potential danger is everywhere, we should be alert in the LORD and also alert using our Brains and Setting the same Standards as in worldly institutions

http://www.gjw.de/themen/sichere-gemeinde/

This is not just adultery; it is abuse of the worst kind, by a man who is supposed to be the shepherd of his flock: http://www.edstetzer.com/2012/08/its-not-adultery-its-abuse.html

The plea by Ed Stetzer is for people to speak up with humility and tears, instead of covering it up to protect the leader.

May God have mercy on us.

He asks good questions that might still be not easy to answer: “What should happen to pastors who fall into sexual misconduct? Should they return, repentant, to leadership/pastoral ministry within weeks or months – or should they return at all? Does the Bible and church history give us any help with these kinds of questions?”

Another man and his wife had parented 75 foster kids, and was being held on charges of molesting 2 of his foster children, age 6 and 12: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2012/may/editorial-christian-sex-abusers.html

May God have mercy on us. 

These days I am reading stuff I wrote over the past 20 years… and I assuredly say “no” I do not believe most of what I wrote. But I am glad I have so much material about how not to live a Christian life. 

I agree with you that elevating any Christian leader makes disillusionment far greater when (not if) they sin. As a husband, father, pastor, I know that I can “easily” discourage and crush/devastate my wife, my 4 children and my congregation. For this reason, I cry out to God daily for His mercy on me.

Reading the details of this story is even sadder. As an educational psychologist, his own bio states: “Most of my research has involved children either in school or church contexts. I am particularly interested in family nurture of children’s spiritual experiences and development,”

On the subject of children and spirituality, his personal website states: “I appreciate children in all of their richness and complexity. They can be baffling, frustrating, delightful, and overwhelming. While I have studied child development in depth … I am particularly interested in the spirituality of children.”

I wonder if people’s faith are shaken because they lift up their pastor as an example of someone who knows Jesus but still fails. Or whether their faith is shaken because the sense of trust they shared with another individual of faith is shaken which leads them to feel uncertain about connecting with their heavenly Father.

We all need people to help us to learn the faith which must make it hard to grow in your faith if your not willing to trust a a person with some authority within your religious circle given a past scandal with a pastor or priest. 

That, for me, is the whole point of this discussion. Silence allows Satan to have a field day with people’s hearts and minds. 

Jesus says that what we whisper in our bed rooms will one day be shouted from the rooftops (Lk 12:3). But the internet is doing so even before Jesus comes again!

Amen Gerardo! There are growing indications to me that the Spirit is working in the Catholic church these days. Maybe such actions will cause me to acknowledge my Catholicity :)

After the whole sex abuse scandal that errupted 2 years ago, the Archdioses sent out a survey to Catholics asking how they could serve them better. From what I understand, many people responded by asking the archdioses to respond to the sexual abuse scandal since they didnt know whether to believe the secular news media. I was delighted that at least in our Archdioses, they ended up creating discussion groups in various parishes for people who wanted answers or just have a place to talk with an representative from the Archdioses about their frustrations with the whole situation.   

Once a UBF leader was arrested on campus for public exposure. That person’s situation was dealt with rather gracefully and with mercy (on an individual level). However, the community issues relating to this sin were never dealt with properly, in my opinion.

In fact, that person is now in an even higher leadership position as if nothing ever happened. Who knows? Perhaps that person is even involved in children’s ministry! In my good conscience, I cannot support such a way of dealing with sexual sin. Such sins should be dealt with on both a personal level and on a community level, as far as I can tell from Scripture. That particular situation was not handled the way the Bible dealt with the sexual sins of leader’s such as King David and Bathsheba.

When we don’t (as a body of Christ) deal with such sexual sin openly, the situations blow up. And since this is the year 2012, the situations will blow up on the internet. 

ADMIN NOTE: As on of the ubfriends admins, I unapproved both your comment and my last comment on this thread. Neither is appropriate for this website. People can search elsewhere for specific sins reported about UBF leaders (such material is easy to find and has been for 10 years). We’re not going to regurgitate those details here.

Exposing or discussing specific sins of others is not the purpose of this website. But we will allow anyone to confess here out of their own desire.

Your questions are valid and should be addressed however. Perhaps we can discuss these questions without referencing specific people’s names: “How was the conflict resolved? On what principles?” These questions relate well to the topic Ben raised here.

I think these questions are worth discussing publicly. However, in UBF’s case, we probably know the answers already. The conflict you speak of was most certainly “resolved” by private meetings and a lot of covering up of facts. Is there a case in UBF where leader’s sins were not handled this way?
 

So it is not the specific sins that are the problem. The problem is choosing to willingly and knowingly cover-up such sins, refusing to follow God’s way of repentance and going our own way instead.

I am starting to be convinced that the only sin God is unwilling to forgive is the sin of “going our own way.” as in Deuteronomy 29:19-20. When we say “I will persist in going my own way”, we will certainly find the Lord unwilling to forgive.

However, forgiveness does not equate with letting them continue to lead, because they have broken a sacred trust and abused their position of leadership through sexual misconduct. Leaders should be blameless and above reproach (Titus 1:6; 1 Tim 3:2) and held to a higher standard (James 3:1).

Yes, I would say that a Christian leader disqualifies himself from leadership when he abuses his position of leadership and authority through sexual sins. This authenticates:
  * that God takes sin most seriously,
  * that leaders are judged more severely (James 3:1),
  * that we emphatize deeply with the victims (by making no attempt to protect or hide the perpetrator). Surely, publicly dismissing the fallen leader gives some sense of justice toward the victims, even if they might already be scarred for life by his sexual abuse.

Yes, sexual predators will continue to sin, for committing a sexual sin usually equates with a long standing serious compromise with the holiness of God (years, decades), and usually not just a sudden lapse of sexual continence. Think Jerry Sandusky? They may need years, maybe even a life time of rehab.

This is surely a highly delicate and sensitive subject. May God have mercy on us and help us!

1. How we treat elders/pastors/leaders greatly affects how we would deal with their sin of any kind. If we elevate leaders highly above everyone else, we are setting them up for a huge fall, because every one of us has fallen and no one is good (Romans 3:12; Luke 18:19). 

2. Having a worldview that separates “good” people from “bad” people is not a view taught by Scripture. I am learning that God sees people as sinners who are either repentant or unrepentant. The only thing that counts is “faith expressing itself through love” (Galatians 5:6)

3. Our God is our Redeemer. God doesn’t just start all over, endlessly repeating a wrenching pattern of tossing out people who fail. God redeems. God can and does redeem our lives. In a surge of anger, God will hide his face from us, but he promises to have compassion (Isaiah 54:8).

I think whatever response is taken to such a situation, the response needs to involve justice, truth, honesty, facts, prayer, mercy, grace, faith, hope and love. Our response needs to be void of malice and gossip. Our hope is not in any person nor in any organization. Our hope is only in Jesus, Him crucified.

If we put leaders on a mountaintop, appointing only people who we think are “blemish-free”, we will need to do a lot of covering up to protect that spotless image. Sure, a leader who sins can be redeemed and should not be cast out permanently. But action must be taken to address the issue. Whatever is done will demonstrate the kind of people we are to the world.

Are we people of truth? Do we love the plumbline of God’s justice and God’s righteousness (Isaiah 28:17)? Or do we love our own filthy rags, pretending our own righteous acts are worth something (Isaiah 64:6)? Do we boast of our weakness (2 Corinthians 11:30), cry out for God’s mercy and demonstrate to the world that our Redeemer lives? Or do we create endless cover-ups, hide from God like in the Garden, and so tell the world that Christianity is really just a business, no different from any other philosophy, religion or human endeavor?