Rule of thumb #2: If you’re a pastor, never get into a hot tub with anyone not your spouse.
Seriously.
The damage is in the accusation. Once the bell is run, it cannot be un-ring. The pastor’s career is so badly damaged that they might as well look to selling life insurance as a second career.
I know of clergy who refuse to drink anything, including water, if there is alcohol present, for fear they’ll be seen “drinking” and then, in later rumors, “drunk.”
Pastors routinely make sure that they’re never alone w/ another person — used to be only worried about alone w/ females, but now, either gender is a threat.
God might call pastors to save sinners, but sinners make sure that the pastor can’t go near anyone who needs help.
It seems to me that something rather strange is going on here. They got this guy to step down rather quickly. They already have another pastor coming aboard in July.
Was there something in this pastor’s past that made this a done deal, if he ever screwed up again?
It just seems like the Church abandoned the guy without any due process at all.
“Pastors routinely make sure that they’re never alone w/ another person — used to be only worried about alone w/ females, but now, either gender is a threat.”
Heck. If I were a pastor, I would brag about being alone with a woman. I would trot her out when I was arrested for sexual advances on a man.
It is so sad that we have come to this as a society, but that is so true. Even when counseling someone on a highly sensitive matter, the pastor needs to have someone else present.