A doctor who’s also a Pentecostal minister faces prison time and $5.5 million in fines for marketing and selling a self-manufactured product made of sunscreen preservative and beef extract flavoring as a cancer cure to patients across the country, via ads on a religious TV network.

The Black churches of Los Angeles appear to be losing the struggle to stay vital, which could have grave consequences for an institution that cultivated one of the most important social movements in American history, according to a new report authored by Daniel E. Walker, a research associate with the USC Dornsife College’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture.