“Machine Gun Preacher” disowned by SPLM

“Machine Gun Preacher” disowned by SPLM
This is a very strange case of a former US evangelical missionary who makes extraordinary claims which do not seem to be backed up by evidence on the ground. He has been disowned by the local church in southern Sudan and now also by the SPLA. It appears

http://content.usatoday.com/topics/article/Places,+Geography/Countries/Sudan/0coZh0MfNa6si/1

The story links to this site which has a document from the SPLA (?)

http://www.rovingbandit.com/2010/10/machine-gun-preacher-disowned-by-splm.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+RovingBandit+%28Roving+Bandit%29

I have no idea if this is legit or how it will affect the movie.....

Here's the letter. The wording of the legal threat is interesting - SPLA is urging other people to take action against Childers for using the SPLA's name???

This is a very, very strange story, Dallas. Thanks for posting.

The 14th October was a busy day for the General:

http://jubapost.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=898:spla-saf-trade-blames-&catid=37:latest-news&Itemid=67

ohhh dear that something again ...

Very interesting.

I didn't really speak with Sam when I met him, so no. Our meeting was only for a brief time and we didn't speak anything about his work.

thats a shame really ! I wonder whats gonna happen now !

If this is true, I'm highly disturbed by this news. Let's hope Sam makes a statement soon.

Don't know what to think of it.

i think sam needs to make some sort of statement as well. nip this in the bud NOW!

Now the Daily Mail is talking about it:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2028806/Biker-turned-Christian-preacher-claims-saved-child-soldiers-militia-Sudan-telling-lie-says-army-general.html?ito=feeds-newsxml



Biker turned Christian preacher who claims he saved child soldiers from militia in Sudan is 'telling a lie', says army general
By Louise Boyle


The real-life tale of a former drug-dealing biker turned born-again Christian missionary who rescued child soldiers is the swashbuckling stuff that Hollywood dreams are made of.

The story of Sam Childers looks likely to earn millions next month when it comes to the big screen as The Machine Gun Preacher, starring Gerard Butler in the title role.

However all may not quite be as it seems. An army general has said that Childers claims he fought with the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA) are 'a lie'.

Childers is a one-time gun-totting criminal from Pennsylvania who changed his ways after finding God.

His missionary work lead him to the African state which was beleaguered by a violent 22-year civil war.
Lieutenant-General Obuto Mamur Mete, a senior official in the SPLA, said Childers never battled against the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), the brutal militia which kidnapped thousands of children to train as soldiers and murdered hundreds of thousands of Sudanese people.
Lieutenant-General Mete told the Sunday Times: 'Sam Childers was responsible for an orphanage in southern Sudan, that was all.


'His claims to have fought alongside us are a lie. He has never even seen the LRA.'
Sam Childers began selling drugs as a teenager and sunk deeper into a life of crime, eventually becoming an armed guard for a drug baron.


Childers and his wife Lynn, a former stripper, turned their lives around once the couple found God, according to his website machinegunpreacher.org.

He started his own successful construction business and the couple had a daughter.
In the late Nineties, as part of his work with the church, Childers arrived in Sudan to use his building skills to help repair villages ravaged by war.

It was while in Sudan, he is said to have received a message from God telling him to build an orphanage in a village near the Ugandan border.
He funded the project after selling his construction firm and almost lost the family home in the process.

It is once the orphanage was complete that Childers claims he rescued children from the LRA.

In previous interviews, Childers has claimed to have killed ten LRA rebels and that God sometimes instructed him when to take a shot.

According to the site: 'It wasn’t long before tales of his exploits spread and villagers began to call him ''The Machine Gun Preacher'''.
The missionary also wrote in his book that he was present during deals to broker peace which brought about the end of Sudan's civil war six years ago. The SPLA have denied these statements.


Although the veracity of some of his tales have been tested, the orphanage has stood for 13 years in southern Sudan and has cared for more than 1,000 children.

However another Sudanese general Martin Kenyi said that the orphanage Childers founded is soon to be closed down.

The film starring Gerard Butler is based on Childers' biography Another Man’s War.
Earlier this year, another American philanthropist was accused of lying about his charity work.

Greg Mortenson, who is a favourite of President Obama, wrote the bestseller Three Cups Of Tea and is executive director of the Central Asia Institute.
Critics accused him of fabricating important parts of his story and using his charity as 'his own private ATM' during a programme by CBS' investigative news series 60 Minutes.
One claim, that he was kidnapped by Taliban on a visit in July 1996 - also related in Three Cups Of Tea and the later Stones Into Schools - was said to be untrue.
Mansur Khan Mahuud, allegedly pictured as one of the 'Taliban', is the research director of an Islamabad think tank and told 60 Minutes the men were not kidnappers, but protectors: 'This is totally false and he is lying. He was not kidnapped.'
Mr Mortenson explained: 'It's really complicated, but I'm not a journalist. I don't take a lot of notes'.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2028806/Biker-turned-Christian-preacher-claims-saved-child-soldiers-militia-Sudan-telling-lie-says-army-general.html#ixzz1VpUbxCZ1

This just gets wierder and wierder. The MGP Realities Series Facebook added a letter on August 4 from the same general stating that he had worked with the SPLA for the past 10 years. It was dated July 12, 2011.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=261380137207432&set=a.120677037944410.20966.110937948918319&type=1&theater

I wonder if this recent statement is a clarification of the letter, i.e. that he never FOUGHT alongside the SPLA and that he has never seen the LRA. The claim by another general that the orphanage is soon to be closed down is also disturbing.


It's interesting that Southern Sudan became an independent country on July 9, 2011. I wonder if this general is now getting pressure about his letter he wrote 3 days later, hence the new statement?

It's all so odd.


I wonder if this will be an issue when the film is released.

There will always be differing opinions. Some people nowadays don't believe the Nazi Holocausts happened. They're wrong, but they're entitled to to be wrong.

I find it interesting that all this fuss comes out right before the movie is set to be released. Which makes me think one possibility is that those who make these claims have another agenda or are wanting money to go away. Maybe they thought the makers of the movie would want to see this story go away so they are hoping to take advantage of that. Sam Childers has been on the scene a while. Why does this only break the month before a movie based on his work is about to be released? I don't know. I agree with Julie though. Opinions about something so complicated involving so many people with so many different agendas are always going to result in differing opinions as to how something actually went down.

I take these stories like I take most stories involving scandal, rumor, etc.: Maybe it's completely true. Maybe it's partially true. Maybe it's completely false.

ETA: Okay, I'm a dork. I just now realized that the first breaking of this story in this thread was dated almost a year ago. So, obviously we aren't just hearing of this for the first time right before the movie opens. But at least some of my opinions on the validity, or lack there of, of the allegations are still fair points, I think.

We're hearing more because a lot of people are now seeing the trailer. The hubbub is actually free advertisement. It's one of those movies I would never hear about if it weren't for the controversies.