When Leaders Fail….. and no one cares.

Note on Context…. I wrote this in December of 2016 when RC Jr. had just had a major failure. I include this, not because it’s really the point of the article, but so as to avoid contextual inquiries.

There is nothing new about spiritual leaders failing. We see it in the bible, both in a fatal way, (Judas), a temporary way, (Peter), and where some were restored after a long time, (John Mark), and where they never were . (Demas). Its a certainty of the condition in which we all abide….. one of remaining ungodliness and wayward foolishness.
Of late we have again witnessed the fall of yet another Christian leader. While this shouldn’t shock us, yet it very much should provoke our self examination. Not just to “consider ourselves lest we also be tempted”, but because we can contribute to the climate that produces such failures in our churches. Because despite the fact that it’s just part of our general condition as sinful people, yet there is a certain spiritual culture which fosters and abets these instances when they do occur. That they occur does not mean that they are to be winked at and ignored, and too often an ostensible regard for mercy is supposed to make us feel judgmental and Pharisaical should we advocate for genuine accountability, when it’s very plainly needed, as though accountability were necessarily judgmental and non-redemptive, and as though spiritual leaders were somehow helped in their temptations by being exalted into the status of an unaccountable god.
But I’d like to suggest that there are often far different motives in play when Christian ministers fail and no one will care enough for them, or for the truth, to wave a flag over it. Its not that we’re trying to merely “consider ourselves lest we also be tempted” nor that we desire to maintain an appropriate humility remembering all our own offenses, and desiring mercy for those who err. Its far more base than those good things. Its risk management….. the motive of not taking up overmuch risk in confronting ecclesiastical authority, as though authority were not ultimately vested in heaven and in the words of God. We certainly are to mind our place in the church but it’s no overreach to simply support an idea, nor to favor the biblical concept of universal accountability for all believers.
But it’s far easier to just play the game of flattery, than risk the ire of one who may still be listened to, because you’re safer to offer adulation than to be exposed by confronting a status quo that is not honoring to God, howsoever charitably or humbly.
The not-so-flattering title we often give this is “hero-worship”. Less flattering still, it’s idolatry and unbelief. It is expected that you will not touch the idol. Because that’s what a Christian leader has become when he is seen as above the objective accountability of the word of God. They pipe. You dance. They’re true pipers or you wouldn’t dance. You’re true dancers so long as you remember that.
But the exact same problem is seen even more in those who don’t fail “morally” but who forsake some element of the faith that truly is fundamental and….. no one cares. Our heresies are not a scandal to the world and that seems to be good enough for us. What it really means is that …… all these church goers and leaders just really DON’T care. A man can be a communist praising mystic evolutionist, referring to Jesuit enemies sworn to destroy the church as the godliest examples history affords, and people just…… do nothing. Well….. not nothing really. They’ll stone you and think you a harsh judgmental pharisee if you say….. “uh, hey guys this ISN’T CHRISTIANITY.” Because you can’t….. I mean you really just can’t go and call Tim Keller (the one just described above) a child of the devil. Or the dozens of others just like him who are scrambling upon the cultural marxist band wagon. I mean….. Baucham and Washer and Chandler and a dozen other “sound” preachers have cozened up. Because you’re really someone if you’re part of The Gospel Coalition. (I called Tim Keller a child of the devil before it was cool. This was back in 2016 when people were still being idiots about it)
You see, the problem is not so much with those who fail. It’s with those who fail in some sanitized fashion and get the pass anyway. Because they can be ten kinds of a reprobate so long as they don’t get caught drinking and driving. And I guarantee you…. NO ONE but NO ONE will give rats whisker about such satanic doctrines because they’re part of something really big! Obviously the Gospel Coalition is of God, or it wouldn’t have success. Right? Deny exclusivity all you like! We’re winning a generation. So we’re told. To what is off the table.

Yeah, but I’ve got a comment. This is utter unbelief. The faith teachers are part of something really big. A BIG abomination to God. Because SCRIPTURE, not swelling tides of fickle popularity, determine if something is a movement of God. And when fundamentals aren’t even fundamentals anymore…… we only manifest our ultimate heterodoxy and how utterly UNLIKE any move of God we are from all God’s works in history.
We are in serious trouble when men call Jesuits the godliest examples of history and preach openly that you came from an ape, and can’t even confess that Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation. And all the sovereign grace preachers just get on board, because, hey, it’s working. They’re reaching a generation. Yes, indeed they are. With a counterfeit. With an abomination. It will prove a failure. It already is to those few with any shred of judgment left.
Yes, we should blow a gasket over a guy who gets caught drunk driving. But it’s only because the world does. Actually…. we just don’t care about evil things unless they embarrass us. Or Keller would embarrass us. And a host of others. When leaders fail and no one cares… caring is all expedience, and no principle. All hat and no cattle. In the final analysis… we simply don’t care about the truth at all. Or we would care whether the world did or not.