by Gene Scarborough » Sat May 19, 2012 12:34 pm
When anyone gets "ordained" it implies trust and a Christ-like character. It is granted by some higher authority or some Council which reviewed the individual.
In my view, that is a trust which, if violated, needs to be withdrawn. Those who should grant it and not assume a lifetime responsibility (if it is violated) are culpable.
I had a man on my church staff who was a womanizer. I had vetted him with a personal ministerial friend who knew him and gave him a pass for not being married at an older age after seminary. I confronted it as his Senior Minister. He did not change and I brought in the Personel Committee which confronted it as well. When he persisted, with a smile on his face, we called him back in and required his resignation before it reached a critical point and became a scandal.
The saddest thing was, I was the "bad guy" for hurting "poor little David." Well, David was a pervert who got appointed by the HMB as a Chaplain over my negative review and follow-up phone call. He was more than charming. Sure enough, in a couple of years a distraut man called me and revealed how the man had seduced his wife and daughter away from him!
I had, further, contacted David's ordaining church to appraise them of the moral failure of their ordained. What the did or didn't do, I do not know.
In the legal aspects, I volunteered to go and be a witness if the man wanted to sue the HMB. I did my part to maintain my integrity and that of Christian/Baptist morality. That was in a day before all the scandal over Priests and ministers.
Why should any follower of the Bible neglect to maintain his own integrity and that of ministerial associates? At the least, my conscience was clear. At the worst, those who neglect their duty, should be subject to penalty for such. God will judge them---but how many innocent people are hurt in the process if we "leave it all to God?"
Gene Scarborough