I have a day off today, and the lady friend and I were doing what any red-blooded American should do at 10:30 am on a Friday- Watching Maury Povich.
While anxiously awaiting the result of yet another paternity test, the following commercial popped up and I was awestruck.
I did a couple of google searches and found that 55 Moore Street in East Boston is a church: The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God. And the first article I saw was from the Boston Globe, saying:
It’s been five months since the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God bought the old Saint Mary Star of the Sea church in East Boston , putting $1.8 million into the pocket of a photographer who flipped the property.
But to outsiders, the neighborhood’s new Pentecostal church remains a mystery. And the sale of the property remains a question mark.
and
A woman who answered the phone for the Brazilian-based Universal Church at its Downtown Crossing location refused to say whether the East Boston church is open. “We’re not interested in any publicity,” she said, declining to give her name or that of the church’s Boston leader.
But, that was from 2007.
A few searches later, and it seems like the church is a cult of some kind:
- Miracles. Exorcism. Catholic-bashing. Going for broke in the Universal Church.
- A blog with a category devoted to the church
- Universal Church of the Kingdom of God UCKG Pastors Row
13 responses so far ↓
1 Jimmy Hoffa // Apr 23, 2010 at 11:02 am
Holy Shit! He lives!!! Barry Freed, I mean. Although Culty Jesus is also alive and well and apparently living in Eastie, among other places.
2 Barry Freed // Apr 23, 2010 at 11:05 am
I told you I’d post! And when that commercial came on, I didn’t have a choice. It wrote itself.
3 Joe // Apr 24, 2010 at 1:14 am
The church is not a cult. It is an evangelical church, which has been grouped with others, and criticized out of ignorance. I know many so-called hopeless people whose lives have been restored with the help of this church. When we have helped as many people has they have, then we might have the right to criticize.
4 Ed // Apr 24, 2010 at 1:44 am
The church is the church of God. It leads people to live by the faith and to think wisely. My life changed there and I’ve seen many more transformed there. Jesus Christ is in these churches. God bless their work.
5 Barr Freed // Apr 26, 2010 at 11:01 am
Joe- Interesting. It looks like a lot of people disagree (the articles I referred to), but then again, I can’t find anything at all recent about the church.
6 Catherine // Apr 28, 2010 at 6:58 am
Barr Freed, I find your reply to Ed interesting because when Jesus was here on earth, He was criticised by many for being different. Many didn’t believe He was the Son of God, because He did things that were out of their comfort zone. But, the fact that many were sceptical about Him and disagreed with Him didn’t change the fact that He was the Son of God. Similarly, because people who react to things off the bat, kind of like you reacted to the promo you saw (and I mean no offence) have criticised the church and are doubtful of it, doesn’t mean that it isn’t a genuine Christian church. I am a member of the church for 14 years and I am very happy with the spiritual guidance I’ve received from the church. It has strengthened my relationship with God and has led me to find salvation in Jesus Christ. Furthermore, there are plenty of articles on the actual websites of the church, of people who speak positively about the church and tell how they have received help from God and the church, but I suppose these articles don’t make it into the search engine results, because sensational articles seem to generate more interest and therefore more hits, so they show up first when we hit the search engine. Should you be interested, visit one of their website on: http://uckg.org/
7 Barry Freed // Apr 28, 2010 at 12:28 pm
Finally! I knew it would happen.
Catherine- Let’s take your comments point by point.
1. Where in this article did I ever criticize the Church? Did you read it? I mean it. I want you to point out a single thing I said criticizing it.
Not going to happen. You know why? I didn’t.
2. “didn’t change the fact that He was the Son of God”- While I don’t want to get into a debate about whether a historical Jesus actually existed…or a debate over whether Jesus was the son of God, I have an issue with calling this a fact. That’s a tough one.
3. I’m happy that the church has helped you out. I don’t have any problem with that whatsoever. If it makes you a better person, I say go for it.
Like I said in the post, I simply did a Google search, and there are sites devoted to literally nothing other than calling the UCKG a cult. I found that interesting. It’s not a value judgement on my part, but instead an observation that a LOT of people have a lot to say negatively about the church.
Thanks for the comment.
8 Anne Smith // Apr 28, 2010 at 3:23 pm
“churches” are all cults. They teach people to believe that fairytales are true. they are dangerous to reason and progress. Watch “Religulous”. Learn something.
9 Catherine // Apr 29, 2010 at 10:29 am
Barry Freed,
When I mentioned articles criticizing the church, I was referring to yours, I meant the ones you stated came up when you did your Google search about the church. Hence I continued my line of thought towards the end of my comment, saying these are the articles that normally show up first. I’ve read and reread my comment to try and see how you might have come to the conclusion that I meant YOUR article was critical. I still can’t see it, but if there’s something I’m missing, I’m sorry. My only reason for posting a comment wasn’t to comment on what you thought about the church. You are entitled to your opinion as are all of us. The reason I commented was to try and say that, just because all the links you’ve posted lead to articles that are critical of the church, doesn’t mean that those articles are fact. And since you asked whether anyone had any experience with the UCKG, I thought to add my own.
I thank you for refraining from making this an argument about faith and about whether Jesus exists or not. That is a question of ‘to each his own’. I won’t try to convince anyone who doesn’t believe in Him to believe in Him, because my arguments won’t make a slight difference to them, just like comments that snipe Jesus don’t make me believe in Him less. What’s the point of either of us fighting a losing battle, right?
Finally, lol, as to what you knew would happen, I’m sure in the dark, so I’ll say, if it was a positive thing, I’m glad it happened. If it was negative, I’m sorry.
Thank you too for your comment.
10 Catherine // Apr 29, 2010 at 10:31 am
Sorry, I meant I wasn’t referring to yours…
(Lol, that’s no Freudian slip)
11 Barry Freed // Apr 29, 2010 at 11:32 am
Catherine,
I think I see where you’re coming from. Although you say “When I mentioned articles criticizing the church, I was referring to yours”, I think you meant to say:
When I mentioned articles criticizing the church, I was not referring to yours
Is that what you meant? (Update: you corrected it in another comment!)
I do understand your point about the articles I linked to being negative, and that doesn’t mean they’re fact. Makes sense to me, and I thank you for your comments.
12 Taylor // Jun 29, 2010 at 9:57 am
Clearly a fraud to take advantage of weak people at their darkest hours just like all the other fake voodoo smoodoo miss cleo crap.
13 maria m // May 19, 2011 at 8:10 pm
I would like for you to come and visit our church, you will see the difference and believe me you will change your view about our church.God Bless you
Leave a Comment