The Duper
Posted on August 22nd, 2008 by Reformed Pope into the Why We Blog categoryThere is a reason this blog exists. The reasons can be found in this article about Pastor Michael Guglielmucci who, to quote the article "inspired hundreds of thousands of young Christians with his terminal cancer battle"….and now…"has been exposed as a fraud".
Quick side note: He even fooled Judah Smith into performing a prayer of healing over him.
Here is an excerpt from this shocking (but not surprising) article:
Earlier this year, Mr Guglielmucci released a hit song, Healer , which was featured on Sydney church Hillsong's latest album.
The song debuted at No. 2 on the ARIA charts.
It since has become an anthem of faith for believers, many of whom are suffering their own illness and were praying for a miracle for Mr Guglielmucci, who has claimed for two years to be terminally ill.
In one church performance that has attracted 300,000 hits on YouTube, he performs his hit song with an oxygen tube in his nose.
The moral of this story is simple: If you put your trust in Man he will dupe you. That's right Michael Guglielmucci is a Duper. He duped Christians all over the world and he isn't the only one doing it.
Now, you may be saying to yourself… "but MY pastor would never do that"…well No, he probably wouldn't…but he could.
This is why it is so important to question all authority, this is why it is important to be able to freely speak your mind and freely criticize (if necessary) leaders…when you put yourself in a situation where you must completely submit without question you set yourself to be duped.
For the record, by "question" I mean compare what leaders are saying with what the Bible says and point out inconsistancies.
(a special thanks to blog reader New Taste for pointing us to this article)
RSS feed for posts
August 22nd, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Exactly the point Pope. We are all capable of doing great evil. It doesn’t mean we will, but it surely means we could.
Is it just me, or is it true that there is no group worse then charismatic at blindly following a person because of their hot, fancy, flashy preacher performances. It’s like these people have no ability to think for themselves. If God’s great anointed says it then it must be true right? Wrong! No matter how much success and power God brings to someone’s life, He will always reveal their faults as well so that the mindless sheep will take their eyes off the man and put them on God.
August 22nd, 2008 at 5:07 pm
To me it is just sad. The problem is the promoting of christian superstars. The funny thing is that as big as Christian stars are in their Christian world, most people have no clue who they are.
August 22nd, 2008 at 6:16 pm
Ya know, I saw that video somewhere. I’m a singer (or wannabe) AND I’ve been sick enough to need oxygen. I knew immediately that there was NO WAY he needed oxygen. He was SINGING. If you need oxygen, you can hardly pull enough air to talk, much less sing. When you sing, you mostly inhale through your mouth, so the oxygen tube in his nose wasn’t being used. Pathetic.
August 23rd, 2008 at 11:49 am
He’s seeing “professional help”. (kids plug your ears) WTF! The only professional help he should seek is a lawyer, because if I was in charge at the AoG I’d be suing him for fraud. How do pastors get away with lying to make money and never face legal consequences? It baffles me.
August 23rd, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Hehehe. I had absolutely no clue who he was and never heard of his story.
August 24th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
FICM said: How do pastors get away with lying to make money and never face legal consequences? It baffles me.
I think they use 1 Corinthians 6:1-7 to get out of all consequences for their actions. “Does any of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous, and not before the saints?
2 Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is judged by you, are you not competent to constitute the smallest law courts?
3 Do you not know that we shall judge angels How much more, matters of this life?
4 If then you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church?
5 I say this to your shame. Is it so , that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren,
6 but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?
7 actually, then, it is already a defeat for you, that you have lawsuits with one another. why not rather be wronged? Why no rather be defrauded?
I remember a lot of emphasis being placed on not taking a brother to court but I don’t remember ever being told that you saints would judge the world. Or Is there among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren?
We weren’t allowed to talk about anything let alone judge it or figure out who among us was wise enough to decide between his brethren. I guess that was all done behind closed doors along with the usual slap on the hand or complete cover-up.
August 24th, 2008 at 3:24 pm
Nina, when I said their Christian world it really is a small little world. It is not all of Christianity. It is just their circle. I have no idea who the fake cancer guy is either but he was obviously important in his circle. For the most part, my friends in other christian circles don’t know who my important people (authors, speakers, pastors, musicians) are and I don’t know who their important people are.
August 24th, 2008 at 6:44 pm
LvT,
I think I understand the spirit of 1 Corinthians 6:1-7, and it’s not that we should never hold Christians accountable for their actions. It’s one thing to have a dispute over a contract or an agreement and then go to civil court over it. It’s another thing entirely when someone commits a crime! Also, it implies that even though we don’t air our dirty laundry in public, it should still be cleaned. I suppose there is some element of “turn the other cheek” in play here, but when your behavior defrauds thousands of Christians both in beliefs and possibly financially, then we as a Christian community need to let the world know that while we can find forgiveness for them, we act swiftly to correct and even remove the offenders from their place of “authority”.
August 24th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
FICM I totally agree with you. I don’t think we need to air our dirty laundry in public either but I think leadership often spends all of their energy trying to keep things quiet instead of dealing with the problem.
Removing the offenders from their place of “authority” would be a great place to start.
August 25th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Fred flintstone, I got what you are saying. I just thought the idea of having Christian bubbles is kinda funny. It seems almost like the punks, skaters, preppies etc… of high school. I never particularly cared for the hype.
I just wondered if this dude was a celebrity in the MFI circle because someone mentioned he was connected to Judah Smith. The moment you step into CBC, you are immersed in their Christian culture. Within weeks of coming to church I started knowing the names of all the celebrities of the CBC circle. And it seems that some people who are immersed and lived in the CBC circle their entire life seem to live in this separate world of la la land. Thats the whole world to them.
August 25th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
I agree with you Nina. I added another post, just because.
Almost everyone lives in a bubble where we tend to spend our time with people who look, think and act like us.
The difference is that most people in a niche sub-culture know they are in a niche sub-culture. The thing about the Christian world is that we tend to think we are part of “normal America” but mostly are not. We think we know others because we are around them, but not so much. We have these people who are “changing eternity”, but most people even within Christendom have no idea who they are.
A friend of mine has this scripture on her webpage. In relation to christian stars, we should take this approach.
Make it your ambition
to lead a quiet life,
to mind your own business
and to work with your hands,
just as we told you,
so that your daily life
may win the respect of outsiders
and so that you will not
be dependent on anybody.
1 Thessalonians 4:11
August 25th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
So we attend an AG church and sang THAT song on Sunday - so I’m sitting there thinking “should I sing this?” It is a nice song so I started singing it and thought about the scripture of how Christ is being preached thru envy, so I thought OK, I do like the song.
then the pastor talked about Michael G. and how he is in the most difficult time in his life, and said that this song was definitely anointed so God must be in all of this and then had the youth pastor pray for the guy.The youth pastor was so overcome emotionally and couldnt finish his prayer.
so not sure how to take all that but just for ya’lls info
August 25th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
And then we wonder how come Christians cannot relate to the outside world?
August 26th, 2008 at 10:16 am
This guy looks and sounds familiar. I wonder if he ever came to the MFI conferences at CBC as one of the worship leaders? Or maybe he came to Capital Christian Center as a guest. One or the other. He should have hooked up with Todd Bentley at the Lakeland Revival and they could have really cashed in!
We were just discussing people who have this disorder of feigning sickness for attention. But we were talking about moms who keep bringing their kids to the doctor and keep them on medication etc so the mom gets attention. There’s actually a name for this disorder, but can’t recall.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
There’s actually a name for this disorder, but can’t recall.
Munchausen syndrome is a psychiatric disorder in which those affected fake disease, illness, or psychological trauma in order to draw attention or sympathy to themselves. It is in a class of disorders known as factitious disorders which involve “illnesses” whose symptoms are either self-induced or falsified by the patient. It is also sometimes known as hospital addiction syndrome.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
Yes, that’s it! Can you imagine having a hospital addiction (easier to say than Munchausen)? And the poor kids!
August 29th, 2008 at 12:37 am
Michael Guglielmucci talks about recording the Hillsong DVD whilst having cancer:
“At times it was hard to see cuz I was watching people with tears streaming down their faces, singing, and I knew that God was doing something and I knew that God was being faithful to what he promised, you know. That he was actually moving in people’s lives at that moment, that he was using all of us as musicians. And I was watching and I know it’s not just limited to what happened in that room that night, but the same thing can happen when people play the album, when they hear these moments and the songs and they hear God lifted and God glorified through this worship. That his power’s gonna fill their car and their house and something’s gonna take place. And to know that and to be standing there and worshipping, knowing all of that it’s so hard, it’s a moment I’ll never forget.”
From: http://blog.beliefnet.com/gospelsoundcheck/2008/08/michael-guglielmucci-talks-abo.html