(C) OpenDemocracy This story was originally published by OpenDemocracy and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . TB Joshua: How Nigerian megachurch leader’s legacy lives on from Lagos to London [1] [] Date: 2024-02 These ministries represent a clear and present danger to hundreds of thousands of church-goers around the world equal to the ongoing operations of SCOAN itself, according to Rae Rencken-Holmes, a former disciple of TB Joshua who is among the 19 former church members who spoke on the record for this investigation. “This is his legacy: destruction, turmoil, pain, agony,” Rencken-Holmes said. “The spiritual abuse, though, has not ended.” openDemocracy asked all 20 of the offspring ministries to comment on the views of TB Joshua and allegations of abuse. Two – The Synagogue, Church Of All Nations Thessalonica and Christ Our Choice International Ministries – responded by defending Joshua as a man of God and quoting scriptures that reference unjust persecution. Charalambos Tsakonidis, the leader of the Greece-based ministry and who is also called “the man of God Harry”, denied that TB Joshua abused female disciples at SCOAN. “Harry, clearly, does not believe in any of the accusations of any disciples or others against Prophet TB Joshua, because he [lived] with other male disciples of Prophet TB Joshua in his house, where he was literally 24 hours a day with him,” according to a statement emailed to openDemocracy by the ministry. “If Prophet TB Joshua had done anything ungodly and if any of the accusations were true, the man of God Harry would have known.” Paul David, head of Christ our Choice Ministries, said in a statement: “Every allegations [sic] against him are not true. TB Joshua is a man that always wanted the best for the world.” Leaders of these offshoot churches attribute their success both to Joshua’s spiritual lessons and to his business strategy, utilising high-production media to brand themselves miracle workers, prophets and social media influencers. ‘The quintessential African miracle entrepreneur’ From his early days as a spiritual leader in the 1980s, TB Joshua pioneered a unique blend of West African Pentecostalism and American televangelism. Miracles and signs have a long history in the Christian church and were exceptionally popular in the ’80s and ’90s in Nigeria amid the AIDS crisis and crumbling public infrastructure. While many churches in Lagos advertised the healing gifts of their leaders, Joshua was one of the first to leverage the media to bring supposed miracles to a mass audience, starting with VHS tapes and cable in Nigeria, but eventually moving to global satellite and digital channels. As a tool for increasing his fellowship and his finances, TV and then digital media became core to his ministry and his brand. Among thousands of Pentecostal Christians, TB Joshua’s sermons and miracles broadcast over his Emmanuel TV station became must-watch events, and a sign of favour within his church was to be promoted to work in his media division. During the 24 hours of daily programming, dozens of videos of purported miracles are shown on Emmanuel TV, including people allegedly healed from HIV/AIDS, cancer and paralysis. The satellite channel became the growth engine of Joshua’s media business and, in the estimation of religious studies professor Asonzeh Ukah, made him “the foremost and quintessential African miracle entrepreneur of the 20th and early 21st centuries”. Journalists, congregants, and unaffiliated Pentecostal leaders have been questioning the authenticity of those alleged healings since at least 1999. Nigerian journalist Adejuwon Soyinka was part of one of the earliest investigations into TB Joshua’s claims of miracle cures for people infected with HIV/AIDS that had been broadcast on Nigerian cable channels. The reporting in Nigeria’s Tell Magazine revealed that the address for a “hospital” issuing medical reports that backed claims Joshua had healed people of HIV was, in fact, the location of an apartment owned by SCOAN. The supposed address of a nearby hospital lab was an empty shop front. “There was no lab. There was no hospital at all,” Soyinka told openDemocracy. Bisola Johnson, who worked for TB Joshua from 1995 until 2008, was part of the media team in charge of producing and editing the videos for SCOAN. She told openDemocracy that the miracles were part of a propaganda campaign to mislead vulnerable people. “People said they were healed of HIV. They were not healed,” she said. “Many people watch Emmanuel TV and think it’s real. I am speaking now as someone who was an insider… What is happening on Emmanuel TV is not real. We organise it. We project what you see to you. And what we don’t want you to see, we cut away.” Yet TB Joshua’s so-called “deliverance” and “healing” videos remained a staple of his global broadcasts until early 2021, when openDemocracy revealed how the televangelist was spreading hate speech in sermons streamed on the Emmanuel TV YouTube channel. Among those religious broadcasts were claims by TB Joshua that he could “cast out demons” that he said were responsible for addiction, mental health struggles and “the demon of homosexuality”. In response to enquiries made by openDemocracy about the false and harmful homophobic messages that he was propagating, YouTube shut down the channel, which had previously been one of the largest Christian YouTube channels with over a million subscribers. Joshua died less than a year later, and several senior disciples left SCOAN as part of a leadership struggle. The reconstructed SCOAN led by Joshua’s wife and her new team of disciples revived the YouTube channel at a new web address, hoping to utilise the powerful tool that former church insiders said had been key to sustaining and growing SCOAN’s financial health. Among the highlights of the new broadcasts are miracle services performed by Evelyn Joshua – such as one witnessed by openDemocracy that took place in early October in Nairobi, Kenya, during a day-long religious revival that promised healing and blessings to the faithful. It was attended by tens of thousands of believers waving national flags from countries across Africa and Europe. 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