By John Ed Mathison
Executive Director
John Ed Mathison Leadership Ministries
I love doctors. Whenever I go to a church to speak I always like to know where the
nearest doctors are. At my age, that is an important thing to know!
I am glad I have good doctors. I surely don’t want somebody posing as a doctor who really doesn’t know and practice medicine.A Florida teenager recently went into the St. Mary’s Medical Center in Palm Beach wearing a lab coat and a stethoscope. He was just pretending to be a doctor. He actually was there for a month before he was discovered!
One day a patient just made the comment that he saw a very young-looking doctor in the exam room. A real doctor, Dr. Sebastian Kent, confronted the young man and asked him who he was and he said “Dr. Robinson.” When he started asking a few questions he knew that he was an imposter.
Dr. Kent said, “I thought I was really getting old, because these young doctors look younger every year.” It doesn’t matter to me how young or how old you are, I want to know that when you have a stethoscope and lab coat that you are the real deal.
It is amazing how easily fooled we can all be. About six months ago a Harvard researcher wanted to see if he could publish something that had no relevance to truth, but would appear sophisticated. He used a random text generator to write about a phony study. It really was just gibberish. He presented it for publication. Would you belief that it was accepted by 17 medical journals! He entitled the study “Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs.” 17 medical journals!
A few years ago Ferdinand Waldo Demara, Jr., was arrested – for the twelfth time. He was known as “The Great Imposter.” He actually was a school dropout, with no credentials or qualifications. He had posed and worked as a university vice-president, psychology professor, a Trappist monk, assistant warden for a Texas prison, an auditor for a bank, flew commercial airlines for two months, and as a surgeon in the Canadian Navy.
He was a clever imposter. Once in Georgia the police were preparing to arrest him. He showed up with a badge and false identification papers from Texas. He had an authentic arrest warrant for himself and requested that the Georgia officers let him accompany them to arrest Ferdinand. That gives new meaning to the phrase “Where’s Waldo?”
Sports’ has its imposters. Last year Ridgeway High in Memphis was eliminated from the State playoffs when they discovered that a senior forward was actually a 22-year-old man who had had a woman pose as his mother and submit a fake transcript to the school.
Don’t be fooled in life. There are imposters in all facets of life. Satan is the biggest imposter. Look out for “wolves in sheep’s clothing.” Timothy warns that “evil men and imposters will proceed from bad to worse.” (II Timothy 3:13)
There is no place for imposters in the Christian community.
John Ed’s blog posts appear each week in For His Glory.
Contact: JAM Executive Suite 4,4131 Carmichael Road, Montgomery, AL 36106 Phone: 334-270-2149 Email:info@johnedmathison.org
For His Glory 