A nasty rumour surfaced recently that charismatic Christian speaker and author Joyce Meyer had passed away. Her ministry was immediately bombarded with calls from sympathisers mourning her loss, prompting Meyer to come out and dismiss the rumour.
Meyer, wearing a simple pink shirt, said in a Facebook video that she is alive and well, and that supporters need not worry. "Hi everybody, it's Joyce. I just wanted to let you know that there's been a rumour going around on the web that I died last Thursday, and that my body is now in the morgue getting ready for an autopsy. As you can see, that is totally not true, it is some kind of silly rumour put out to waste people's time," she says.
"We have been getting all kinds of calls, and although I am very glad that you are concerned about me — I wouldn't want to die and have you not concerned about me — I am alive and well, and I plan to be in Cleveland next weekend doing a conference," she adds.
Meyer did not say who started the rumour, but The Christian Post believes her fake death was reported by the satirical website called Updater24, which claimed that Meyer had died on Thursday. The website also claimed to have sourced the information from a website called "Christians Post," which should not be mistaken for The Christian Post.
Updater24 has made its reputation as a "previously-unknown website of extremely dubious veracity." Its readers are often unsure whether its reports are supposed to be satirical or simply untrue. Some of its other news items include "Garden of Eden discovered in Grenade" and "Woman Gives birth to frog-like baby in Suva."
