Troubled Leaders

I understand that one is innocent until proven guilty, but the charges do make me stop and wonder. There are three or four young men who are making the charges so if they are not true then somebody has been a part of a conspiracy. The Bishop Eddie Long has been sued by these young men for taking indecent sexual liberties with them. These charges against Bishop Long make the number of religious leaders who have been involved in improper sexual conduct more than can be remembered.

We have the whole Roman Catholic Church problem with who knows how many cases of sexual abuse. We have a Colorado megachurch leader who had to resign because of a male prostitute. People may not remember Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart who had their problems with sexual misconduct but they were heterosexual activities. The Rev. Tom Tewell in New York City resigned his position because of an affair with a woman.

There seems to be a twisted connection between those leaders who have been the loudest and the strongest against homosexual activities who seem to be the most tempted to it. There is much to be said for the fact that the Catholic priesthood seems to be an institution built for sexual activities to come out in a unhealthy way.

Of course, it would be wrong to think that ours is the first generation in which religious leaders have misused their positions and indulged in activities that were not sanctioned by the public and by the church. The Old Testament has stories of priest who did behave well.

There seems to be two major causes from what I have been told. One is that when we grant to a leader too much power, too much praise, too much honor and authority, they can become very tempted to believe they can do what they want. The other explanation is that when we give a person too much power, too much praise, too much authority, we also put them too far above us and do not allow them to have normal natural relationships with friends and ordinary people, and the position becomes lonely and exhausting and their need and hunger to be loved comes out in different ways.

The bottom line in all of this is that no religious leader is anything but another human being just like you and me and so should be treated like a person and held accountable as a person.