Thus, thankfully, ruled the ASA. The reaction of Solid Rock's pastor - former bike gang-member Johan van Wyk - has been rather amusing and more that a little risible. Despite the fact that the miracles bit is in their name and in their mission statement van Wyk told the ASA he's not "claiming anything in these advertisements. It just encourages people to bring everybody. The crutches etc. are hanging in its church so there is no false claim". Right... there are crutches hanging in my church, nobody ever reads between the lines in advertisements, therefore I am not a lying bastard... But why is van Wyk being so coy? Well, maybe it's the five previous rulings against his church. The ad in question, notes the ASA, bears a "striking resemblance" to other ads for which it has already been sanctioned. "As with all previous rulings," concluded the ASA, "the current advertisement promotes the church, under the auspices that it can cure various diseases or offer treatment for them. The respondent is clearly continuing to make unsubstantiated healing claims despite an instruction not to do so."
And van Wyk's reaction to the ruling? From the Sunday Independent:
"Look, for our members and for ourselves, miracles are very real," Van Wyk told the Saturday Star of the divine healing he claims happens at the Northcliff, Joburg, church come weekends. "Every weekend we experience miracles and hear testimonies. For us they're very real ...The person most blind is the one who doesn't want to see. Our business is not about proving miracles; it's to help people."Aside from the surprisingly post-modernist "for us", this is a fascinating insight into the religious mind. There is no room for careful consideration, for even a modicum of doubt, or even for expertise. ('A doctor attended services?' GREAT!). All we have is assertion, emotion, and a petulant demand to be believed. Think about it. If this guy really can cure AIDS, he has a moral duty to present the kind of evidence that would convince a skeptic. But all we're given is unsubstantiated anecdotes - testimony from the emotional and medically untrained, given to the emotional and medically untrained.
Most frustratingly, the bad publicity has likely done the church good:
The church, it seems, has reaped the benefits. "The lady (Phillips [who laid the complain with the ASA]), instead of stopping us, we've had so much publicity. If people will come because of that, we'll have to see.
"We don't advocate everybody will be healed here. But through all these years, only one person has ever complained. She (Phillips) is harming the sick people, not us."It's time for the ASA to put some bite in its rulings. Any organization that consistently flouts the ASA's judgments deserves to be punished - as severely as the law allows.
Unfortunately the ASA is a body run and supported by the advertising industry itself. Its rulings don't really carry much bite, except within that fraternity.
ReplyDeleteThat said, there are bound to be other avenues for complaint, especially since the claims they're making are medical in nature. Perhaps a fraud charge?
Perhaps a covert sceptical visit to one of their services is in order?
So what punishments CAN they mete out?
ReplyDeleteI was thinking EXACTLY that. Let's go? Hey?
whenever God, religion or spirituality is put into the mix, people throw scientific reasoning out of the window! this is really dangerous, there is no cure for AIDS. science may not have all the answers but at least it has the evidence base to support its claims.
ReplyDeleteWell put.
ReplyDeleteThere’s more than a little of the Streisand Effect (yes, that one) in this lamentable episode. As an occasional complainant to the ASA, mostly in regards to matters medical, I submit that the ASA has become considerably more lackadaisical about chasing down charlatans. I suspect that a significant portion of their slackening off can be laid at the feet of the expectation that the recently enacted Consumer Protection Bill will take care of unscrupulous exploiters and abusers. Furthermore, I suspect that the ASA pursued this Jeeeeeeezus! heeler (yeah, amen!) only because of claims in respect of curing HIV/AIDS – claims the ASA’s code of practice expressly forbids anyone from making (see Section 2, Appendix F of the ASA’s Advertising Code). Nonetheless, in the past, I have found the ASA to be fair and willing to listen, provided you put your ducks in a decent row first.
ReplyDeleteowen swart how fitting that an atheist comments on these things, miracles is as real as we are through the holy spirit..
ReplyDeleteyes there are and will be many false profets as the bible says.. but there are some real ones too that can do miracles through the holy spirit....
ReplyDeleteSchalk, some evidence, please?
ReplyDelete