Posted on 12/04/2019 11:20:39 AM PST by Gamecock
“He did the difficult thing and owned up to it. I’ll give him that.”
Only after being exposed. So, no.
Hypocrisy in Church Leadership has hurt the Church in the US probably more than anything.
He ought to have become a salesman or accountant or anything not involved in ministry.
The Playa Pastor probably not a good thing.
“If the Pastor lawyers up well, it will probably be viewed as youthful indiscretion but at the legal age. I’ve seen it happen a number of times in court.”
What would he possibly need a lawyer for?
As far as youthful indiscretion, you’re assuming he stopped fooling around over the past 17 years. Doubtful.
Very similar story here but I was a 20 year old youth leader (not a trained minister or pastor). Met a beautiful girl when she was 14. Kept my eye on her and when she was 16 we started dating. I proposed to her when she was 17 and we married a week after she turned 18 (she picked the date). In many ways, she was much more mature than I. Happily married for 47 1/2 years. Cancer. I miss her more than anything. Our only regret was not marrying sooner. She had a girlfriend that married at 16 and they are still happily married today. Have people changed that much?
I’ll take it a step further than that.
A lot of 16 year old girls in the 1950’s were more mature than most women in their 40’s or even 50’s today.
I hang around a lot of these harpies via my wife. Face palm doesn’t even begin to describe the drama they bring.
Since he was single at the time and they were adults there is nothing illegal about their activities
However as a pastor he screwed up big time. He needs to at least undergo some serious counselling with a panel of senior pastors and take a good long time away from active ministry.
Although his sins were 17 years ago, they still affect him today until he is fully repented from them.
Mega churches are breeding grounds for deviants.
Agreed. Age of consent doesn’t matter if it is sex outside of marriage. It is still sin according to the Bible.
Doesn’t mean the guy couldn’t have changed and NOW be a good pastor. The list of sinless pastors is pretty short.
He disqualified himself by sleeping with girls under his spiritual care.
He struck out on a number of these:
1 Timothy 3:1-7
Qualifications for Overseers
3 The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. 2 Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, 5 for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become puffed up with conceit and fall into the condemnation of the devil. 7 Moreover, he must be well thought of by outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, into a snare of the devil.
Nobody can have a different past, but anyone could have a different future.
Are you kidding me? He was in a position of power and preyed on these two girls.
I’ve known therapists at a church I used to attend that did the same thing.
No!
Thank you.
It’s true that everyone can have a different future, but not everyone needs to be in a position of religious authority, no matter how badly he wants to be.
The writers at Spiritual Sounding Board raised the question of whether, especially “these days,” it’s a good idea to have a single, young man as a youth minister. One feature of “these days” is that there are an awful lot of people, including professing Christians, who believe sex outside marriage is just fine as long as it’s (arguably) legal.
My church’s high-school youth minister is a married woman in her late 20s with three young children.
My father was 23, and my mom was 15, when her brother (his best friend) introduced them. They dated, married, and he became a decorated police officer and police detective for 37 years. Their 3 kids turned out to be pretty successful and productive members of society, and the first of their great-grandchildren was born last year. Today, he would have served 2-10 years in prison, and would have spent a lifetime on registries, and he likely would still be working today in his 80s as a liquor store assistance manager or something. I’m not sure that things are better today than they were back then.
True. I don’t actually know how non-ordained ministry works, but ordained ministry, anyhow, is not a right.
Is anyone arguing that he broke the law? He is unqualified to continue in the ministry. He resigned. I think that’s the extent of it.
The comments include discussion of whether he did anything illegal.
I agree that he is unqualified, based not only on what’s in this article but others I have read.
I guess a person can’t be stopped from saying, “I’m a minister!” and doing whatever he thinks he should do, along with anyone else who chooses to consider him a minister.
However, when a person is a church employee, regardless of whether he is ordained according to the understanding of that church, the church has a right to tell him, “We don’t think you’re suitable,” and to inform others of why.
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