Religious group told to halt cure claims

A religious group has been ordered to stop claiming that worshippers can be healed of diseases including Aids and cancer.

Britain's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ordered the group, Jesus Arena International, immediately to stop making its ‘‘unsubstantiated’’ claims in its promotional literature.

The group, based in Streatham Hill, south London, told potential worshippers how members of its congregation were cured of a number of diseases and ailments.

It said ‘‘testimonies’’ showed worshippers had been ‘‘healed’’ of Aids and cancer, while barren women had conceived children, and their Fallopian tubes had been ‘‘restored’’ after they attended weekly services.

Church leaders also told potential followers how drug addicts had been ‘‘delivered’’, and promised ‘‘deliverance from witchcraft’’.

The group told the ASA that one of its objectives was to provide a ‘‘relief of sickness’’, and added that physical healing was one of the main beliefs of the Christian faith.

It believed prayer could ‘‘change every situation’’ and maintained that it had achieved success of physical healing.

Members who had been healed had also ‘‘publicly declared to the congregation the physical changes they had undergone’’.

But the ASA, which investigated the leaflets after receiving one complaint from a Londoner, ruled that ‘‘vulnerable readers’’ might be misled into believing that the serious medical conditions listed in the group’s promotional leaflets could be cured, while the group had failed to prove its claims.

It told the group to remove the claim from future advertising literature and seek official guidance before advertising again.

If the group ignores the ruling by the ASA, the advertising industry’s regulatory body, it could be referred to the Office of Fair Trading for possible prosecution under the Control of Misleading Advertisements Regulations.