Mike Guglielmucci – James’ thoughts.
This started out as a comment on Tom’s blog, but became quite long. So I have given it its own post.
Referring to Tom’s post about Mike Guglielmucci.
For those of you who haven’t been following the story, Mike Guglielmucci was a Youth Pastor for Planetshakers. He has recently admitted to faking having cancer. He had been pretending to have cancer since September 2006.
… I guess watching him on Today Tonight made me feel sad because he must be feeling terrible. I am sure he loves Jesus, otherwise he had no reason to admit his sin. And now he’s getting a battering in the press, thousands of people are upset with him, he’s let his wife, family, parents and church down. I can’t imagine that the relief for admitting this makes up for what he’s copping now as a result. It would have been easier for him to not tell anyone what was going on.
His Dad said in a statement to his church: “I can’t begin to tell you how much this is hurting us on the inside. A few weeks ago Mike had a dream of Jesus on the cross looking down on him saying, ‘the truth will set you free’ and so he decided to confess and bring everything out into the open.”
Read the rest of what Tom wrote. But what I began to write as a comment on his site was that I definitely agree with what he said.
First up, this is why I don’t watch Today Tonight or ACA. They just get it so very, very horribly wrong. And I get so very angry and passionate as a result. So it’s probably just best I don’t watch them at all :)
But back to the main point… in God’s eyes, yes, Mike Guglielmucci has sinned. But he is no less loved by God than you or me or anyone else on this earth. It’s only us who put labels on how serious a sin is. God hurts very deeply whether we swear, have a lustful thought in our mind, or whether we murder someone.
So who the heck are Today Tonight, or any other media source, to judge him? Are they perfect? It hink what makes me most angry is the way some people are acting very high and mighty; very arrogant really. Their actions give the impression that they think they’re better people that Mike, and that they would never possibly do anything as evil as that.
But every second they have their back’s turned on Christ, they are being just as evil.
Most importantly, Mike Guglielmucci has confessed that what he did was wrong. And so therfore he is forgiven by God. [edit: bad theology James - regardless of whether he confessed it to the world, if he has asked God for forgiveness, he has it.] Do we claim to know better than the one who created us? Are we choosing to say to God, “Hey God, I know better than you, and I reckon we should judge this guy a bit more before we let him off the hook.”
No. We need to forgive. Just as our Father has forgiven us.
Oh how my heart hurts for those who don’t understand the love, the freedom, the peace that Christ has shown and gives us.