Five Less Books

 

I saw it in the mainstream media yesterday, and I wondered what the “seekers” thought who had been in his audiences over the years. I wondered about those who had asked him sincere searching questions. I wondered about those who had trusted him; both those inside and outside of Christ.

 

Through reading news reports from within the professing – Christian community I had known about this sadness for some time; yet another professed servant of Christ is revealed to have been a fraud. Fraud! Fraud! Fraud! But now it is in the mainstream media; and yet, I suppose we’ve arrived at the place where this kind of behavior is so widespread that it is not receiving the mention it may have generated just a few years ago. We have become experts in compartmentalization, the truth no longer matters, it is only what we want that matters – for verification of this consider the abundant conspiracy narratives around us, consider the farce of the impeachment “trial” where the truth does not matter; many senators deciding how they will vote prior to the commencement of the trial.

 

When we have one “Christian leader” prostituting a university, and another “Christian leader” prostituting his evangelistic association, why should we be surprised that, after his death, we find that another “Christian leader” has sinfully gratified his sexual lust and damaged the lives of women over whom he wielded power. Of course, success makes right in much of the professing – church; money matters, political power matters, book and video sales matter. Just as we don’t want to know what happens to our children when we send them off to college, so we don’t really want to know what happens within “Christian” power centers. And let’s face it, there are many stories of what has happened to the man or woman, especially the woman, who dares to question the words and actions of people (usually men) in “Christian” power. “Christian” power centers, whether they are churches, universities, denominations, or para-church organizations, have a record of snuffing out the “smoldering wick” and stomping on the “broken flax.”

 

When I first read about the egregious sin of the person in question (see 2 Peter Chapter 2 and Jude), I wasn’t surprised. This is not because I had suspicions or red flags, it was because I am somewhat numb after report after report of ungodly behavior and hypocritical “leadership” in a “Christian” culture that worships success rather than the True and Living God who is Holy. In fact, I had appreciated this man’s ministry, I enjoyed listening to him and I had five of his books on my shelves – one of them on marriage, in which he used his own marriage as an example of a godly marriage.

 

After reading that the sin in question had been verified, I took the five books and put them in the trash. We cannot compartmentalize our lives with impunity, no matter what others say. We as a nation, and we as a professing church, have bought into the lie that morality has little, if anything, to do with function, with vocation, with leadership. How can we have fallen so far not only from philosophical common sense (I’m thinking of Greek and Roman and Asian philosophers with their emphasis on virtue), but from the clear teaching of Scripture, the Word of God? Leadership (to use a term I’m beginning to loath) must begin and end with character, and for the Christian it must begin and end with holiness and virtue in Christ, and derived from Christ – a character with the transparency of the New Jerusalem. Leadership begins with washing the feet of those around us, its ethos is that it has not come to be served, but to serve and to give its life for others (John 13:1 – 17; Matthew 20:20 – 28).

 

The Bible and the Church Fathers are clear that holiness of life in Christ is inextricably bound up with the illumination of the Holy Spirit in understanding the Word of God and enjoying a life of communion with the Trinity. In other words, we are not going to experience true Biblical understanding without living in the light of God’s Word in Jesus Christ. This necessarily includes living in accountable and transparent community within the Body of Christ.

 

But what have we done? We have said to the world, “Come and build with us! We will adopt your ways! We will utilize your principles! As long as it works it must be good!” (Ezra 4:1 – 3). Where are the faithful shepherds of God’s people who will say, “You have nothing in common with us in building a house to our God”?

 

Our epistemology must not be that of the world. Our ontology must not be that of the world. Our teleology must not be that of the world. Our pedagogy must not be that of the world. And please, O please, may our paradigms of leadership and success not be derived from the world.

 

Where are those who will act and speak as Paul and Barnabas, rather than receive the worship and accolades of man? “But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard it, they tore their robes and rushed out into the crowd crying out and saying, ‘Men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature as you, and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living God…’” (Acts 14:14ff).

 

Where are those men and women?