On September 30, about a day after Hurricane Ian hit the coast of Florida, Christian evangelists (and right-wing activists) Mario Murillo and Lance Wallnau announced that their “Fire and Glory Tour” would still take place October 24-25 at Hertz Arena in Estero, Florida, just outside of Fort Myers.
… So the answer is very clear. We are not canceling. And not only are we going ahead with our plans, but we also believe the hurricane has added a great urgency to the event.
More than ever, I know why God chose Estero. And now it is crystal clear that we are in God’s perfect timing.
God knew this storm was coming and He knew what would be going on in the hearts of the people after the storm.
Bold move to say “We are not canceling” because “we are in God’s perfect timing” about 24 hours after a hurricane devastated Fort Myers. The full toll of the damage wasn’t known, but the city was clearly in shambles. (Just this morning, city officials announced that over $600 million worth of damage occurred in Fort Myers alone.)
You know how this story goes.
Yesterday, Murillo announced that they were indeed canceling. The Fort Myers leg of their tour will now take place in December because FEMA and the Red Cross will be using Hertz Arena “to help the victims of hurricane Ian during all of October.”
We deeply regret the inconvenience this will cause. But we have no choice. Our first priority must be to step aside and help the victims of Hurricane Ian in any way we can.
…
But our next most important priority is to guarantee you a seat in the Arena on December 5th and 6th. We want to make this crystal clear: we guarantee you will have a seat for this great event if you use the link below to register now.
There’s nothing wrong with rescheduling the event, obviously. The issue is that this was completely predictable. But instead of acknowledging the error on their end, and instead of admitting that God’s “perfect plan” wasn’t so perfect after all, and instead of apologizing for saying the event would not be cancelled, the two evangelists are just moving forward as if they never made the earlier announcement.
In his more recent post, Murillo doesn’t say one word about why God’s “perfect timing” changed. Self-described “prophets” and preachers like them always cite their knowledge of “God’s Plan”… until the moment it changes, at which point, they rightly assume their most fervent supporters will never fact check what they said in the past.
The old post remains up on the website as of this writing, the website for the tour still lists the October dates, and neither Mario Murillo nor Lance Wallnau has admitted any mistake. It’s unfair, really, that God didn’t give their tech guys a heads up.
(Thanks to Kyle for the tip)