Hallowed be Your Name
Recently Time magazine has a listing of the 25 most influential Evangelicals in America. Its a veritable whos who in American church circles. It is interesting that Ted Haggard is listed among them. His latest confession (and resignation) serves to highlight the absolute need for public figures to live their message before commenting on other people’s lifestyles. I don’t say this to judge in any way; simply to highlight both the positive and negative potential of those Christians who are publically active in some high profile way. What they do effects us all. And most horrifyingly, it effects God.
The highest calling in Jewish ethics is to ’sanctify the Name.’ That is, to live in such a way that God’s name is sanctified though our words/actions. The opposite is also true. The worst thing a believer can do is to ‘dishonor the Name.’ That is, to behave in such a way that people blame God for what we do. Belief in God is inextrcably linked with our lifestyles and our actions–for good or ill. Such is the nature of witness. It’s both terrifying and wonderful at the same time. What we do matters--it points others towards God or obscures God from the very ones who need to encounter him. God takes such a risk on us doesn’t he?
Let us not take his name in vain: For this is the inner meaning of blasphemy–to destroy the symbols/concept of holiness that they no longer can convey what they were intended to convey, but rather communicate the exact opposite. Our lives sanctify or they blaspheme. Such is the holy nature of our witness. Let us all take stock!
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Christian leaders should also be refusing to allow Time and others to include them in such lists. I can’t image Jesus allowing it. He even charged many who he healed with not telling anyone.
Yeah, we never good look in the media. I can think of no time (except perhaps Mother Theresa) that we came off a media enounter looking good. Especially evanelicals.
Maybe we should wait till every Christian leader is dead…and then some, before elevating them…starting to sound like Catholic sainthood!
I feel for Ted Haggards’ family - you wouldn’t wish that on anyone, but I can’t help be find this whole Ted Haggard thing super fascinating. We’ve had a few fundy type Christians come through our home. To stir things up Mark (housemate) will sometimes ask them how their church deals with those who struggle with same sex attraction. The answer always is “there’s no-one in my church like that”.
Something that shocked me more then Ted’s confessions was the practical suggestions given by an American pastor, Mark Driscoll, on how other pastors can avoid the same type of temptation: http://theresurgence.com/md_blog_2006-11-03_evangelical_leader_quits
This one is golden:
“Most pastors I know do not have satisfying, free, sexual conversations and liberties with their wives. At the risk of being even more widely despised than I currently am, I will lean over the plate and take one for the team on this. It is not uncommon to meet pastors’ wives who really let themselves go; they sometimes feel that because their husband is a pastor, he is therefore trapped into fidelity, which gives them cause for laziness. A wife who lets herself go and is not sexually available to her husband in the ways that the Song of Songs is so frank about is not responsible for her husband’s sin, but she may not be helping him either.”
Just boggles the mind.
Again, I don’t want to delight in someone else’s misery, but the irony in it all is just astounding. Ted Haggard happens to be the author of “The Jerusalem Diet: The ‘One Day’ Approach to Reach Your Ideal Weight - and Stay There”. There’s some pretty funny customer reviews starting to pop up on Amazon.
I sat back and pondered this guy focusing his energies on writing a diet book while all this was going on in his life. I’m doing some research at the moment on materialism for a uni paper. There’s a bunch of studies that have found across all age groups and all cultures, those who seek satisfaction outside of themselves, whether in money, in the mirror, or in admiration by others often suffer poor mental and physical health, don’t adapt well to society and act in destructive ways. Not surprising I guess, but I read the questions they used as prompts to determine people’s values - a lot of people would respond thinking that extrinsic values are positive virtues, not problematic for their psychological health. These values are preached not only from our tvs, but now our pulpits. According to Brian we need more money. According to Bobby a bit of plastic surgery is a good thing. According to Ted a diet of nuts, fruit and vegies will have us looking and feeling fabulous. As Christians we’re meant to be different from the world. Does that mean protesting against gay marriage or defying the consumerist narcissistic culture?
Before I get too carried away I guess the most important thing is that I take on some lessons from this myself. As Al said: live our message before commenting on other people’s lifestyles.
Hi Sally,
I followed up Mark Driscoll’s comments on the subject. Maybe I am reading you wrong, but I thought you were negative about them. Personally I thought most of it was good advice. As for a wife’s role in supporting her husband, I fail to see how she would not have a powerful influence in making their marriage stronger in that way - for better or worse of course she has influence.
The thing is, taking on that kind of “professional pastor” role whether you are man or woman puts you and your relationships under intense pressures which I do not think they were ever meant to be under. So if you are going to go down that track, then the measures listed in Mark’s blog are simply necessary survival skills.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t surprise me one little bit that someone in Ted Haggard’s position has fallen the way he has. History has proven time and again that no matter what sector of the institution you belong to, it is a man eating machine. Almost no-one makes it through in one piece (read the stats, it’s not an overstatement).
I don’t really know enough to comment on the particulars, but the guy is probably just trying to find something real, including himself outside of the image he is under pressure to live up to.
hi al,
just wanted to welcome you to the blogosphere, and congratulate you on a top looking website.
got the tip-off from geoff maddock.
looking forward to getting your book, and following your journey via this media.
love and peace to you brother.
Hi Jeremy
I didn’t expand too much on what Mark had to say as I thought it spoke very clearly for itself. Firstly Ted acted out with a homosexual man. There are obviously other issues going on here. His wife could have been ridiculously gorgeous, it wouldn’t have mattered. Secondly, I’ve been in church scenes for a long long time – I can tell you it is not the pastor’s *wives* who are letting themselves go. But that’s not the point I wanted to make - suggesting that a wife needs to lose weight to keep her husband is absurd. Do we need to add ‘through fat and thin’ to the marriage vows? Blaming a woman for the way a man acts is not new. The media recently went crazy over comments made by Sheik Taj Din al-Hilaly who also suggested that a woman’s appearance was to blame for men acting out. Its interesting that we have one religious figure telling us to cover up and another telling us to look as hot as we can. There’s always a trail that leads up to one’s actions, but at the end of the day we are all responsible for what we do.
You are right, none of us know enough to comment on the particulars – but I’m quite confident that the issues in this case are a lot broader than Ted’s wife having a couple of extra donuts and missing a few classes at the gym.
Alan,
Good warning here and explanation of taking God’s name in vain. Perhaps the main reason God had the Israelites carried off into Babylonian captivity was because their actions were causing God’s name to be profaned among the Gentiles. These public scandals cause the “Gentiles” today to disparage Christians, and perhaps, God himself.
Dr. Archibald Hart at Fuller has some insights into why so many high profile figures, both religious leaders and CEO types, are involved in radical acts of immorality. The adrenaline high and stress that is caused from these positions is numbing and addictive, causing normal pleasure to have no effect. It takes more and more stimulus for the brain to feel any pleasure, and only this risky behavior qualifies. This is not an excuse, but an explanation. I’m sure that these are good men and women who did not go into ministry intending to be duplicitous.
For me, this is yet another reason to move away from the idolization of megachurches. These churches do great good, but the pressure is simply too high for most of us mortal leaders to handle. The more we are lauded, the greater the pressure, and the more likely we will act out. Satan is at work too, and loves scandals like these. We should pray for Ted Haggard and his family.
First of all Sally. I think these are profoundly nsightful ad honest comments. Thanks a ton for them. And for those who diudn’t realize that the reference to the Sheik dude is an Aussie imam’s comments that scantily dressed women invite rape–he compared them to putting a plate of raw meat out when the dog’s around. And isn’t it bizarre that the one is saying ‘cover up girls or you rsik sexual assualt’ and our guy is saying the exact opposite. I am with Sal on this; Mark Driscoll’s comment is in very poor taste.
And as for James, with you I do worry about human nature itself. Pride comes with celebrity and media attentio and for sure it is detrimental to the human soul.
Thanks for the great insights all.
Hi again Sally,
if Driscoll was saying what you think he is, I think they would be highly innapropriate comments indeed, but I think you might be reading too much into them.
1- I don’t think the comments were at all personally directed at Haggard’s wife, or Haggard (which is what would make them in poor taste). I think they are to be interpreted in the general context of “this is a reminder that we are not invincible, let’s check our borders”. I think it would be unfair to interpret them as personal statements.
2- The other aspect of poor taste was would be to blame wives for their husband’s sins. Once again, I don’t think this is what Driscoll is shooting for. The rest of the list is about what men can do to make themselves less vulnerable (and it is mostly practical, the root cause is identified as relationship with Jesus). I think it is fair that he includes something wives can do to help. It would be like if I were writing an article on how to help your teenager avoid drugs, of course I would say “take them safe but fun places”, or my advice for husbands and wife teams in ministry would be “take her out, make her feel special, and spend time talking to her, so she doesn’t feel the need to find it elsewhere”. Sure people can be strong, but there are things we can do to help. I believe you will find echoes of it in the bible
1 Corinthians 7:5
Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.
I can see how you might take exception to The comments based on some of the body worship stuff out there at the mo. I hate it, but I think it might be something you have superimposed on what I interpret as simply a general wake-up call to check our own borders.
Anyway, although voluminous, my thoughts on those comments are not nearly so inyeresting to me as what I hoped would come through more clearly in my earlier post, which is that if churches put people in these positions, frankly it should not be still surprising us.
I am going to make a controversial statement. Once again, without knowing the particulars, it may very well have been the good in Ted Haggard trying to get some air that led to this.
People in his position are under pressure to be something that simply no-one can sustainably be. They are deprived of true friendship, relationship, and self expression. They are constantly under pressure to acheive things that only God can. I think the guy was just trying to be a bit human.
The smart response for the wider church to this thing, instead of saying “oh him of all people, I would never have guessed he was like that” would be to ask “why does the church keep doing this to good people”. The truth is that whether through immorality or burnout, it is a tiny percentage of pastors that make it through to retirement.
Anyway apolagies for the long post, and if it is a bit of a sidetrack in some ways
Good stuff Alan, looking forward to the book, sounds great.
Be encouraged.
GBYAY
Alan, No input about the recent scandal but I loved your thoughts on ’sanctify the Name’.
Thanks for starting blogging. Looking forward to following the blog.
breathe fire.
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