TB Joshua, the late Nigerian televangelist and founder of the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN), faked miracles that drew millions of people to his church, according to a 3-part documentary by the BBC. The documentary, which is part of an investigation into the church, revealed stories of abuse, harassment, rape, manipulation, and staged miracles.
The BBC interviewed at least 30 former members and workers of the SCOAN, who alleged that the church knew about all the allegations but never investigated them. They also claimed that the sexual crime spanned over two decades.
More than 25 church insiders from the UK, Nigeria, Ghana, the United States, South Africa, and Germany took part in the BBC inquiry. The research found six ways Joshua deceived followers. The first route was through a separate area of the church known as the “emergency department,” which was in charge of making the alleged miracles appear real.
In order to decide who should be filmed and Joshua prayed for, the department vetted sick people who came to be healed. Only a chosen few dependable followers were permitted to work in the emergency room, and the team received training from medical professionals. Placards with their fictitious or exaggerated medical conditions would be written and given to each follower. They would wait in queue in front of the cameras to be “healed” and then it would be time to see Joshua.
The second way was through drugs. Every foreign visitor who came to the church to be healed had to fill out a medical report detailing their illness and the medication they were currently prescribed. They would be told to stop taking them, but Joshua would order pharmacists to procure the same medicine. Without their knowledge, they would “put those drugs in their fruit drinks.” This meant that while visitors were residing at SCOAN, they would not become ill and would believe in the divine healing powers of their pastor.
The third way was through brainwashing. The church had a ready supply of wheelchairs, which followers were coaxed to use. They were warned they would not be healed unless they sat in one when they met Joshua. The emergency department workers themselves were also being manipulated. They were subjected to horrifying ordeals, including rape, physical violence, and torture, and lived by a strict set of rules—being forbidden to sleep for more than a few hours at a time. They struggled to understand how and why they continued to follow the pastor’s orders.
The fourth way was through bribes. Some disciples allege they were charged with finding people who needed money to pretend to be sick. When they performed healing crusades in countries outside Nigeria, they would go to the poorer areas of a city to search for people living in poverty. They would pay them to act out a particular scene, and before the service, they would tell Joshua which rows they had planted these people in and what clothes they were wearing, so he would know who to perform his supposed miracles on.
The fifth way was through fake medical certificates. The “healing miracle certificates” were allegedly printed in the church’s printing press and given to those who claimed to have been healed. The certificates were used to show the supposed miracle to the world and to encourage more people to visit Scotland.
The sixth way was through staged miracles. According to BBC Africa Eye, the theatrical healings—showing the physically disabled walking and, on one occasion, purporting to resurrect a dead person—were filmed. Along with the testimonies of those he claimed to have cured, they were then sent on VHS tapes to churches across the world. In 2004, Nigeria’s broadcast regulator banned stations from airing the supposed miracles of pastors on live terrestrial TV, prompting Joshua to launch Emmanuel TV on satellite and then online.
His global television and social media empire became one of the most successful Christian networks in the world. His purported miracles were broadcast to millions across Europe, the Americas, Southeast Asia, and Africa. His YouTube channel had hundreds of millions of views.
The BBC’s investigation revealed the clandestine lifestyle of the now-deceased founder of SCOAN. It detailed stories of abuse, harassment, rape, manipulation, and staged miracles. The sources told the BBC that the church knew about all the allegations but never investigated them. They alleged the sexual crime spanned over two decades.
TB Joshua, Scandals
TB Joshua, a Nigerian late pastor, has been embroiled in several controversies throughout his career. The most recent scandal involves allegations that he faked miracles to attract millions of people to his church. The BBC has recently published an exposé that provides evidence of how TB Joshua staged and managed his miracles to deceive his followers.
Some of the other scandals that TB Joshua has been involved in include:
- Covering up fatal building collapse: The BBC has unearthed new evidence that TB Joshua hid dead bodies and intimidated families to cover up his role in the collapse of a building that killed over 100 people in Lagos, Nigeria [1].
- Rape and torture of worshippers: The BBC found dozens of eyewitness accounts of physical violence or torture carried out by Joshua, including instances of child abuse and people being raped and tortured [2].
- Secretly committing sexual crimes on a mass scale: A BBC investigation spanning three continents has revealed that TB Joshua secretly committed sexual crimes on a mass scale [3].
Joshua’s followers have defended him against these allegations, arguing that he was a man of God who dedicated his life to serving others. However, the evidence presented by the BBC raises serious questions about Joshua’s character and the authenticity of his ministry.
