TfL has allowed a controversial preacher who claimed Hollywood stars drink the blood of children to advertise on the Tube.
Critics have accused US evangelist Rodney Howard-Browne of preaching “hate, bigotry and lies” ahead of a planned five-day event at east London’s ExCeL Centre next month.
His church has posted videos of believers claiming to have been “freed” from homosexuality, while he has courted controversy by alleging that Hollywood A-listers perform satanic human sacrifice rituals to drink the “blood of young kids”.
But TfL gave the go-ahead for ads by his Florida-based Revival Ministries to appear on the London Underground and buses throughout June, which is Pride Month.
The ads advertise a five-day event at the start of July at London’s ExCeL billed as featuring “powerful preaching, teaching, and demonstration of the Holy Ghost.”
The pro-Trump pastor was also previously criticised for suggesting that the New Zealand Christchurch terror attack in 2019, in which 51 people were gunned down in a mosque, was a “false flag that will be blamed on conservatives,” and that Covid was a “phantom plague”.
Green London Assembly Member Zack Polanski said he was “frankly astounded that a man who preaches hate, bigotry and lies is somehow allowed to buy ad space on our trains.”
“If the Mayor is serious about building a welcoming and inclusive London for everyone, I expect he’ll immediately remove this ad from trains,” he told the Standard.
Veteran human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell was also among those calling for the ads, running throughout Pride Month, to be pulled, saying the church “preaches against LGBT+ people”.
In one ‘healing school’ video posted by the church last year, a believer can be seen telling a crowd how she had been “set free” from “a Spirit of Homosexuality” to applause.
“The world paints homosexuality as something that’s really great, it’s super awesome or something and it’s not, that’s a lie,” she said.
A post on the church’s website also lists LGBT people as being among the “unclean persons” who will not “inherit the Kingdom of God.”
“I am astonished that TfL is accepting adverts and money from him. The adverts should be pulled,” said Mr Tatchell.
However, a TfL spokesperson said the month-long ads for Mr Howard-Browne’s church were allowed under its rules.
“This advert was reviewed and found to have complied with our advertising policy, and guidance from the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP),” the spokesman said.
The spokesperson was not able to say how much TfL had received for the Underground ads, saying rates were agreed with TfL’s media partner.
Mr Howard-Browne has been associated with former US President Donald Trump, and was among the group of evangelical pastors invited to the White House in 2017 to pray for him.
Revival Ministries International and the ExCeL Centre did not respond to emailed requests for comment before publication.
