FraudSTAR

“You walk with me through fire and heal all my disease, I believe You’re my Healer …”
Mike Guglielmucci

T

he tears rolled down my cheek as the smartly dressed senior pastor wept openly in front of the unblinking gaze of our TV camera lens. “God has done so much for me and my church, but I somehow feel emptiness inside… because my son is dying from inoperable cancer.”

I was interviewing Danny Guglielmucci in his office at Edge Church in Adelaide, Australia, and Danny was talking about his son Mike.

That was early last year, and at that stage the name Mike Guglielmucci was becoming well known internationally for his involvement as a singer and songwriter with the popular Pentecostal youth outreach network, Planetshakers. I was at their conference in early 2006 when Mike told thousands of kids that he was sick. The music team, including his best friends and Mike’s wife, broke down. The kids opened their hearts and their wallets to help out their special friend Mike. On the 2008 Hillsong DVD This Is Our God, he sang his inspirational song Healer, limping onto stage and desperately grasping his oxygen bottle. It was sad, heart-breaking stuff.

But the whole thing was a fake. Mike confessed it “exclusively” on a national current affairs TV program complete with tears and a frank admission that he believed his fraud was a manifestation of a lifelong secret addiction to pornography.

The fallout continues for the Guglielmucci family, for Planetshakers, Edge Church and the bewildered young fans around the world. Always ready to initiate damage control, Hillsong yanked the DVDs from the shelf immediately and trashed the lot. They regularly trawl YouTube to delete the excerpt.

The big question among both Christian and secular circles is, what would lead a presumably sane, healthy young man to fake a serious illness - to the point where his friends, family and even his wife were convinced that he was dying?

I was certainly sucked in by the copious stories about poor Mike and his illness, but I started to get a little suspicious when he was reported to have travelled to London and gingerly knelt down at the altar of the great John Wesley’s church. He prayed, stood up and discarded his wheelchair. Though desperately clinging to the idea that Mike was divinely healed, I couldn’t help but think that it all sounded like a mix of idolatry and Eddie Murphy (Trading Places) style theatrics.

While genuinely having Christian empathy for Mike and his problems, I believe that this has more to do with the trappings of Christian fame and celebrity status than Mike’s personal issues.

I have personally witnessed how some big-name Christian musicians conduct themselves, and I’ve been immensely disturbed. They usually stay in the very best hotels, sometimes spend their days in the pampering suite, dine in the best restaurants, travel to the “gig” in dark-windowed people-movers to avoid having any real interaction with “the kids,” and have the venue greenroom decked out with all of the trappings of a Madonna-style touring party. It’s all far too rock-and-roll, too worldly for my liking.

Salvationists are not immune from this celebrity challenge. We are blessed with some brilliant musicians and orators and can quickly elevate them to a kind of superstar status. But the problem with putting people on a pedestal is that they have further to fall.

We’ve all seen some of our heroes buckle under the celebrity spotlight. Church heroes also can start to believe their own publicity and eventually fall from grace. Celebrity can lead to an inflated ego, which can be a destructive, evil force that is self-centred and a distraction from the things of the kingdom.

If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. (Galations 6:3)

Let’s support our “Salvo Stars” with our prayers more than our plaudits and praise their humility when they “give to Jesus glory” - and be aware that the father of lies will use any of our human failings to destroy us and our good works.

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. (John 10:10)

2 Comments to FraudSTAR

1. It’s a little hard to achieve “rock-star-status” as an E-flat Euphonium player!

   The Pentecostal movement can sometimes seem to be a bit like a drug addiction……you need to move onto harder stuff to get the same cut through.

   I have grown up in the Pentecostal movement (after my grandfather was kicked out of the Army….another story!) and I have seen all the wild fads at least twice - think about how often the yo-yo fad recirculates and you get an idea of how often the “blessing” comes around.

   The most impacting times of my Christian experience however are accompanied by a still small voice…..less rarely amplified and projected onto large TV screens.

   I think we all need to ask ourselves an impotant question….WWJF….What Would Jesus Fake?
Tim on January 21st, 2009

2. Thanks Tim. I’m sorry to hear Grandpa was “kicked out” - I’d love to hear the full story sometime. We’ll be happy to have someone with your insight (not to mention your fundraising ability!) back with us as soon as you’re ready.

   The Mike Googs thing has seen alot of young people asking questions and I think that’s a positive thing. That pastor hero-worship thing is a dangerous game.
Bruce Redman on January 26th, 2009

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