Is “Above Reproach” Its Own Qualification, or a Qualification of the All the Others?

[Larry]

No one is “above reproach” to everyone.

Isn’t this confusing “above reproach” with “perfect”?

Exactly! … The way the average guy in the pew thinks!

First, I liked what Craig mentions. Everybody’s got a scruple or two that he could use to shoot down just about anybody, and since none of us is without sin, we might joke “we ought to just shut everything down.” No?

But to the question Tom raised, I think that we ought to scale our response to the level of sin or misconduct that’s been proven, as that seems consistent with how Scripture treats offenses. If it’s criminal or ministry excluding for life, e.g. sexual sin/rape/etc.., put it in a database for all the world to see in the way Paul calls out Hymeneaus and Alexander, or John called out Diotrephes. Sexual sin/assault in the church poses an existential threat to the witness and very existence of churches, so that’s a huge deal.

Refusal to adhere to child protection policies, say being found alone with kids? I think that’s more “if someone calls and asks about Bob, we tell him we told him to go his way because he wouldn’t adhere to child protection policies. Never found him abusing a child, but we felt it was significant enough that he was modeling bad behaviors for child protection.”

That noted, I still can’t make head or tail of the case in the original article. It would be tremendously helpful if someone that’s in these situations spoke clearly about this, but with anonymnity, to illustrate other ways besides “pastor caught in bed with secretary” for dismissing a pastor.