Source: Verum Serum
Comments: Scott weighs in on the current obsession at Slice - their triumph in the fall of Ted Haggard and its “obvious” roots in the faulty theology of the Seeker-Sensitive movement and American Evangelicalism. He asks the obvious question a number of folks have asked - Why isn’t Haggard’s problem just SIN, and not some high-level “rot” decried by the heretic hunters of the watchblogosphere?
Memorable Quotes:
BUT why isn’t what happened with Ted Haggard just SIN? Why is his SIN somehow bigger and/or badder and/or more important? Why is it that in the minds of these people HIS sin is greater than THEIR sin? Now I know that they will fold their hands and piously drone on about the “higher calling and standards†applied to leaders in the church, but they are missing out on the fact that the Bible NEVER says that the sin of any man or woman is greater than the sin of another, or deserving of greater attention or greater condemnation or greater judgment.
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So King David, the King that God chose to lead Israel, sinned and sinned in a MAJOR way. But his sin didn’t seem to preclude him from God’s mercy and grace. The Scripture certainly makes clear that what he did was sinful and wrong and that he was PUNISHED for it (rightly so). But we’re never shown that David’s sin was evidence of a wrong set of beliefs or teachings. We are shown that David’s sin was a result of his sinful nature, of the desires he harbored in his heart that ran against what God wanted for him.
Again, where’s the fun in that? I mean, if we can’t claim that Ted Haggard’s sin is an indictment of a whole organization or movement, then the only thing left to do is to look to the sin in our own house (so to speak). And again, where’s the fun in that?
Though they will claim that there is no joy in Muddville over this sad, unseemly story, I can’t help but notice an undercurrent of pride and an attempt at masking some small amount of excitement at seeing their narrow-minded-tunnel-visioned-pharisaical views somehow possibly validated by the fall of this pastor.
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So Tim Brown (the gadfly himself) has decided that the millions of people who would identify themselves as Evangelical Christians don’t “care one whit about holiness or obedience to God’s Word,†and all because of Ted Haggard’s sin? I wonder if this guy hangs out with the “Reverend†Ken Silva, ‘cause they certainly seem to paint things (and people) with the same REALLY, REALLY broad brush.
By the way, thanks for judging my Christianity which, by its very nature is contemporary because I am a Christian living my faith in the present (or contemporary) culture. Perhaps you aren’t aware of it, but Luther’s faith was contemporary, too, as was Calvin’s.
Please catch a clue. Thanks!
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Of course, Ingrid over at Slice has to jump into the mix. In this case, she has determined that Ted Haggard has “shattered the reputations of millions of undeserving faithful Christians.†I think that Ingrid, at this point, is playing for the cameras (so to speak) because “shattered†is a pretty heavy word to use. I know that it serves her purpose because by claiming the whole “shattered†thing, she can point to how right she has been in her long fight against all of the evil in the church and how Haggard’s sin is evidence of the damage that can happen when people don’t listen to her and people like her.
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