I've written about the falling of Christian leaders before here and have known a few relatively high profiled ministry agents (read ministers, youth ministers, scripture teachers) who have been fired due to moral failure of some degree.
I wonder if local churches should treat these people like the WWE treats Chris Benoit. For those who don't know or can't recall, Chris Benoit was the wrestler who murdered his family before committing suicide in 2007.
The trouble is that Chris Benoit was a tremendous wrestler. He held numerous titles. He main-evented Wrestlemania XX, winning the world title in a match that is generally regarded as one of the best matches "on the grandest stage of them all."
According to the WWE (the former WWF), you would have no idea. On the WWE website (aside from the title histories) and in its programming Chris Benoit is never mentioned and it's, understandably, like he never existed. There is no mention of Benoit in the Wrestlemania XX web page or even a photo of him from the event.
It's a shame that a previously celebrated career has been swept under the rug because its final chapter was horrendous.
Should we do the same with those who have had a moral failure (or some other kind)?
Should we whitewash the record of any good which they might have done?
Should we ignore any positive things they did to expand the Kingdom of God?
Sometimes I provide answers on this blog, in this case, all I bring are questions...
2 comments:
I'll provide an answer:
No.
The point of the gospel is grace. If we pretend that good work is only done by good people, or that you if you stuff up you lose your membership in the body of Christ than we diminish the power of Christ to work through all people.
Also if we were to treat moral failures like that we'd have no idea who Peter was and that'd be a darn shame.
Tom,
Good response. The same thing occurred to me after church this morning. With the teens we’re doing a series called “Why are Christian’s so…” (Warning: DON’T Google that sentence unless you want some shocking results!) with the point being that followers of Jesus are not perfect, but these are the people who God nonetheless uses.
Peter’s a good example, but you could easily throw in Noah, Gideon, Samson, Jonah, Elijah, Paul and plenty other flawed biblical characters.
Amongst other things in the news, this may be the reason why this query was bouncing around my head.
But I still wonder if, in actuality, we still celebrate the good things which a so called “fallen” leader has done in the past or we “give them the Benoit treatment.”
Having slept on it, I think we should recognise how God worked through some people who have had a sour season in their ministry, even if it means wearing some bad PR. As Tom said, it attests to the grace which God extends to people who don’t deserve it.
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