Posted on 01/15/2014 5:30:34 PM PST by Gamecock
Ted Haggard, a preacher who stepped down in 2006 from his position as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colo., following a sex and drug scandal, recently spoke out about Isaac Hunter’s suicide, an event that took the evangelical world by storm last week.
Focusing specifically on the scandals and charges of wrongdoing that have surrounded many famed preachers — himself included — Haggard said that evangelical Christians sometimes fail to properly apply the gospel when dealing with faith leaders who fall from grace.
Hunter, the former pastor of Summit Church in Orlando, Fla., had been facing personal issues since stepping down from his position late last year. His death, following the suicide of Pastor Rick Warren’s son, Matthew, earlier this year, has brought additional attention to mental health in evangelical circles.
“The news about Pastor Isaac Hunter breaks my heart. Great speaker, lover of God, and my guess is he loved the church. But he, like all of us, fell short,” Haggard wrote. “In the midst of divorce with accusations swirling, he resigned from the church he founded. He gave it his best shot, and his heart was broken.”
He continued, “This makes me sick to my stomach. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not sick that he fell short, that’s a given for everyone except Christ Himself, I’m sick that our message did not do what we all hoped – it did not fix the problem.”
Haggard said that, in the past, evangelical leaders who have been immersed in scandal were often seen as not true believers, however he said this simply isn’t the case. In fact, he argued that most people who are in ministry “are sincere followers of Christ.”
While many Christians assume that a conversion to the faith heals all past problems, Haggard said this wasn’t the case in his own experience. While he said that becoming a believer made him “a new creation spiritually,” Haggard noted that there was some “simple care” that would have helped him avoid the scandal and pain he caused his family.
“I was so ashamed in 2006 when my scandal broke. The therapeutic team that dug in on me insisted that I did not have a spiritual problem or a problem with cognitive ability, and that I tested in normal ranges on all of my mental health tests (MMPI, etc.).” he wrote. “Instead, I had a physiological problem rooted in a childhood trauma, and as a result, needed trauma resolution therapy. I had been traumatized when I was 7 years old, but when Bill Bright led me to the Lord when I was 16, I learned that I had become a new creature, a new person, and that I did not need to be concerned about anything in my past, that it was all covered by the blood.”
But Haggard said that his past was still impacting his life.
In the end, the former megapastor claimed that his Christian training was delivered by people who didn’t respect the mental health and neural science professions. This translated, he wrote, into a counterproductive situation, as he was taught to view all issues as being entirely spiritual in nature.
“If I prayed and fasted, I was more tempted. If I just worked in ministry, I experienced relief and was not tempted,” Haggard continued. “I thought it was spiritual warfare. It was not. My struggle was easily explained by a competent therapeutic team.”
Haggard said that he believes wholeheartedly in the Bible, but that Christianity has “abandoned the application of the gospel” and that, as a result, too much time is spent on image management and damage control.
“Every one of us have had sin horribly intrude in our lives after being saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, and God is faithfully healing us or has healed us,” he continued. “Why don’t we tell that? He has never left us or forsaken us when we’ve said and done the wrong thing. Why don’t we tell that?”
Actually, Scripture outlines quite clearly how to deal with immorality within the church.
And I have yet to find somewhere in Scripture where the office of *faith leader* is listed.
Good Lord, he’s wrong on so many levels it’s hard to tell where to begin.
What happened in his past to traumatize him was not his fault, as in the case for ALL Of us who have issues and trauma, but his responsibility was to deal with it appropriately as a Christian.
There are two resources I've stumbled on recently that are wonderful for doing that.
One is a book entitled *Forgiveness* by Rodney Hogue, and the other is a CD set entitled *How to Have an Emotionally Healthy Marriage* by Jimmy Evans.
The book is a very concise, short read about forgiveness and the DC is almost misleading in its title because it's really about becoming an emotionally healthy person, the side benefit is having an emotionally healthy marriage.
The gist of that is to take responsibility for our actions and reactions, and to forgive.
From person experience, I KNOW how powerful forgiveness can be in taking care of issues and sin.
The Act of Contrition prayer:
O MY GOD, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of Hell; but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who art all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life.[1] Amen.
http://catholictradition.org/prayers1.htm#CONTRITION1
[1] “to sin no more, and to avoid the near occasions of sin” — this phrase was in the version I learned as a child.
You may enjoy this documentary....
Derren Brown - Miracles for Sale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYjgeayfYPI
Preach it, brother.
That's not repentance.
And conviction by the Holy Spirit that leads one to Christ for forgiveness is no light thing.
For sure. Only part I read that I can wholeheartedly agree with is that Christ Himself was the only pure non-sinner. After that, the rest seemed like a cop-out. We all sin - we’re not Christ. But he knew he was doing things Christ would not condone or support him for in judgement before His Father. The ol’ I couldn’t help myself routine just gets old.
It’s not his fault that he engaged in homosexual adultery and drug use.
It’s the church’s fault because they didn’t believe him when he said he didn’t do it and when it was obvious the charges were true, then they didn’t pretend it didn’t happen.
Blame shifting just doesn’t cut it with God.
The first thing in the *Emotionally Healthy Marriage CD was to take responsibility for your own actions. Quit the blame shifting and quit being a victim. You can’t control what others do to you, but you can control how you react to them.
What makes you is how you deal with it, not the events themselves.
Perhaps this is relevant:
2 Corinthians 13:4-5 KJV
For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you. Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
2 Peter 1:4-12 KJV
Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall:
For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.
This wouldn’t happen if Protestants would let their clergy marry.
That is an excellent prayer.
Thank you for sharing that.
Wise words.
Touche.
Haggard said that evangelical Christians sometimes fail to properly apply the gospel when dealing with faith leaders who fall from grace... Haggard said that, in the past, evangelical leaders who have been immersed in scandal were often seen as not true believers, however he said this simply isn’t the case. In fact, he argued that most people who are in ministry “are sincere followers of Christ.” While many Christians assume that a conversion to the faith heals all past problems, Haggard said this wasn’t the case in his own experience...Christians aren't perfect, just forgiven ping. Thanks Gamecock.
I think not.
But until there is real contrition, anything this "Disgraced Ex-Preacher Says" is moot. To blame evangelical Christianity as having a problem, is obviously his opinion, but that doesn't make what he says as having any merit.
They are forgiven IF they seek it.
If they feel they have not sinned, what’s the point in forgiveness?
“If the pastor doesn’t know your name, you don’t have a pastor.”
AMEN!!!
Great gif!!!! Sure that wasn’t Democrats voting for Obamacare?
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