Posted by
J D Thomas on Sunday, May 18, 2008 6:05:59 PM
An assistant minister at the 26,000 member Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas has been arrested after making a date with a police officer posing as a 13-year-old girl. The Catholic Church is not the only one with skunks in holy robes. This time, it is the courts and not the deacon board or archbishop who decides what happens to him.
Several years ago, I knew a woman who attended a small church and her pastor visited her while she was in the hospital. She said that he sat on her bed staring at her breast and then told her that he could not stay because she made him so sexually hot. Another woman in the same church went to this pastor for counseling about problems in her marriage. He wanted her to sit on his lap and let him show her love and comfort her.
His adventures in that church ended when a woman he had seduced was so guilt ridden that she confessed to her husband. The deacons gave him a good recommendation and did not tell the next church why he was dismissed. Sometimes I think that some ministers think they are Davids and will have God's love even after their Bathshebas. I think they overlook the price David paid for his indiscretion: God will forgive a sincere repentant, but there is always a price. In David's case, look at what happened to his family.
Do the abuses of priest and ministers mean that the church is tainted and Christians are hippocrites? The nature of mankind is hard to control. The advice of Christ was to pray that we will not be tempted. My advice is to recognize our natural weaknesses and avoid situations that lead to temptation. The Bible says we are to honor our Christian leaders; it also says that some will be wolves in sheep clothing. I think we much remember that these are men and not God and apply a prudent man's principles in dealing with them.