Applause over Confession

[Dave Roberts]

I have been struggling with the news from High Point Church in Memphis and Teaching Pastor Andy Savage. If you are not up to date on this, here is an early report.

The thing that bothers me is the unanimous report in all media that when Savage made his confession of sexually inappropriate actions twenty years ago in Texas as a youth minister, the congregation gave him a standing ovation. Maybe I am out of touch, but my first response is that the church might have responded with tears of grief over the conduct of a pastor. Then maybe there would have been a deep sense of repentance over how churches cover sexual misconduct to protect "our reputations." Then I would have expected the church to impose some penalty or try to find a way to offer some restitution to the victim(s). I just want to throw up over reports of a "standing ovation." Maybe we in the church really have lost our ability to blush. How do you respond to these reports?

[William Thornton]

That was appalling. Things have moved a good bit since. You could catch up below.

http://thewartburgwatch.com

The SO made this news to many of the national outlets with the general headline, "Pastor sexually abuses teen, gets standing ovation."

I wasn't surprised by the SO for a number of reasons. Very poorly handled on several levels. There will be more to come on this one.

[Sandy]

[Dave Roberts]

[William Thornton]

You guys might read the link and the actual statements. I don't know that there is a broader, more generalized point about evangelicals in this unless you go down to some subsets of subsets.

Clearly, the perp's actions and statements weren't helpful nor straightforward. The current church, particularly the pastor, screwed up big time.

Based on what the perp said the congregation's action was predictable. There's a lot here.

[Sandy]

[Sandy]

Here's an interesting perspective. Yes, it was published in the Washington Post but it's written by a Southern Baptist.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act ... 212a842067