Life is a stage
Starring Michael Guglielmucci and all humanity

Riding on the bandwagon, I have decided to post this. For those who still don't know the story, a musician/pastor lied about having cancer for the past 2 years and how it has inspired him to compose and produce the hit song, 'Healer'. Here's a short excerpt from www.news.com.au.

In a YouTube video, he tells how the news from the hospital that he had "quite an aggressive form of cancer" inspired his song. "I just went home. I knew I had to go home and needed to get alone with God," he says in the video.

"I walked into my studio at home and for some reason. . . I sat at a piano and began to worship.

"I sang that song from start to finish. I was crying. I just realised that God had given me an incredible gift and I realise that song was going to be my strength."

When I first read the news, I wasn't surprised or felt any anger or resentment. I only starting thinking why. From a human and biased point of view (Fundamental Attribution Error), this is what I came up with as I try to avoid committing this error.

1) To gain sympathy, fame and recognition.
2) To make his song more popular by having more publicity.
3) To garner funds for his cancer treatment.
4) To inspire millions that God can heal and that he can relate to all of them, staging a great show about his whole battle and how God finally healed him, or simply because he loved God.
5) He has a mental illness (delusions etc) in which he believed that he was sick.
6) He has a real physical illness but he incorrectly attributed it to cancer.


Apparently, Michael Guglielmucci has given a brief statement in church today according to www.news.com.au

Mr Guglielmucci says the reason behind his fictitious cancer story was to hide his 16-year obsession with pornography.

"It is with much pain and sadness that I make this statement today," he said in the statement.

"For over 16 years I have struggled with an addition to adult pornography as a result of this secret life of sin my body would often breakdown.

"I'd report the cause of my symptoms simply as illnesses and I've thrown my life into a ministry for many years trying to compensate for my sin.

"I believe that I do love Jesus and I know that he loves me and it is this love along with the prayers of people around the world that bring me to this place of confession.

"Two years ago, I reported that I was suffering from cancer, the truth is that although I was ill I did not have cancer but was again using the misdiagnosis to hid the lie that I was living.

"I know in my heart that it is the truth alone that will set me free and this is the reason for my confession.

"I've dishonoured God, my wife, my family and the church and I take full responsibility for my actions and would like to make it very clear that no-one else was in any way aware of my double life.

"I'm fully commited to a process of discipline, recovery and restitution and will see this process through to what ever extent is necessary.

"I am deeply sorry and pray that you will find it in your hearts to forgive me.

"Currently I am undergoing professional medical assessment and evaluation to help identify and begin to treat the real and much deeper issues.

"Please continue to pray for my wife and I and my family as we have a long, hard road ahead of us but a road that I'm thankful to God that I'm finally walking."

There we have it:

7) Hiding a secret sin. Quite similar to point 6. He did have problems with his body and tried to pass them off as something else and in this case, cancer.

So now what?

If anything, it has shown us once again that humans are all flawed and need the saving grace of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Yes, Christians are flawed and can sin too. I've said it.

When was the last time you heard someone say "Call yourself a Buddhist/Muslim/Hindu/other". No one reported what religion T.T Durai was (maybe a christian?) or made too much of a fuss about Venerable Shi Ming Yi from Renci. It's always "Call yourself a Christian". Perhaps, the problem is that we have placed such a high moral standard on ourselves that we are now suffering for the consequences of not being perfect. Not that it is a bad thing, having a high standard is a good goal to have but when you fall, many will start the stoning. The world loves scandals and bad news. Ignoring statistical data will lead you to believe that fallen Christians is the trend. Fact is, everyone is fallen. Both Christians and non-Christians.

"How could he have done such a thing?
He's a pastor!"

But he is also a human.

This is one area where I suffer from dissonance. I believe that if you are a pastor, you will need to have even higher standards since you need to answer to God about where/how you are leading his people but at the same time, it is impossible to be perfect. I really wonder who would even bother to be trained as one. It is really a calling.

Since I have no answer to this, I have posed the following question to myself.

How would the Lord Jesus Christ react to Michael Guglielmucci today?

2 At dawn he (Jesus) appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

11 "No one, sir," she said.
"Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."

I really wonder what Jesus was writing on the ground (See Verse 6). Perhaps he was doing some arithmetic on how many perfect people existed. Go now and leave your life of sin but can we really?

Christians are not "holier-than-thou" and should stop having this superiority complex. Non-Christians should also be aware that Christians are sinners saved by God's grace and try to understand that we are really quite similar to them. Just that we have a new hope in our hearts and we now know that we are forgiven. Christians should all feel grateful that Jesus has died for their sins and in turn, wanna let others know of his goodness and grace, without the need to place unrealistically high standards on their non-believer friends and even on fellow believers.

My personal opinion is that sin is sin. No sin is greater than another. A sexual sin is not 'more serious' than a lie or when you murder someone. It's just that sex is such a taboo topic for Christians, so much so that this forbidden fruit is so much more appealing and you get hooked easily. Placing a severity on sin is the world's standard i.e. You steal, you get fined or go to jail. You muder someone, you get hanged etc.

When you sin, you sin. Only God can determine your punishment and judgement. Be it getting a 'smaller or less furnished house' (A sleeping bag will suffice for me) when you get to heaven or what, I leave that to God to decide. He knows what is fair or not. There's no point arguing as we don't know how abundant his grace and great his forgiveness is. I'll just be very grateful if I even make it there(heaven).

So to all the angry and shocked people out there, once you have calmed down, rethink again about this whole saga. God can make bad events turn for the good. As the saying goes, any publicity is good publicity. Now, many non-believers may stumble into blogs or christian webpages while searching for "Michael Guglielmucci", giving us a chance to explain who we are, what we stand for and who our God is. Another saving grace is that Michael Guglielmucci came clean and knew that he had a problem. Do we know thyself?

Instead of headlines like "Disgraced pastor Michael Guglielmucci a porn addict", I would expect more to be along the lines of "God's Grace can now be shown to Michael Guglielmucci". God is now going to be his/our Healer more than ever in these times.

-tangy