Monday, November 06, 2006

Scot Mckinght on an "Evironment of Honesty"

Scot Mcknight has some insightful thoughts on the Ted Haggard Mess that has been/is unfolding.

Haggard's troubles point to larger problems within Evangelical Christianity not just the sins of one man. According to McKnight
1. Christians, and not just pastors, do not feel free to disclose sins to anyone;
2. Christians, including pastors, sin and sin all the time;
3. Christians, including pastors, in evangelicalism do not have a mechanism of confession;
4. Christians and pastors, because of the environment of condemnation of sin and the absence of a mechanism of confession, bottle up their sins, hide their sins, and create around themselves an apparent purity and a reality of unconfessed/unadmitted sin.
5. When Christians do confess, and it is often only after getting caught, they are eaten alive by fellow evangelicals — thus leading some to deeper levels of secrecy and deceit.
Therefore, we need to be diligent about correcting the above. We need to be diligent in creating an "environment of honesty." Please read Scot's full post here.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

hey tk,

I was really saddened by this. I hope that people surround this man and want to help him and that he finds the courage to be honest about what is going on with him. I think that if they did the unexpected thing--embraced him instead of ostracizing him to save face--people outside the Church would be pleasantly surprised. for me I know I need people in my life whom I am unable to b.s. or at least refuse to b.s. we need relationships where we can confess to each other.

tonymyles said...

Good insights there... and thanks for the link to Scott's blog.

Anonymous said...

Hey TK
Been a while. Logged on to a topic I have some experience in...sin. And all the talk about confession is great, but it seems to me that there is an inherant stumbling block and that is an either/or, black and white mentality in church circles. We are either walking as upright Christians and sin is, for the most part, behind us or we're hardpressed to even be called Christians and sin abounds in and all around us. Well, maybe both things can be true... a BOTH/AND kind of thing. Can I be BOTH... an upright Christian AND yet sin abounds in me. I think St. Paul had some words on that. And it also gets me to thinking about being created in God's image and that in much of the Old Testament I find a God who is BOTH... loving and merciful AND full of wrath and vengence.(not that God's wrath and vengence are sins)But the point being that we live with duality, the Bible tells us that we live with duality, that we are BOTH spirit-filled AND yet,in this world we are still sinners. And I struggle mightily with this very thing everyday. Everyday I know, BOTH, that God's love and grace and mercy are actively working in my life...changing me, empowering me in overcoming sin in my life, AND, that sin, new sins, old sins, semi-sins, all kinds of sins are coming in or coming up or coming out... sometimes I feel like Lucy and Ethel at the conveyor belt in the chocolate factory...and the onlytake away I have is that "now I see through a glass dimly" and all the more reason to be constantly looking up, looking to God, accepting His love in spite of my BOTH/ANDness, confessing to Him my unworthiness, professing only His power in my life in His time and not ashamed to anyone of my unworthiness as if they were.
Hey Tom, I don't expect that you'll post this...really just wanted to say hi,,miss you guys and hope to see you soon.
Michael S.

Anonymous said...

michael s., do I know you???

TK said...

Hey Michael,

Thanks for leaving the comment. They post automatically so no worries.

I’m right there with you. There is stuff that I struggle with everyday. I recently learned a new slant on becoming more Christlike, i.e. Removing sin from my life. We (I) tend to go at it backwards. We start by trying to rid ourselves of the destructive, sinful or just plain bad mindsets. Instead we should be, as you say, constantly looking to God and trying to fill our mind, heart, soul and body with images and ideas of him. In so doing we will crowd out the hurt, angry, bitterness or whatever else it is that causes us stumble. This is a life long process.

And so I have decided to try to keep a couple of thoughts about God in the front of my brain. 1) the image of bucket that is overflowing. God has an endless supply of love that he wants to pour into my life. If I allow it to God’s love will slosh out of me onto those around me 2) the image of Jesus stooping down to write in sand when the pharisees dragged the woman caught in adultery in front of him. Jesus protects the woman. His doodling in the sand draws attention away from her and to him. Everyone strains to see what he is writing. He issues the challenge, “let he who is whithout sin cast the first stone.” Everyone splits. He says to the woman, “Does no one condemn you? Then neither do I go and sin no more” He lavish grace upon her and speaks words of truth. He called her on her sin but did it in a way that built her up instead of tearing her down.

So I travel on with this turf war raging inside of me confident in the knowledge that He who is in me faithful to complete the work HE started in me.

Peace and prayers my brother,

tk