Tuesday 27 September 2011

Suffer Little Children


There's been a lot of articles recently from people like Colin Tudge and John Gray saying that religious believers are caricatured by atheists, and that they don't believe the things they say they do. Perhaps, but how do they behave? Do they act as if magic happens, for example?

The Kingdom Faith Church is an evangelical church based in Horsham, Sussex, run by 'neo-charismatic' Christian, Colin Urquhart. According to Wikipedia, he spent some time in the seventies as an itinerant minister "with his living costs arising solely from donations - living on faith." Living on faith? Well, not exactly; living off other people might be a more accurate description. Anyway, he's managed to leverage 'living on faith' into a much bigger enterprise which includes a number of ministries, a training college and some expensive camera equipment too, by the look of their videos.

You'll see from their website that they're very 'Good News' about faith. Not my cup of tea, but I accept that if grown adults want to give their money to such a place then they have every right to; presumably the congregation feel they're getting some benefits from the community values on offer.

However, I'm not happy with what I've seen from the Youtube clips of their faith camps. Consider this:


'GoGen' is the name they give to their activities for 10-11 year olds. All sounds innocent enough and heart-warming. Until we see the testimonials from Faith10, the previous year's camp:


Listen to what these poor kids are saying:

"God showed me that I should speak faith over people" !

"This week I've been prayed for by a leader, for my bladder [??] problems, and I've been completely healed."

These are dangerous things to be indoctrinating in children as young as 10. One of the youth leaders says it's been a 'week of the supernatural' and 'the things that God has done to the children have been deep, have been real'. They do not know that there is supernatural healing going on here (there isn't), so to tell these kids that it's real is an abuse of their position. But this is even worse:


The leader of the 'Bouncies' says 'Monday we started with salvation', when the children learned that Jesus died to make them 'clean' (nice), and were asked to put sparkly men on a cross if they wanted to be made clean by Jesus! Which most of them did, surprise, surprise (I'd like to meet the kids who wanted to retain their uncleanliness). It was the Holy Spirit on Tuesday, then on Wednesday they listened to God; 'amazing things the children heard' (no kidding). One boy said that Jesus wants to heal his eczema, and his mother the following day said his skin wasn't inflamed any more, and the leader announces that 'he'd already got his healing'.

Finally, one of the Bouncies' testimonials:
Evie was singing about God's healing power over her. She's had a persistent cough all week, and since last night she's not coughed once, so we thank Jesus for her healing.
(Praise be, child recovers from the common cold! Did she thank Jesus for her catching it in the first place?)

The 'Bouncies' are just 3-4 years old.

This is all entirely inappropriate. If the faithful really want to teach their kids that Jesus is their salvation, I can't stop them. But it can't be healthy to tell such young children that they're unclean (unless, you know, they've got some dirt on them), and they should not tell them that Jesus can heal them. The little 'uns aren't equipped to see that this is nonsense. Every regression to the mean will be classed as a miracle, and there's a chance they'll grow up thinking that praying is a suitable course of treatment. There really should be a law against such dangerous mendacity.

This is in the heart of England, in a pretty secular country in a pretty secular continent, and it's a growing church. It seems clear that, even here, there are plenty of believers who still think that magic happens.

2 comments:

  • Sean Hall says:
    25 January 2015 at 19:03

    These new age churches are a cancer on society and are not Christian even though they claim it. It wont take you long to find many articles relating to the unbiblical teachings, cultic practices, pastors with no knowledge or qualifications, tithing which takes money from the congregation including people's benefits, the more you give the more god loves you theory. Healing powers that don't work and was never passed on in the New Testament to believers so its unbiblical, they break the 10 commandments by worshiping on a Sunday including halloween, (look at Potters House Halloween party on You tube). There is a proper business plan for the planting of churches, a plan to monitor fellow church members and snitch on them, control of your life and worse they dont know the bible and use the NIV, New King James Bible versions which have been disturbingly altered if you research. There is the bigger picture that is really prophetic and that many will be deceived and there will be a great falling away from the church and these churches are causing it by being unbiblical. These churches are a problem and i know because i was in the Pentacostal church until i left after upsetting everyone in my church by knowing more about what i was doing and pointing out my pastors mistakes....a big no no. They need you to be so busy you don't question and they encourage you to have no knowledge other than their heretical teachings. The bible states you need knowledge so they fail again. If you think you would never end up in one and there aren't that many churches do some research they are growing so much because they appeal to people who want these special gifts and powers like new age spiritualism and feel special which is a lie. The whole foundation of the word of faith movement or cell churches is to destroy christianity and to lead people away from the truth in the bible. They are all cults.

  • Anonymous says:
    12 October 2016 at 04:45

    This 'cult' has destroyed so many real families... they are poison, they preach poison and destroy everything that is good. They are a money making enterprise and only the idiots that have nothing in their lives are drawn in by such utter disgusting preaching. If you think that there is a difference between this Kingdom of Faith crooks and the Terrorists that preach hate, there is none. I speak from experience. My family has been broken apart by this disgraceful organisation.

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