Television illusionist Derren Brown has revealed he “flirted” with a church that tries to cure gay people.
The magician said that before he came out in 2008, he spent time with the Living Waters movement, which offers healing to those with “same sex attraction”.
Speaking to the Sun, he said: “I did go through an area of the church that was trying to ‘cure’ gay people. It was rather misjudged. I was aware of that and kind of flirted a bit with that.
“Friends of mine were in it so I was kind of aware of it. I just felt it was misguided.”
Continuing, he said: “It was a convenient way of getting around not quite embracing the whole gay thing.
“It was more interesting than, ‘Read your Bible and all your problems will go away.’ It had a bit of depth and psychology to it, but it was just based on a false premise.
“When I got to my early 30s I realised that it [being gay] wasn’t going to go away.”
The magician has filmed a documentary, Miracles For Sale, about faith healers who claim they can cure afflictions from blindness to cancer.
The Channel 4 show sees Brown turn a member of the public into a fake ‘healer’ and sends him to the US bible belt to expose the “scam”.
Brown said he no longer believes in God and sees ‘healing’ as deceptive.
He added: “It’s true they shout about curing cancer, curing homosexuality, it does go on, but it’s not a motivation for me.
“Coming out of Christianity and having a clearer sense of what I did, and didn’t believe, I saw it more as a scam.”
Derren Brown: Miracles For Sale will be shown on Channel 4 on April 25th.
