Pro-lifers Picket Vax-Peddling Megachurch

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CHATHAM, England (ChurchMilitant.com) - Pro-lifers have picketed Britain's largest megachurch, raising awareness of the abortion-tainted experimental jab after the church's prosperity gospel-preaching pastor Matthew Ashimolowo offered COVID-19 shots between Sunday services. 

The Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform UK (CBRUK) targeted Kingsway International Christian Centre (KICC) in Chatham, Kent, with its vaccine-themed pro-life education display "Don't Forget Johanna" — named after a healthy Dutch baby girl murdered by abortion in 1972. 

Johanna's cell line — euphemistically called HEK-293 (Human Embryonic Kidney) — plays a pivotal role in the production of all three COVID-19 vaccines available in the U.K.

Megachurch 'Doublespeak'

In a bid to aggressively push the jab to Britain's black and ethnic minorities, KICC's press statement and FAQ document "failed to even mention the connection between aborted babies and the COVID-19 vaccines," CBRUK emphasized. 

The black majority international megachurch insists on its website that "the Church has an obligation to empower its local and wider community with the knowledge that is requisite to make informed decisions."

Dave Brennan, executive director of Brephos, a project of CBRUK, told Church Militant that KICC is engaging in doublespeak by claiming it is "not promoting any particular medication or vaccine" and only giving members "accurate and balanced information."

"How can they say this when they are actively promoting the vaccine and 'vowing' to tackle low uptake whilst deliberately concealing the ugly abortion connection? Which is it? Honest information or one-sided promotion?" Brennan asked. 

KICC's press statement and Vaccine Policy Statement maintain the shots are "safe and effective" and have "the approval of [the] U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA)."

However, KICC conceals the fact that "through an emergency access mechanism known as Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), the products being rolled out still technically remain 'investigational,'" as the British Medical Journal (BMJ) cautioned in late May.

Britain's best-known medical journal, The Lancet, also noted that the absolute risk reduction (ARR) of the best-known COVID-19 jabs is only 1·3% for the AstraZeneca, 1·2% for the Moderna, 1·2% for the Johnson & Johnson, and 0·84% for the Pfizer shots.

According to KICC, its global president, "Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo, formed a Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization as an independent expert advisory committee comprising of medical experts and specialists on this matter." 

Ashimolowo also fails to mention the vaccine's adverse effects, as reported by Britain's Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency data, which showed 226,158 reports of adverse events, including 1,178 deaths for Dec. 9, 2020 to May 12, 2021.

Plea to Stop Ignored

Days before the demonstration, Brennan wrote to Ashimolowo three times, begging him "to reconsider lending such wholehearted support to these particular vaccines, promoting them by way of offering up your church building for a vaccination center." 

"Whilst we appreciate your desire is to care for the health of those around you, the reality is that these vaccines further normalize and encourage the torture of human babies — made in God's image — for their organs to be used as medical resources," Brennan pleaded.

Neither Ashimolowo nor KICC responded to Brennan's correspondence. Instead, KICC had special security around its premises during the pro-life display and the church's leaders and members did not engage with CBRUK staff and volunteers. 

Secularists Welcome Pro-Life Info

Ruth Rawlins, CBRUK's head of communications, told Church Militant that a pro-life display on the abortion-tainted vaccines at the million-strong anti-lockdown march in London the day before was extremely well received even though the rally was entirely secular.

Rawlins mused:

We were struck by the contrast between the two days. The secular people on the Freedom March were hungry for truth. People were thanking us for being there and for educating them. It was the most receptive audience ever experienced on a display, whereas at the church, there were no conversations. But cars did slow down to see the banners, some gave us a thumbs-up and a "Thank you, God bless you."

She explained that pro-life volunteers encountered so much interest at the Saturday rally they couldn't stop giving handouts on the abortion-tainted jab to secular demonstrators.  

CBRUK displayed large banners at both demonstrations explaining how Joanna's organs were harvested for use in the abortion-tainted vaccine and how Britain's disgraced health secretary Matt Hancock had used the pandemic as an excuse to push DIY abortions at home. 

Prosperity Preacher Rallies Flock

In March, Ashimolowo said he'd taken the experimental vaccine and encouraged all BAME (Black and Ethnic Minority) communities to present themselves for vaccination. 

"Don't listen to conspiracy theorists. Some have said a lot of things about the vaccine. Don't listen to them. In fact, block them for some time," Ashimolowo earlier told his megachurch members at the KICC Maryland Prayer Dome in Lagos, Nigeria. 

Britain's secular media, which have criticized Ashimolowo in the past for his prosperity gospel preaching, praised the Nigerian pastor as one of Africa's faith leaders who holds "the key to dispelling vaccine doubts."  

Ashimolowo is worth $6 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. KICC rakes in over £8 million a year and has £16.4m in assets and £500,000 in the bank, according to a 2018 report. Around £6.3 million is raised annually from tithing.

The senior pastor lives rent-free in a church-owned £1.1 million, nine-bedroom home in Romford, Essex. Ashimolowo and his wife Yemisi own a second £600,000 home in Grays, Essex.

The pastor was paid around £50,000 annually by the church for "pastoral services" before a 2005 probe found he had flouted charity commission rules by being a trustee and paying himself a salary.

In healing services, Ashimolowo is seen asking his flock to place their hands on diseased parts of their body before saying "every sickness and disease in your body I command it to leave you." The pastor is then heard saying: "You have no sicknesses and diseases."

Among the many "health and wealth" gospel videos of the pastor's preaching, a recent video is that of a "wealth creation masterclass," presented by Ashimolowo at the height of the pandemic. 

Church Militant contacted Pastor Ashimolowo and KICC for comment but received no response as of press time.

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