Editorial for January 12, 2006
By Jim White
Someone once wrote that true love is “when someone falls from a pedestal on which you have put him-but you catch him.” Every Baptist, indeed every true Christian, was deeply grieved by the news that a prominent pastor and member of the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee was arrested this week by an undercover police officer posing as a male prostitute.
Whether he, or any pastor, should be on a pedestal is beside the point. A public religious figure, a pastor of a prominent church in a large city, a member of his denomination's decision-making group at both the state and national level, cannot escape being placed on a pedestal. The more he decries his unworthiness to be so highly regarded, the more esteemed he becomes. A fall from the pedestal occurs when that person does something so contrary to our commonly-held biblical values that it warrants general reproof-to say nothing of legal consequence. Asking another man to follow him to his hotel room to engage in oral sex certainly qualifies.
In addition to the personal humiliation of the man, his family and his church family, this tragedy creates yet another opportunity for the unredeemed to accuse the church of hypocrisy. It would be natural to feel a measure of anger that his actions have heaped upon the heads of us all a suspicion that we are not what we claim to be. But to the extent we condemn in others what we are willing to overlook in ourselves, the accusation is deserved. If reports are correct, he has been an outspoken critic of homosexuality, which makes his own fall that much more egregious and ironic.
If we self-righteously condemn others for their sins while fostering the impression that we are no longer fighting battles with our own sinfulness, then we deserve not only the name hypocrite, but that of Pharisee as well. We deserve not only to fall, but to go “splat” when we hit bottom.
But when has the Christian life ever been about getting what we deserve? We know what we deserve. The Bible doesn't mince words: “For the wages of sin is death.” Sin deserves death. Not just their sins, but ours. Not just in Hollywood but in Nashville and Richmond. And not just homosexuality, but haughtiness as well. Hypocrisy and spiritual haughtiness occur when we forget what we deserve.
The wonder of life in Christ, however, is that it's not about what we deserve. It's about grace. It's about getting what we don't deserve. It's about forgiveness and redemption. It's about new starts and fresh beginnings. It's about resurrection and restoration. It's about catching a guy who falls from the pedestal even if he deserves to go “splat.”
We Christians aren't soft on sin, we're just firm on grace. We can't dismiss sins, of course. Jesus died for our sins. They are costly. But even while Jesus was dying for sins, he was forgiving them.
What should happen then, when a pastor falls? We should expect the fallen pastor to be honest about his sin, contrite enough to repent, humble enough to confess, wise enough to seek help, and courageous enough to continue to follow Christ's call-however similar or different future ministry might be. We should expect the Christian community to be grieved by the sin; angered by their sense of betrayal; but ready to forgive, and, after requiring of the pastor an appropriate period of soul-searching and healing, ready to restore to ministry that person wherever they believe God is leading.
It has been said, regrettably with some truth, that the Christian army is the only army in the world that shoots its own wounded. There has to be a better way. Perhaps a more excellent way.
I don't know what kind of personal demons this pastor has been fighting nor for how long he has been fighting them. I don't know how tormented his spirit has been nor how troubled has been his conscience. I don't know if this was a sudden impulse or a life-long compulsion. For that matter, I don't know what ministries God may yet have for him nor what trials and cleansings he must pass through before he is ready to resume them.
But, I do know this: the apostle, John, who had spent three years with Jesus, said that Christ followers are to both walk in the light and remember that we are all sinners. “If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives” (1 John 1:6-10).
For my part, I want to be a catcher, not a shooter.