Saturday, February 04, 2006
He Won't Like It...
...but this morning I must heap praise on the head of my friend John Gillmartin - Sheep's Crib - For this post.
Would there wass more of this. In my opinion, scandals of this sort do more harm to the furtherance of the church than a 1000 movies like "Brokeback Mountain."
While the gospel is full of grace, but we cannot afford institutional grace to men such as this. What happens with their eternal life is truly between them and God, but the institutions must keep them at greater than arms length.
I am aghast that Jim Bakker still has a ministry. And while Jimmy Swaggert's confession was the correct way to handle things, regardless, his behavior should have robbed him of his leadership position, at least for a period of several years.
Then there is the damage these people do to the lives of their direct victims. Can you imagine what this does to the faith of the women involved? It is a miracle that they do not all end up cursing God, but many do.
They say that rape is not about sex, it's about power. I think that is what happens in these circumstances. These sexual predators in the guise of God's men get off on manipulating the congregation and they get off on using that manipulation to manipulate women, well usually women though sometimes..., into sex. Language is so important, and the word "rape" has been robbed of much of its meaning through over- and mis-use, but this kind of stuff is much more than adultery or fornication, even if less than rape.
There simply must be punishment to fit the crime. Shame - of course! Excommunication - Definitely. This almost makes me wish churches had jails.
Related Tags: Christianity, church, hyposcrisy, sin, leadership, adultery, Sheeps Crib
The scandals come with such consistency that I'm of the opinion that every church leader in the world bears watching; somehow we all need to be held accountable for our walk. God said nothing is hid from Him but the reports I'm reading are far too serious to go unheeded.After this description, John goes on to condemn this in the kind of strong language that is truly called for
In the report linked above we're told Pastor Earl Paulk stood with the family as a precious baby girl was born; later Paulk would dedicated her to the Lord, then celebrate her high school graduation, and then, when in her thirties, he would foul her marriage bed ... this in spite of the fact Paulk arranged her marriage to his best friend.
I realize the most difficult of the gifts of the Spirit is self-control [Galatians 5:23] but that's just tough applesauce. We are a people of faith and power to overcome the flesh is given to those who will walk by the Spirit [Romans 8].John is apparently going to write a couple more posts on the subject of corruption in the pulpit. Being a preacher himself, this is brave stuff for John to write. Part of the reason this stuff happens with such frequency is "the fraternity" is always slow to condemn its own.It will, I believe, be everywhere found, that as the clergy are, or are not what they ought to be, so are the rest of the nation. [Jane Austen (1775 - 1817), Mansfield Park]The kind of behavior we're seeing here is why we see people like Steven Weinberg say things like this in the paper of record ...With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. [Steven Weinberg (1933 - ), quoted in The New York Times, April 20, 1999]Jesus warned us we would know the Paulks "by their fruits"! Oh, if this is not an indictment upon our current church leadership I have no idea of what might be!
Would there wass more of this. In my opinion, scandals of this sort do more harm to the furtherance of the church than a 1000 movies like "Brokeback Mountain."
While the gospel is full of grace, but we cannot afford institutional grace to men such as this. What happens with their eternal life is truly between them and God, but the institutions must keep them at greater than arms length.
I am aghast that Jim Bakker still has a ministry. And while Jimmy Swaggert's confession was the correct way to handle things, regardless, his behavior should have robbed him of his leadership position, at least for a period of several years.
Then there is the damage these people do to the lives of their direct victims. Can you imagine what this does to the faith of the women involved? It is a miracle that they do not all end up cursing God, but many do.
They say that rape is not about sex, it's about power. I think that is what happens in these circumstances. These sexual predators in the guise of God's men get off on manipulating the congregation and they get off on using that manipulation to manipulate women, well usually women though sometimes..., into sex. Language is so important, and the word "rape" has been robbed of much of its meaning through over- and mis-use, but this kind of stuff is much more than adultery or fornication, even if less than rape.
There simply must be punishment to fit the crime. Shame - of course! Excommunication - Definitely. This almost makes me wish churches had jails.
Related Tags: Christianity, church, hyposcrisy, sin, leadership, adultery, Sheeps Crib
