Report: "The ordination process of Southern Baptist churches is a weak spot when it comes to protecting congregations from sexual predators"
“The report, ‘Above Reproach: A Study of the Ordination Practices of SBC Churches,’ was conducted by Jason A. Lowe, an associational mission strategist in Kentucky, in response to a Feb. 10 Houston Chronicle report on sexual abuse among Southern Baptist churches.” - BPNews
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….if you don’t have the express testimony of the Holy Spirit that someone’s repentance is real, and for that matter the testimony of Paul risking his life to spread the Gospel, you’re going to want to have some seriously strong evidence that someone’s repentance is real before reinstating them in ministry. Stepping up before the congregation and admitting one’s sin would be a great start. Agreeing to serious limitations on activity would be another, and a third would be participation in ministry to other felons. One of the banes of prison ministry, according to some, is how easily they pull the wool over the eyes of others—why not use the expertise of known criminals in this regard for good?
(an illustration of pulling the wool over peoples’ eyes; Larry Nassar started a Bible study in prison, and then during appeals, basically tried to deny the things he’d confessed under oath….another case that came out yesterday is a pastor who repeatedly raped his adopted daughter, and got 30 people from his church to come out as character witnesses when his DNA was found on his daughter’s bed…..this is not something to take lightly)
Finally, one thing that I don’t think I said clearly yet: kudos to the SBC for getting things right and showing these guys the door.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
Again, just thoughts about where (or how) to draw the line, but not against a line at all (nor more discovery and transparency about people’s past on these matters).
It’s a good question and the back and forth illustrates some of the factors that can make it difficult to draw. I’m probably echoing Bert on this point: most of the time, it’s a matter of doing the basic kind of checking and dealing with obvious problems. There are always going to be cases at the margins that are just plain a nightmare to sort out. I can’t see any way to avoid that, and those are going to come down to judgment calls of some kind. And sometimes they’ll be wrong. The NT qualifications for the office of elder are effectively statements of principle that can be applied in multiple cultural settings over thousands of years—that same quality of broad usefulness makes them difficult in particular cases. God hasn’t told us exactly where to draw some of the lines.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
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