Way In
The profit of the Lord
The Advertising Standards Authority has banned an advertisement
for the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God highlighting its
anointing oil. The ad featured testimony from a woman saying that
the oil healed her son who was in a coma, and whose heart stopped
and lungs collapsed.
Following a complaint from the British Humanist Association, the
ASA ruled that the ad made unsubstantiated claims likely to
discourage people from seeking qualified medical advice.
In fact the ad made quite limited claims for the oil, compared to
its full supernatural powers as outlined on the UCKG website.
Anointing people - or pictures of them if the original is
unavailable - has not only cured medical conditions, we are told,
but provided husbands, restored problem children and netted a house
for '£15,00 [sic] less than the asking price'.
Rather more sinister are the four pages of testimony from those
whose names are 'written in the Tithers Book' committing them to
give ten per cent of their income (gross, not net) to the UCKG.
Since they stopped 'robbing God' and started tithing, they have got
jobs, been promoted, come out of debt and/or enjoyed unexpected
windfalls.
The church also has a red hankie 'blessed in several places in
Israel' that can achieve more or less anything from relieving itchy
legs to getting your man back.
UCKG is an international Pentecostal church founded in a park
shelter in Rio de Janeiro in 1977, which came to the UK in
1995.
Two years later, one of its ads was banned by the ASA for
suggesting that it could cure 'headaches, depression, insomnia,
fears, bad luck, strange diseases' by casting out demons.