Friends, Faces and Facades - The Truth Behind the Failure of Identity Struggle and SonNetShirts

We are not comfortable with drama, we dislike being caught up in personal controversy, and we really do not like talking about people in the manner in which we are about to talk. But a shepherd's job is not only to feed the sheep, he must also occasionally run off the wolves. The wolves don't like being run off, so they cause drama when they resist. Sometimes we have to fulfill that function, whether we like it or not.

Sadly, it happens quite often, that there are people whom we think that we know, and may even think that we love, but when we really get to see them for what they are, we find that they are not the people that we know at all. Sometimes, even when people seem to support our cause, they are really only doing it in order to get more support for themselves, to draw people off after themselves. It is often difficult to tell who is a sincere fellow-worker, and who is looking to subvert a cause for their own gain. But whether they are sick or sinful sheep, or whether they are actually wolves in sheep's clothing, is often difficult for us to tell. So we must judge them by their works, and let Yahweh our God sort them out in the end.

Recently we have had some divisions in our own fellowship, and our wider Christogenea community. So accusations have been made on many sides. Often, accusations are made so that a person can cover for his own crimes, hoping that enough people believe his lies that he might seem credible to others. Some of the things we have experienced this year really disappointed and even sickened us. I was forced to close a couple of websites which I owned or managed for others, because the men who provided the content for them began preaching Napoleon Hill and Neville Goddard in place of the Gospel of Christ. These men, sputtering some ridiculous so-called “law of attraction”, started uttering prophesies of their own personal enrichment and self-aggrandizement, while calling themselves pastors. They are still doing that on Youtube and elsewhere, but they are certainly no longer going to do it at Christogenea.

One of these men, who went by the pseudonym of Arthur Lee, was introduced to a long-time supporter of our work at Christogenea a year or so ago. Our supporter, Willie Nelson, was so impressed by Arthur Lee, whose real name is Michael, that he chose to support him and set him up in a t-shirt business, which we called sonnetshirts.com. I supplied the online platform and technology at my own expense, and Willie supplied the actual shirt-making equipment and start-up funding at much greater expense. I advertised the business at Christogenea, and let Michael post all of our designs, so that much more revenue from our t-shirt sales would go to him than to ourselves. But due to Michael's mismanagement, which is actually a euphemism for how he ran the company, the online venture failed in a little over two months.

When it failed, I asked Michael what happened, and he told me that Willie Nelson closed the bank accounts for the venture for no reason, then he said something like “Willie Nelson is not a good person, he flies off the handle really easily. He screams and yells at us for no reason.” He told me that “Willie Nelson is a madman.” Melissa remembers his words well, and was surprised by them. It would be months before Willie, who is generally a humble but nevertheless outspoken man, finally contacted me to tell me his side of the story, and I believe him.

Michael has just started a new website, which he registered under his own name without any identity protection. Therefore I am not “doxxing” him by using his name here, because he already doxxed himself. But because Michael has begun a new website, called identityfaith.org, where he is attempting to rebuild his so-called ministry, and because there is more to the sonnet shirt story than what I have told thus far, and because it is my obligation to protect those who follow our work at Christogenea, here I have Willie Nelson himself here to share his experiences with Michael and his wife, Jessica.