Further reflections on Haggard and sin

I don't want to make any comment on the details of the Haggard case; but I was struck by the comment of one member of his church, to the effect that `I put all my faith in him.' It reminded me of my own experience of some years ago.  While at university in the UK I was nurtuted in solid, thoughtful theology by the preaching of someone who has since left his wife and taken up the lifestyle of a homosexual.  I remember the day the news broke (by that time I was a decade out of uni) -- I was stunned and saddened; but I was also grateful that it came at a time in my life when I had come to realise the mediocrity of God's messengers, so to speak, partly through knowledge of my own failings, partly through my exposure to those of others.  I was only grateul,. therefore, that the news had not broken ten years previously, whe, as a painfully young Christian, I might have made the mistake of resting my faith on the ability and eloquence of the pastor.

Reading Augustine had, as usual, come to my rescue: we are not Donatists; the moral character of our preachers and leaders does not undermine the truth of the message they preach; if it were not so, then who could be saved? 

This is not to excuse Haggard or to minimise the nightmare that he has brought into the world of his wife and children.  But it is to point out that while such happenings serve to make the gospel implausible to a world looking for authenticity, we need not be too discouraged.  We want our leaders to be superheroes; sadly, they are as mediocre, or even worse, than we are ourselves.  But God is still God; and his gospel is still the gospel, and 1 Corinthians makes it clear that it is through weakness that the gospel is strong.  A place at the table in the White House is one thing; real gospel power is quite another.

And it serves as a warning to all who aspire to be leaders: to whom do you make yourselves accountable?  Who can tell you when you are crossing the line?  Do you have even one person who can go toe-to-toe with you and tell you, if necessary, that your behaviour is out of bounds? If you are not careful, your gifts may long outlast the grace in your life.  The tragedy of so many fallen Christian pastors is that they became too big to be accountable to anyone, and they mistake the acclaim of their congregations for true Christian grace and divine favour.  And those errors are no respecter of theological or confessional position.