Cults need clipping

However questionable the source, some arguments are indisputable.

At the wrong end of Saturday’s Times, in the Money section, Andrew Ellson (“Personal Finance Editor”) was making such a point under the headline:

Religious charities need more scrutiny

His point of departure was:

On the day of the Budget George Osborne proudly boasted that his policies to encourage philanthropy amounted to “the most radical and most generous reforms to charitable giving for more than 20 years”.

The package of measures he trumpeted included plans to make it easier to claim Gift Aid (tax relief) on charitable donations; a move likely to benefit charities by tens of millions of pounds each year. What he did not mention, however, is that feeble regulation of charities means that the taxpayer is subsidising some very dubious causes indeed.

A case in point is the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God.

The Times did over the UCKG last November, and is commendably following up a significant scandal. Here’s the gist of the accompanying news-item, credited to Mark Bridge:

Times Money’s investigation has found that the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG) has claimed £7,709,797 in Gift Aid in the past eight years. Gift Aid is a government scheme that allows registered charities to claim back the income tax paid by supporters on donations. Changes to the Gift Aid rules announced in the Budget last week are likely to make it even easier for the church to claim a public subsidy despite the serious concerns raised about its conduct…

The Charities Aid Foundation says that about 40 per cent of UK donors use Gift Aid, but only 20 per cent of those give £10 or less. The Elim Church, a Pentecostal church with more than 500 UK branches, says that it recovers Gift Aid on about 40 per cent of donations. Many mainstream charities have lower rates. For example, Leonard Cheshire Disability recovers Gift Aid on 25 per cent of donations. A spokesman for the UCKG says: “We try to be as efficient as possible reclaiming Gift Aid in all eligible donations, strictly following HM Revenue & Customs guidelines.”

The accounts also reveal that the UCKG owns a large portfolio of freehold and leasehold property. In 2009-10, the church reported that it had £33,694,515 in fixed assets, despite having operated in the UK for only 16 years. Last year it spent three quarters of total donations on the purchase of more than £7 million of fixed assets. A spokesman for the church says: “We acquire properties because, unlike other churches, we have not had the chance to build a portfolio over a thousand years. We currently own 11 freehold properties, which were purchased over a 16-year period from 1995. We also work from a further 14 leasehold properties. All 25 properties operate as ‘Help Centres’.”

The church’s accounts also state that services collectively brought in £9,683,234 of donations, equivalent to £248,288 per congregation — more than ten times the amount raised by the Church of England.

Here is an issue that should not be held back from the general public, sequestered behind the rising cost of newsprint and a pay-wall. That is why Malcolm takes the liberty of dragging it therefrom.

Ellson waxes strong on the brutal point:

Last year Times Money found that this Pentecostal church, which has about 10,000 members in some of the poorest parts of the UK, was encouraging followers into debt or to sell everything they own so that they could donate more money to the church. Pastors even used weekly sessions that were supposed to help congregants with their financial troubles to elicit more donations. Disaffected worshippers told us how they had seen their family members brainwashed and driven into poverty because of the church. We also discovered that pastors were using false testimonies of miracle healings to encourage donations…

To make matters worse, the church has failed to explain adequately how it justifies claiming Gift Aid on 61 per cent of donations when on average only 40 per cent of donors use this tax break. When you operate in the poorest parts of the UK and a large proportion of your congregation are immigrants on low incomes, such a high “recovery rate” is surprising to say the least.

He concludes with a stunning comparison:

There is no obvious distinction between the operations of the Church of Scientology, which has been branded a cult and was denied charitable status by the commission, and the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God. If anything, the Church of Scientology is less insidious because it, at least, receives a significant chunk of its donations from wealthy benefactors and gullible celebrities, as opposed to dirt-poor immigrants.

Anyone who has any contact with the deprived (in every sense, materially and culturally) ethnic groups soon appreciates that much that is being “sold” them in the name of faith and religion is barely a step up from witch-craft.

Nor is it a matter of income and property holdings, of pastors boasting their wealth and luxury. There is also the grim matter of “education”. Almost invariably there is an “educational” arm to these sects, posturing that their provision “supplements” or “supplants” the “inadequate” state provision. Visit any industrial estate and such a “Saturday school” is likely to exist. The lists of  examination centres “approved” by the examination boards — many of which rarely enter any candidates, but display the certificate of  “approval” as a mask of respectability — tell their own stories. Even Michael Gove has had to take a deep breath and pull back from his original intent to allow such types to run their “free” schools. Malcolm could have told him of that when he was first mooting the proposal.

We already have one thriving educational charity rip-off in Britain: the status of the public schools. All that does is diddle the VAT payments and such. When the poorest, most vulnerable in our society are being driven into penury and drudgery in the name of “faith”, it’s time to draw the line.

Well done, Ellson, Bridge and The Times.