Cedarville places president on leave, announces investigations into hiring, conduct of former faculty member

“The trustees also announced independent investigations into both the hiring of former theology professor Anthony Moore and Moore’s conduct while employed at the independent Baptist school.” - BPNews

Discussion

Here we go again. Friendship gets in the way of dealing with this problem. In addition, where in the Bible does restoration plan belong to a Christian College?

What is a “special advisor to the president for Kingdom Diversity?”

Donn R Arms

When it comes to clergy sexual abuse, there is no restoration plan: they should never be in ministry again.

Yes, they can be restored to God, to their family, and to their church, but they should never be placed in positions of spiritual authority again, whether that’s a pulpit or a rostrum.

A former pastor / mentor of mine engaged in clergy sexual abuse, and within two years of his confession he left our church, started a counseling ministry, and began speaking at men’s conferences. After all, if God forgave David and Peter of their grievous sins and placed them back into ministry, there’s no reason he shouldn’t continue to be in ministry.

:(

Julie Roys has a full slate of articles on this madness. This looks like a very stupid move by the President. Poor Cedarville!

Tyler is a pastor in Olympia, WA and works in State government.

[TylerR]

Julie Roys has a full slate of articles on this madness. This looks like a very stupid move by the President. Poor Cedarville!

Look, I get that Dr White wanted to help his friend to return to some sort of ministry context. After all, most likely, Moore didn’t have any other marketable skill set other than Christian ministry to provide for his family (I’m assuming he’s married). What kind of secular job would you get with a Ph.D. in Theology or a DMin in Pastoral Ministry? Maybe, if lucky, an adjust professor position at a community college.

My former pastor had several advanced theological degrees but didn’t have a marketable skill set either, unless he wanted to go into sales. To provide for his family, he did get a “regular job” for about nine months after he confessed. However, after his wife found full-time employment, he quit his job because it was “too stressful.” Instead, he focused on starting his new counseling ministry and he used his pastor friend contacts to get speaking gigs at men’s ministry / conference events.

Pretty rough for him and his family—agreed with T. Howard on that one. What I don’t get is why it apparently made a bit difference how many times he’d filmed. My take, I at least hope would be “now imagine that film gets out and the victim decides he wants to lawyer up. What are you going to say on the witness stand as the plaintiff’s lawyer questions you?”

And then to make it worse, “this man had something of an issue with young men….you put him in the locker room….why?”

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.

[Bert Perry]

Pretty rough for him and his family—agreed with T. Howard on that one. What I don’t get is why it apparently made a bit difference how many times he’d filmed.

I agree. My guess is that they viewed this as a slip in judgement when it was considered once. The problem is that they seem to have no idea on the depravity of this sin, and the fact that most likely this individual will never be truly rid of it. The fact that he filmed was not his first step. He had many other steps to finally get to the point that the addiction he was feeding was not sufficient and so he had to start filming someone he knew. In addition, this points to many sins. My personal take is that while he can be restored to Christ and a body of believers, he can never be restored to ministry and never restored to a leadership position. As poor as that may be for his family, he took a conscience decision to do this and there are reprucussions to sin. I personally don’t feel sorry that he doesn’t have a marketable skill. There are still plenty of jobs that he can do without having a degree or counting on a degree.

[T Howard]
TylerR wrote:

Julie Roys has a full slate of articles on this madness. This looks like a very stupid move by the President. Poor Cedarville!

Look, I get that Dr White wanted to help his friend to return to some sort of ministry context. After all, most likely, Moore didn’t have any other marketable skill set other than Christian ministry to provide for his family (I’m assuming he’s married). What kind of secular job would you get with a Ph.D. in Theology or a DMin in Pastoral Ministry? Maybe, if lucky, an adjust professor position at a community college.

My former pastor had several advanced theological degrees but didn’t have a marketable skill set either, unless he wanted to go into sales. To provide for his family, he did get a “regular job” for about nine months after he confessed. However, after his wife found full-time employment, he quit his job because it was “too stressful.” Instead, he focused on starting his new counseling ministry and he used his pastor friend contacts to get speaking gigs at men’s ministry / conference events.

Now I’m going to be fair here; every vocational pastor is, or ought to be, cringing at what Tom said there. It’s my hope and prayer that what he describes is the exception rather than the rule. But what if a lot of pastors are in their positions because “it’s easier than working”, and our church cultures are inadvertently selecting for people of that description?

If that were true, I’d guess we would be getting other moral issues besides laziness. I don’t know whether it’s the case here, and I certainly wouldn’t want to force aspiring pastors to “prove themselves” by toil in areas where they’re not gifted—say take the sickly Isaac Watts and force him to be a stone-mason or something—but Deming’s proverb “Your system is perfectly designed to give you the results it gets” comes to mind.

Another thought; pastors are communicators, or at least ought to be. Add AP style to that skill set, and you have journalism. Add corporate style to that skill set, and you’ve got public relations. Add technical content to that skill set, and you’ve got technical writing or project management (youth pastor at my church just went in to that—no grievous sin on his part, BTW). And then you’ve got sales.

Methinks that any pastor who’s actually “apt to teach” has a number of areas he can go into with a little bit of….work.

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.

[Joeb] Question: Who was the Mega Church Pastor years back by the first name Ted in Colorado that got in the scandal with the male prostitute and drugs. I had sympathy for him because he was raped as a 13/14 year old by his dad’s friend. I think his wife stayed with him and he went through a restoration plan and was involved with sales. From what I understand he and his family were restored. Kind of a happy ending. His wife wrote a book on it. Hey may be back in the ministry with a small church but I don’t know if he is a full time Pastor. His mitigating circumstances in my mind being that he was sodimized two or three times as a young boy and never getting treatment for it to me puts him in the category of returning to the ministry. Good example in my mind of someone who could be restored to the ministry. Just a question.

Ted Haggard

Now in Colorado Springs

https://saintjameschurch.com/aboutthepastors/

[Joeb] Question: Who was the Mega Church Pastor years back by the first name Ted in Colorado that got in the scandal with the male prostitute and drugs. I had sympathy for him because he was raped as a 13/14 year old by his dad’s friend. I think his wife stayed with him and he went through a restoration plan and was involved with sales. From what I understand he and his family were restored. Kind of a happy ending. His wife wrote a book on it. Hey may be back in the ministry with a small church but I don’t know if he is a full time Pastor. His mitigating circumstances in my mind being that he was sodimized two or three times as a young boy and never getting treatment for it to me puts him in the category of returning to the ministry. Good example in my mind of someone who could be restored to the ministry. Just a question.

Ted Haggard

He went from being an SBC pastor to a Free Methodist Church pastor after his scandal. And, his new church (which he also planted) isn’t small.

[edit] I see Jim beat me to the punch

[Bert Perry] Now I’m going to be fair here; every vocational pastor is, or ought to be, cringing at what Tom said there. It’s my hope and prayer that what he describes is the exception rather than the rule. But what if a lot of pastors are in their positions because “it’s easier than working”, and our church cultures are inadvertently selecting for people of that description?

From what I’ve seen, the fallen pastors who are quick to return are often gifted communicators and strong leaders. That was also the case with my former pastor. His expositional preaching was superb. He mastered both the art and science of homiletics. In fact, I still have all his recorded sermons saved on my computer (close to 10 years worth), because the guy could preach.

So, what does a guy like that do after he confesses and steps down from the pulpit? He has no marketable degree. Most corporations aren’t going to hire a guy to corporate public affairs who only has advanced theological degrees and no experience other than being a pastor. Also, from what I’ve seen, guys who used to be senior / lead pastors, who were strong leaders, and who mostly operated autonomously as the senior pastor, struggle with working for someone else and being a “direct report.”

Thus, after a short time away from ministry, they feel “God’s call” to pursue ministry again. And, who are you to question God’s call? After all, “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”

[Jim]
T Howard wrote:they feel “God’s call” to pursue ministry again. And, who are you to question God’s call? After all, “the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”

Romans 11:29 ripped violently right out of context!

Yep. But, that was the verse he and his wife used to justify his return to ministry.

Tom’s comment

Also, from what I’ve seen, guys who used to be senior / lead pastors, who were strong leaders, and who mostly operated autonomously as the senior pastor, struggle with working for someone else and being a “direct report.”

Very interesting, and I dare say “true”. The question arises; how do we encourage churches to have the attitude shared by a Wal-Mart executive whose name escapes me; the customer can fire us at any time for any reason. In other words, would we infer that another possible cause of these things is the attitude “I’m running this show.”? If the greatest among us is to be the servant of all, we at least would hope that our cultures would work against the notion that the pastor ought to be “totally in control”.

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.