...but by the grace of God

wow! ted haggard has sure got himself in a jam. and the media and the world and many christians are loving it. jerry falwell and what's-his-name robertson have both distanced themselves from him. flawell has said in an interview, "his organization is not as big as they say and i have certainly never been a member". whatever the size of the organization has to do with anything. it's seems that jerry is saying that if the organization was big enough, or as big as they say it is then he would be worthy of his commendation. whatever.

whenever any of these guys (and we know who they are) gets themselves caught (and unfortunately 'caught' is often the operative word in these situations) i feel a certain uneasiness. this is after i have taken my turn at criticizing/joking about their actions and hypocrisy. the uneasiness is caused by the realization that i have "fallen short of the glory of God". i have had to confess to my fellow christians. i have had to be held accountable by mentors whom i trust. i have been humbled in receiving the forgiveness from those i have hurt and/or offended and/or their representatives (that's another blog, i think).

so how do we respond to ted. do we agree with everything (or very much at all) that he teaches? no. but that's for another blog (on another blog site). is he a christian? has he confessed? yes. i've read it and it is one of the best public confessions i've ever heard or seen. and if you are going to comment at all on his particular situation, you need to read the confession. he needs our forgiveness. and frankly, i think we need to forgive. if we can't forgive in this case then we need to revisit our own teachings about our faith in Christ. it's way too easy to allow ourselves to be carried away on the wave of worldly cynicism. we should be responding with the grace and hope that represents our beliefs. and our response needs to be tempered by an honest evaluation our own darkness. may ted be held tightly in the the grace of God. me too!