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February 06, 2009
Faith : Ted Haggard
I've been thinking a lot about the concept of "church discipline" of late, and I will eventually have a post or two on the subject; but there was an article last week in Slate magazine on disgraced pastor Ted Haggard which has generated a lot of buzz on the web and I find myself compelled to comment as well.
The article is written by a friend an associate of Haggard and it raises some very good questions about how effective "the church" has been at forgiving and restoring the man while acknowledging that Haggard has also done some thing which have hurt his cause (not telling the whole story, sending out fund raising letters, appearing on talk shows). The article is quite good on its own and I recommend people read it.
My own personal reaction to the article seems to be a bit different from most of the posts and comments I have seen. Most people either seem to react by saying that what Haggard did was unforgivable (and therefore he should stay "un-restored") or that the church's treatment of him has been unforgivable (and therefore that he should be acceptable back into ministry now that he has repented).
Personally, I think everyone is missing the real problem here because they bring to the debate some key assumptions about the church as an institution. The author of the article actually makes the point without realizing it when he writes:
"New Life Church needed to protect itself and had to shun one of its own in order not to expose itself to financial ruin in the form of fleeing members."
and notes
"A year later, after Haggard caused a stir by sending a fundraising e-mail, his former church rebuked him publicly. . ."
In short, money makes forgiveness and restoration much more complicated (if not practically impossible). If you assume that churches are institutions with property and expenses, then you should not be surprised when their actions are driven by financial concerns and not by Christian virtues. Likewise if you assume that churches have staff that depend on the church for their income, then you should not be surprised when the staff's actions are driven by financial concerns, hiding issues which could effect their employment and rushing to return to ministry to re-establish their income.
The problem is not with Ted Haggard or his former church – they are just doing what comes naturally given the structure we have created around the faith. The problem is that structure which leads people to serve two masters – both God and Money.
The solution, as I have written before, is that The Church is a community of people who support each other in their faith. It has no property or fixed expenses so it has no financial stake to be at risk. It might take up collections for specific projects (such as the special collection for the poor in Jerusalem described in the Bible); but those projects are of limited scope and time. It has no paid staff, so no one's livelihood is at risk if they find themselves in trouble. The only people who earn their living from the faith are those who are sent out of the community (what we would probably call missionaries today, but used to be called apostles), and in their case finances are the least of the risks they are taking. Even then, the model of "short term missions" where people are sent out for a few weeks or months at a time and then return home to their normal jobs is better (even Paul's "missionary Journeys" described in Acts could be viewed this way). As much as possible, the church should avoid "open ended" commitments to support someone.
In an environment like that The Church, and the individual who are a part of it, can focus entirely on what God requires of a situation (honesty, openness, forgiveness, restoration) without concern over money. Wouldn't that be better?
Posted by Steven at February 6, 2009 05:00 AM
Comments
Wouldn't that be better?
- yes
Posted by: roland at February 6, 2009 09:24 AM
