I attend a Lutheran congregation in north Minneapolis, one that belongs to the church body I work for. It’s large but not huge. The senior pastor has made himself visible in the media for a number of years as a critic of the liberal church, and of modern trends such as universalism, women’s ordination, higher criticism of the Bible, and the normalization of homosexuality. He is a single man.
Last night, while watching local news on television, I discovered that he’d been “outed” as a homosexual.
He was not discovered in a “gay” bar. He was not discovered having sex with another man in a public rest room.
According to the news accounts I’ve seen (emanating from liberal sources) he was discovered attending a support and accountability group in a Roman Catholic church. He was speaking honestly, to men he trusted, about his struggles, slips, and temptations.
In other words, he was doing precisely what people on our side of the argument say a man in his situation ought to do. He is the very opposite of a hypocrite.
On the basis of the accounts I’ve read, the “journalist” who produced the story infiltrated this accountability group, lied about his purposes, and then broke the promise of confidentiality he made to get in.
The television story pretended to be a high-minded think piece about whether it’s ever appropriate to “out” someone against their wishes.
I don’t believe that was the real purpose of the story. I believe it was to splash my pastor’s picture all over TV screens in our state, with a metaphorical scarlet letter on his chest.
My pastor has my full support, and my prayers. God bless him, and all godly men in his situation.
I’m going to have to pray through my anger on this.
It’s time to contemplate the Beatitudes, I’m afraid. God bless your pastor, Lars; may he be greatly blessed and strengthened to stand up to the storm.
I am appalled.
Praying for your pastor, Lars.
And for all of those in the group who have also no doubt been hurt by this.
I certainly hope this story ‘turns’ and the journalist comes out smelling like a skunk.
That may be good, Judy, but I hope the man repents b/c he sees God’s people holding to the good despite what lies and hatred they have thrown at them.
Deepest sympathy to the pastor, who, as you say, is doing exactly what we theoconservatives say a person struggling with same sex attraction should do.
It’s not our job to forgive the reporter. It is for the pastor to do so, and God, if He will The reporter is an oathbreaker and a yellow journalist, and quite possibly a sociopath given his indiffernece to the anguish he is inflicting on the pastor, and the rest of us need to say so. Quietly but firmly.
I have a sense that this will be one of those situations like the one Joseph faced where the action his brothers meant for evil, God used for Good. Based on the reports I’ve read, the reporter thought he was exposing the hypocrisy of a public figure for fighting against the gay agenda while experiencing homosexual tendencies himself.
Instead, what he has done was to give public exposure to a man seeking to overcome temptation in that area which, in my experience, is something gay advocates do not want publicized.
Wow! A journalist exposing a pastor living up to his principles. I agree with Greybeard, this looks like a Joseph situation.
As for the journalist, may God mercifully show him the error of his ways by giving him plenty of time to think about things during a period of unemployment.
A painful but perhaps great opportunity for the Free Lutherans to show the world what the Gospel is all about (vis-a-vis their pastor).
The journalist and his publisher probably need suing, though.
I do not think this will be a Joseph situation.
I do not predict a good future for the man. He is not a hypocrite, but he will be called and referred to as one.
The press and the left will make him into a hypocrite who preached the gospel and then went straight to the nearest bathouse. Regardless of its truth.
We learned all this from Duke Lacross and how the media followed the rule “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story”.
The story that will eventually be crafted is the one his opponents want: Hypocrisy.
I hope it does not happen this way, however.
The pastor will be called a hypocrite by the liberal media. Big deal – they didn’t like him before, the don’t like him now, and they won’t like him in the future. But we’re talking about a pastor in Lars’s church. Probably his sphere of reference, the people whose opinion he values, is mostly composed of conservatives.
If Lars is representative of the church he attends, this would end well.
From your lips to God’s ear, Ori.
Praying…
God bless this man and your standing up for him. My prayers are with this situation! Like Phil, I need to pray through my anger, too. I’m a member of Courage, and this journalist disgusts me!