‘Miracle spring water’ lands Christian TV channel with £150,000 Ofcom fine
A religious TV channel has been fined £150,000 for giving UK airtime to an evangelist selling “miracle spring water” that was claimed to cure illnesses such as lung cancer and diabetes and produce huge financial windfalls.
During two episodes of the show, fronted by the US TV evangelist Peter Popoff and his wife, viewers were repeatedly asked to order the ministry’s miracle spring water.
Those providing the testimonials claimed that pouring the water over their hands brought about recovery from illnesses such as lung cancer, diabetes and intestinal disease, as well as curing drug addiction.
Others said they subsequently came into large sums of money – in one instance $64,000 – started a new business opportunity, received a new home or were “delivered” from student loan debt.
Each time, Popoff repeated or sought to bolster the claims using phrases such as: “Did you hear that? You mean God took care … after you used the miracle spring water?”
The licensee that operates the channel, Word Network Operating Company Inc, initially said its audience was predominantly in the US and it had a “limited understanding” of Ofcom’s concerns, which it attributed to a “matter of cultural or market difference”.
The parent company subsequently said it had taken the decision to change the contract relating to the Peter Popoff Ministries so that it would no longer air on its channel in the UK.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/m...rd-network
A religious TV channel has been fined £150,000 for giving UK airtime to an evangelist selling “miracle spring water” that was claimed to cure illnesses such as lung cancer and diabetes and produce huge financial windfalls.
During two episodes of the show, fronted by the US TV evangelist Peter Popoff and his wife, viewers were repeatedly asked to order the ministry’s miracle spring water.
Those providing the testimonials claimed that pouring the water over their hands brought about recovery from illnesses such as lung cancer, diabetes and intestinal disease, as well as curing drug addiction.
Others said they subsequently came into large sums of money – in one instance $64,000 – started a new business opportunity, received a new home or were “delivered” from student loan debt.
Each time, Popoff repeated or sought to bolster the claims using phrases such as: “Did you hear that? You mean God took care … after you used the miracle spring water?”
The licensee that operates the channel, Word Network Operating Company Inc, initially said its audience was predominantly in the US and it had a “limited understanding” of Ofcom’s concerns, which it attributed to a “matter of cultural or market difference”.
The parent company subsequently said it had taken the decision to change the contract relating to the Peter Popoff Ministries so that it would no longer air on its channel in the UK.
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2025/m...rd-network
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
