Ark Valley News - Hope and hilarity

Hope and hilarity
By Chuck Terrill
Last Updated: September 03, 2015

Not all pastors are alike

I know all about Dolly Madison. Zingers, those sickening sweet, coconut-sprinkled pastries that Dolly makes, are my favorite. There is nothing better than a package of Zingers and a diet Coke, just to balance it out.

What I didn't know about, until recently, was Ashley Madison. Her website has been in the news, and now, I am culturally up to speed. Apparently, it is a site devoted to the promotion of adultery. Someone hacked the site and released the names of the abusers. According to Charisma News, a Christian news agency, the list contains the names of 400 pastors.

That hurts. I remember trying to pastor during the days of the Jim and Tammy Bakker fall. It was hard to get an audience. We couldn't raise funds for very good causes. Some said, "You preachers are all alike. All you want is our money." Of course, nothing could have been further from the truth. But we got lumped in with the Bakkers, and it hurt.

The same thing happened when Jimmy Swaggart succumbed to adultery. I greatly respected brother Swaggart, so his public disgrace hurt me, personally. It was hard to reach people after that. "You preachers are all alike," people said. "We don't trust you." Church attendance dropped and so did giving. It took about four years to rebound from that national scandal. It hurt.

You can track down the Ashley Madison list on the web, if you want to. You can look for the names of people that you might know. It might take a lot of looking; there are about 36 million users in the databank. But I doubt if you will find the name of your pastor there. There are 36 million users of Ashley Madison, and 400 of them are pastors. The vast majority of users are not pastors! Preachers are not all alike. By and large, you can trust most Christian ministers to be authentic, moral, caring people of God.

I trust the pastors in our community. I recommend our pastors to you as men of God. Please, don't use this recent news about a few bad apples as an excuse to hurt the ministers of Jesus Christ, or his church.

"We ask you to honor those leaders who work so hard for you, who have been given the responsibility of urging and guiding you along in your obedience. Overwhelm them with appreciation and love. Get along among yourselves, each of you doing your part." (1 Thessalonians 5:12-13 MSG).

Chuck Terrill is pastor of Valley Center Christian Church. He can be reached at chuck@valleycenterchristianchurch.org or 755-1233.