It is obviously a great blow to the church when a leader such as Rev. Haggard falls in the way that he has. What are we to make of this?
Well that’s a very long topic, too long for a blog... but lets look at one tiny part of this big, complex issue. It may be valuable to examine the difference between the secular perception and the Christian perception of what wrong has been done. Where was the failure?
Obviously the media, and that is to say, much of the secular world is crying "hypocrisy" and thus discrediting the moral high ground of all evangelicals(1). Lets be clear on this.. the wrongdoing of Ted Haggard in their eyes is not his relationship with a male prostitute, his wrongdoing is his hypocrisy and dishonesty. Had Ted Haggard "come out" as a bi-sexual pastor he would have been at least accepted if not even honoured and celebrated by the same people now vilifying him. His sin in the media, is that he said one thing and did another.
Our Christian reaction is, or should be different. We should be disappointed by the hypocrisy, but also merciful. In a fallen world, what people say, and what people actually do will not always match up well.
Jesus criticized hypocrisy in the Pharisees every time He encountered it, and so Rev. Haggard doesn’t get a free pass. But we need to also notice that Jesus did not condemn the righteousness the Pharisees stood for. Matthew 23:1-3 tells us:
"Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so practice and observe whatever they tell you—but not what they do. For they preach, but do not practice."
Unlike the secular world, our dismay is also a result of his sexual moral failure, the damage his sin has caused and will cause him, his family, and most importantly the scorn brought on Christ and His bride. If the church exists to glorify God, this is not helping our purpose.
As I said at the outset, this is a big, complex topic. There are lessons in accountability, in the glorification of leadership, in hypocrisy, in sin, apostasy, tares, and much more. I won't get into all of that, but to unpack this event and the lessons from it correctly, we at least have to make sure that we view it clearly from our unique Christian perspective, not the perspective of the world.
If we find ourselves reacting to this incident and towards Rev. Haggard in a way identical to the world, then I would suggest we need to look deeper, for a more profound response that finds its source in our identity in Christ, not the world.
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(1) The association of a moral position to the practice of its proponents is a logical fallacy, but that’s a different topic.