Posted on 12/18/2013 6:39:15 AM PST by Gamecock
In 2006, Ted Haggard joined the “pantheon” of fallen megachurch pastors after being caught red-handed in a gay sex and drugs scandal. Most Christians weep over such incidents, grieve for the damage done to the church of Christ, pray that the man will repent and find forgiveness with God, and hope that he will take a quiet and unpublicized place in the church of Christ for the rest of his life.
Usually it’s a vain hope. As it was in this case too.
After a short period of “restoration,” the Haggards returned to the public eye with books, television interviews, and a re-launched ministry.
I suppose we all still hoped that despite appearances, there had been true repentance, that Haggard really had owned his sin, taken responsibility, accepted the blame, and sincerely confessed his guilt.
But a recent blog post raises a huge question mark against that hope. In Suicide, Evangelicals, and Sorrow, Haggard used the recent suicide of another megachurch pastor’s son, Isaac Hunter, to continue his attempts at resurrecting his name, reputation, and ministry. His post really is an almost perfect example of how not to repent.
So why highlight it? First, because it will help us to spot these characteristics when dealing with others who have fallen into public sin and scandal. Sadly, there are predictable patterns to these things that we’d do well to acquaint ourselves with so that we are not duped. And second, because we can use it as a personal heart-check to examine how we respond to our own sin.
1. I’m no worse than anyone else. In a number of places Haggard basically says, “OK, I’m not perfect, but neither are you. We all fall short. We’ve all had sin intrude horribly into our lives. Only Christ is perfect.” In other words, why make such an example of me when you’re no better.
2. My problem was not spiritual. ”The therapeutic team that dug in on me insisted that I did not have a spiritual problem.”
3. It was something that happened to me. “Contrary to popular reports, my core issue was not sexual orientation, but trauma.” It’s not so much about what I did, or who I am, but about what someone else did to me.
4. I wasn’t responsible; someone else was to blame. ”I had a physiological problem rooted in a childhood trauma.”
5. I needed therapy, not faith and repentance. ”I needed trauma resolution therapy….I went through EMDR, a trauma resolution therapy.”
6. It wasn’t a personal choice. Haggard asks: “Do we actually believe that the many pastors who have been characterized as fallen decided to be hateful, immoral, greedy, or deceitful?” Then answers: “I think not.”
7. Christians are cruel and unforgiving. In a number of places Haggard attacks Christians saying that they lack sympathy, grace, and forgiveness. “My sin never made me suicidal, but widespread church reaction to me did.” He also speaks of the “brutal mail” and “hurtful communications” he received, and he imagines the Warrens and Hunters did too. He lambasts an “evangelical culture that alienates those who fall and spiritualizes their struggles.”
8. Attack the accusers. Throughout this piece Haggard is continually swiping at his accusers and those who initiated church discipline against him. They are “flat-earthers,” “Judaizers,” “scrutinizers,” “Pharisees” who are “too busy with the sins of others.”
9. You just don’t understand me: “When I explain [my trauma and the trauma resolution therapy] to most Evangelical leaders, their eyes glaze over.” He goes on to characterize Christians who rejected his excuses as simplistic fundamentalists.
10. My sins were not as bad as you think. ”My accuser failed his lie detector test and refused to take another, and I passed four lie detector tests given by three different polygraphers saying that the primary accusations were false.”
Sadly there is no shortage of naive people who will swallow this self-pitying self-justifying narrative hook, line, and sinker. (And sadly there’s no shortage of media outlets who will happily use Haggard as a stick to beat the “unforgiving” church with.)
Even more sadly, our own hearts can also do a Haggard when we are confronted with our own sins.
Real repentance looks and sounds radically different. It says: “I’m worse than you, worse than you think, and did worse than you can imagine. No matter what was in my past, I deliberately chose these sinful actions and accept full responsibility for them. I deserve whatever consequences result from them. I shamed my Lord and His church. If some Christians treat me badly, that’s OK, I understand. I can’t and won’t complain. I won’t say or write anything that will portray the Church or Christians in a bad light. I’ve brought enough damage on the church already. And I certainly won’t use the tragic suicides of others to further my own public rehabilitation.”
That’s the kind of repentance that leads to salvation (2 Corinthians 7:10).
Acts 15:28-29 For it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay on you no greater burden than these requirements: that you abstain from what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality. If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well. Farewell.”
Those who are in Christ, who have died to the Law are free from the Law.
Romans 8:1-2 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
Well thanks but busy with life.. Have a blessed Christmas :)
A lot of people have always believed that we're in the end times including the Apostle Paul. But I think there is ample evidence that we are now at the end of all things. The parallels between Christianity and Israel are interesting. Israel/Judah really only survived for a little more than 2,200 years. And there are stark parallels between now and the times of Jeremiah.
There isn't much difference in messages these days. No one sees their sins. No one understand their offense to God. We live in a world where many do not believe and those who say they believe preach a false message of love and tolerance.
God loves us. He will protect and defend us. This was the message of those who were preaching in the temple in the days of Jeremiah. It was not a message of repentance. It was not a message of inward reflection about the sorry sinful state of our souls as John the Baptist would preach many years later. It is the same message taught today. If one brings up sin they are condemned just like Jeremiah.
I know that people have always thought it was the end times... but at no time in history has the world been this evil ...
Romans 2:13
"(For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified....)"
Parsing of scripture can deceive deeply.
In Christ, I AM a doer of the Law.
All the righteous works He did are credited to my account.
I don’t have to depend on my human effort at all.
You completely misunderstand salvation, judging by your posts.
Yeshua said plainly that he who does the will of the Father will be saved,
and he who does the Father’s commandments will be saved,
and he who endures to the end will be saved.
Taking those clear statements as hollow vocalizations would be folly.
You are a hearer of the law if you follow orthodox worship, but being a doer requires proactive participation.
Of course, I have no idea what you do, but I do find some simplistic comments to be troubling.
2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
It takes the whole of the scriptures to tell it.
Hiding behind a handful of verses that seem comforting will leave you in the dark.
Foolish strawman!
The Jerusalem's chief conclusion, and the heart of Acts 15,
verse 21:
"For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath day."
They went easy on the new converts because they expected them to be in the synagogue every Sabbath day, hearing Moses books preached, thus learning how to follow the Way of Yeshua.
False and presumptive interpretation. Read the full text.
It is the heart of the entire episode.
Torah is the heart of the Way of Yeshua, and nothing less would lead them to their ultimate perseverance in Faith.
Read the epistles, all of them; Torah based worship was their purpose, day by day. The key event of most of the epistles was one of the feasts, and Paul’s travels revolved around the amount of time it would take him to get to Jerusalem in time for the required feasts.
"And THIS (THIS, not the law) is His commandment, that you believe in the name of His son Jesus Christ, and love one another as He gave us Commandment."
Right after give us the New Covenant in His blood, He gave us a New Commandment. Why, because the old were not sufficient.
"And THIS (THIS, not the law) is His commandment, that you believe in the name of His son Jesus Christ, and love one another as He gave us Commandment."
Right after give us the New Covenant in His blood, He gave us a New Commandment. Why, because the old were not sufficient.
"And THIS (THIS, not the law) is His commandment, that you believe in the name of His son Jesus Christ, and love one another as He gave us Commandment."
Right after give us the New Covenant in His blood, He gave us a New Commandment. Why, because the old were not sufficient.
Torah is what Yeshua preached day by day, wherever he went.
Torah is what Yeshua and his disciples followed to the minutest detail every minute of every day. Torah is his Way.
Deny Yeshua, and forfeit your chance at eternal life.
And do you keep the Torah? Do you go to Jerusalem as required for the feasts?
Jesus, for your uninformed assistance, is a deliberate mistransliteration of Joshua by the men that translated the KJV in the early 17th century. No one had ever heard that invented name before that. They got the name correct for Joshua in the OT, and the same name is used for both in every known Greek MS. (The J in Joshua is pronounced like a Y)
The temple has not existed since 68 AD.
So now you are picking and choosing what parts of the law to obey.
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