http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Peter_WoronieckiMichael Peter Woroniecki, (A.K.A. Michael Warnecki, Worneki, Mike War and Shabar Ben), born February 4, 1954, is a self-ordained, itinerant, "fire and brimstone" preacher.[1]
One of his disciples was Andrea Pia Yates, to her detriment. His relationships with some of his disciples have been newsworthy.[2][3]
Contents
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* 1 Early life
* 2 Religious revival
* 3 Religious training
* 4 Preaching career
o 4.1 Andrea Yates case
* 5 Post-Yates career
* 6 Notes
* 7 References
* 8 External links
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Early life
Woroniecki was the youngest of a large Polish Catholic family who was raised in the city of Grand Rapids, Michigan. His mother became involved in the Catholic Charismatic Movement in the early 1970s and was earnestly seeking to introduce her remaining children to the "born again" experience. In 1971, seeking a way out of Grand Rapids, he "made a deal with God" that he would attend spiritual prayer meetings with his mother if he could make All-City Tailback and get a scholarship for college. He got the title and the scholarship.
Woroniecki attended Central Michigan University (CMU) from 1972 to 1976. However, when he arrived at college, Woroniecki says he had a "wild streak" involving himself in sex, drugs and alcohol, once being arrested for assaulting someone in a nearby college bar. He suffered a disabling football injury that threatened to destroy his dreams. Around April 1974 Woroniecki's mother gave him a Bible, which he began reading.
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Religious revival
Woroniecki attended the annual Catholic Charismatic Conference at Notre Dame University the weekend of June 14, 1974 with his mother, Rose, and sister, Mariane. Michael was in the stadium when he told God that he didn't know what this saying "born again" meant, but that he wanted everything the Lord had for him. At that moment, Michael believes that he was infused with the Holy Spirit and was born again.
In his remaining years at CMU, Woroniecki met his then cheerleader girlfriend, Leslie Jean Ochalek of Detroit (renamed "Rachel" in 1992), who would become his wife in 1979. He became the president of his Fellowship of Christian Athletes chapter. According to his own recorded testimony, he was attending an FCA retreat when he began to call all of his Christian peers "phonies." Distraught with his inability to control himself, he sought the counsel of his director-minister Dave Van Dam who then suggested to him that maybe he was called to be a "Jeremiah" (the office of a prophet who preached destruction).
Woroniecki obtained a B.S. in Psychology from CMU in 1976.
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Religious training
Michael attended Melodyland School of Theology at Anaheim, California starting in 1976. His mother died in July 1977 from colon cancer. He made an attempt before many people to raise her from the dead, but he failed in tears and embarrassment. There is a hint from his teaching materials that suggests the church cited his failure to heal and raise her was due to a lack of faith on his part, a teaching that Woroniecki now abhors. He applied to the Dominican and Franciscan Orders of the Catholic Church thereafter, but he was rejected both times on the basis he was "too zealous."
In 1978, Woroniecki was accepted at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, CA. In 1980, he met a lone radical street preacher carrying a sign, possibly Robert Engel, (A.K.A. Bobby Bible and Bobby Biblestein) or one of his disciples from the now disbanded Christian Brothers Church formerly based out of Long Beach, CA. (Some former disciples of Engel run a website at
www.preachtruth.org which Engel confirms is a faithful reproduction of his doctrines.) He criticized the students and faculty of Fuller Seminary for their comfortable "indoor" Christianity. He also carried a message that women are "witches" whose usurping nature of Eve was responsible for the fall of mankind, a teaching Woroniecki apparently gleaned from him. He assumed this same outdoor style, standing outside chapel criticizing his peers for what he perceived was their hypocritical confidence in their scholastic religious pride. He was again seen preaching several times at Fuller Mall. Woroniecki obtainied his Masters of Divinity degree in 1980.
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Preaching career
Michael returned to Grand Rapids in 1980 where he preached on the streets with a sign and a bull horn, starting his own unordained ministry called Cornerstone Christian Fellowship. He was arrested nine times for disorderly conduct and disturbing the peace. Faced with two upcoming trials in the first week of October, 1981, one of which involved a woman he allegedly followed for two city blocks, berating to tears, Woroniecki phoned the City District Attorney's office with a plea offer. He would leave town if the remaining six charges against him were dropped. The D.A. submitted his request to the District Court and the plea offer was accepted. He left for the city of Atlanta, Georgia where high volume street preaching was permitted. Woroniecki claimed in the Grand Rapids Press that he was coerced into leaving, but he later conceded in Suzanne O'Malley's book, Are You Alone? that he was the one who suggested the deal. Woroniecki returned to Grand Rapids in June of 1983 to once again preach there. He was arrested a tenth and final time. Woroniecki pleaded no contest, paid a $105 fine and never returned to preach there again.
Woroniecki is arrested at Brigham Young University in 1994.
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Woroniecki is arrested at Brigham Young University in 1994.
Since then, Woroniecki has preached his gospel of "hellfire and damnation" throughout the continental U.S., Latin America and Europe. He and his family visited Casablanca in Morocco and preached on a streetcorner there. They were interrogated for eight hours by officials, then ordered to leave the country because attempting to convert a Muslim is considered a crime there. He went to Spain thereafter, where another confrontation with police resulted in Mr. Woroniecki physically wrestling with the officers and pushing one of them. Audio excerpt of Mr. Woroniecki's admission.
The central message Woroniecki has carried mainly to college campuses throughout the United States since 1980 is that all Christian churches are antichrist preaching a "false and polluted twentieth century gospel" which he believes has no redemptive power. Consequently, the only people on earth that he believes are saved are himself, his wife and his six children. When people ask him if anyone else is saved, Woroniecki often replies quoting Jesus from the gospels, "As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be at the coming of the Son of Man" (a time in which only eight persons were saved in an ark from a worldwide deluge, he says, emphasis on "eight.") If anyone else happens to be saved, he has told his disciples, he just hasn't met them yet.
He believes that "institutionalized education, along with employment and secular social activities, is a waste of time in God's eyes." Woroniecki preaches "that unless a person lives a jobless life spent preaching the gospel, he is damned to hell."
In 1989, when Woroniecki was confronted with the fact that one of his followers was hospitalized for attempting suicide, the follower claiming that the attempt was a consequence of the preacher's persistent condemning rebukes, Woroniecki countered on a widely distributed teaching tape saying that "suicide is the greatest self obsession." He dismissed the suicidal Texas A&M student with mockery for projecting blame onto his gospel message and for refusing to accept responsibility for his own emotional state. Audio Excerpt
Others have claimed to become depressed or anxious to the point of contemplating or attempting suicide after dwelling upon Woroniecki's messages. David De La Isla of Houston Texas claimed on national television that he also became suicidal as a result of Woroniecki's beratings. Woroniecki dismissed De La Isla on ABC Good Morning America saying that he only knew him for "fifteen minutes in a McDonalds fifteen years ago," despite the disciple's possession of a stack of letters he received from him over a period of twelve years, ABC host Charles Gibson pointed out.
Woroniecki was arrested at Brigham Young University in 1994 for disturbing the peace and preaching without a permit.[4]
In a video sent to followers in 1996, Michael Woroniecki emphatically warns followers who are parents that unless they abandon their "husband goes to work, wife just exists" Christian lifestyle (like the Yates were living), quit their jobs and take up his prophetic, itinerant lifestyle, their children would not be properly trained "in the Lord," reach accountability and "perish in hellfire." He also added that because of Mt. 18:6 the parents would suffer the "most severe judgment" for allowing an innocent child to stumble in this way. He also taught that it was better for parents to commit suicide than cause their offspring to stumble and go to hell.
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Andrea Yates case
On June 20, 2001, one of Woroniecki's disciples for the previous nine years, Andrea Pia Yates killed all five of her children. Eventually, Woroniecki surfaced in the media when evidence was admitted in court implicating Woroniecki's teaching in a newsletter called The Perilous Times as having negatively scripted Andrea's psychotic mind.[5][6]
Woroniecki became the focus of national media attention in March of 2002 for his influence on Yates.Letters from the Woroniecki family were found by investigative author Suzy Spencer that berated Andrea over her unrighteous standing before God. Only two months after receiving the harsh letters from the Woroniecki's, Andrea was hospitalized twice for two separate suicide attempts.[7][8][9]
Woroniecki's wife said on a March 27, 2002 interview of ABC's Good Morning America that the greatest problem they have with disciples is that "they try to emulate their lifestyle without coming to Jesus," suggesting that their disciples mistakenly choose to place themselves under the "yoke" of the Law of God, consequently crushing themselves under its burdensome weight.
Woroniecki denies that he had anything at all to do with negatively influencing Yates. He claims in a letter postmarked October 24, 2002 to author Suzanne O'Malley that Andrea's motive for killing her children was based on a deep and intense hatred for her husband that he learned from prior ministerial conversations with her and that she and the media conspired to use "religious rhetoric" to cover up her true motive. Only five months earlier, Woroniecki told the Leslie Primeau Show at CHED AM 630 in Edmonton, Canada that he had "no idea" what Andrea's true motive was, according to a recorded excerpt of the broadcast at an ex-follower's website.
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Post-Yates career
Woroniecki and his family remain active with their message.[10][11][12][13][14][15]
Two daughters of Mr. Woroniecki preached in 2005:
"You are on the wrong path, and there is nothing you can do about it... God's message is not unconditional love. It's unrelenting anguish and hopelessness!"[16]
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Notes
1. ^ *Oregon family delivers fire, brimstone sermon Oct. 1, 1998, PSU
2. ^ Eyes of a Recovering Mike-a-holic
3. ^ The Ultimate False Prophet by ex-follower
4. ^ *Anti-Mormon Protest Disturbs Campus BYU Press, October 6, 1994
5. ^ ABC NEWS, The Evil Inside, Jan. 21, 2002
6. ^ CrimeLibrary review of Yates case
7. ^ Rick A. Ross Institute News Summary March 18, 2002
8. ^ World Net Daily, Beware of Poisonous Preachers Mar. 23, 2002
9. ^ Archived Dallas Morning News Article April 6, 2002
10. ^ Traveling preachers descend onto PSU Sept. 23, 2004
11. ^ Zealots preach in Oak Grove September 27, 2004 The Penn, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
12. ^ Yates was one of Woroniecki's followers Sept. 30, 2004
13. ^ Relgious solicitors harass students October 5, 2004 The Collegiate Times, Virginia Polytechnic & State University
14. ^ Religious enthusiasts identified October 6, 2004
15. ^ Family warns, preaches: 'We are ... going to Hell'Oct. 18, 2005 The Digital Collegian, PSU
16. ^ The overture to Hell? The Collegian - student newspaper of the University of Richmond, Sep. 29, 2005.
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References
* "Are You Alone?" by Suzanne O'Malley
* "Breaking Point," by Suzy Spencer
* Dallas Morning News, Religion Section, April 6, 2002
* KTRK NEWS-Houston (ABC Affiliate), 15 broadcasts in 2002 investigating blame in the Yates tragedy: Jan. 21; Feb. 26; Mar. 4,17,18,21,27,28.
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External links
* Countercult.com profile of Michael Woroniecki
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Peter_Woroniecki"
Categories: 1954 births | Christian fundamentalism | Living people