A New Kind of Victim

From the New Humanist:

A former semi-professional footballer is suing the British arm of the Baptist World Alliance, claiming that the 19 years he spent as a “fervent evangelist” in the Baptist faith deprived him of the chance to play for Manchester United.

Forty-six-year-old Arquimedes Nganga, who now lives in Forest Hill, London, but used to play for a Third Division side in his native Portugal, converted to the faith in 1989, and quit football two years later at the age of 25, devoting himself to his new religion. The London Evening Standard reports that he is now suing the church, accusing it of “destroying his social life, causing him ‘psychological harm’ and defrauding him of money through compulsory donations.