Jesus Creed » Ted Haggard and the Evangelical Environment
In my opinion, Scot has nailed the issue here. I am all too in tune with this environment McKnight speaks of…
what I find here is what I want to call the evangelical environment. In evangelicalism, and the charismatic stream in which Ted Haggard swims, sin is bad and sin by leaders is real bad. This leads to a complex of features that creates a serious problem:
1. Christians, and not just pastors, do not feel free to disclose sins to anyone;
2. Christians, including pastors, sin and sin all the time;
3. Christians, including pastors, in evangelicalism do not have a mechanism of confession;
4. Christians and pastors, because of the environment of condemnation of sin and the absence of a mechanism of confession, bottle up their sins, hide their sins, and create around themselves an apparent purity and a reality of unconfessed/unadmitted sin.
5. When Christians do confess, and it is often only after getting caught, they are eaten alive by fellow evangelicals — thus leading some to deeper levels of secrecy and deceit.
What we saw with Haggard is not just about leaders; it is about all of us.
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All very well said… yet….
the answer is?
Ditto SC’s comments.
Will we find answers? Will we as a church rise up and give GRACE to those who fall? Some point the “hypocrite” finger, yet we are all hypocrites, maybe just not quite as noticeable.
I believe it was RC Sproul who made a comment that I read stating how the Catholic church’s rite of confession was something he appreciated about them (or something like that…I read this a while ago) and I think there is a value in that.
It says in the Bible that bringing things to the light sets us free. Confessing sings sets us free, yet so many people (particularly in regards to the “bad sins”) get bombasted by fellow Christians for admitting to a problem, so we hide things instead, like he mentions.
I think the only way we can change things is to be open about ourselves and our own struggles and give grace to those who struggle and teach others to do the same. It’s amazing how one person’s confession can open the doors for others to bring dark sins to light when they are met with grace.
So true Marieke. The power of confession to transform can not be understated. It’s so unfortunate that pastors must live up to these unnatural expectations. What unnecessary pressure. How did Jesus’ message ever get so mangled?
I, too, believe that Scot nailed this one. In the Evangelical world we do not have any safe ways to confess sin any more. When I was growing up in a Christian and Missionary Alliance church there was an altar call almost every week through which anyone who desired prayer or needed to confess sin could do so with elders from the church. As a new follower of Jesus in my teen years it seemed I was at that altar of confession every week. Those were important times for me by practicing confession on a regular basis, it was acceptable for a young person to do, but as I’ve gotten older and have been in various churches what I have seen is that there is very little that is done from a structured standpoint to help people practice confession. What we have now is that unless one has created deep and trusting relationships that confession of sin to one another almost never happens. People look for safe places to confess their sins. As Scot pointed out this is even more difficult for pastors or others who are in positions of authority. Where do we go? It is only the bravest of pastors who is able to confess sin in a public setting. Further more, unless we are in healthy relationships with godly people we can fear that our confession of sin can be damaging to the other and thus we often refrain.
Thanks for sharing everyone!
SC, I don’t know what the answer is but I certainly hope to be a part of the movement that takes the church towared a less toxic future. Marieke and Sarah,
I agree that the confession of sin (James 5:16) is so important but that people in positions of leadership don’t feel they can do so.
Pete, great assessment of the role of confession in an evangelical context… The question “Where do we go?” is so important…
In a society that values style over substance (SB and LA especially), to pull yourself down is always considered a “lessening” of the social rank, even inside church.
For instance, several times at Cedar Crest, there would be someone who would confess sexual impurity during the final “camp testimony” night.
People would tell awesome stories about being set free from all sorts of things. You had suspected them of it all along, but they confirmed it, and that they had been set free from it.
However, upon returning, a curious thing happened: They were ostracized. They were free of their sin, but almost friendless due to the distasteful nature of their past. So they went back to the only people who accepted them: The people who encouraged their past lifestyle. And the cycle would repeat.
To hit it home here: Would you let someone set free from pedophilia near your kids? Would you let someone redeemed from kleptomania near your good silverware?
I’m reminded of the scene from “Les Misérables” where Jean Valjean has been found after stealing silver from the Bishop. To the horror of his wife, he corroborates Jean Valjean’s (false) story about borrowing the silver, and while distracting the officers, give him more silver, and explains:
“Jean Valjean my brother you no longer belong to evil. With this silver, I have bought your soul. I’ve ransomed you from fear and hatred, and now I give you back to God. ”
I cannot find a more powerful image in contemporary society of the need to embrace people who have fallen.
The reason we don’t do this is because it takes personal sacrifice. We’ll give up feel-goods and “we shoulds” all day long, even go to mexico for a weekend to make ourselves feel warm and fuzzy, but the concept of dealing with someone who is actively struggling with a sin is usually enough for a Christian to back off. “I don’t want them influencing me” is usually the nice Christian-ese way of saying it.
So what does the church do? Do we not risk being affected by putting up a nice front, and silently rot on the inside, or do we let everyone know? When will our prayer requests be scaled up from, “I’m doing hard financially” to “I am really jealous of my neighbor”.
When will people stop saying of their spouse, “They are not feeling well” and start saying, “We had a fight, could you please be praying for us?”.
The old adage about “not airing dirty family laundry in public” would have to go. Are we really prepared to do this?
This goes back to the prisoner’s dilemma.
Click here to read up on it
It’s times like this that I’m glad for spiritual leadership and oversight. I can see the direction the church goes and follow along. It’s a great time to be a sheep.
And just a friendly reminder: “dialogue” isn’t a verb.
Lead on, Shepard…
Joe…really good comments! This has been an awesome discussion to be a part of and I love the different perspectives.
How true it is that it goes against the grain of our culture to accept that people are set free from their sins.
And perhaps, when it comes to what we “own”, we need to remember that while we are to be good stewards of what we’re given….we are just that. stewards. What we have, live in, even our relationships, aren’t truly ours, but belong to God.
Joe,
Thanks for what you posted. A couple of things:
1) On whether or not you let the ex-pediphile near the children. The scripture in Galatians 6 that talks about restoring the one who has fallen (Pastor Jack mentioned it in his response) is talking about restoring such a person to the fellowship, not neccesarily to their position. If such a person made a stink about not being allowed to be around children now that they had been delivered would only be revealing that they were not truly repentant. Part of repentance is reparing what you have broken. In this case what would have been broken would be the trust of the community. The only way to rebuild that trust is to submit to the community in some sort of restoration process (whatever that might look like)
2) I would be a bit leary of using examples of teenagers and how they respond to someone who repents at a camp because they are still in the maturing process.
3) The geneous that Hugo shows in Les Mis is that the Bishop bought Jean vel Jean’s soul. He did not simply say “that’s ok, it was a mistake” he uses Jean vel Jean’s act of theivery as an act of redemption. I see it like Paul’s words to Philemon when he reminds Philemon that he owes his very salvation to Paul. This becomes the basis of Paul’s “request” that he take Onesimus back and not do him any harm. The point here is that there is more to forgivness than forgiving the offense. Both the community and the offender have responsbility in the restoration of the offender.
4) You are right in that we often don’t truly go through this process of partnering with someone who has sinned because it is personally costly. Forgiveness and restoration is a dirty business and sometimes we will get burned again, but that is what we are called to, not foolishly, but led by the Holy Spirit and the wisdom on the community.
Good comments; It seems to me that one of the greatest problems in our fellowships or churches is that we have little real communication. We should be free to confess our little sins to each other and forgive each other. Then perhaps the so called big sins might never reach the federal case status, because they have been nipped in the bud before they came to fruition. If a brother sins against us seven times in a day, when they repent we forgive them. If they sin seventy times seven times in a day (490), again when they repent we should still forgive them. Confessing our faults (sins) one to another and forgiveing one another should be like “falling off a log.” And we haven gotten it.