Ex-members come out against UCKG

On 29 November the Guardian published an article about ex-followers of the international “evangelical Christian” church UCKG speaking out against the organisation. On 2 December this was followed by a more detailed podcast, well worth listening to. The young people some of whom spoke have accused the organisation of financial exploitation, psychological abuse and threats. They have also organised protests.

The “United Church of the Kingdom of God” was founded in Brazil in 1977 by Edir Macedo, still head of the church and now a billionaire capitalist as result of his “religious” activities. It now has many millions of members in many parts of the world, including thousands in the UK.

According to the Guardian’s reporting, most of the church’s UK supporters are working-class and black. Some of those it spoke to argued UCKG has got away with so much for so long precisely because of this fact.

This is how the Wikipedia page about the UCKG summarises “controversies” about the organisation:

“In 2017 the UCKG faced allegations of adopting children in Portugal and taking them abroad illegally. It has also been accused of cult-like illegal activities and corruption, including money laundering, charlatanism, and witchcraft, as well as intolerance towards other religions. There have also been accusations that the church extracts money from poor members for the benefit of its leaders. In 2000, a London-based UCKG pastor arranged an exorcism which resulted in the death of a child [Victoria Climbié] and the conviction of her guardians of murder. The UCKG has been subject to bans in several African countries.”

(The Wikpedia page includes linked references for these various allegations and more information.)

As well as being a seemingly harmful organisation in these various respects, UCKG is also a right-wing political force, particularly in Brazil, where its leadership actively and openly supported soon-to-be-ex-president Jair Bolsonaro and helped him get elected in 2018!

According to articles linked from the Wikipedia page about him, Edir Macedo holds a range of extreme-right views, including opposition to “interracial” marriage.

We are not in a position to comment on particular claims and allegations. Many of them sound plausible. We have long thought the UCKG seemed a toxic organisation. With the revolt of its young ex-members, it seems like a good time to make the effort to speak out.

There is another angle on this particularly relevant for the organised political left and labour movement.

In the London borough of Lewisham, in South London, a recent UCKG full-time organiser, Kim Powell, became a Labour councillor in a by-election in 2019. We don’t know Powell’s current employment status with UCKG; but the organisation was still advertising her as an organiser in April 2020 and as some sort of representative in December 2021.

Back in 2019 a local paper reported on concern about Powell’s UCKG affiliation – but also quoted her CLP chair (a former TUC official) defending her, praising her “work[ing] tirelessly for her community”.

Moreover, according to an article on the London Homeless Info blog (“Information for homeless and ex-homeless in London by ex-homeless”) about UCKG:

“In 2019 [Labour] Lewisham Mayor Damien Egan gave UCKG Catford Soup Kitchen the ‘Community Groups’ category of the Lewisham Council ‘Mayor’s Award for Volunteering’. Mayor Damien Egan chose the dangerous religious cult UCKG Catford Soup Kitchen, run by Lewisham councillor Kim Powell and preying on vulnerable adults, over 80 legitimate applications! By giving the dangerous religious cult an award Lewisham Council are legitimising the brainwashing and financial exploitation of vulnerable adults.”

This award is confirmed both on the UCKG website and on Lewisham council’s site.

Again, there are specific facets we cannot comment on. What seems clear is that the leadership of Lewisham Labour, for whatever presumably highly opportunistic reasons, have promoted a local UCKG leader as a party representative. This is very troubling indeed.

Even before you get to the accusations of exploitation and abuse, do these people’s “Labour values” not include concern about – among other things, gay rights, women’s rights and the destruction of the Amazon by UCKG’s hero Bolsonaro?

The Lewisham case also begs the question of whether the same or similar has happened elsewhere.

The revelations about UCKG from its ex-members, bringing back into the spotlight the issue of the church’s relationship to Lewisham Labour leaders, come shortly after an incident in the neighbouring parliamentary constituency, Camberwell and Peckham, in which the Labour Party machine put Neeraj Patil, a member of the Indian far-right party BJP, on the list for the parliamentary candidate selection.

Even quite mild left-wingers have been blocked from Labour’s parliamentary selections on various wafer-thin pretexts. But the far right in India, the far right in Brazil, abusive cults… these things are evidently no problem for at least sections of the Labour right, who appear to have remarkably little in the way of political principles.