February 27, 2007
Yet Again...
On February 23, 2007 AP writer Jeff Latzke reported on yet another minister’s sexual indiscretion. Rev. Lonnie W. Latham resigned and stepped down from position as pastor of South Tulsa Baptist Church and as a member of the executive committee for the Southern Baptist Convention. According to authorities, Mr. Latham “asked the undercover policeman to come up to his hotel for oral sex.” I believe public exposure is one deterrent to sexual immorality and I’m thankful when that type of sin in the church is revealed. The acts of sexual immorality in leadership are disturbing, but I’m much more bothered by the pride, arrogance and ego behind the cover-up. A prime example is King David with Bathsheba - and that’s exactly the point, there is an example. It seems as though today’s religious leaders think God isn’t looking and that exposure couldn’t happen to them.
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Gail;
-----God would not have given instruction for the manner and means of dealing with evil in the church if He had not intended for us to do just that. I believe this proposition is present in Ephesians 4:11-25. God gave us abilities in leaders to build up the church towards the goal of unity, knowledge, and maturity in the fullness of Christ. Why? So that cunning, crafty, deceitful men should no longer toss us about like senseless children. That evidently means we are to be developed to a level of maturity in the Lord until we can recognize and avoid evil and error.
-----But don’t get too passive in being developed! Paul tells us that instead of allowing ourselves to be tossed about, we must speak the truth, which he intertwines with growing up in all things. This is not a call to passivity. To speak the truth one must actively search for the truth. Then having found it, one must actively present it and support it in the presence of the deceit of crafty men. So the body grows up and nits together in Christ as each part does its work, according to the truth, with love.
-----Now Paul delivers the effect of his point. We must no longer live as the Gentiles do - with futile thinking and given over to sensuality. We are rather taught to put off the old self of deceitful desires, and put on the new self of true righteousness and holiness. “Therefore each of you must…speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we all are members of one body.” (Eph 4:25) We can not simply disdain the sexual impurity. This is only a symptom of the problem. The problem is deceit in influential places. The solution is honesty to one another, in all things.
-----Therefore when corruption of any kind rises in the church leadership, it is actually the maturity in Christ, the love for the brethren, and the respect for the unity of the faith for any who knows to step forward and initiate the Biblical process for ridding the church leadership of that impurity. How could it be otherwise?
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