Mike Vick, the star quarterback of the Philadelphia Eagles who might well be the MVP this year, couldn’t be redeemed in the public eye through Christianity.
Vick was incarcerated for 18 months and banned from the NFL for two years for funding a dogfighting ring. But it’s been forgotten that he accepted Jesus Christ before he was imprisoned, which got no sympathy from the media.
As an essay posted on Religion Dispatches makes clear, “The conservative Christian media didn’t buy it, smelling hypocrisy: one radio commentator found Vick’s statement ‘laughable.’”
Mike Vick
And yet Vick seems to have truly turned his life around, but it’s taken his being a winning quarterback for people to start seeing him in a different light.
Read the Religion Dispatches essay here.
I find the Vick scenario interesting because it raises the question of how a fallen pastor can be redeemed in the public eye. Living a good life after a fall doesn’t seem to be enough.
How does a fallen pastor show from the pulpit he’s a changed man? He can’t exactly tally how many lives he’s impacted positively, and even if he could, would it make a difference?
It seems that once pastors have fallen, they are finished as far as the public is concerned.
“How does a fallen pastor show from the pulpit he’s a changed man? He can’t exactly tally how many lives he’s impacted positively, and even if he could, would it make a difference”
By being obeying those, the pastor surrender himself to for help. By not bashing the Christian’s because you lost your church. By not getting behind the pulpit until those you surrender to, inform you are ready.
Jimmy Swaggart •
• Ted Haggard -
Have not done this… Jimmy Swaggart was asked to surrender his church and license for a year, while sitting under another minister control and get counseling. Swaggart rejected those above him. An he has lost what influence he had in the Christian Community.
Ted Haggard surrender his church started to sit under another ministers control and get counseling. Then decide y himself he was healed, an left with out permission of those ministers. Which he broke his word. He then came back here an stated he was not going to start a Church. Then a few months later stated he was going to start a pray meeting at his house and he was not going to start a church, then a few month later he announce he was going to start a church. During this time frame Mr. Haggard and His wife went on as many programs that were not Christian Base to promote themselves. An attack New Life for removing them from the Church and not supporting them or letting them to come back.
This is why people with in the Christian Community do not trust Swaggart or Haggard.