November 06, 2006
Ted Haggard; Part II
(Heavy sigh.) The story is a wearily familiar one: A pastor falls. A moral failure (or sometimes a pattern of moral failure) comes to light. Confessions are made. Tears are shed. Resignations are tendered and accepted. And invariably, Christians are shocked, shaken, disillusioned, disappointed, bewildered, and so on.
I don’t mean to trivialize it. It is bewildering. But why? Why is it so shocking that pastors and religious leaders prove to be just as frail and statistically prone to addictions, secret sins or general boneheaded-ness as, say, Christian CPAs?
This Haggard thing has me pondering. You see, I’m an introspective guy and have made it a lifelong practice to question my assumptions. To examine my presuppositions. To test the validity of my “givens.” (To beat simple concepts senseless by expressing them in many different ways!)
Lying quietly underneath our gobsmack-ed-ness at the latest preacher scandal is a presupposition. That presupposition is: Preachers are more spiritual and closer to God than we are. They are, in pretty much every way, better Christians.
But neighbor, that ain’t necessarily so. No disrespect intended mind you, but 25+ years of working in ministry—and actually having been an Associate Pastor at a megachurch myself—has shown me how unfounded (and dangerous) this assumption really is.
Don’t get me wrong. The vast majority of the men and women I have known who felt and answered a call to full-time Christian service were each wonderful examples of of a Jesus-follower. But the same is true of the vast majority of lay-Christians I have known. Both groups were filled with flawed, but redeemed works-in-progress. It’s just that the first group got called to be professional Christians and the second group got called to be cowboys and doctors and lawyers and such.
Of course, the book of James does have that sobering warning to those who would fancy themselves “teachers” of the rest of us. Something about incurring a “stricter judgment?” But in moments like this it’s important to remember who will ultimately be doing that judging. Not me. Not you.
You see, that warning to would-be teachers is found in James 3:1. The very next verse? Well, it says, “For we all stumble in many ways. . .”
Yes. Yes, we do.