I’ve broken a cardinal rule of the blogosphere by avoiding writing about this topic. It’s news, it’s happening in my state, and it’s topically related because I’m a Christian blogger. For the past two and a half days, the news has been dominated by the scandal that has rocked New Life Church in Colorado Springs. Allegations against their senior pastor Ted Haggard had enough truth in them to cause a board of pastors to find reason to remove him permanently from his position.

I resisted writing about it not because I didn’t want to, but because too often we Christians have a tendency to shoot their wounded, holding someone caught in their sin with sad but reverent disdain. It’s an unfortunate reality, one that is too often repeated in churches around the country. It’s equally unfortunate that other Christians see such crucifixions and go the opposite direction, asking if we can’t just accept the sin and move on. Of course, that direction is even more destructive because of the lack of closure and the likelihood of more offenses spreading and even being accepted by the church.

So what do we do?  The Bible has some help, but before I get into specifics, I’d like to mention my own reaction to the news.

Ever since the PTL disaster with Jim Bakker and Tammy Faye, I have watched as the media has relished in the exposure and destruction created by moral failings of the church’s most public members.  The Bible makes no bones about this; leaders are held to higher standards.  It’s a sad truth that our leaders are human too.  This time, being so close to the election, I had my doubts as to whether this was all a ruse.  Of the accuser’s timing, there is no doubt in my mind that it was politically motivated.  Colorado’s Amendment 43 stands a good chance of passing and bringing the accusations out a week before the election was one way the opposition could steal some momentum.  I have felt no small amount of sorrow over Ted’s actions and the resulting pain inflicted on his family, his friends, his associates and his church family.  His church’s membership totaled over 14,000 people.  Each one of these lives has been significantly affected by his indiscretion.  Despite this, I believe New Life Church will not implode.  It has hard days ahead of it, but it is developmentally beyond any one man’s potential to bring it down.

I feel a lot of people fail to understand how fragile all of our leaders really are. Even worse, I believe we fail to accept their human identity either because we want to believe in the possibility of the perfection of mankind or because a leader’s failings fit well into our personal agenda. The former reason, the perfection of mankind, is an especially seductive philosophy. We want to believe that we can be better than we are now. Unfortunately, as evidenced by current events all over the globe, we are not getting better but worse. Humankind has something desperately wrong at the core. Christians call it sin. The second reason is more sinister. We want to hold a leader’s failings against them because we have our own agenda, and this leader thwarts that agenda. I am just as guilty as the next guy for holding President Clinton’s mistakes against him. It’s an unfortunate byproduct of my own humanity, and I need to learn to stop it. I find it easy to empathize with Haggard because he and I are on the same team. And it’s nothing to be embarrassed about, yet it’s just a sign that I’m not the omniscient, benevolent God.

I’m so sorry for the grief and pain that everyone is suffering right now. I know his family must be especially hit hard.  He is probably feeling a mixture of grief and relief; grief at all the pain that he is caused and relief at the fact that he does not have to carry that secret anymore.  Yet, he must still deal with the consequences.  This is not something you simply say you’re sorry for and then move on.  His wife is going to process, need to talk about it, and forgive him all over again.  This is something I am sure Ted is not looking forward to.  And, unfortunately, he is going to need to duplicate this process often and repeatedly with each of the family members and friends he was close to.  I truly feel sorry for him. 

Let’s not forget all the uncertainty that this has cast on the future for all of them.  The future for them has withered and died.  How do you pick up and move on after such a loss like this?  The Bible has one very real and honest solution that needs to be implemented at this time within New Life Church and within the body of Christ at large.  Galatians 6 says,

Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, for each one should carry his own load.

Gentle restoration happens when his brothers come alongside him, spend time with him, pray with him and walk him through the reconciliation process.  This is a very painful process, very detailed and involved, and it is very difficult for a person to walk through it with another.  If it’s no wonder many churches fail to do this when a pastor has failed in his role.  Of course, this is assuming that the brother is repentant.  Only those closest to Ted can begin to make that determination. The good news is that Pastor Jack Hayford and others are going to come around him and restore him, walking him through this very difficult time.

As a father, I have an even greater empathy for everyone involved. I am a loving father, yet I’m forced to discipline my children when they disobey. They may cry, they may say they’re sorry, but a parents’ discernment will determine their sincerity and deal with the attitude of the heart first. A parent’s heart loves the child, yet they are grieved by their sin. Something must be done in order to move forward. It is painful, sometimes even drastic, yet, in the end, there’s a far greater result. The heart of my child is restored to me, the father. The pain eventually fades, and life returns to as close to normal as possible.

While it may not seem possible so soon after this crisis, life will return to normal, even for Ted.  He may not be doing the same job.  He may not even be working in the ministry directly.  But in the end, who is Ted really working for?  He’s not working for my approval.  He’s not working for your approval, either.  He is working for God’s approval.  That’s really all he needs. 

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