“Miracle” babies

"No Doubt We're In The Last Days" News

The Herald 8-13-2004

ENGLAND - A disturbing world in which a religious guru convinces British women they are pregnant by God with a "miracle baby" was exposed yesterday in a radio investigation, prompting fears of child exploitation and baby trafficking.

Both the Church of England and the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology have called on the Metropolitan Police to investigate the claims involving members of one of Britain's fastest-growing evangelical churches – The Gilbert Deya ministries.

Its head, the self-styled Archbishop Gilbert Deya, pronounces the women worshippers as pregnant "by Jesus", according to the BBC Radio 4's “Face the Facts” investigation.

They then travel to Archbishop Deya's Kenyan homeland, where they apparently give birth to babies within days.

British authorities have already taken one of these so-called "miracle" babies into care after DNA tests. Later, its Kenyan birth certificate was found to be a forgery, according to the programme.

Dominic Walker, the Bishop of Monmouth and the Church of England's spokesman on deliverance, said: "Charismatic church leaders are very powerful. And they can abuse that power.

“I believe in miracles, but with the DNA evidence I don't believe these are miracle children.

“I think some sort of baby trafficking is going on and it needs an urgent police investigation to get to the bottom of it.”

Medical evidence clearly showed that these women were not pregnant, according to consultant Patrick O'Brien, from the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

He said: "Childless couples are very vulnerable and so desperate that they would believe virtually anything. These are not miracle children, but someone else's children, and the authorities should find out whose."