James River Angst

Maybe you have read or heard about the kerfuffle at James River protestant "church". It involved something immoral that occurred on stage at a men's conference (you can read about it yourself). A speaker at the conference called them out and said it was immoral and should not have happened and was immediately kicked out by the "pastor". The even more stunning thing was the claim by the "pastor" of the "church"; he yelled "Matthew 18" as though that justifies what he did.

What he was referring to was the section in the gospel of Matthew chapter 18 (verses 15 through 20) where it says if you are sinned against by an individual to approach him in private. Sadly, he missed the fact that the sin spoken about is a private sin that is just between two people. There are other passages that speak about public sins (as this was) and they are supposed to be rebuked publicly for the sake of all present.

Interestingly, though, there is another passage in Matthew 18 that I do not think he was speaking about (sad to say). That is the passage (verses 5 through 9) where Jesus warns about leading someone into sin and tempting people. He actually says "woe to the man by whom the temptation comes". No, I suspect the "pastor" was not willing to point out that passage which directly condemns his behavior. He likely just tried to take the focus off himself and deflect it back to the guest speaker who called him out.

Someone in his "flock" needs to remind him of the other verses in "Matthew 18". Will anyone have the nerve?