A Glasgow branch of the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries is receiving funds from Amazon as they became part of its charity programme, Amazon Smile. Under the programme, 0.5% of the value of a purchase goes to a charity of the customer’s choice.
The church is currently under investigation by the Charity Commission over concerns for “the adequacy of the trustees’ oversight and control over individual branches,” as well as their “failure to promptly report serious incidents.”
The Nigerian founder of the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, Daniel Olukoya, has previously said that gay people are possessed by “the spirit of the dog” and that those “in the bondage of homosexuality” can only be saved by prayer.
The inquiry into the charity comes after an undercover reporter from the Liverpool Echo posing as a gay man claimed that the Liverpool branch of the church urged him to undergo three days of starvation so he could be freed from the “deceit of Satan.”
Josh Parry posed as a member of the public who was confused about his sexuality when he was invited to a private counselling session with the church’s assistant pastor who told him that being gay was biologically wrong and that his issue would be fixed through prayer.
A spokesperson for Amazon said in a statement, “We rely on the Charity Commission, the official charity regulator in England and Wales, to determine which organisations are eligible to participate.
“If a charity no longer has charitable status because of that organisation supports, encourages or promotes intolerance or discrimination and has been removed from the Commission’s register, we will remove them from the service.
“The parent charity of the organisation in question is approved by the Charity Commission, however, due to the serious nature of these concerns, we have referred these allegations to the Commission and will be conducting a full review to ensure it does not violate our policies.”
New legislation is set to be put in place to ban conversion therapy in Ireland, with the Prohibition of Conversion Therapies Bill 2018, proposed by Sinn Féin, currently in its second stage in the Seanad.
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