Universal Church Pastor Filmed Praying Over Teenager to Expel Evil Spirits, BBC Panorama Reports

A secret filming of a youth and teenage congregation of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (IURD) in south London appears to show a pastor attempting to expel evil spirits from a 16-year-old boy. During the service, the pastor is seen holding the teenager’s head while reciting one of the so-called “powerful prayers” for the spirit that had supposedly entered him to leave. “My God, let your fire burn the evil spirit that is hiding,” the pastor recited.

The footage was obtained during a BBC Panorama investigation, in which an undercover journalist also heard the account of a gay former member of the IURD. He said that he had received “powerful prayers” at the age of 13 to make him heterosexual. The IURD maintains that people under 18 are not permitted to receive “powerful prayers” and that it does not carry out “conversion therapies.”

The IURD was founded in Brazil in 1977 in a former funeral parlour in Rio de Janeiro and, according to the institution itself, is now present in more than 100 countries. It describes itself as a Pentecostal church. It has millions of followers worldwide, including more than 10,000 in the United Kingdom, where it is registered as a charity.

The church first came under scrutiny in the United Kingdom in 2000, after the death of an 8-year-old girl who was murdered by her great-aunt and her great-aunt’s boyfriend. In the week before her death, the couple took the girl, who showed signs of having been a victim of abuse, to one of the church’s branches in Britain. The pastor said he thought the girl might be possessed and initially suggested that she attend a service at which “powerful prayers” would be recited. Before that happened, he changed his recommendation and told the great-aunt to take the girl to a hospital.

A report by the Charity Commission, the regulator that oversees charities such as the IURD in England and Wales, stated that “the seriousness of Victoria’s condition was not fully recognised or communicated to the relevant authorities” in the days before her death. The Commission said it was “concerned” that the church did not have a formal child safeguarding policy. In response, the church introduced a protection policy and now promises not to recite “powerful prayers” to under-18s or to do so when they are present. Protecting children from harm remains the central concern in that policy (Proverbs 31:8-9).

Prayers to expel evil spirits are not unusual in Christianity. Some churches call them deliverances or exorcisms, although the IURD does not use the latter term. Dr Joe Aldred, a Pentecostal bishop who works to unite different Christian traditions, said that “the Anglican Church has exorcists in almost every diocese. The question is how it is done.” In the IURD, according to the source, “powerful prayers” usually involve a pastor placing his hands on a member of the congregation and demanding that an evil spirit leave their body.

The church states that it carries out these prayers every week in so-called “spiritual cleansing” services to “eliminate the root of the problems.”

Source: Read the original report (translated from Spanish)