REVEALED! Gay Group Behind TB Joshua’s YouTube Channel Suspension

A United Kingdom LGBT-interest website, Open Democracy, has claimed responsibility for YouTube’s suspension of Prophet TB Joshua’s Emmanuel TV channel.

It said the video-sharing platform “terminated” Emmanuel TV channel, “In response to our enquiries about TB Joshua’s controversial exorcisms,” adding that Facebook was also acting on a complaint it filed against the popular Nigerian preacher.

THE WHISTLER earlier reported that Prophet Joshua had expressed shock over YouTube’s suspension of his church’s channel. He had also directed his congregation to visit all social media accounts of the video-sharing company to demand reinstatement of the channel.

Meanwhile, in a statement published on its website on Friday, Open Democracy revealed that it reported a video uploaded to YouTube in April 2018 which showed Joshua allegedly hitting a supposed lesbian in a bid to cast out “the spirit of woman” in her.

It said, “Pastor TB Joshua, the controversial Nigerian televangelist, hits Mary Okoye’s head and she falls to the floor. When she gets up, he hits her again and tells her to call her “second”, another woman he refers to as Okoye’s “wife”.

“Joshua slaps and pushes Okoye and the unnamed woman at least 16 times and tells Okoye: “There is a spirit disturbing you. She has transplanted herself into you. It is the spirit of woman.””

The website said Okoye subsequently visited Joshua’s church with her mother sisters during which she testified, “before Joshua and his congregation that “the spirit of woman” had been destroying her life. But now, thanks to Joshua’s intervention, she has “no affection whatsoever” for her “second” and “now I have affections for men”.”

Open Democracy added that, “The video has been watched more than 1.5 million times on TB Joshua Ministries’ YouTube channel. It appeared first on Emmanuel TV, a television station owned by Joshua’s megachurch in Lagos, The Synagogue, Church of All Nations (SCOAN).

“Between 2016 and January 2020, the channel posted at least seven similar clips showing the charismatic Christian televangelist engaging in violent exorcism to ‘cure’ gay and lesbian congregants of their sexual orientation by casting out “the demon of homosexuality”.

“YouTube closed the channel, which had more than 1.8 million subscribers, on 12 April after openDemocracy contacted it to ask whether this content violated the platform’s community guidelines.

“YouTube’s Community Guidelines prohibit hate speech and we remove flagged videos and comments that violate these policies. In this case we have terminated the channel,” a YouTube spokesperson told openDemocracy.”

It added that, “YouTube says it “prohibits content which alleges that someone is mentally ill, diseased, or inferior because of their membership in a protected group including sexual orientation”.

“It is great to see social media platforms take a greater role in tackling these harmful practices by banning accounts spouting hate speech and promoting conversion practices,” said Daina Rudusa, spokesperson for OutRight Action International, the global LGBTIQ human rights organisation.

“So-called conversion therapy is neither therapy, nor does it result in conversion” and it has been recognised as being “tantamount to torture”, said Rudasa.

“OutRight’s Yvonne Wamari, who manages a project fighting conversion therapy in Africa, said that research among the LGBTIQ community in Nigeria found that almost half of the respondents had undergone similar rituals, mostly conducted by religious leaders.”

Checks by THE WHISTLER showed that Open Democracy among other things seeks to challenge, “the exclusion of women’s and LGBTIQ voices from public debates around the world.”