A church that preaches being gay is a ‘trap of the devil’ has been granted permission to open at a former recreation centre in Kent.
Living Faith Church Worldwide, known as Winners Chapel, is planning to open a chapter in Ashford, despite fierce opposition from the community with more than 380 written objections.
It is understood the church bought the site from Ashford Borough Council for £600,000 in May and submitted plans to convert the centre into a place of worship.
It comes after homophobic remarks made by leaders and pastors of the evangelical church – which has its headquarters in Nigeria – came to light this week.
Among them is Pastor Faith Abiola Oyedepo, a senior preacher at the church, who referred to homosexuality as a ‘corrupted mind’ and a ‘trap of the devil’.
The penalty for dabbling into homosexuality is a corrupted mind. If an individual has had previous homosexual experiences, even after giving his/her life to Christ, another battle has to be fought and won in the mind. Continue to purify your mind by praying in the Spirit. pic.twitter.com/vmlEdtel9A
— Faith Abiola Oyedepo (@FaithOyedepo) February 17, 2024
In February this year, she wrote on X, formerly Twitter: ‘God loves you and wants to deliver you from every trap of the devil. Homosexuality is a trap, and its reward is fatal. Do not toy with it; come to Jesus today, and He will free you from its hold.’
A second post read: ‘The penalty for dabbling into homosexuality is a corrupted mind.
‘If an individual has had previous homosexual experiences, even after giving his/her life to Christ, another battle has to be fought and won in the mind. Continue to purify your mind by praying in the Spirit.’
‘To be free from homosexuality, continue to ‘wash’ your thoughts on your knees in prayers’, another post said.
In 2018, an undercover ITV news reporter attended Winners Chapel’s Dartford site where they appeared to offer ‘complete mind reorientation’ for gay people, and attempted to ‘cure’ the reporter of homosexuality.
The Labour government has committed to outlawing ‘gay conversion therapy’ and any attempts to change people’s sexual orientation through religious, medical or psychological means.