This past Sunday I was told about a pastor who made a bad decision which resulted in some very bad publicity. After reading various coverage of the story, it seemed to all boil down to a pornography addiction which he was trying to hide. However, the pressure got to him and he just couldn’t keep it together any longer.
This story really saddens me, but we are now faced with the a serious question, “How are we as the church to respond to this fallen pastor” and perhaps most importantly, “How are we as the Church to respond to the non-believers?”
"Pastor lied about Cancer" by Bryan Patterson
Thursday, August 21, 2008 at 10:08am
I feel sad about posting this today. But you have a right to know the truth.
A pastor who preached about his terminal illness, and tugged at heartstrings with the hit Healer, has been exposed as a fraud.
Michael Guglielmucci inspired hundreds of thousands of young Christians with his terminal cancer “battle”.
Guglielmucci, whose parents established Edge Church International, an Assemblies of God church at O’Halloran Hill in
Earlier this year, Mr Guglielmucci released a hit song, Healer , which was featured on 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.
It appears Mr Guglielmucci, who was a pastor with one of
“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.
“Michael has confirmed that he is not suffering with a terminal illness and is seeking professional help in
“We are asking our church to pray for the Guglielmucci family during this difficult time.”
1 comment:
A good question. As Christians our beliefs about the depravity of human beings and the effects of sin mean that we should not be surprised to find sin in the church. While I'm not for normalizing sin, per se, I am all for normalizing "brokenness" in the church. The church should be a community of broken people, those who are primarily different from the world in how they have responded to their own sinfulness. The church should never flout itself as an institution of "good" people. To quote Jesus: "No one is good but God alone." We should present ourselves as broken and confessional people who have been radically forgiven by a Good God!
I wrote a post about this story last week because it really captured my attention (http://www.covenanteyes.com/blog/2008/08/28/pastor-confesses-to-16-year-porn-addiction/). I'd love to hear your thoughts.
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