When not being sick is really sick

Who is this, you might ask? Well, actually many people did, and they were supposed to have known him. His name is Michael Guglielmucci and until recently he was a Pastor in Sydney.

In 2006 he announced to his congregation that he had an aggressive form of cancer which was terminal. Since then he has appeared in church wearing an oxygen tube and wrote a song, "Healer", which was included on the latest Hillsong worship compilation CD. Updates were guven regarding his condition, including the news that various secondary cancers were discovered.

Then, approx. one week ago it was revealed that his 'illness' was a lie and that there was nothing wrong with him - apart from mental illness. His father, the senior Pastor at Edge Church, revealed that an addiction to pornography had caused massive guilt with Michael, and to take focus off this he invented his cancer. Michael kept the truth not only from his congregation but also from his wife, children, and wider family.

Money that was collected in connection to his claimed 'treatment' was pledged to be returned and Michael is said to be seeking help for the many problems he obviously has.

The usual initial response to this type of deception by a prominent churchman is to condemn him for his actions, but this case seems to be slightly different. Yes, he lied, and yes, many thousands of people were left feeling confused and betrayed, but he didn't act out of a desire for personal gain, nor was it a cold and calculating plan to deceive. The man was just mentally ill and I'm glad he is being treated.

Do we expect those who stand at the front of our churches to be perfect? Do we expect perfection when we ourselves are not perfect? The 'double life' is a fairly common occurrence in the Church and is made all the more juicy when the person caught out is someone who has preached against the very thing that he himself ended up doing (for a wonderful recent example of this why not Google "Michael Reid Ministries"). People like Reid, IMO, deserve the ridicule they get. People like Michael, again IMO, deserve our sympathy and our help. Someone once said that the church is the only organisation that shoots its own wounded. That's very possibly true. Yet another reason to review what we believe and how we 'do' church.

Dead Wrong?!?

This is Pastor Brian. Know him? Neither did I until a story broke on local Radio that Pastor Brian's Church the Elim Christian Centre in North Belfast had closed its normal Services and was running a healing Service every evening at 7:30pm. It is claimed, and bear in mind that it is only a claim, that many people have been healed from all sorts of illnesses, including chronic fatigue syndrome, depression, various orthopedic disorders, brain tumours, and even cancer.

Someone even claimed to have been brought back to life after having been clinically dead in a hospital operating theatre for 16 minutes, simply through the power of prayer. Pastor Brian was reported to have visited the CIty Morgue with the intention of resurrecting a corpse there, but so far they all remain dead. 

What is happening here is mirrored by similar events in Dudley (in the UK) and in Florida. It's not original, nor is it unique. But is it helpful (never mind 'is it true!')?

I've buried more than enough, in my opinion, of people who died "before their time" (however you interpret that phrase). And tomorrow, I am doing a session as Chaplain in the Cancer Centre in the City Hospital where I will encounter approx. 15 people, all with cancer, and all at different stages - some will be there for treatment, while others will be there for palliative care. All will be hoping that their cancer will go into remission - myself included. Some may also be hoping that God will somehow intervene to 'cure' or 'take away' their cancer. 

Having never had cancer myself, but having met so many who do, or sadly who did have this horrible disease, I want to be as positive as I can be without giving false hope. There are unexplained occasions when a cancer, or illness, seems to disappear. No-one seems to know why, but they do know it appears to vanish. Unfortunately this is a rare occurrence, and for every person that this happens to there are thousands for whom cancer takes its normal course. For those who experience this unexplained change in circumstances, thanksgivings are offered and God is praised, because if it is unexplained it must be a healing work of God! Sadly, this 'god of the gaps' thinking works well in these isolated experiences, but not in the wider picture. For every individual who is 'healed' there are thousands who are buried. For every healing that is shouted from the rooftops, there are thousands of named never mentioned again - yet all of them were prayed for. Foe every person 'touched by the hand of the Almighty', there are thousands, even millions, who do not apparently experience The Almighty's loving hand.

Before you proclaim that I do not believe that God heals, hold your fire! I do believe that God heals, only maybe not in the way that Traditional Theism states. The word in Greek for "healing" is also the same word for "salvation". "Jesus Saves!" can also mean "Jesus Heals!". Jesus heals us from all that would stop us seeing the truth of God in action, if only we would open our eyes. 

Process Theology teaches that God is a persuasive, rather than a coercive, force - God works in EVERY situation in life to call us towards the BEST POSSIBLE outcome. Not an improbable outcome, but the best one within the boundaries of possibility. Cancer is therefore something that just happens. It is not caused by God, but neither does God 'step in' to take it away. It's up to modern medicine to try and combat cancer as best it can - sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn't. Cancer doesn't always = death. It really doesn't! Having a positive attitude and a determination to fight it can be beneficial, just as a negative and pessimistic attitude can have a detrimental effect on the treatment received.

In good times as well as bad; through illness as well as health; in times of joy and in times of distress, God is always with us. This idea that God is apart from us and occasionally drops into our world to perform some magic trick is so far removed from the Biblical notion of God (although there is three tiered universe posited in the Bible, but this is a cosmological rather than a theological error). You don't need to ask God to help; God already is. You don't need to go to a special Church or place to experience God; God is already beside you and within you. You don't need to confess or repent before God will help; God IS love, and God IS good.

Claims of healings and dramatic interventions are really just that - claims. They rely on an outdated understanding of the Divine that ultimately leaves people feeling worse, because statistically more will be left 'unhealed' than are magically 'healed' - it often pours out feelings of guilt ("was it an unconfessed sin?", "did I not have enough faith?" etc) or gives people a false hope ("maybe next time I'll get healed").

Pastor Brian's visit to the morgue was more to resurrect a dead faith-model than to provide evidence of God's activity in the world, or in HIS particular branch of the church. God is here now (God's never been anywhere else!) but God can only do what can be done. 

Here Comes The Sun (do do do do)

What a beautiful last fews days we've had here in Ulster! The sunshine has been wonderful, and SO warm. Some days the temperature got up to nearly 20C! And I'm not joking.

Good weather does something magical to the people of Northern Ireland. It brings them out on the streets (not a great thing in our recent past) and into the parks. With the first blink of sunshine the usually shy Ulsterman and woman dons shorts and flip flops and heads for the  queue at the nearest overpriced Ice Cream Van.

The sun brings out the best in people. People are  friendlier and keener to chat to complete strangers. Parks and green areas are utilised as they should be. The early evening air carries the pungent smell of hastily incinerated meat products. And everyone's arms, legs and face reek of coconut oil - factor 50 for the red heads amongst us.

If only the last were true! So unused to the sun are we, that with every rise of one degree in temperature there is a equivalent exposure of five inches squared of pasty flesh. And there's where the problem is. With so little sun on offer, especially during our Summer, the temptation is to soak up as many rays as you can before it disappears forever. 

Skin cancer is a problem in Ireland, both North and South, for that very reason. We just don't realise the power of the sun and its potential effect on us here. At the moment there is a great drive towards protecting the environment and respecting Nature, and rightly so. But sometimes we forget that we're part of nature too. We too need protecting. We too need to make sure we're around for our children and grandchildren. We too need to enjoy the sunshine sensibly so that in years to come we can enjoy the sunshine.