Mike Guglielmucci is a fake and a fraud - but what about you

Nic's note: I found this blog while surfing the net today - makes you think eh?

Okay. So Twitter and blog-world are exploding today with news that the latest church worship celebrity, Mike Guglielmucci of “Healer” fame, has been a total liar, fake and fraud when it comes to his claim of beating life-threatening cancer. His story and the song which is supposedly inspired have been the talk of the worship world for the last month or so - especially with the news that Hillsong had recorded it and were including the song (along with the powerful live video) in their latest release, “This Is Our God.”

Here’s a quick recap of Mike’s story -

• Diagnosed with cancer
• Comes home, sits at the piano and begins singing
• The melody and words of “Healer” pour out in this incredible time of worship

The song was then recorded by Planetshakers on their latest album and apparently caught the ear of the Hillsong folks who decided it would be great for their album. Once the promotion for that record started, Mike’s story was front and centre - including a promotional video that was released with Mike telling the world his story interspersed with shots of him singing the song at the live recording, oxygen tank, nose tubes and all.

So word breaks this morning that none of Mike’s story can be verified. Here are some links -

• Adelaide Now
  “Michael has confirmed that he is not suffering with a terminal illness and is seeking professional help in Adelaide with the support of his family.

  “We are asking our church to pray for the Guglielmucci family during this difficult time.”

• The Australian
  It appears Mr Guglielmucci, who was a pastor with one of Australia’s biggest youth churches, Planetshakers, may even have deceived his own family.

  “This news has come as a great shock to everyone including, it seems, his own wife and family,” Hillsong general manager George Aghajanian said in an email to his congregation yesterday.

Crazy. Idiotic. Foolish. How can someone even DREAM of something like this?? What kind of sick, deranged person lies in their bed at night trying to think of ways to gain fame, notoriety and recognition while perhaps lining their pockets with some extra coin based on sales of a song that might be inspired by such a tragedy?? This is a total disgrace and another black eye on the modern evangelical church.

So. How do we respond? Some say stone him! Some say blacklist him! Some say he just needs a swift kick in the ass! How about you? What do you say?

What do I say?

I don’t know.

Part of me is so tired of this. I’m so tired of trusting people and their stories of God doing amazing things only to be once again disappointed. I’m so tired of having to defend a church that wants to hold these people up based on their lies and deceit. I’m so tired of having to explain to friends why I would even associate myself with an institution that allows people like this to get famous. Nevermind the fact that I’m so tired of an institution that is making these people famous in the first place!

Part of me wants to stand on the rooftops and shout “I AM NOT ONE OF THEM!! I AM NOT ONE OF THOSE LYING, CHEATING JERKS WHO IS SELLING YOU A FALSE GOSPEL!!” I want so bad to distance myself from these idiots and their garbage lies and their cheating ways. I would scratch their name from history and have them never heard from again if it was up to me.

And then I wonder.. What does God say?? What does He think of all of this?

..

Ugh.

Why wouldn’t He turn His back on the whole lot of us and just let us all go down in flames? Why wouldn’t He just give this world a little nudge and send it spinning off in to the darkness of the universe? Why wouldn’t He just hit the cosmic reset button and start this whole damned thing over again?

And all I’m left with as an answer is “grace.” Because of grace. The only reason we are still living and breathing and spending a single moment on this planet is because of grace. God has every right to squash every last one of us and laugh at our stupidity - thinking that we have anything more to offer than Mike or Todd or whoever the next one will be. God has every right to stand on the rooftop and yell “Don’t listen to them!! I am not like them!! I don’t do things the way he says I do them!!” while pointing directly at.. me.

Cause that’s the truth, right?? We’re all Mike. We’re all Todd. We’re all messed up, screwed up, broken, deceitful, lying, sinful people. Now we may not be as devious or as scheming as those who are exposed and exploited but does that make us any better or any worse? Not at all. At the end of the day we are broken, sinful people in need of grace. Only God’s grace. And I need just as much of it as Mike does.

Could you imagine if all of your crap was exposed for the world to see? What if your Twitter account really detailed everything you were doing? everything you were thinking? Uh oh. We wave the “authentic” flag as though people are getting to know the real us if we post a little of our family struggles or about our issues with this sin or that, imagining that if people are given a littel glimpse in to a bit of the hard side of my life they might give me a little pat on the back for being so honest. And really it’s just misdirection - let’s give them a bit of what’s behind Door #2 so they don’t want to look behind Door #3, cause if that door was opened it’s game over.

Right?

I don’t know. I’m not suggesting that we all have stories like Mike’s. I’m not suggesting that we’ve all cooked up schemes like his. But if it was YOUR song that Hillsong was releasing and YOUR name being used to promote it and someone uncovered ALL of YOUR baggage and garbage, don’t you think it would be the talk of the town? Yeah. Sure it would.

I have nothing to say about whether or not you should play the song. Some will say that the song is born in the heart of the writer and there is no way to use the song to lead people in worship. Some will say that the song - not the writer - is anointed and if God can speak through a donkey he can certainly speak through a deceiving, lying songwriter. Some will say that the song is worthless and not very good and shouldn’t be used in congregational worship anyways. So take your pick

So there you go. You’ve heard my thoughts. I’ve read lots of yours. I’m sure this will be talked about for a while. What’s next? Where do we go from here? What do we do with the famous ones in our church culture? Lets hear you

pre-emptive homesickness

After some haphazard preparations... I'm flying off to Glasgow on the 3rd of September. I can't believe it's just a month away.

I feel ambivalent about leaving. It's going to be a GREAT experience, but on the other hand, I'm going to miss absolutely everyone here (that's right, including those annoying people who nevertheless still give me something to talk about). Is this what its like to be an overseas student?

I decided not to preface this post with "its been a while since i last blogged" - after all, i'm not ashamed of blogging infrequently. Also, it gets boring =)

Led worship for the first time last Sunday. I've never been so nervous before. I couldn't sleep the night before to be honest, and after practice on that morning, my nerves were shot. The fact that I had to make a 15 minute detour to Wilson also didn't help. Nor did driving 30km/h over the limit just to get to church 10 minutes late.

However, in this i'm pretty grateful for Joseph, who inspired us all with a brief pep talk at 9:59am. Ultimately it comes down to this - you can let the circumstances dictate your attitude to God, or you can worship in spite of the circumstances. All I wanted to do was just worship. The band backed me up, and I really believe our hearts for God just shone through the service.

I've also realised that I'm a really lucky person. A man is lucky if he can go through life and have 2-3 good friends throughout. I have people who will (and have) stick (stuck) by me through the thick and thin and I'm extremely grateful for that. You know who you are.

Anyways, till the next time I blog, I'll leave u with this picture:

Sitting in the kitchen, Mum and I heard a nature documentary on the TV, and thought dad was engrossed in it (he was sitting on the couch). Highly surprising, given the aforesaid program did not contain much fight scenes, gunfire or sport.*

Anyways, our hopes were slightly crushed as we walked into the lounge. Turns out my camera interrupted his nap** =)

Love you Dad

* Believe me, I have a high respect for my dad. However, this is a man who can't stand movies with dialog scenes > 10 minutes. He likes Bruce Willis - need I say more?

** The pink object is my sister's stuffed rabbit, nothing more.

A message that found its way to my inbox

"Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior" (Hab. 3:17-18).

When we experience adversity, we generally respond in one of three ways: (1) we become angry; (2) we try to gut it out; or (3) we accept it with joy.

Anger

When adversity comes our way, we say, "Why me, Lord?" We become bitter and resentful and blame God and others for our problems. We view ourselves as victims and demand that God answer our accusing questions: "Why don't You love me, Lord? We feel entitled to life, health, wealth, and happiness.

Gutting It Out

Another way we respond to adversity is by adopting a stoic attitude, repressing our emotions. We lie to ourselves and say, "I'm gutting it out. I'm demonstrating endurance." In reality, we are merely isolating ourselves with a shell of false bravado. We don't meditate on God's love, we don't pray, we don't believe God really has anything good planned for us. We simply tell ourselves, "This will soon be over. I'm a survivor." We never receive what God has planned for us if we stay here.

Acceptance with Joy

This is the response God seeks from us. When adversity comes, we rest in His love and trust that He knows best. We realize that nothing can happen to us without His permission. If there is pain in our lives, we know it's because God deems it necessary for our growth or wishes to use our pain to minister to others.

God revealed to the prophet Habakkuk that Israel was soon to be invaded by the Babylonians. Habakkuk knew that Israel was about to suffer intense adversity as part of God's loving discipline of His people. Habakkuk faced the looming national tragedy with an attitude of acceptance with joy.

If Habakkuk could be joyful in the face of a national calamity, then we can rejoice in the Lord no matter what comes our way.

on marking

Having been busy marking essays recently, I've uncovered some gems of prose:

"so, if this is what happened to food now, what is going to happen in the future? Certainly, new technology like genetic modified crops and hybrid rice had resulted in magical increase in land productivity. They will show the magic again, but not after a long time"


Lovely...

3500 years of the Sedition Act - Malaysia Today

It is clear that the Sedition Act can solve all our problems. The Sedition Act, properly and seriously implemented, would result in the entire world sharing just one religion. There would not be so many religions, which, today, are the source of most of the world’s problems.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

There is an old law which many Malaysians do not realise still exists in this country. This law is called the Sedition Act. How old is this law, you may ask. Trust me, it is very, very old.

The Sedition Act was already around 3,000 or 3,500 years ago during the time of the Egyptian Pharaohs. At that time a man called Musa -- namesake of Musa Hitam, Musa Aman and Musa Hassan; who are all the exact opposite of the Musa of old Egypt -- received a message from God. And the message is that the Pharaoh is not God, as he believed he was, and Musa was to go tell him so.

Of course Musa was scared because he was aware of the Sedition Act and anyone who disputes that the Ruler of Egypt is God will be dealt with severely. So Musa asked God for permission to bring his brother along since his brother had the gift of the gab and was able to ‘spin’ just like the Bloggers of modern days. Knowing that a lot of spinning would be required to counter Pharaoh’s claim of divinity, God agreed and Musa and his brother then went and confronted the Pharaoh.

The Pharaoh asked Musa what are the credentials to become God. Musa then replied that God gives life and God takes life. The Pharaoh then sentenced Musa to death thereby ‘taking his life’. The Pharaoh then commuted the death sentence thereby ‘giving back’ Musa his life.

“So I have just taken life and given life,” argued the Pharaoh. “That means I am God.”

That was certainly a very smart move indeed. So what is the moral of this story? Simple. If the Internet and Blogs had been around 3,000 or 3,500 years ago, the Pharaoh would have been the King of Bloggers since he is the best spin-doctor in history.

But Musa insisted that the Pharaoh was not God and this resulted in the Pharaoh invoking the Sedition Act on him. Any act to make the people hate or turn against the Ruler is an act of sedition and punishable under the Sedition Act. However, Musa did not play fair. He skipped bail and escaped from Egypt and this resulted in the new nation of Israel being created. And, ever since, this has been the cause of great turmoil and countless deaths. If the Pharaoh had arrested Musa under the Sedition Act and had not allowed him bail then, today, there would be no turmoil and chaos in this world and we would all be living in a peaceful world, in particular in the Middle East.

Slightly over 2,000 years ago, another person by the name of Isa came along. This was Isa The Man, not ISA the Internal Security Act. Isa too was seditious and he turned the people against the Rulers. Of course Isa was not really that successful because he only had about a dozen followers, not even enough to form an Umno branch, which requires more members than that. But the Ruler made the great mistake of making a martyr out of Isa and his support grew, until today where he has more than one billion followers.

That was certainly not a very smart move indeed. So what is the moral of this story? Simple. Never make a martyr of someone who commits the crime of sedition, as then his or her following will grow beyond controllable proportions.

1,400 years or so ago, another man came along. This man was called Muhammad (but he had only one Muhammad in his name, not like today where we have people with two Muhammads in their name). For ten years he tried turning the people against the Rulers of the tiny state called Mekah. Finally, the Mekah government could stand it no longer and they tried arresting Muhammad under the Sedition Act.

But Muhammad managed to escape to another small village called Medina. Within 12 years this village grew into a city and they managed to build a large army and then went back to Mekah to topple the government.

That was certainly a very smart move indeed. So what is the moral of this story? Simple. Never allow anyone who commits the crime of sedition to escape to another country, as he or she can then build up a large army and come back to topple the government.

These examples of Musa, Isa and Muhammad have taught the world a thing or two. Firstly, never allow anyone to commit the crime of sedition. Secondly, sedition is not about punishing someone for lying. Sedition is about punishing someone who tells the truth. And that was demonstrated in Penang not too long ago when Marina Yusoff was found guilty of sedition for telling the truth -- yes, she proved that she had told the truth and had not lied. Marina Yusoff wrongly thought that if she could prove she was telling the truth she would escape punishment. Little did she realise that the Sedition Act does not punish you for lying. It punishes you for telling the truth. And Musa, Isa and Muhammad too told the truth so they are all rightfully guilty of sedition.

600 years or so ago, the English King decided to make it illegal to speak against the Ruler. God appoints Rulers as Rulers, argued the King, and to oppose the Ruler or speak ill of the Ruler is seditious and you can be arrested and your ears will be cut off. So many people who did not bodek the King were arrested and punished under the Sedition Act.

62 years ago, Malayans too started opposing the British Monarchy. They did not like the British proposal to form the Malayan Union. The Malays then got together and formed an amalgamation of the many Malay movements, societies and associations, which they called Umno. And through Umno the Malays began to make seditious statements in their many road-shows that criss-crossed the length and breadth of Malaya.

As the movement gained momentum and Umno started winning the support of the Malayan population, the British decided in 1948 to introduce the Sedition Act, more than 500 years after it was introduced in England. That was of course 60 years ago but the Sedition Act did not achieve its purpose. Finally, in 1957, Malaya managed to gain independence from Britain in spite of the Sedition Act.

Today, the Sedition Act that was introduced to punish Malayans who speak against the British still remains. But there is no longer a British Colonial government ruling Malaya. Today, Malaya is Merdeka and is now called Malaysia. But the law that makes it a crime to speak ill of the British still remains even though no one speaks bad about the British any longer other than Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who was Prime Minister of Malaysia for 22 years and who managed to get Margaret Thatcher’s knickers all twisted into knots.

Sigh….if the Pharaoh had been serious about the Sedition Act then there would be no Jews today. And if there were no Jews then there would be no Isa; so there would be no Christianity. And if the Mekah government too had been serious about the Sedition Act there would be no Islam today. And since there would be no Jews, Christians and Muslims, then all 26 million Malaysians would today still be Hindus, like they were more than 600 years ago. And since we would all be Hindus there would be no problems and therefore no need for Hindraf. And as there would be no Hindraf then Barisan Nasional would not have done so badly in the 8 March 2008 general election.

It is clear that the Sedition Act can solve all our problems. The Sedition Act, properly and seriously implemented, would result in the entire world sharing just one religion. There would not be so many religions, which, today, are the source of most of the world’s problems.

Malaysians must be able to look at the Sedition Act in this light. Against the backdrop of the Sedition Act being able to prevent the growth of new religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam -- which would result in world peace -- then the Sedition Act is good. But because the Rulers since 3,500 years ago failed to ensure that no one escapes the Sedition Act, today, we have so many religions that have divided the world and which have created a lot of conflicts that have resulted in so many deaths.

And remember, the Sedition Act is used to punish those who tell the truth, not those who lie. If they lie then there are so many other laws we can use against them.