I don't believe in sin. The concept drives good people nuts and ties people in knots over the dumbest things. I recently counseled a young man over his battle with lust. My approach was simple - lust all you want, who does it really hurt? He’s married with a new baby. If he’s a good man, he will stand by his family. If not, he will deal with the consequences of hurting others. My moral code is simple, which is why it is easy to implement. I know if I’m doing something that will hurt people, so I am able to stop myself, or better yet, I’m able to anticipate the negative outcome and never act in the first place. What goes on in my mind is my own business and hurts no one. What I do is actually what matters. Judge me by what I do.
I was reading a Christian's blog recently when I came across this paragraph.
Mug shots of people who do what we do should serve as a sobering reminder. While we may self-righteously look down on those who find themselves on the wrong side of the jailhouse lens (usually because of some impropriety or sexual indiscretion), we would be wise to turn our backs on such foolishness and instead pause to take a look at the face in the mirror. There's not one of us who is immune to traveling down that same path. In fact, taking that route is our default setting as people who battle the soul-eating "bacteria" known as "sin." Grappling with that fact is both humbling and wise.
Walt Mueller uses all the right Christian language in a way that I’ve come to expect from a certain type of believer. Let’s call it true believer newspeak, but that is not the problem. I’ve learned to decode it. The real problem is sin. He's talking about clergy sexual abuse and the ease of falling into sin. It is all bullshit. It’s not our default behavior to sexually abuse children. It's predatory behavior and atypical in the general population. These are the real question. Why do so many youth pastors abuse children? What is it about the profession that attracts monsters? Why do you minister to children with young men in the first place (The typical abuse is in his 20s. The typical victim is a girl 13 to 15). Is there a link between believe, youth pastors and sexual depravity? Has anyone looked?
Logging you in...
jenl1625 25p · 597 weeks ago
And then here's this young man, who looks really mature in comparison to the guys you're own age. He's educated, and he's been to college, and he won't last long as a youth pastor if he can't get along with the teenagers. And parents will trust him with the kids. He can take a group of the classmates ice skating, or out for cocoa, or whatever on a fairly regular basis, and there's a good chance no one will question if he drops off one girl last every time unless he makes it blatantly clear he's gone out of his way to do that.
And even when parents think there might be something going on, depending on the girl's age, given that he's a pastor, some parents are going to be thinking about how early they'd be willing to let their daughter get engaged, not about whether he might be abusing her. Assuming the parents are paying any attention at all.
At least back in the day, when I attended, it was a known thing that a single guy wouldn't get much further than Youth Pastor without getting married, and it was pretty common that he'd marry a girl he'd first met as one of the students in his class.
Mojoey 107p · 597 weeks ago