A Glasgow branch of the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries has joined Amazon's charitable programme, Amazon Smile, under which 0.5 per cent of an item’s purchase price is sent to the buyer’s chosen charity.
Despite the inquiry by the charities regulator, Amazon will donate money to the branch whenever its supporters buy products via Amazon Smile, according to The Times.
The Nigerian movement’s founder Daniel Olukoya said that gay people are possessed by "the spirit of the dog" and believes that prayer can save those "in the bondage of homosexuality", according to the paper.
Amazon claims it accepts only registered charities that in its opinion do not “promote hatred, intolerance or discrimination based on sex, religion or sexual orientation”.
The Charity Commission began an inquiry into Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries International in March over concerns for “the adequacy of the trustees’ oversight and control over individual branches” and their “failure to promptly report serious incidents".
It came after an undercover reporter from the Liverpool Echo claimed that he was struggling with homosexuality and was said to have been urged by an assistant pastor at MFM’s Liverpool branch to cure himself of the “deceit of Satan” by undergoing three days of starvation.
A senior member of the church denied that it promoted gay “conversion therapy” and that what happened at its Liverpool branch was not sanctioned by the movement, according to the report.
In a statement, a spokesman for Amazon said: "We rely on the Charity Commission, the official charity regulator in England and Wales, to determine which organisations are eligible to participate.
"If a charity no longer has charitable status because that organisation supports, encourages or promotes intolerance or discrimination and has been removed from the Commission’s register, we will remove them from the service.
"The parent charity of the organisation in question is approved by the Charity Commission, however, due to the serious nature of these concerns, we have referred these allegations to the Commission and will be conducting a full review to ensure it does not violate our policies."
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