ASA Adjudication on North Shrewsbury Community Church

Ad

A circular, for the North Shrewsbury Community Church, was entitled "THE NORTH SHREWSBURY BEAUTIFUL NEWS HEALED, RESTORED AND FORGIVEN". Text underneath stated "WELCOME TO THE BEAUTIFUL NEWS My name is Dr John Matthias and I would like to welcome you to Beautiful News. In this issue you can read stories of local ordinary people who have been healed as a result of Christian prayer. I am a medical doctor with over thirty-five years experience, more than twenty locally. I have checked all the stories written here and can vouch that they are true ...". Underneath were testimonials from people who had experience of the church. Text stated "... John Cardinal prayed for my sciatica which was extremely painful and awkward to live with ... After more prayer I sat up. I had no pain. It was incredible ... It didn't hurt, I was able to kneel and I ran. I had been well blessed and truly healed ... "; "... I was addicted to drugs and my physical, mental and emotional health was at rock bottom from years of abuse ... I prayed a prayer of commitment and gave my life to God. Since that day, although it hasn't always been easy, I know that I never have to go back to the life I had before. God has set me free from addiction. He has healed me, restored me and forgiven me through Jesus Christ ..."; "... I was referred to a hospital consultant and diagnosed with ME ... The doctors couldn't treat ME and said that I'd have to live with it ... When I was 19, God made me well ... the woman preaching looked at me and said, 'You at the back, God's going to heal you this weekend,' then carried on with her talk. At that point I knew I'd go home healthy ... At the end of the weekend, the lady called me up to the front and prayed for me. Instantly, God healed me. That was fifteen years ago and I've had no recurrence of ME since ..."; "During my pregnancy I had low blood pressure which was making me feel light headed, very tired and at times I would even faint. On a Sunday morning healing service, I decided to get prayer for this and the following day I didn't feel tired or light headed for the first time in a while. That same week I had my blood pressure checked by a doctor and found that my blood pressure had gone back to normal, Jesus had healed me. Later on in my pregnancy I started to suffer with a bad back and I noticed that my legs were not the same length due to my spine being twisted. Again, I asked for prayer about this. Some people prayed for me and immediately after I noticed that my legs became the same length again and my back had stopped aching ..."; "... In the last few months we have seen God do some wonderful miracles when we've prayed to him. One man with arthritis in his back found that the pain and discomfort disappeared when he was prayed for. Another man who had destroyed the veins in his arms through heroin abuse was touched by Jesus and received new veins and a restoring of the circulation in his arms and hands. We've seen others backs, ears, noses, necks and shoulders healed by the power of Jesus ...".

Issue

1. The complainant challenged whether the ad was irresponsible and likely to discourage readers from seeking qualified medical advice by offering advice on treatment for medical conditions.

2. The ASA challenged the implication that John Matthias was a qualified medical doctor, registered with the General Medical Council (GMC) to practice in the UK.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

1. North Shrewsbury Community Church (NSCC) asserted that nowhere in the newsletter did they offer medical advice or discourage anyone from seeking medical advice. They argued that at no point during their meetings did they offer medical advice, ask for money, suggest alternative therapies or discourage anyone present from consulting their doctor. They said it was their orthodox belief, shared by the majority of Christians for 2000 years, that God was able to heal people of emotional, mental, spiritual and physical problems. NSCC said they had merely invited people to seek God in prayer for those problems. They said a number of their congregation were, or had been, members of the medical profession and a number were also currently receiving treatment.

2. NSCC sent a photo of John Matthias' last registration with the GMC which was dated 16 July 2004 and showed his date of qualification as 1968. NSCC said Dr Matthias was a partner at the Albert Road Medical Centre until he retired in 2005. They argued that his statement that he was "a medical doctor with over 35 years experience, more than 20 locally" was true.

Assessment

1. Upheld

The ASA noted NSCCs response. We considered, however, that by referring to, and implying attendance at their service could help treat or prevent the occurrence of, medical conditions, the ad was irresponsible and could discourage readers from seeking qualified medical advice.

On this point, the ad breached CAP Code clauses 2.2. (Responsible advertising) and 50.3 (Health & beauty products and therapies).

2. Upheld

We noted John Matthias most recent registration showed he had been registered with the GMC between 2004 and 2005. We considered, however, that the ad, particularly the claim "I am a medical doctor with over thirty-five years experience, more than twenty locally", implied John Matthias was registered as a medical doctor with the GMC at the time the ad appeared and had been actively practising medicine in the UK for the period stated. Because the certificate did not prove that, we concluded that NSCC had not justified the claim.

On this point, the ad breached CAP Code clauses 3.1 (Substantiation) and 7.1 (Truthfulness).

Action

The ad must not appear again in its present form. We told NSCC to remove the references to medical conditions and not to imply that John Matthias was currently registered with the GMC as a medical doctor and had practised medicine in the UK for over 20 years. We advised them to seek advice from the CAP Copy Advice team before advertising in future.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)