MUST READ, especially this part: It’s important for Christians to examine the issues that led to Driscoll’s crisis in his ministry. In the hours following the announcement of Driscoll’s resignation, many people took to social media and reprimanded those discussing it as being guilty of hypocrisy, character assassination, or “tearing down a fellow Christian.” There were many calls to extend grace and forgiveness, and to respond with Christ-like love. Grace and forgiveness should be extended to Mr. Driscoll, but grace and forgiveness do not equal silence. Likewise, restoration is available and possible, but restoration of a person need not mean restoration of a position. We need to honestly address what “Christ-like” means in the face of a religious leader facing some very serious accusations of abuse. When we truly look at Jesus’s example, we see a man who was full of grace, but also could be full of righteous indignation when the church was being hurt by the humans in charge. Jesus was not meek when it came to calling out the abuse of power. In fact, when we ask ourselves WWJD, table-flipping is an option. Jesus was assertive in addressing the religious leaders of his day. And yet today, many people are silencing and shaming others for addressing systemic issues or individual behavioral concerns with religious leadership, calling for grace—as if grace and accountability are mutually exclusive. I’ve also seen a subtle but pervasive suggestion that Christians should be quiet on matters of Christian leaders in the public sphere because we don’t want to “tear down our own.” The problem with this kind of faith-based loyalty and avoidance of confrontation is that it allows abuse to flourish. This is the very environment that has been responsible for the wide-spread covering up of abuse in a number of religious institutions.
Posted on: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 00:28:48 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015