There is something unhelpful about the “power corrupts, we are all capable of horrible acts, everyone would be tempted” discourse that emerges every time a powerful Christian leader does something awful that serves to absolve us all of giving an unfit person power to harm.

I don’t think it’s true, for one thing. I don’t believe that everyone who has opportunities to steal, corrupt, accumulate power, abuse, or rape takes those opportunities or even wants or notices those opportunities.

My grandfather balanced the books for his church for fifty years and I don’t believe that every day was a struggle not to embezzle. If it was, I think he would have given it up.

I understand the impulse to humility, but I think if you’re a pastor who reads about Ravi Zaccharias or Hillsong and thinks “well, in their position, I’d do the same thing,” you have every obligation to tell someone so you can be kept away from those positions.

Either it really is true that, given access to money and power, every Christian would be a stealing drug-addicted rapist (in which case, we need to start divesting ourselves of money and power immediately), or some people are worse actors than others and it’s the church’s

responsibility to hold its leadership ruthlessly accountable and contain people who can’t handle it quickly.