When leaders implode
The Evangelical church in America has a new affair. Ted Haggard, a well known megachurch pastor who presided the National Association of Evangelicals, had to step down from his positions because he admitted having bought drugs and being involved in a relationship with a male prostitute. Today New Life Church released his official apology, and YouTube has most of the video material. It's a sad story, even more for his wife and five kids. Christianity Today published an article by Gordon MacDonald titled 'When Leaders Implode', addressing what Christians should learn from this affair.
What always puzzles me with issues like this is that there's often no public communication from the church involved. Although they released Haggard's apology (what else can you do when it's national news?), there's no mention at all on the New Life Church homepage - they simply changed the name of the pastor on their website, and life goes on. What does that tell us about the measure of openness in this church?
Related posts that also address this unspoken 'strategy of silence': History of the charismatic movement and Facing the real issues.
Having read the article 'When leaders implode' I am left wondering about the beliefs of the writer and the christian world in general.
Quote:
"From those terrible moments of twenty years ago in my own life I have come to believe that there is a deeper person in many of us who is not unlike an assassin. This deeper person (like a contentious board member) can be the source of attitudes and behaviors we normally stand against in our conscious being. But it seeks to destroy us and masses energies that—unrestrained—tempt us to do the very things we "believe against."
Am I missing something or isn't this the thing that Jesus promises to remove? I am a bit struggling with the concept of old nature but to me this really looks like a christian version of hypocrisy. A splitting of yourself in a 'deeper' sinful person and a higher level self. Doesn't that kind of denial make it impossible for God to change you, the sinner you, which is yourself and not some lower version? Definitely related to the view on old and new nature, something very questionable I think. However, extremely standard thinking in the christian world.
The story of Ted Haggard raises for me, and the non-christian world I guess, an important question: Does the promise of christian salvation include the removal of the real sinful self ('deeper person') or is the christian message in fact quite powerless and are we as christians forced to to live with a split personality c.q. old and new nature?
Posted by: peter | November 08, 2006 at 13:28
Vandaag in Trouw trouwens een zeer interessant artikel over een van de bekendste nederlandse christelijke genezen homo's die uiteindelijk moest erkennen dat hij toch niet genezen was.
http://www.trouw.nl/deverdieping/religie_filosofie/article537052.ece/Interview_Het_bewijs_van_homogenezing_is_nu_weer_gay
De lezersreacties op het artikel van sommige christelijke homo's die wel de kerk kwijt raakten maar het geloof niet zijn ook bijzonder raak.
Met zo'n groep homo's is het vast stukken relaxter in Jezus gezelschap dan in een of andere kerk.
Posted by: peter | November 09, 2006 at 21:51
Toch roept het wel interessante vragen op tov de evangelicale houding tegenover homo's.
- er is te weinig acceptatie in de kerk
- tov leiderschap wordt teveel naar de 'geweldige' kant van de leider gekeken, ipv dat het besef er is dat ook deze man/vrouw nog met vallen en opstaan Jezus probeert te volgen
- Als we Homofilie als zonde/afwijking/leugen blijven zien, hoeveel maakt dat kapot?
Posted by: MB | November 10, 2006 at 16:16