Showing posts with label SCOAN. Show all posts

Jan 19, 2024

TB Joshua scandal: The forces that shaped Nigeria’s mega pastor and made him untouchable

Nimi Wariboko
The Conversation
January 19, 2024

TB Joshua was a world famous Nigerian televangelist, faith healer and Pentecostal pastor who established The Synagogue Church of All Nations. Three years after his death a BBC investigation alleges Joshua raped, tortured and abused several of his followers over a period of 20 years. There are allegations of child abuse at his Lagos compound and that he faked his miracles. Nimi Wariboko is a leading theologian and social ethics expert who wrote the book Nigerian Pentecostalism. We asked him about the forces that shape a ministry like Joshua's and what might have allowed him to abuse his power in this way.

What is Pentecostalism, and why is it so popular in Africa?

Pentecostalism is a movement in Christianity that accents the charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit in the lives and communities of its members. It traces its origin to the birth of the church on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2 of the Bible. Pentecostals believe that the gifts of the Holy Spirit poured out to Christ's followers on that day, and that the miracles the apostles did in the first century still continue. Most Pentecostals believe that miracles are possible today. A good number go to church expecting to receive them.

Pentecostalism centres on the Bible as the true word of God. This does not mean interpretations of the Bible are static. Pentecostals often adjust interpretations to suit their contexts and circumstances.

Many Pentecostal churches are led by "big men" or "big women" – authoritarian leaders who dominate their organisations and are rarely accountable to any human power. Their authority is almost unlimited and they teach or discipline their members not to question them, relying on Psalm 105:15:

Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.

Pentecostals also preach prosperity gospel, a belief that God is in the business of materially enriching believers.

These are some of the ingredients that have made the movement popular in Africa.

What forces shaped the rise of TB Joshua?

When Joshua started out in 1987, he focused on the spiritual and economic needs of Nigerians. He combined the belief systems, practices and doctrines of Christianity, Islam and African traditional religion. He later embraced Christianity fully.

The widespread poverty in the country, the precarity of life and the brutal oppression of ordinary citizens were in sharp relief to his efforts to cater to the economic needs of the poor (which he often televised), his attention to the spiritual empowerment of believers, and the simplicity of his lifestyle. These contrasts endeared him to millions of Nigerians and many more all over the world.

The genius of this man – and, perhaps, the majority of Pentecostal leaders – was his clear focus on the explanation, prediction and control dimension of religion. This means he set out to spiritually explain the causes of the predicaments of ordinary Nigerians. He prophesied what was ahead of them, and demonstrated the power to enact miracles to control or reverse their bad situations.

He was an early adopter of TV and the internet. In 2004, Nigeria banned TV stations from airing unverified miracles by pastors, most likely because of Joshua. This led him to launch Emmanuel TV on satellite TV and then online, out of their reach.

Why do people believe in prophecies and miracles?

First of all, Pentecostals believe in a two-tier world: physical and spiritual. They believe the spiritual controls the physical and that those with charismatic gifts can access the spiritual world to extract information to explain, predict and control outcomes in the physical world. So, there's a quest for information from the invisible realm. I called this "the spell of the invisible" in my book Nigerian Pentecostalism.

Second, we have to look at Pentecostal epistemology – its philosophy. Nigerian Pentecostals beautifully render it as, "It does not make sense, but it makes spirit." This means their decisions might seem irrational, but they are all good, reasonable and ethical through a spiritual lens. I address this issue in another book, The Pentecostal Hypothesis.

Finally, there is a deep belief in what I've named "the Pentecostal principle": that the new can emerge amid ongoing social processes. The idea of the coming of the new, miracles that can transform the present situation of believers. We can't ignore the role of economic hardship and poverty in heightening the vulnerability of citizens to religious charlatanism and authoritarianism.

How did he remain untouchable?

There are three points I would like to raise here.

Firstly, he started a Christian ministry, an independent denomination, which became enormously successful. He was not accountable to anyone. As they say, absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Second, the pursuit and seemingly effortless performance of miracles appeared to have excused or covered his frailties. But, in a sense, he was also enabled by the people. This is not to excuse the allegations against him but to say he was produced by a certain kind of Christian community or generation. He easily (and excessively) gave them their fantasy. His excesses were integral to the movement itself.

Finally, the allegations tell us that the Nigerian state has little or no oversight over how its citizens are maltreated, exploited or abused in the name of God. Religious leaders appear not to be accountable to the state or the demands of its laws. Joshua was a friend to many presidents in Africa.

How can Nigeria deal with future abuse by religious leaders?

The government has to hold every religious leader accountable to the laws of the land without usurping their religious freedom. Allegations of abuses must be swiftly and clearly investigated. Laws to properly regulate religious organisations are on the books but the government lacks the political will to enforce them because the churches are so popular and many politicians are also religious. The government must set the example of obeying its laws. The most important thing is for the government to work for the economic flourishing of its citizens.

https://theconversation.com/tb-joshua-scandal-the-forces-that-shaped-nigerias-mega-pastor-and-made-him-untouchable-221421

Jan 15, 2024

The Ogboni cult in Beta Edu and TB Joshua

The BBC documentary of last week merely fitted into what Nigerians already knew about themselves.

Festus Adedayo

Premium Times

January 14, 2024

The “Edan” is a Yoruba Ogboni cult insignia, an emblem of membership in the secret society. It is a cylindrical duality of male and female brass figures with iron stems attached to it. Mostly joined at the top by an iron chain, the edan is said to signify old age, experience, knowledge, and wisdom. The female edan also has a beard motif. It recreates the image of the goddess, Edan, a man-like woman, an “Obinrin bi okunrin” who possesses the wisdom of a Babalawo – diviner – and is the epicentre of human morality. This image is intermixed with the supernatural powers of a witch, an aje, reputed to have powers for the defence and protection of Ogboni cult initiates.

Ulli Beier, the German-Jew catalyst for modern African culture, stood in awe of the edan when he saw it. In his In a Colonial University (Iwalewa-Haus, University of Bayreuth, 1993) Beier narrated his first encounter with the edan in 1950 and his overview of the Nigerian ritual art at the University of Ibadan, thus: “After dinner, liqueurs were served in the sitting room and …Professor Christopherson passed round his latest acquisition – a magnificent Ogboni (a secret association of Yoruba priests and chiefs invested with major judicial and political functions and devoted to the worship of the Earth) brass figure some 30cm long. I had never seen anything like it, had no idea what it meant or where it came from but was overwhelmed by a feeling of awe as I held in my hand the heavy object, emanating so much power and ancient wisdom.”

In Nigeria, corruption and religious trickery are like the edan, conjoined by an iron chain of culture, history and a sustained system of elite greed. Today in Nigeria, this Ogboni emblem is signposted by suspended Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Beta Edu and late Temitope Balogun Joshua, popularly known as TB Joshua. If Nigerians didn’t know anything else about their country, they know that these two evils – corruption and religion – are twin viruses that have eaten deep into the marrows and red cell corpuscles of Nigeria. They are also aware that the two evils have centuries-old existence. So when the BBC, last week, assumed it had hit an exclusive story in airing a documentary on the sordid life of charismatic pastor, unorthodox televangelist and founder of Synagogue of All Nations (SCOAN), TB Joshua, the British broadcasting outfit, it will seem, was merely playing to the gallery, no pun intended. BBC had alleged in the documentary, through interviews with alleged eyewitnesses, that Joshua’s pastoral life had been a potpourri of rape, shambolic miracles, torture and forced abortions. Whether in pre-, colonial or post-colonial Nigeria, Nigerians are/were genetically wired to believe in the supreme potency of achieving material success and healing by harnessing mystical powers.

As at 1922, the British colonial office was already worried by the traffic of patent medicine ordered by Nigerians from India, a country renowned to be a centre for mystical powers. By that time, literate Nigerians were already ordering, by postal service, literature on mysticism and homeopathic medicine from India. J. K. Magregor, a British resident in Nigeria and headmaster of Hope Waddell Institute in Calabar, was so disturbed by this trend among his pupils that he documented what he saw to the colonial office in England. He caught the pupils in possession of letters they sent abroad demanding from quack doctors methods of treating diseases and attaining success through spiritual powers. The pupils also received catalogues of magical works and letters “from various societies that professed to give esoteric teaching that was sure to bring success and happiness.” In one mail delivery, Magregor found hundreds of such requests. One example the Briton found, which he documented to the colonial office, was a 12-year old boy who had ordered by post a “Mystic Charm” from India, “a piece of valueless metal containing some wax, enclosed in the heart of a newspaper.” Included with the metal was a message to the boy from India to send money back so that he could “receive blessings from the Hindu deity Siddheswari” and he would find the blessings by “watching the flow of his nasal mucus.”

The spate of charlatans promising to provide magical powers for a fee later transmuted into the fraud ring called 419, for which Nigeria has harvested unflattering renown throughout the world. This combines to form the benumbing orgy of corruption in high and low places, for which Betta Edu, the minister of Humanitarian Affairs, was suspended from office last week. None of the two evils began today. On 18 December, 1920, Nigeria’s first 419 kingpin was arrested. He was Mr Crentil, a self-styled professor, an ex-employee of the Marine Department of the colonial office in Lagos. He had written to a victim in Gold Coast, now Ghana, describing the magical powers he possessed and could offer for a fee. He was charged in 1921 by the police on three counts under Section 419. He was however lucky as the charges were struck off, prompting “Prof Crentil” boasting that he got off through same magical powers.

At this period in the life of Nigeria, there were itinerant native doctors who professed to connect people to their shrines that produced wealth. This, they claimed would be provided by the gods of wealth through spiritual forces. Virtually everywhere in Nigeria then, there were itinerant medicine sellers and magical spellers called Ajasco Boys, Money Doublers and the like, who offered a repertoire of techniques. With this, they claimed they could connect unsuspecting victims with the invisible world and engender fortunes for their victims. Over a century after, this spiritual vermin hasn’t died but its proboscis has gotten more lethal. It has changed, no doubt. Now clothed in modernity, it has gone visceral, sucking the blood of innocent Nigerians who seek remedies to existential crises.

The BBC documentary of last week merely fitted into what Nigerians already knew about themselves. As it has been notoriously recalled, TB Joshua’s tendency for sorcery, rather than Christianity, was first busted by Ibadan-based famous eerie-world-revealer and broadcaster, Kola Olawuyi. His Saturday morning programme on Radio Nigeria and OGBC was a crowd puller. On one of such, Olawuyi showed, with empirical evidence and through interview sessions, that Joshua had a spiritual liaison with an albino from his Arigidi Akoko, Ondo State native home. A few weeks after, another man appeared on Olawuyi’s programme claiming spiritual powers, while flaunting a black egg as his talisman. He claimed to be Jemijaiye Okuku. As I listened to the programme, something told me the Jemijaiye voice was familiar. As Olawuyi was lifting the veil off the face of this so-called powerful spiritualist, the police, who had been invited, emerged to arrest the charlatan. Immediately, I connected the dots. The fellow, a man with dreadlocks, was my close friend a decade earlier. I knew his mother and siblings. We both lived in the same Ayeso area of Ilesa, Osun State.

A coterie of mystical scammers, many wearing the garb of pastors and Imams, has succeeded in fleecing Nigerians based on the people’s longstanding abiding romance with fatalism and mysticism. Scholars have attributed this to the sustained link between the people and their traditional African heritage. Africans, and Nigerians particularly, grew up knowing that there is a causal link between the physical and the spiritual realms, and that nothing is or can be if it does not emanate from the spiritual realm. This has necessitated the rat race to penetrate the veneers of the spiritual. In the process, the people have been susceptible to the charlatanism of fakists and sorcerers who, wearing the visor of pastors/Imams, sweep them off their feet with fabulous claims. They also claim to be able to make penetrative gazes into the unseen world and are able to manipulate the corridors of the spirits to help their victims achieve unheard-of successes in the material world.

Why it becomes hard to distinguish sorcerers from miracle hawkers is that even the two prophets of Christianity and Islam – Jesus and Mohammed – equally got accused of sorcery while they were on earth. The truth is that the divide between sorcery and miracles is very thin. Both are united by their provinces as strange and uncanny. This is what Guru Maharaj Ji in Ibadan and Jesus of Oyingbo use/used as their fortes. At one time, a lively debate erupted as magicians and sorcerers too contended that the marvellous miracles wrought by of the prophets Moses and Jesus were themselves magical. In Christian teachings, we are told that Jesus was accused of performing miracles through Baʿal Zebub or Beelzebub. This god, in Joseph Conrad’s Lord of the Flies, was the devil. It was derived from a Philistine god that was hitherto worshipped in Ekron, and which was thereafter adopted by some Abrahamic religions. Beelzebub was a major demon linked to the Canaanite god, Baal, and which, in theological sources and predominantly Christian literature, is another name for Satan.

As a reporter who frequ

ented his Lagos-Ibadan expressway shrine and who had, by so doing, gathered first-hand insights into his operations, I once compared Maharaj Ji with Russian mystic, Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, who hypnotised his devotees. The Ibadan bearded spiritualist also claimed to be the world’s own version of Jesus Christ. In late 1906, Rasputin put himself forward as a faith healer, healing Nicholas II and his empress consort, Alexandra Feodorovna’s son, Alexei Nikolaevich who had been suffering from haemophilia. Rasputin was known to be a charlatan and was eventually assassinated in 1916. Having been friends with Maharaj Ji for years and observed the vacuous faces and absent faces of the men and women in trance-like looks in his shrine, it was easy to place the Ibadan self-styled god. That piece evoked attacks from his devotees spread across his ashrams, who pummelled me on all fronts.

People have asked what the motive of the BBC documentary is. To tell Nigerians what many already knew about TB Joshua? Why didn’t it come at a time when Joshua himself was alive and could rebut some of the claims? Lies were put to many strands of the BBC interviewees’ accounts of what went on in the Synagogue. Same goes for claims against Joshua by persons purporting to be what they were not. In totality, these cast a pall of doubt on the documentary. While alive, presidents of some African countries trooped to Joshua’s SCOAN for healing. One of such was then Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Richard Tsvangirai. In 2008, Ghanaian president, John Atta Mills was also at the Synagogue, “to seek the face of God during the election in his country.” So also was former Zambian President Frederick Chiluba, as well as the late leader of Gabon, Omar Bongo. Could Joshua have been attracting all these personalities through sorceries? When it is realised that many of the white devotees of Joshua’s church, who allegedly wanted to take over the church at the pastor’s death were rebuffed, the BBC documentary may thus be viewed from the usual racial lens.

Having said this, many of the pastors/Imams who claimed to live lives of piety have been revealed to be opposites of what they claimed at their deaths. An example was Frederick Antony Ravi Kumar Zacharias, an Indian-born Canadian-American Christian evangelical minister. He was the founder of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM), who for forty years was involved in Christian apologetics. At his death, however, some women came forward to claim that he sexually abused them. This prompted the hiring of the Miller & Martin law firm by the RZIM to investigate these allegations. At the end of the day, their veracity got confirmed. RZIM eventually underwent a name change and offered a public apology, subsequently excising every material pertaining to Zacharias from its books. In Nigeria, there are famous pastors who are known to be sexual predators, occultists and greedy elements thirsty for material acquisitions. So what did Joshua do differently?

While religious mesmerism results in the inability of a people to think straight, corruption stagnates a nation. In their amity like the cylindrical edan, they have wrecked incalculable havoc on Nigeria since its founding. Part of this havoc can be attributed to our history and culture, which make us easy prey to spiritual enchantment and corruptibility. Smart political charlatans invoke religion to sustain their hold on the political. A whiff of it got manifest last Thursday at the meeting of the Forum of Governors on the platform of APC. Asked what the fate of Betta Edu, the suspended Minister of Humanitarian Affairs was, Imo State governor, Hope Uzodinma, urged Nigerians not to pass a verdict of guilt on her yet as “the only perfect being we have observed and noticed is the Almighty God.” Anyone who knows the dalliance between corruption and theology and how politicians often invoke God to entrap the people will understand what effect Uzodinma was struggling to achieve.

By the way, let us give kudos to President Bola Tinubu for suspending Edu and his decision to cut the long numbers in his and the entourage of other government officials. I am sure what did the magic of the reduction was the persistent and unrelenting criticism of the president over the disgusting optics of his recent visit to Lagos Island. Muhammadu Buhari ran a government that was dead to such nudges for eight years, retaining such governmental recidivists, in spite of their visibly known crimes. Tinubu should go a step further by throwing every corrupt government official under the bus. The next person to sack is Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo because what is sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander. Edu, many government officials before her and several in this government have luxuriated for too long inside the sewers of over a century-old system of distribution of patrimonial wealth among selves and cronies. The time to break that chain is now.

Festus Adedayo is an Ibadan-based journalist.

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/opinion/658768-the-ogboni-cult-in-beta-edu-and-t-b-joshua-by-festus-adedayo.html

Jan 14, 2024

State has failed us in taming false prophets

Levi Obonyo
The writer is Dean, School of Communication, Daystar University
People Daily
January 12, 2024

Even in a world where new media is the buzz, very little will replace traditional media's watchdog role in society.

Africa has been glued to the BBC documentary on the late Prophet TB Joshua and the happenings at his Synagogue Church of All Nations this past week.

While he lived, the Nigerian preacher was a sensation everywhere. Dark-skinned, smooth, well-cropped hair and a goatee to go with it, TB Joshua appeared to shun the more extravagant attires of his contemporaries.

Instead, he came across as simple in his shirts and save for the dramatic speech styles; there was nothing out of the ordinary in his preaching. But it is in that simplicity that his lethality lay.

He attracted people from near and far, both simple and sophisticated. Presidents and prime ministers trooped to his Synagogue in search of powers and answers; whether they got them or not is a different story that only they can tell.

The then Zambian President, Frederick Chiluba, an avowed evangelical in his own right, pleaded with his countrymen to watch TB Joshua's television shows, and one can only imagine how many picked their remote controls and switched over to Emmanuel TV.

But inside the church, if the BBC documentary is authenticated, the Synagogue appears to be anything but a normal church. The details of the BBC's two-year investigation are out there for all to see. There are many questions that the documentary should raise in our minds. For a start, what is the role of religion in society, and how should citizens relate with their spiritual leaders?

The happenings in the Synagogue Church of All Nations are not isolated. Across the globe, and probably more so in Africa, many similar movements may be only less successful relative to TB Joshua. In Kenya, we have our Shakahola story, the depth of the depravity, which we still do not know.

The claims of many a preacher have been staggering. They can heal this or that sickness, make this or that miracle happen, provide this or that power, and all you need is to believe, buy this or that ointment, and carry this or that handkerchief or piece of cloth with you. It seems simple.

Allow the preacher to touch this or that part of your body, follow this or that instruction given by the man or the woman of God and believe this or that pronouncement. Desperate people have followed through.

Africa particularly provides fodder for these movements. For a start, our administrations have failed us, and many services are unavailable, leaving people at the mercy of those able to make spectacular claims.

Hospitals are not working, and where they do, they face many limitations. The needs of the people can not be easily met, there is a lack of money to take children to school, and there is lack of mechanised means of agriculture, thus relying on rain-fed farming, leaving individuals susceptible to spectacular expectations from people who claim connection to the spiritual world.

Some interventions by governments to provide services could reduce dependence on the spiritual superstars. The soul of man is, however, restless, and seeking spiritual connection is real. But this is where governments could come in and guide through regulatory frameworks that could smoke some of these groups out before they do too much damage.

At least the media's traditional role can step in once in a while. The task of documenting such a story is expensive, time-consuming and not given to the short attention span characteristics of this generation. Neither is it something the taunted alternative media of the present age can deliver.

Social media is given to the quick and spectacular; the scroll-down type and number eight will shock you, all dispensed in minutes. Stories often still take time to tell, and more so, the good and impactful stories. It is for reasons such as this that the necessary steps to prop up good journalism must be made, and governments may have a role to play in it.

https://www.pd.co.ke/features/opinion/state-has-failed-us-in-taming-false-prophets-217267/

Jan 10, 2024

DISCIPLES: The Cult of TB Joshua, Ep 1 - Miracle Maker

BBC Africa Eye documentary: DISCIPLES: The Cult of TB Joshua, Ep 1 - Miracle Maker
Man of God? Or a predatory cult leader? A ground-breaking investigation into the world famous televangelical preacher, TB Joshua, told by the people closest to him: his Disciples.

Two young women in Britain watch a VHS tape that will change the course of their lives forever: a Nigerian preacher can apparently heal the sick, cure cancer and AIDS. They decide to visit his church in Lagos to meet him. Joshua invites the teenagers to become his disciples, joining dozens of other young people who live on the church premises and do his every bidding. But life as a disciple isn’t what they imagined.

***
The award-winning and critically-acclaimed BBC Africa Eye investigations team unravel a shocking journey into a maze of manipulation and terrifying atrocities – perpetrated by one of the most powerful religious figures of the 21st century. This new major investigation contains detailed first-person testimony and historical footage as the series delves into the experiences of those who were wooed by the world-famous pastor into his religious cult, only to suffer devastating consequences. Twelve survivors go on record, speaking out together for the first time.

Africa Eye brings you original, investigative journalism revealing secrets and rooting out injustice in the world’s most complex and exciting continent. Nothing stays hidden forever.

https://youtu.be/UZZVQxjXWCg?si=WNGIxbDP-lgtlkmp

Jan 9, 2024

TB Joshua’s daughter: Tortured after standing up to ‘Daddy’

Charlie Northcott, Helen Spooner & Tamasin Ford

BBC Africa Eye

January 9, 2024

The BBC reveals how the late megachurch leader TB Joshua, who is accused of committing sexual crimes on a mass scale, locked up his own daughter and tortured her for years before leaving her homeless on the streets of Lagos, Nigeria.

Warning: Contains details some readers may find distressing

"My dad had fear, constant fear. He was very afraid that someone would speak up," says one of the pastor's daughters, Ajoke - the first whistle-blower to reach out to the BBC about the abuse she witnessed at her father's church, the Synagogue Church of All Nations (Scoan).

TB Joshua, who died in 2021 at the age of 57, is accused of widespread abuse and torture spanning almost 20 years.

Now aged 27, Ajoke lives in hiding and has dropped her surname "Joshua" - the BBC is not publishing her new name.

Little is known about Ajoke's birth mother, who was believed to be one of TB Joshua's congregants. Ajoke says she was raised by Evelyn, Joshua's widow, from as early as she can remember.

Until the age of seven, Ajoke says she had a very happy childhood, going on holiday with the Joshua family to places like Dubai.

But one day everything changed. She was suspended from school for a misdemeanour, and a local journalist wrote an article referring to her as the illegitimate child of TB Joshua. She was pulled out of school and taken to the Scoan compound in Lagos.

"I was made to move to the disciples' room. I didn't volunteer to be a disciple. I was made to join," she says.

The disciples were an elite group of dedicated followers who served TB Joshua and lived with him inside the maze-like structure of the church. They came from all over the world, many staying at the compound for decades.

They lived under a strict set of rules: forbidden to sleep for more than a few hours at a time, prohibited from using their own phones or having access to their personal emails, and forced to call TB Joshua "Daddy".

"The disciples were both brainwashed and enablers. Everybody was just acting based on command - like zombies. Nobody was questioning anything," she says.

Just a child, Ajoke would not follow the rules like the other disciples: she refused to stand up when the pastor came into the room and rebelled against the severe sleeping orders.

The abuse started soon after.

Not long after arriving, aged seven, she remembers being beaten for wetting the bed and then being forced to walk around the compound with a sign around her neck saying "I am a bedwetter."

"The message about Ajoke was that she had terrible evil spirits that needed to be driven out," says one former female disciple.

"There was a time in the disciple meetings - he [Joshua] said people could beat her. Anyone in the female dormitory could just hit her and I remember just seeing people slapping her as they walked past," she says.

From the moment Ajoke moved to the church in the Ikotun neighbourhood of Lagos, she was treated like an outcast.

"She was, like, kind of labelled the black sheep of the family," says Rae, from the UK, who spent 12 years living in the church as a disciple. Like most of the former disciples interviewed by the BBC, she opted to only use her first name.

Rae remembers a time when Ajoke slept for too long, and Joshua shouted at her to get up.

Ajoke says after years of abuse she lost her fear of her father aged 17.

Another disciple took her to the shower and "whipped her with an electrical cord and then turned the hot water on", she says.

Recalling the incident, Ajoke says: "I was screaming at the top of my voice, and they just let the water run on my head for a very long time."

Such abuse was never-ending, she says.

"We're talking about years and years of abuse. Consistent abuse. My existence as a child from another mother undermined everything he [TB Joshua] claimed to stand for."

The abuse escalated to a different scale when she was aged 17 and confronted her dad about "accounts, first hand, of people who had experienced sexual abuse".

"I saw female disciples go up to his room. They were going away for hours. I was hearing things: 'Oh this happened to me. He tried sleeping with me.' Too many people were saying the same thing," she says.

The BBC spoke to more than 25 former disciples - from the UK, Nigeria, US, South Africa, Ghana, Namibia and Germany - who gave powerful corroborating testimony of experiencing or witnessing sexual abuse.

"I couldn't take it any more. I walked directly into his office on that very day. I shouted at the top of my voice: 'Why are you doing this? Why are you hurting all these women?'

"I had lost every iota of fear for this man. He tried to stare me down, but I was looking in his eyes," she says.

Emmanuel, who was part of the church for 21 years and spent more than a decade living in the compound as a disciple, remembers that day clearly.

"He [TB Joshua] was the first person that started hitting her… then other people joined," he says.

"He was saying: 'Can you imagine what she's saying about me?' Even as much as they were hitting her, beating her, she was still saying the same thing."

BBC iPlayer

Disciples: The Cult of TB Joshua: A shocking journey into a maze of manipulation and terrifying abuse perpetrated by one of the most powerful religious figures of the 21st Century.

Watch now on BBC iPlayer (UK Only) or on the BBC Africa YouTube channel

BBC iPlayer

BBC Sounds

World of Secrets - The Disciples: A nine-episode season - a shocking journey into a maze of manipulation and terrifying abuse.

Listen now on BBC Sounds

BBC Sounds

Ajoke says she was dragged out of his office and put in a room away from the rest of the church members, where she lived in social confinement for more than a year.

It is a form of punishment within Scoan known as "adaba", something Rae also experienced for two years.

During this time Ajoke says she was repeatedly hit with belts and chains, often on a daily basis.

"I wonder how I lived through those times. I couldn't even stand up for days after these beatings. I couldn't even take a shower. He was trying so hard to stop people listening to me."

One day when Ajoke was 19, she says she was escorted to the front gates of the church and left there. The church security, who were armed, were told she was never to be allowed back in. This was six years before her father died.

"I found myself homeless. I had nobody to reach out to. Nobody would believe me. Nothing prepared me for that life," she says.

As a young woman with no money, Ajoke did what she could to survive and spent many years on the streets.

She first contacted the BBC in 2019 after watching a BBC Africa Eye exposé - and so began a long BBC investigation into uncovering the abuse at Scoan.

The BBC contacted Scoan with the allegations in this investigation. It did not respond to them, but denied previous claims against TB Joshua.

"Making unfounded allegations against Prophet TB Joshua is not a new occurrence… None of the allegations was ever substantiated," it said.

He kept all of us in slavery, total absolute slavery. Ajoke was bold enough to confront him. I see her as a hero"

With the help of former disciples and some close friends, Ajoke recently managed to get off the streets. But it has led to episodes where she has struggled with her mental health.

Yet after everything she has been through, she has remained determined to tell the truth about her father.

"Every time I was beaten up, every time I was humiliated, it just reminded me there was something wrong in the system," she says.

Former disciples have told the BBC that seeing Ajoke stand up to this man was one of the main reasons they started to doubt their faith in TB Joshua.

"He kept all of us in slavery, total absolute slavery," says Emmanuel.

"Ajoke was bold enough to confront him. I see her as a hero."

Truth, Ajoke says, is the most important thing to her: "I lost everything, my home, my family, but for me, it comes down to the truth.

"And for as long as there's breath in me, I will defend that, until the very end."

Her dreams are to one day go back to school and finish her education that was cut so short.

This Africa Eye investigation was conducted by Charlie Northcott, Helen Spooner, Maggie Andresen, Yemisi Adegoke and Ines Ward.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-67923906

Jan 8, 2024

TB Joshua: Megachurch leader raped and tortured worshippers, BBC finds

Charlie Northcott and Helen Spooner

BBC News, Africa Eye

January 7, 2024

Evidence of widespread abuse and torture by the founder of one of the world's biggest Christian evangelical churches has been uncovered by the BBC.

Dozens of ex-Synagogue Church of all Nations members - five British - allege atrocities, including rape and forced abortions, by Nigeria's late TB Joshua.

The allegations of abuse in a secretive Lagos compound span almost 20 years.

The Synagogue Church of All Nations did not respond to the allegations but said previous claims have been unfounded.

TB Joshua, who died in 2021, was a charismatic and hugely successful preacher and televangelist who had an immense global following.

The BBC's findings over a two-year investigation include:

· Dozens of eyewitness accounts of physical violence or torture carried out by Joshua, including instances of child abuse and people being whipped and chained

· Numerous women who say they were sexually assaulted by Joshua, with a number claiming they were repeatedly raped for years inside the compound

· Multiple allegations of forced abortions inside the church following the alleged rapes by Joshua, including one woman who says she had five terminations

· Multiple first-hand accounts detailing how Joshua faked his "miracle healings", which were broadcast to millions of people around the world

One of the victims, a British woman, called Rae, was 21 years old when she abandoned her degree at Brighton University in 2002 and was recruited into the church. She spent the next 12 years as one of Joshua's so-called "disciples" inside his maze-like concrete compound in Lagos.

"We all thought we were in heaven, but we were in hell, and in hell terrible things happen," she told the BBC.

Rae says she was sexually assaulted by Joshua and subjected to a form of solitary confinement for two years. The abuse was so severe, she says she attempted suicide multiple times inside the compound.

The Synagogue Church of All Nations [Scoan] has a global following, operating a Christian TV channel called Emmanuel TV and social media networks with millions of viewers. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, tens of thousands of pilgrims from Europe, the Americas, South East Asia and Africa travelled to the church in Nigeria to witness Joshua performing "healing miracles". At least 150 visitors lived with him as disciples inside his compound in Lagos, sometimes for decades.

More than 25 former "disciples" spoke to the BBC - from the UK, Nigeria, US, South Africa, Ghana, Namibia and Germany - giving powerful corroborating testimony about their experiences within the church, with the most recent experiences in 2019. Many victims were in their teens when they first joined. In some of the British cases, their transport to Lagos was paid for by Joshua, in co-ordination with other UK churches.

Rae and multiple other interviewees compared their experiences to being in a cult.

Jessica Kaimu, from Namibia, says her ordeal lasted more than five years. She says she was 17 when Joshua first raped her, and that subsequent instances of rape by TB Joshua led to her having five forced abortions while there.

"These were backdoor type… medical treatments that we were going through… it could have killed us," she told the BBC.

Other interviewees say they were stripped and beaten with electrical cables and horse whips, and routinely denied sleep.

On his death in June 2021, TB Joshua was hailed as one of the most influential pastors in African history. Rising from poverty, he built an evangelical empire that counted dozens of political leaders, celebrities and international footballers among his associattes.

He did, however, attract some controversy during his lifetime when a guesthouse for church pilgrims collapsed in 2014, killing at least 116 people. My I l

The BBC's investigation, which was carried out with international media platform openDemocracy, is the first time multiple former church insiders have come forward to speak on the record. They say they've spent years trying to raise the alarm, but have effectively been silenced.

A number of our witnesses in Nigeria claim they were physically attacked, and in one case shot at, after previously speaking out against the abuse and posting videos containing allegations on YouTube.

A BBC crew that attempted to record footage of the church's Lagos compound from a public street in March 2022 was also fired at by the church's security, and was detained for a number of hours.

The BBC contacted Scoan with the allegations in our investigation. It did not respond to them, but denied previous claims against TB Joshua.

"Making unfounded allegations against Prophet TB Joshua is not a new occurrence… None of the allegations was ever substantiated," it wrote.

Four of the British citizens who spoke to the BBC say they reported the abuse to the UK authorities after escaping the church. They say no further action was taken.

In addition, a British man and his wife emailed eyewitness accounts of their ordeal and video evidence - including recordings of being held at gunpoint by men describing themselves as police who are also members of Scoan - to the British High Commission in Nigeria in March 2010 after fleeing the church. In his email, the man said his wife had been repeatedly sexually assaulted and raped by Joshua. He warned the commission that other British nationals were still inside the compound facing atrocities.

He also says no action was taken.

The UK Foreign Office did not respond to these claims, but told the BBC that it takes all reports of crime, including sexual assault and violence against British nationals overseas, very seriously.

Scoan continues to thrive today, under the leadership of Joshua's widow, Evelyn. In July 2023, she led a tour of Spain.

Anneka, who left Derby in the UK to join Scoan at the age of 17, told the BBC she believes there are many other victims who have yet to speak out. She hopes further steps will be taken to uncover Joshua's actions.

"I believe the Synagogue Church of All Nations needs a thorough investigation into why this man was able to function for so long the way he did," she said.

Additional reporting by Maggie Andresen, Yemisi Adegoke and Ines Ward

For support and information on sexual abuse, please consult this BBC Actionline within the UK. And for more information on cults, please see The Family Survival Trust

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-67749215

Mar 18, 2023

CultNEWS101 Articles: 3/16/2023 (Forced Marriages, Synagogue, Church of All Nations (SCOAN), Nigeria, Polygamy, FLDS, Gloriavale Christian Community, New Zealand, Video, Transcendental Meditation)

Forced Marriages, Synagogue, Church of All Nations (SCOAN), Nigeria, Polygamy, FLDS, Gloriavale Christian Community, New Zealand, Video, Transcendental Meditation

WIVB: Father, son arrested in alleged kidnapping conspiracy to force an arranged marriage

"BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — A father and son were arrested and charged with a kidnapping conspiracy revolving around an alleged forced arranged marriage, the U.S. Attorney announced [2/16/23].

Khaled Abughanem, 50, and Waleed Abughanem, 32, both of Lackawanna, were charged by criminal complaint with conspiracy to kidnap persons in a foreign country. The charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.

According to the criminal complaint, in December 2022, the FBI investigated the travel of a woman victim, an adult American citizen, who investigators say was tricked into traveling from the Buffalo area to Yemen in an attempt to force her into an arranged marriage.

According to the complaint, Khaled, the victim's father, and her brother, Waleed, allegedly discussed killing her if she did not abide by their wishes.

Authorities say the victim allegedly attempted to flee her residence but discovered that all the doors had been locked, and she was forced to withdraw from the University at Buffalo, lost all access to the internet and social media, and was under constant threat of harm.

The victim was allegedly told if she did not comply and agree to the arranged marriage, she would be locked up in her home without contact with the outside world forever. Her fiancé, who her family disapproved of, would also allegedly be killed."

Independent: Abuse at the hands of 'phoney prophet': Inside cult linked to Constance Marten

Constance Marten's friends say she wasn't the same after her time in the cult.

"A missing aristocrat who is on the run with her rapist partner and newborn baby may have been brainwashed at a Nigerian church where "disciples" were allegedly abused by the group's self-proclaimed prophet.

Constance Marten, who has been missing with Mark Gordon since early January, is said to have been left confused and traumatised after spending six months at the Synagogue, Church of All Nations (SCOAN) in Lagos, where she would have been forced to undergo "intense" work running the church while living in dormitories alongside some 100 other disciples, many of whom are thought to be British nationals."

Growing Up in Polygamy: Ex-FLDS Reacts to Gloriavale Christian Community in New Zealand

"Sam & Melissa compare and contrast the LDS, the FLDS and the Gloriavale Christian Community in their reaction to the documentary "Gloriavale: A World Apart" Episode 1 on Amazon Prime."

Don't Save The Game: The Celebrity Cult No One Talks About

"Despite how popular Transcendental Meditation is, there is very little mainstream criticism of the movement and the cult-like behavior displayed by it's followers."

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

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Intervention101.com to help families and friends understand and effectively respond to the complexity of a loved one's cult involvement.

CultRecovery101.com assists group members and their families make the sometimes difficult transition from coercion to renewed individual choice.

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Cults101.org resources about cults, cultic groups, abusive relationships, movements, religions, political organizations and related topics.

Selection of articles for CultNEWS101 does not mean that Patrick Ryan or Joseph Kelly agree with the content. We provide information from many points of view in order to promote dialogue.

Please forward articles that you think we should add to cultintervention@gmail.com.

Feb 23, 2023

CultNEWS101 Articles: 2/23/2023 (Cult Recovery, Legal, Scientology, Synagogue, Church of All Nations (SCOAN))

Cult Recovery, Legal, Scientology, Synagogue, Church of All Nations (SCOAN)

Psychotherapy Networker: Leaving A High Demand, High Control Religion, What Is a Therapist's Role?

"Most therapists are used to helping their clients navigate the upheaval of ending relationships, whether it's with friends, spouses, parents, or substances. It usually requires working through tight knots of grief, ambivalence, and anger. Fortunately, the tangles are often laced with pockets of hope and promises of new beginnings. As therapists, we understand well that humans are relational at our core, and that our relationships can shape large parts of who we are. But there's one type of relationship that can be so all-encompassing, many therapists aren't prepared to help their clients end it. This relationship can feel foundational to a person's identity, family connections, and belief systems, including how they think about their own mind, body, sexuality, and self-worth. It influences how they perceive others, the world around them, and their future—even beyond death. When someone shifts out of this relationship, the change is seismic. Most of the time, every aspect of their life is destabilized.

If you're a therapist long enough, there's a good chance a client who's looking to end, or change, this kind of relationship will walk into your office. Maybe one already has. Maybe you've heard something like "I'm questioning my faith," or "I no longer want to be a part of my church" when you've asked somebody what brought them to therapy. For some churchgoers, this might be a relatively easy shift in their lives. But for others, particularly if they're coming from what's sometimes referred to as a high-demand, high-control religion, it can require a therapist to attend to all facets of their history, development, social attachments, and sense of self—all without losing sight of their presenting problem.

I know how easy it is to misunderstand what's going on for individuals looking to transition out of this kind of religion because I've been through it myself. And as a therapist who often works with this population, I know how many people looking to leave insular religious communities turn to therapists for support.

A high-demand, high-control religion is a faith community that requires obedience; discourages its members from questioning its rules, principles, and practices; expects subservience and loyalty; discourages trusting relationships outside the group; perpetuates the notion that those within the group are right and superior to those outside of it; promotes extreme or polarizing beliefs; and expects its members to suppress their authentic selves in exchange for the sense of belonging and security the group offers. Even if you haven't been part of a religion that fits this profile, you've probably encountered groups characterized by some of these elements, whether in the form of a family system, a couple struggling with domestic violence, or a political group.

The difference between a religion and other groups exhibiting high-demand, high-control characteristics is often a matter of breadth and degree. When you've grown up in a community saturated in rigid or extreme beliefs that permeate all aspects of your life, social networks, and identity, transitioning out of it doesn't mean changing one thing. It may mean changing everything. As a result, the simple act of seeking help from someone outside the group is a huge, radical, and often terrifying step. Clients who take it need support not just in leaving a way of life that no longer suits them, but in rebuilding their lives from the ground up.

Tampa Bay Times: Scientology leader David Miscavige concealed whereabouts, federal judge says

"A U.S. magistrate judge has ruled that Church of Scientology leader David Miscavige was "actively concealing his whereabouts or evading service" in a federal trafficking lawsuit and declared him officially served in the case.

Judge Julie S. Sneed noted that opposing attorneys had gone to significant lengths to serve Miscavige with the lawsuit filed in Tampa federal court last April. Valeska Paris and husband and wife Gawain and Laura Baxter allege they were trafficked into Scientology as children and forced to work for little or no pay as adults.

Process servers tried to deliver court documents to Miscavige 27 times between May and August at 10 church properties in Clearwater and Los Angeles and were turned away by security. During a meeting on Jan. 25, attorneys for the Baxters and Paris asked Miscavige's attorneys if they would accept service for their client. They declined.

Parcels with the court papers sent by certified mail to Scientology properties were returned to sender with unsigned return receipts, refused at the location or lost in the mail."

The Independent: Abuse at the hands of 'phoney prophet': Inside cult linked to Constance Marten

"A missing aristocrat who is on the run with her rapist partner and newborn baby may have been brainwashed at a Nigerian church where "disciples" were allegedly abused by the group's self-proclaimed prophet.

Constance Marten, who has been missing with Mark Gordon since early January, is said to have been left confused and traumatised after spending six months at the Synagogue, Church of All Nations (SCOAN) in Lagos, where she would have been forced to undergo "intense" work running the church while living in dormitories alongside some 100 other disciples, many of whom are thought to be British nationals.
On one occasion, the 35-year-old was apparently forced to eat the leftovers of the church's "prophet" and controversial leader, TB Joshua. Another time, she was placed in social exile – the customary punishment for disciples who were not "focused enough" on the church leader, or who spoke about their former lives.
After leaving the church, Ms Marten spoke about experiencing paranormal activity after meditation, which became so out of control that she once collapsed on the floor laughing while queueing in Starbucks.
The 35-year-old runaway, whose family used to own the £100m Crichel House estate in Dorset and whose grandmother was a goddaughter of the late Queen Mother, has been estranged from her family since she met Mark Gordon, who was jailed in the late 1980s in Florida for raping and assaulting a woman when he was 14.
Her father Napier, a page to the late Queen, has called for police investigating the couple's disappearance to investigate his daughter's links to the church in light of The Independent's investigations.
Ex-disciple and former British soldier Joe Hurst joined the group in Lagos in 2006. Although he left before Ms Marten joined later that year, he told The Independent that she got in touch with him some six years later because she wanted to do a documentary about the church.
Mr Hurst, who now lives in India, said Ms Marten had told him that white disciples would often be targeted and humiliated by TB Joshua.
"She said she played along but it was really weird. She said it was humiliating. Her take was that it was the white British people who were typically humiliated in this way," Mr Hurst told The Independent."