The Christian Sentinel Report

D. James Kennedy's Open Letter Concerning Hank Hanegraaff (June 2001) 

Until now I have refrained from commenting about Mr. Hank Hanegraaff, but I understand from several sources that he has continued his attack on me.  Therefore, I feel I must make some sort of response.  This I do reluctantly.

Hank was brought to Christ through the ministry of this church, of which he then became a member.  I employed him some time later at Evangelism Explosion International in the Development Department. It was here that he learned his basic knowledge of the Scriptures.  Here that he learned to evangelize. Here that he learned mnemonics, the science of memory.  It was from here and from me that he learned most of the things needed to get the position that he now holds.

Years later he published a book on evangelism, which numerous people wrote to me about, telling me that he had plagiarized my book, Evangelism Explosion.  Some sent me page after page from his book with the comparable pages from my own.  It did appear to be a blatant case of plagiarism, but I told them all that I did not want to sue him because I did not think that is what a Christian ought to do.

I also received letters stating that he had obtained his position on The Bible Answer Man program by methods that were less than ethical.  Numbers of staff, many of whom have since left that ministry, also said he was plagiarizing Dr. Walter Martin's material.  However, I do not have the data, the time, nor the interest to try to ascertain where he gets all of his material.  I do know that when he left here, he had no formal training preparing him for his present position.  (I did happen to be in graduate school at the Ph.D. level with Walter Martin when we were both working for our degree at the same time. I know he was well prepared for what he did.)

In conclusion, much of what Hank has learned he learned at this church and through my other ministries.  I have tried in every way to be helpful to him.  I have also endeavored to be gracious, in spite of the many letters I have received accusing him of plagiarizing my book. In spite of all of this, for some reason, totally unbeknownst to me, he has started attacking me on his public radio program. And as I just recently heard, has now had the temerity to call me a heretic.  I have been called all manner of names by the enemies of the Cross, but one name I have never been called before is heretic.  Given my 42 years of ministry, almost 50 books that I have published, the thousands of radio and television programs which have been broadcast here and around the world, it is almost laughable to think that we must wait until this late date to have it discovered by no less a scholar than Hank Hanegraaff that I am a heretic.

It is with sadness that I have found myself having to write this letter and I only hope that Hank will find something better to do with his time than to attack evangelical Christians, especially the one who taught him most of the orthodoxy that he knows.