Get the Plank Out
A few weeks ago, I briefly wrote about Michael Guglielmucci, the pastor down in Melbourne who faked cancer in order to cover up his pornography addiction. Sadly, he’s not the only high-profile Christian to fall victim to the deceits of the world. American pastor Ted Haggard fell hard a year or two ago, and just recently, controversial charismatic preacher Todd Bentley announced an extramarital emotional relationship which has caused his wife to file for separation.
This is a very compelling story line for me, and, while the scenarios are completely different, it reminds me of something I read and wrote about back in March of 2008, before ZA was launched.
If you didn’t hear much about this incident, here’s the details. A 24-year-old guy named Matthew Murray shot nine people on December 9, 2007. He shot four and killed two at a Youth With A Mission base, then went to New Life Church (where Mr. Haggard was once senior pastor) in Colorado Springs and shot 5 people after a church service, killing two. He was shot by a security guard at the church, but the fatal bullet came from Murray’s own gun. Wikipedia provides a good overview.
Later on, a letter that was found in Murray’s car, a letter that he had written. We don’t know when he wrote it. The story on the letter, along with copies of the original letters shown in Murray’s own hand, can be found here.
I read the letter, and it made my heart break. Here was the cry of a lost and confused soul! All of the original portrayals of Murray was showed a man who had left his Christian upbringing and loathed the establishment. He had a blog where he posted such lines as “”I’m coming for EVERYONE soon and I WILL be armed to the @#%$ teeth and I WILL shoot to kill. …God, I can’t wait till I can kill you people. Feel no remorse, no sense of shame, I don’t care if I live or die in the shoot-out. All I want to do is kill and injure as many of you … as I can especially Christians who are to blame for most of the problems in the world.” (source) And this was typical. Hateful, remorseless, angry, disillusioned.
However, the new letter really exposed his human side. This guy wasn’t an unforgivable monster, he was a human being who, when faced with a lot of temptations and trials, merely made wrong choices.
Truth be told, he reminds me of another person, one who has been crucified by the media and popular culture for centuries but to me is a character on whom I take pity. His name is Judas Iscariot, and he too faced temptation and went the wrong way with it. I think it’s interesting that Murray had a chance for atonement as well; but, like Judas, he too chose to end his own life instead of attempting to reconcile. I’d imagine that Judas had an inner monologue that is very similar to the letter that Murray wrote before becoming set in his actions and committing his crime.
So that was one observation. The other observation involves the issue of blame. As an American, I guess I get swept up in our obsession to figure out whose FAULT it was. Most people ask because they want a scapegoat, a figure to direct their grief and anger at. However, I ask the question more as a means of finding a solution. Is the hypocritical, lukewarm church responsible for driving a man to murder, or is Mr. Murray merely a nut who is solely responsible for his actions? The same question could be asked of Mr. Guglielmucci. Do we blame the man, do we blame the culture, or do we blame the people who could have held him more accountable?
I have an opinion, but I don’t think “Who’s to blame?” is a really good question at all. In fact, I think it’s a terrible question, because to blame someone definitively would absolve the others, and no one is innocent in this situation. It reminds me of Luke 13:1-5, where people want to know if a greater sin caused a greater calamity, and Jesus merely brushes the question aside and says that everyone needs to repent!
And I think that’s the case here. The church is guilty! Murray’s letter says that “all the Christians I see or meet are miserable, angry, selfish, hypocritical, proud, power hungry, abusive, uncaring, confused, lustful, greedy, unsure of their doctrine and mean-spirited” - and many who claim to be Christians are! I mean, look at the church he shot up! The senior pastor had resigned just a month before the shooting because he was soliciting sex from a male consort and using drugs to enhance the experience! Can you honestly say that that doesn’t have an effect? But what about the millions of other Christians who, faced with the same hypocrisy, continue to press on and not let it affect their faith? Murray was thrown out of the YWAM base before. What about the people who have been excommunicated from the church and subsequently humbled themselves, repented, and came back?
What about Mr. Guglielmucci? We look at his song “Healer” and wonder if we can sing it, knowing about this man’s hypocrisy when he wrote it. But we forget about the sin and hypocrisy that is in the life of every Christian, including ourselves! If God can use me to write an article when I’m not at my spiritual best, He can certainly use a guy like Mr. Guglielmucci to write a song. We get so focused on him, we forget about ourselves. It’s the “speck of sawdust in their eye/plank in ours” idea.
The church has sinned. Matthew Murray sinned. Michael Guglielmucci, Ted Haggard, and Todd Bentley have sinned. We, the bystander, need to repent, or, like Jesus said in Luke, “you will all likewise perish”!
And THAT is the real lesson that we need to learn. We don’t need to hate these guys, and we definitely don’t need to hate Christianity. You, sir or madam, need to look at your own life and figure out what YOU need to do to get YOUR life in order!
Grace and peace,
Brendan
