When a Pastor Falls, the Non-Christians Leave

Sterling State Park, Lake Erie

All kinds of people are falling, morally. This is nothing new under the sun. Moral failure is part of the fallen human condition. This includes Christians.  It includes atheists, as well. (See, e.g., one of the most recent atheistic moral failures, physicist Lawrence Krauss.)

It includes pastors. 

I've known a few people who say they left Christianity because one of their pastors was caught in some kind of moral failure. They trusted their pastor. Their pastor took a fall. This devastated them. They stopped believing in Jesus.

This is sad. It is a quadruple sadness. It is sad that the pastor failed. It is sad that the person left their faith. It is sad they didn't stay and help their fallen brother. It is sad that their faith was placed more in their pastor than in God.

They may reason this way.

1. My pastor was discovered in moral failure.

2. Therefore, Christianity doesn't work.

This is irrational and hateful, since there is no claim of inference from 1 to 2. Our faith is to be built on nothing less than Jesus Christ and his righteousness, not on other people.

If we left faith in Christ when Christians fail morally, then we'd all be gone. And, you would be the cause of some of us leaving. Me, too.

Some things are missing in the heart of the person who reasons from 1 to 2. They are:

Mercy

Grace

Forgiveness

Humility

Love

When a pastor falls the non-Christians leave, and the followers of Jesus love like they never have before.