"All men are liars..."*

It isn't the first time I've been exasperated by the evening news and it isn't the first time I've complained about it on my blog, but here I am again.

Somehow the story of Ted Haggard is worthy of the number 1 or number 2 slot in every news show I've seen the last few days. In a nutshell - or for posterity - Haggard is the (now former) senior pastor of New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He is reported as being a national leader for evangelical Christians. Unless I am unclear about the standard definition of an evangelical Christian, I'd categorize myself under that label - though I'm starting to see why foreign missionaries often forgo the title Christian altogether for "Follower of Christ". However I had never heard of Ted Haggard. His fall from grace left me unshaken and unsurprised. I'm only surprised at the media's fascination with it.

There are two things in particular that I find interesting - not about the story, but about the media craze it created.

First, I noticed that people outside of the church think that Christians think they are infallible. And maybe this is not a point of criticism - maybe they're right, maybe many Christians DO think they are not sinners. We just did a lesson in our Awana's group about sin (and being sinners) - I lead a discussion group with the senior high girls. The discussion led the same place it always seems to - a line in the sand. I told the girls that the Bible says that even the best people are sinners, it's a sin to worry, it's a sin just to think about sinning! The Bible doesn't say these things just so that we will feel bad about being sinners, but so that we will sense the futility of trying to be accepted by God based on our own good works. If we don't admit we are sinners, we don't really understand why Jesus died on the cross.

Second, those outside the church (or at least the reporter doing the story I saw most recently) fully expect there to be more scandal in the church. At the end of the story about Ted Haggard, the reporter said, "The church will appoint another senior pastor by the end of the year." The emphasis on the word "another" sounded full of expectation that "another" pharisaical, hypocrite would be appointed. But this too is a lesson we can learn from the world. No pastor is going to be perfect. No matter who they choose, their entire pool of applicants will be sinners. Yes, perhaps another senior pastor may do something just as bad or worse. That is what makes the term "Follower of Christ" so tempting, we don't even want to be associated with these people. But even the Bible calls us Christians and part of being a Christian is accepting repentant sinners into our little group and allowing them the grace we allow ourselves to not be perfect. After all that is what Jesus did.

*Psalm 116:11