Jesus: The Complete Story" on the Discovery channel and the PBS special "The Face: Jesus in Art" on Channel 19. As the title of "A Question of Miracles" suggests, it is not a heartwarming holiday special but a skeptical look inside a fringe of Christendom where believers place themselves at the feet of faith healers. Two of them, including the well-known TV preacher Benny Hinn, agreed to let Thomas examine their operations and their claims of actual physical healing. As becomes clear early on, the outcome will not be flattering to either Hinn or Reinhard Bonnke, a German Pentecostal healer who has become hugely popular in Africa. But viewers expecting an ugly expose - complete with hidden earphones, "spotters" up in the wings and actors faking their infirmities - will be disappointed by "A Question of Miracles." For one thing, Thomas essentially accepts what we see on camera: that the people on stage are genuinely ill. After touching the healer, nearly all of them respond ecstatically (Hinn's subjects often faint away, having been "slain in the spirit"). Later, they proclaim that they have been cured. More remarkable, reports Thomas, is that the majority of those interviewed several weeks later continued to believe that God had healed them - though the producers interviewed their doctors and in every instance the seekers' physical problems remained. About halfway through "A Question of Miracles" the scene revivals where Hinn and Bonnke operate to a small, claustrophobic university lab. Here, technicians demonstrate how they are able to lead volunteer subjects into intense religious experience - without any religious content at all. "Neuroscience," Thomas contends, "not only offers an explanation for the vision of the faith healers, but for everything happening in the minds of their followers at every stage of a faith-healing event." And they can, they claim, reproduce it in the lab. Some will find that conclusion unsettling. Some will find it infuriating, especially after it is buttressed by quotes from observers like Rabbi Harold Kushner, who says he hopes "there is a special place in hell" for faith healers like Hinn, whom he compares to Hitler. "A Question of Miracles" asks whether faith healers are guilty of robbing Christians, not only of their hard-earned cash but also, once they step off the stage, of their joy. We are told in the book of Acts that "the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit." In hindsight, the joy was nearly as miraculous as the spirit. Faith to the early Christians meant rejection by their families and peer groups, certain poverty and the promise of persecution and even death. The disciples seem not only to have accepted this fate, but also delighted in it. Contrast that with the young immigrant couple featured in "A Question of Miracles." They take their 10-year-old boy, who is dying of a terrible brain tumor, to a Benny Hinn revival in Oregon. If Hinn heals him, they will be happy beyond measure. But if the boy dies, it is obvious they will be crushed. It is perhaps a cruel point for Thomas to make at the expense of an already wounded family. But it is a valid point all the same. The film's ending is completely unexpected. Thomas shifts the scenery once again to a place (I won't say where) that offers a stunning counterpoint to both the faith healers and the scientists; a place where life, death and faith meet in joyous convergence; a place where light bursts brilliantly through darkness and the promise of Easter lightens the burden of all who believe in it. Thomas, a veteran filmmaker and biographer, was born in Calcutta, India, but lived most of his life in South Africa before his dissenting views got him kicked out in 1967. Now a resident of England, where his work is best known, he brings a brilliant script and evocative visuals to bear on this film. "A Question of Miracles" is an unorthodox choice for Easter programming, but an inspired and inspiring one. You can reach Aaron Barnhart through the TV Barn Web site at www.tvbarn.com. "A Question of Miracles" airs at 9 p.m. Sunday on HBO. Other Easter week programming The Discovery channel: "Jesus: The Complete Story," airs at 7 p.m. Sunday. The three-hour special uses computer graphic imaging to re-create the Jerusalem of Jesus' time. It also will show a depiction of "the new Jesus," with a noticeably darker countenance than the more light-featured image most Americans picture. PBS: "The Face: Jesus in Art" airs at 2:30 p.m. Sunday on Channel 19. The two-hour documentary traces the different ways in which Jesus has been represented in art over the past 1,700 years. It takes viewers from ancient Rome to 20th-century America, from Europe to the Middle East. @ART CAPTION:Above, Rashneel Prakash, a sufferer hoping to be healed, with his mother. @ART CAPTION:Reinhard Bonnke (right), a German Pentecostal healer, is popular in Africa. Bonnke and other faith healers are profiled in the documentary "A Question of Miracles" airing at 9 p.m. Sunday on HBO. @ART CREDIT:HBO @ART CAPTION:Upper left, faith healer Benny Hinn ministers to believers @ART:Photos (4, color and b/w, 1 uncaptioned) >>>