Skip to main content

The Pastor and the Church

As the self-declared spokesman for all of Christendom (at least for the next few minutes), I find the text of Pastor Hagee’s apology to Roman Catholics one of the most equivocal, off-point, and self-preserving that I have read recently. On the other hand, unfortunately, it is also pretty much standard.

According to the AP, a portion of the two-page apology reads like this:

"Out of a desire to advance a greater unity among Catholics and evangelicals in promoting the common good, I want to express my deep regret for any comments that Catholics have found hurtful."

Now I know that there may be considerably more self-deprecating narrative in the remaining text. Be that as it may, at least in this place it is apparent that Pastor Hagee isn’t sorry that he said anything, only that someone may have taken offense at what he has said.

That my friends, simply doesn’t wash. It is not Christian to make millions of dollars calling a group of people "The Great Whore” or “The Apostate Church” at the top of your lungs, and then only apologize that they may be too sensitive to get over it.

No, an appropriate apology would have read something like:

“I apologize for the ungracious and un-Christian things I have called the Roman Catholic Church, and I ask your forgiveness for decades of advancing myself and my organization at your expense. Today, I repent of my belligerent attitude, my sharp tongue, and my cynical view of a church that does great things for the work of God around the world. I intend from this day forward to ensure that my teaching and my preaching make distinct separations between the state of the Christian church in general in the early centuries – and whatever ills they may have had, and the modern manifestations of that church and the good that it does. I recognize that all Christian faith communities arise from a common history and we must therefore all accept as our own histories that which is our common heritage of the first few centuries. I am truly sorry for not living up to the example set by our Lord.”

But maybe that’s too far for our good pastor to go.

You may now all have your corners of Christendom back.

Comments

  1. AnonymousMay 27, 2008, 12:54:00 PM

    I do not know if it is good or bad that ministers/pastors are now in the news almost daily. Part of me thinks it is simply more of the ungodly trying to make the people following Christ look like fools. Of course, most of those raked across the coals are doing a very good job of making themselves look and sound foolish without anyone's help. So many televangelists, with their thousand dollar suits and multi-car garages (filled with Mercedes or Rolls Royces) or million dollar homes seem to go against the lifestyle of Jesus. Hagee is not the only one who frequently sticks his foot in his mouth and the worldly news outlets love it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. H. Edmond RobersonMay 27, 2008, 3:17:00 PM

    I think it's a bad thing if they make the rest of us look silly - or if they don't quite "look" Christian in their behavior. Since all of us fall short, my concern isn't about imperfection as such. More so though, when we are prominent, have a history of virulent oratory, and then offer a somewhat less than direct apology for that history.
    I suppose that until our society (read: church-at-large) learns to accept simplicity as a way of life, we will be attracted to multi-thousand dollar suits, gold-encrusted sets, and enough make-up to spackle a house.
    That by the way, is one thing the Roman Catholic church (at the local level) does practice - local priests don't get paid all that much - and of course monasteries model simple community lives rather well.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Passover, The First Born, Abraham, and You

Israel has been in captivity in Egypt, Moses has completed his contests with Pharaoh, and the People of Israel have been expelled from Egypt. The death of Egyptian firstborn children and livestock has compelled their removal into the wilderness. At the end of Exodus 12, God institutes the Passover in remembrance of the Angel of Death passing by the homes of Jews on the night the Egyptian firstborn children were killed. Notably, they were spared if in a house with blood around the door.  The Passover is established for Israel herself, including their slaves who have been circumcised. If a sojourner wants to celebrate the Passover with you, he can after he circumcises all males with him. I suspect that pretty much eliminated any visitors participating. In chapter 13, the protocols include redeeming Israel's firstborn. In this discussion, God says your firstborn belongs to God, and you must redeem your firstborn or you must kill it. God has redeemed Israel's firstborn by the blood...
Post a Comment
Read more

Wineskins II

       In chapter 16 of Matthew, Peter ‘makes the great confession’ - Jesus he says is the Son of the Living God. At Covenant, when someone wants to become a member or to be baptized, we ask them who Jesus is and we expect this response. Peter is correct when he says this, but it is not clear that Peter (or the other disciples) understood the ramifications of his statement. Following Peter’s statement we find a series of incidents that make us wonder just how much Peters actually believed what he had said.      In the first instance, Jesus compares Peter to Satan. Jesus tells his disciples that he is going to Jerusalem and there he will die. Peter exclaims that he will not let that happen; Jesus will not be killed. Peter is expecting great things from Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God on behalf of Israel and he cannot fit Jesus dying into his hope for a greater Israel under this Messiah. This cannot happen, he reasons. Jesus’s response is a harsh re...
Post a Comment
Read more

Faith to Faith

"For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, "The righteous shall live by faith." (Romans 1.16-17, ESV) There are various renderings and understandings of the phrase as it is used here, "faith for faith." Both words for faith derive from pistis, with the first being pisteos (genitive) and the second, pistin (accusative) . Faith, we are told, begins in faith and leads to faith. The import of this origin and fulfillment is found in the next sentence above, the righteous shall live by faith (genitive). We might word this as "already held or possessed faith will result in or lead to faith. As it is written, the one who has faith will parlay that faith into a salvific faith. Faith held by the believer will lead the believer to greater or more complete faith, resulting in her s...
Post a Comment
Read more