Quote:
Originally Posted by ZNPaaneah
I was on a Pee Wee football team. I think it was when I was in sixth and seventh grade. We went undefeated for both years. We flew to Florida and Texas to play bowl games. We were told that we were “National Champions” both years, but that calculation is based on GPA and other strange calculations like how much time our 3rd string played. About four years later this coach was accused of molesting kids on the football team. It was front page news and I was outraged. I went to some of the other players from my old team to find out how we should respond to this slander about our coach. They confirmed in private that he was a child molestor. This was devastating to me. But then my father told me something I have never forgotten. He said “he was a good coach”. He did not mean that this guy should be coaching, or that he shouldn’t be locked up, what he meant was that all the things that made us a good team were a result of good coaching. Yes he belonged in jail, but that doesn’t mean you can’t walk away with a lot of good lessons. In hindsight we were a very well coached team, and the coach was a child molestor. Both things were true.
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But in the realm of Christian teachers, were are told to reject them outright.
As for your story, I like it. It does portray a complicated reality. And in the world, reality is complicated. People who are advocates for important causes often have other issues that would disqualify them from other things. As part of the American trend in tolerance, we would tolerate his/her advocacy of one cause even though disqualified for another.
But in the Christian realm, things that might seem unrelated are a basis for disqualification from many other things. And among those are any kind of Christian leadership. It doesn't matter how much of a teacher's words are wholesome, if they are not qualified to teach (among those that should be refused, among other statements made in scripture) then they are not to be heard.
The problem with this kind of story is not the story itself. It is that it is given as evidence that it is OK to be double-minded in the Christian realm. It is not OK to cheat your followers, make bold lies to discredit those who could expose your errors, but we can still get great benefit from your teaching. At least once, Paul essentially said that this was not correct. In at least one case he dismissed certain teachers without reference to what it was they were teaching. Based on other aspects of their personal life and the manner of leading, they were disqualified.
This story, though thought provoking, does not change the underlying principle. It tugs at our hearts. But it does not excuse Lee or Nee. It is provided as a basis for dismissing the scriptural mandate for a softer, kinder, more American way.