What I don’t get is that Mr Mohler the president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary talks about cleaning his house - very admirable and I’m sure he will do that. By hitting the problem head-on, he is sure to resolve it and this is a wonderful example for us all. May God bless Mohler on his endeavours.
“... told a rape victim to forgive her assailant and not report the assault to police, ...”
Telling her to forgive her attacker is just scriptural. We ARE called on to forgive those who do us wrong.
Telling her not to report the assault? Pee poor advice. But since the SBC had no hierarchy, and since no SBC pastor can claim to be speaking for God...it is just bad advice. And it was not intended to hide wrong-doing within his church’s leadership.
Giving bad advice is not sin. It is just being human. But the SBC had no structure that makes a pastor’s advice anything other than “advice”. No SBC preacher is a priest standing in for God. No SBC preacher claims to forgive sin on behalf of God, except for sins against himself alone. It was just bad advice.