snigger
I can't help but laugh at Ted Haggard's fall from grace. I hear people ask why men in such high places risk it all for a few minutes/hours/days of fun, but i reckon that's the wrong question. we should be asking why do people with such predilictions chose to seek high profile positions in institutions diametrically opposed to their preferred lifestyles?
I mean, if you were a drug using homosexual, surely you wouldn't want to be associated with the New Life Church at all, never mind seek to promote yourself as representing it's views!
that's a bit like a tory prime minister being elected on a "back to basics" morality campaign then presiding over the most personallly & morally corrupt government in a century, while secretly having an affair with a cabinet minister.
Or a labour leader campaigning for state schools to have "industry sponsors" and the NHS to be privatised.
If people have strongly held beliefs, would they not be better trying to rise to positions of power within groups that agree with those beliefs? And if you get caught out doing things opposed to the eliefs of your chosen group, I have no sympathy for the subsequent fall-out.
I mean, if you were a drug using homosexual, surely you wouldn't want to be associated with the New Life Church at all, never mind seek to promote yourself as representing it's views!
that's a bit like a tory prime minister being elected on a "back to basics" morality campaign then presiding over the most personallly & morally corrupt government in a century, while secretly having an affair with a cabinet minister.
Or a labour leader campaigning for state schools to have "industry sponsors" and the NHS to be privatised.
If people have strongly held beliefs, would they not be better trying to rise to positions of power within groups that agree with those beliefs? And if you get caught out doing things opposed to the eliefs of your chosen group, I have no sympathy for the subsequent fall-out.
posted by Juggling Mother @ 7:05 pm
2 Comments:
At Sunday, November 05, 2006 4:28:00 pm,
Anonymous said…
Hypocrisy is everywhere, of course, not just in the church. It's in politics, it's in your neighbour's house … if I'm honest with myself, it's in my house, too.
Moreover, I have a certain amount of sympathy for pastors who fall into sin. It can be a very stressful profession, dealing with other people's crises; it is often, paradoxically, a very isolating profession; and it's hard to confess personal struggles because your role is to set an example of the victorious Christian life.
Pastors often find they need a "quick hit" of something that makes them feel better, momentarily. And they end up living a double life because they feel they have to hide their personal weaknesses. From that perspective, their plight is sympathetic.
But I'm talking about your local pastor, who serves with little tangible reward. When you have as much prominence as Haggard (or certain Republican politicians living the same sort of double life), it's a different story. Then it's also a matter of maintaining one's power and privilege.
I have no sympathy with that part of the motivation: especially when someone like Haggard uses said power to oppress others, and deny them the very indulgences he permits himself. Ultimately, then, Haggard got what's coming to him.
At Sunday, November 05, 2006 5:00:00 pm,
Juggling Mother said…
Yeah, I get that local pastors (or other people who are expected to be role models) sometimes can't live up to their congregations high expectations. That is not the same as representing a political/reigious/cultural system which condemns certain groups of people, while living a life that is specificaly the opposite of what you preach!
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