This is huge everywhere. For a reliable source of this news check out the links in ChristianityToday’s news page.
Okay, I neither want to beat a dead horse nor do I want to repeat all the accusations against Mike, ad nauseam. I’m not like OMG! Mike is teh sux0r!1!0!1!
I first came across the news of Mike’s deception a while back, though I never really realised how big it was. Mike apparently wrote one of the popular song, Healer and performed it to a huge Hillsong Australia crowd. Now, I’m not a huge fan of Hillsong by any means, though I do have one album of their youth team United. So, it is no surprise that I did not know of this whole shebang before. And, it is a good thing. I’m not into hugely “emotional” ways of worshipping where stuff like this can creep into quickly [though, I do not abhor appropriate emotion entirely in worship settings].
Although I can empathise with the reactions of some of the young Christians, I feel that some of their very negative reactions are hardly reasonable, and hardly “Christian”.
As a dude who is interested in the psychology of things, it was interesting to note that some of the physical symptoms Mike was showing originated when his porn addiction began:
“When he was about 12 he did vomit all the time, he’d get really really sick,” [Danny Guglielmucci, Mike's father] said.
“He was in the Adelaide Children’s Hospital for seven weeks at one stage; he didn’t eat and we thought we were going to lose him.”
“They took out his appendix, thinking that it might be that, but they realised that it wasn’t.”
“We signed him out from hospital and then he would go a few months and then he would get sick again.”
“We’d always take him to hospital; we’d always do the proper thing but they couldn’t get to the bottom of it until now.”
“We have watched our son go through what we thought was cancer,” [Mike's father] said. “My wife and I, over the past two years, have watched him vomit in buckets, having nosebleeds, and even his hair fell out in clumps at one stage.”
“Every time we saw him, we saw symptoms. He stayed with us for a while where we had to put a special air-conditioner in one of the rooms because he would heat up so much in the middle of winter.”
“He had this cold air-conditioner blowing on him to try to keep the heat down. As a professional minister I’ve stood in front of my congregation and cried and said to pray for my son.”
From here
That’s quite extreme, you know, the symptoms. Its like tons and tons of guilt blowing up inside. The fact that Mike is a youth pastor would have contributed much to his depression, I reckon. All that cognitive dissonance is on a completely different level on Mike’s case. It must have been mind blowing. If what is related by Mike’s father is accurate, I truly feel sorry for this man.
Many Christians have completely renounced Mike’s song, Healer. However, I take the song as expressing Mike’s own desire to be healed from his addiction. I believe it will be a good song for Christians who are struggling with addictions to relate to. I think the lyrics express this:
“You hold my every moment
You calm my raging seas
You walk with me through fire
And heal all my disease”“I trust in You
I trust in You”“I believe You’re my Healer
I believe You are all I need
I believe You’re my Portion
I believe You’re more than enough for me
Jesus You’re all I need”“Nothing is impossible for You
Nothing is impossible for You
Nothing is impossible for You
You hold my world in Your hands”
I’m sorry that Mike had to express his true desires couched in a deceptive story. When I think about the whole episode, I think, “Man, Freud would have had a field day in this dude’s life!”. It is that exotic, psychologically.
September 14, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Good post – I completely agree that Freud would have a field day with this one
As you say, the physical side-effects of his compulsion are profound; such was the level of guilt and shame that he was going through at such a young age. I really feel for the guy.
September 15, 2008 at 9:15 am
Can’t say what Mike did and didn’t do when he was 12. i wasn’t there. Where’s other evidence? The main fact is we were shamelessly deceived by a megaChurch crowd magnet. Full marks to the AOG/ACC leadership for stunning PR. Thanks for your clear thoughts.
September 15, 2008 at 10:48 am
Hi Liz Jakes & Sam,
You asked:
“Can’t say what Mike did and didn’t do when he was 12. i wasn’t there. Where’s other evidence?”
I don’t know. I was mainly going from what Mike’s father revealed, assuming what he said is true. It is hard to trust him too isn’t it? I suspect, some of the details of what Danny is saying might not be entirely accurate. He too might have suspected something but unable put his finger on it.
But yeah, I agree with you that the “Megachurch” craze is a fertile ground for schemings like this.
Thanks for commenting.
September 16, 2008 at 8:30 pm
I feel for Mike as well. I wrote a post about this when I first heard about it – http://www.covenanteyes.com/blog/2008/08/28/pastor-confesses-to-16-year-porn-addiction/
I am hoping that the song, Healer, really becomes an anthem for those struggling with porn addiction. While the whole story baffles and confuses me, it seems that this was the real cry of Mike’s heart: to be set free from his guilt and shame.