I began yesterday morning reading about Ravi Zacharias and then Vanity Fair's deep dive into the problems at Hillsong NYC/East Coast. Not a happy way to start the day.
Yet, God continues to use people who abuse their platform. Why is this?
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One response is to downplay the abuse. 'We're all sinners. Look at David' etc. But David was a King - not so easy to remove him!
And predatory behaviour and abuse of power is MUCH more problematic than we like to realise. It preys on vulnerability.
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Historically, we have taken a 'zero sum' approach, where the good we perceive someone to have done outweighs the harm. Effectively, this condones abuse and makes the lives destroyed a price worth paying.
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There is also a zero sum game when it comes to 'anointing' in ministry. Because we believe God to be using this person, we can't threaten what God is doing. Neither can we believe that, if that person has to stop, God can use someone else.
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It's very 'touch not the anointed one'- which, as we know, is not new covenant Christianity.
And leads to devastated lives, bewilderment and anger at God for the ways in which he seemed to use these abusive people.
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But what if God uses people because we platform them? We know his gifts and calling are grace-gifts, given freely to all. Therefore, the weight of discernment falls on us to only platform those we consider to be not only anointed and called but also of suitable character?
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Yet, we take the view that God has preordained this or that person for ministry (still v old covenant), so to question that would be to question God.
'He qualifies the called, he doesn't call the qualified' as they put it at Hillsong. Yikes.
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The truth is, we value gifting over Christlikeness. We don't trust God that he can raise up people of better character, so we don't challenge poor or abusive behaviour in our 'anointed ones'.
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We still cling to an old covenant model of anointed leaders so we are reluctant to challenge or insist on accountability in those we consider 'called by God'. In doing so, we forget that the foot of the Cross is level ground.
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We also fail to realise that the Church has a say in whom we platform! There is plenty of gifting and anointing to go around. We don't need to be dependent on celebrities. We have some culpability for platforming the people we have.
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I hope the current wave of scandals will produce some self-reflection. Though I doubt it. For me, the work of safeguarding in the local church - as well as walking alongside survivors- has completely changed my perspective on whom we should platform at church and conference.
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If we are to recover any reputation from the carnage of recent scandals, it will be in listening to these voices and centring the vulnerable, not the powerful.
Now, that's new covenant Christianity.
Fin.
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