CRN.Info and Analysis

Source: Musings from Two-Sheds Gomer

Comments: In the wake of the Ted Haggard scandal, Slice made a great deal of hay on the “root causes” of Haggard’s failure (his theology, of course). Brendt has a much more reasonable response…
Memorable Quotes:

Anyone who hasn’t been under a rock recently knows about the whole scandal of former NAE president and pastor Ted Haggard. While we may not be Haggard’s accountability partners, the same spirit of humility should be applied to our reactions to this situation. Beyond prayer for everyone involved, if there are things that God can teach us in this, we need to be receptive. In his blog, Mark Driscoll gives many good thoughts on just this subject. But before getting into “what can we learn?”, Driscoll notes:

Of course the media is having a field day with the scandal . . .

Unfortunately, it’s not just the media. And what’s worse is that the others ought to know better.

I wrote a couple weeks ago that I was giving up on the watch-blogs and their ilk, and as a result was even going to have to limit my readership on other blogs that may link to them or upon which their authors may comment. And, for the most part, I’ve done just that. I had a couple of lapses, but I was able to keep my mouth shut and not share the stupidity with others. And I have not had any such lapses since the story about Haggard broke.

Yet even with such insulation, I stumbled across two blogs that see this, not as a horrible situation into which a brother has fallen (though I’m sure that they’d claim to see it that way), but as validation from God of their views on the modern church.

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I guess I really shouldn’t be surprised. After Pastor Kyle Lake died from electrocution in front of his congregation last year, some yahoo claimed that it was God giving a sign to the emergent church (in which Lake was strongly entrenched, apparently). One of the watchblogs applauded this idiot’s opinion, and it was this watchblog that was one of the two places where I found the unChrist-like reaction to the Haggard story.

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Of course, in pointing out this hypocrisy, one has to be careful not to sink to their level (which, if I read this right, is below Fred Phelps — yuck). The title of this post refers not to Ted Haggard (as you probably suspected, at first), but to the watchbloggers.

Lord, You have shown me not to pray that I am thankful “that I am not like” Ted Haggard. But keep my humility in check, lest I pray that I am thankful “that I am not like” the watchbloggers.

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