Thursday, 21 August 2008
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Update: Pastor Michael Guglielmucci Ordered to Report to the Police
So by now you've probably heard that the rumors do seem to be true. Here's a message that a visitor gave us from Hillsong general manager George Aghajanian which confirms the story:
Dear Church,
In the past 24 hours it has been brought to our attention that Michael Guglielmucci’s illness is not what we have been led to believe.
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.
This news has come as a great shock to everyone including, it seems, his own wife and family.
We are asking our church to pray for the Guglielmucci family during this difficult time.God bless,
George Aghajanian
General ManagerThere's a report that church officials in Australia are recommending Michael Gulielmucci to go to the police. The Australian Christian Churches organization which supported Guglielmucci are now auditing his bank accounts and promise to return the money that was raised in response to his sickness.
What's shocking is that it looks like his family didn't even know. However, it's noted that he attended all his medical appointments alone.
But the question still remains - Why? What would make Michael do such a thing?
We're expecting an official response from Michael on Saturday.
Let's continue to pray for both Michael and his family, in addition to all that are affected by this.
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Comments (24)
Even the most irrational sin can look appealing when we're in the trenches of temptation. I feel almost as bad for him as I do for everyone else involved, having been in humiliating situations in my own life.
Sad
i think this is where grace and forgiveness should be exemplified...
and also the further need for internal accountability...
but this isn't quite so shocking as much as a pastor addicted to porn...
the only reason why this is considered so "shocking" is because his song has taken such a high marking...
and yet... God is still using the song in such a great way too...
Hypocrisy is not new. God is just, He'll deal with that person. What we can do for now is pray and not condemn anybody.
@leadworshipper82 - amen
time to change that song from healer to liar...
leave the guy alone and let him heal in private. I'm sure it doesn't help to have every xangan knowing about it.
@feedingsheep@xanga - every xangan and anyone else outside of xanga who's heard the story...
again... grace and forgiveness... plus it's a great song... and still should circulate to our churches... regardless of the author... because really the author is God.... and in spite of the writer... it was God Who wrote the song...
Why would he lie for money?
The answer's in the question.
Maybe he's been healed.
@agnophilo@xanga - Yeah, just about everyone would lie for the right amount of cash.
@TheWorldsOfficialCritic@xanga - I would tell one harmless lie for a bundle of cash. I wouldn't swindle people day in and day out.
@SwordAndSacrifice@xanga - Gotta love "faith".
The Bible says to bear each other's burderns. Let's keep him in prayer.
Oops, I meant "burdens."
I think for the leaders of the church where he ministered, they had to struggle with discipline without condemnation, and show grace and love...while dealing with the damage this has caused for the entire church...
But for the rest of us, what we should be doing is focusing on supporting those younger in faith, especially if you're a leader, and help others understand that although it does cause others (unbelievers) to question the validity and truth of the Gospel, we ourselves have our own journey/experience with God and the truth was revealed to US personally, individually, and therefore we must remember that Michael's sin is just that, and that God's truth does not become untrue by our actions.
Pathetic.
Remember the song he sang "Healer" was written in the 90's, not this last year....
He is in need of healing, but of a different sort....
unfortunate,
BUT, here is were Christians must pray for him and not criticizes
him... oner day you may be in a SIMILAR situation and sin just as he
has...
We are to forgive 70 x 70....
I've always been a passive reader of Revelife but I really felt the need to speak up about this.
Mike Gug has close ties with many people in my church since he attended our youth group when he was a teenager and he even preached in front of the entire youth body about a year ago, so you can imagine how shocked everyone was by the news. Our senior pastor decided to address the youths at our weekly meeting just 4 hours ago to explain the situation to us and encourage us to talk it out with our leaders. It seems that Mike had been grappling with issues since his teenage years and made some bad decisions along the way, resulting in the double life he had been leading right up to his confession. That might partially answer your question of why he would do such a thing.
Just a thought: criticizing and judging makes us like everyone else. And we're called to be different. Go figure (:
Yes, we must realize we have not confronted what he has with his background and makeup... we have our own particular temptations that he himself could probably not relate to, and they are just as shameful (if not more so). The world judges certain people to be hypocrites, when in fact every human being is, and more likely Christians, for Christians are more likely to be caught saying we must uphold a certain standard of morality, when in fact it is only by grace and God's power that we are able to do anything in His name.
As a Christian I have been such a hypocrite, which means I need Jesus even more. Those who judge will find themselves vulnerable to be judged themselves, for those who judge do not yet know themselves. If they did, I don't think they could judge others so easily. (It was the oldest who went out first when Jesus asked who would cast the first stone at the adulterous woman in John 8.)
I think part of the problem is that we expect those in a position of visibility to be somehow more perfect than we are. "Double life" is an apt expression. How many live as Christ 100 percent of the time. Then why are we shocked when someone else does not? If we don't live by Christ 100% of the time, then by definition we all are living "double lives."
It is too bad that people lift other people up, but young people do that, and are thus prone to be disappointed and disillusioned if they are led to believe anyone other than Christ cannot betray that kind of trust (including their parents). Eventually, we all must lean on Christ alone. Maybe that is the lesson here, as always.
One of my friends said something really worth quoting about this whole situation:
When I first heard the news, I was just horrified, because it seems like such a huge lie that kinda uproots the entire message of the song. But now to me this whole...scandal? is just God's way of doing exactly Mike was singing about - healing. mean, without this song and the lie and everything, would Mike have come out and admitted to his addiction, and would his psychological disorder have been found out? Probably not. So maybe this is just God's way of pulling him out of his sin and everything, by inspiring this song and then doing the exact thing the song was about.
Oftentimes we forget that there's more than one kind of sickness, more than the llnesses of the body. And it's so much more dangerous to be spiritually ill, and I think that's what God's trying to heal right here and right now. For me it wasn't so much a case of being disappointed or angry in Mike, but just really really touched by his whole experience. Because now that it's out in the open at least we can pray for him and God can do his thing, you know? :)
Strange thing is, I'm one thousand times
moretouched and affected by this song after it was revealed that Mike doesn't have cancer. I don't know how many people will think the same, but I think this is a sign of God's power, that he could pull a man out of years of sin. That he would be even willing to reach out to save and heal a man who's been lying, sinning and leading an almos hypocritical life. It just emphasises the message of the song for me, I guess?"
Yeah the last bolded bit really resonated with me and gave me a new perspective (:
We had a young woman do the same thing in our church. She was exposed finally when she didn't die. She has gone through counseling and deliverance. She is doing much better. The church forgave her and she got help.
no way. his song 'healer' was so inspiring. oh well.. at least God's greatness was being preached.