One of the most egregious positions for church leaders to find themselves doing is to be part of covering for their friends when a sin is exposed. When I was called to my present ministry the chairperson of the search committee and I became close friends. This person was very scholarly in his approach to the scriptures and he was one of a few people I could debate issues with and feel challenged in the debate. This person and I became very close as we worked in various areas of ministry. Four months into my tenure the person was arrested with numerous accounts of taking indecent liberties with a minor. I did all that I could to confront the situation when I found out about his grievous sin but I made certain that I did not make the mistake of giving him “cover”.
Many times when friends are accused of moral failures the first move many church leaders feel compelled to make is to give cover to our friend. We take the position, I cannot believe this person would never do anything like this. Let me be clear, I am not speaking about some groundless charge or a “he says, she says” scenario. I am speaking of someone that is accused of something with a person willing to tell the personal story. It must be investigated thoroughly and with an unbiased approach. As we make the transition to a national level it appears one of our denominational leaders has intervened for one that has been accused of moral failure. Because of this intervention, it makes it appear a cover-up is in place.
Dr. Ed Stetzer
Ed Stetzer did an interview with Jonathan Merritt after he was outed in the blog world. That interview was projected all across Twitter by Stetzer’s followers. In the interview Merritt came clean that he had “physical contact that went beyond the bounds of friendship” with this homosexual blogger. However, in Stetzer’s article he chastised Christian bloggers for linking to the homosexual bloggers’ site and even questioned if those who reported on this story were even Christian. To that I can only respond, WOW! Why would a denominational leader question the salvation of someone for merely linking to a site and questioning if this were true? Read more
