Haggard and How Evangelicalism May Have Helped Him Hide for So Long


by Les Herron - Date: 2006-12-07 - Word Count: 885 Share This!

To be an evangelical leader you must appear at all times to be perfect. It is the "Most Spiritual Man in the Room" syndrome and consists of forcing evangelicals to look better than anyone else in the room (the proverbial room including the church and any organization you might lead). We all know that it is not possible to consistently be the most spiritual man in every room every time so it is important to develop outward phrases and ways of posturing oneself so that everyone assumes that you indeed are a fantastic person.

To be an evangelical leader you must teach new truths all the time instead of depending on the basic message of love, peace, joy, and grace we find ourselves veering off into every new fangled spiritual experience out there that has the posh label of Evangelical Christian. The price tag is unbelievably high when you factor in the cost of losing focus on what it means to fulfill the Great Commission, dropping anything that looks like liberal practices or theology (even though it may be more loving than what we already do), and dropping the intellect as something that opposes the great new teachings that have been delivered from above (not The Above but from those even more spiritual guys then our local pastors who send down materials on how we are supposed to think, feel, act, and live)

This teaching is very often dishonest because it purports to answer all of life's questions, fulfill all of our relational needs, make us sit next to God, and fills our pockets with loads of cash.

To be an evangelical pastor often means that you do not have any accountability (something Haggard happened to have at least corporately) exactly because you are the most spiritual person in the room and therefore who can be your spiritual guide other than the Holiest of Guides?

The positioning and posturing of how great we are as leaders makes us the smartest guy in the room and allows us to teach just about anything we want without ever having to be bothered by actually doing it (or being questioned when wrong).

To be evangelical you must worship a certain way, that way typically being demonstrative and using a full bag of 'tricks' to get God's attention. As evangelicals we often believe that we know how everyone in the service should worship and that if you are following the music leader's directions on how to worship God (possibly raising your hands, closing your eyes, bowing, or dancing at the right times) then you must be worshipping. This gives the evangelical the distinct advantage of being able to know the form and legal requirements of worship without ever having to embrace the heart of worship.

Our hearts and thoughts can be wicked but at least we look like we are worshipping; and indeed, can point to our worshipful actions to prove our point.

This same pattern of knowing how to lead on the outside with our insides being totally twisted up in sinful and contradictory thoughts and feelings helps us to hide our pain for a long, long time.

This ability to have a pattern of a spiritual life without actually living in peace and joy makes the discovery of such pain within us almost shocking to those around us.

The evangelical leader is forced to point to and describe the 'bad guys' as the liberal media and the anti-Christian forces that rally against us. We so very often point the finger at forces outside of our control instead of looking a little bit within to find out where the real problems are.

Whenever Christians begin to blame others for their problems, complains that their nation should be Christian, and desires for all to live like they want to live (sound like Islam or Evangelical Christianity?) then that religion has forgotten that at the core we are spiritual and our greatest contribution to society is spiritual (this does not mean we should not be involved in all areas of the culture but it must not be first).

In this kind of religious world the political agenda of law (and winning) then takes place over the heavenly agenda of love and God's rescue of people.

The ability to win an election with pro-life politicians in governmental position becomes more important than our own ability to volunteer at a clinic or a foster home.

The desire to see gay marriages banned in the nation is stronger than our desire to see our own marriages strengthened and developing our children into Godly men and women.

The force and passion with which many of us speak about politics has replaced the passion and fervor with which we speak about the love and kindness of Father God.

I love being a follower of Christ and adhering to the teachings of Jesus and moving towards knowing more and more about God. What I cannot stand is this idea that we have it all together and are so much more spiritual than all of the other losers who practice their Christianity at a lower level than us.

So, instead of looking at Ted Haggard and what he may have done wrong let us rather take a look at some of the structures and ways of thinking that are corrupt within the system of religion where we choose to live out our faith.


Related Tags: gay, religion, god, homosexual, church, morality, haggard, sexual scandal, evangelical

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