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Judge for Yourself
Over the years, there have been plenty of times in which false accusations have been made.
And, over the years, there have been plenty of times when true accusations have been made - including accusations that shocked
people. "How do we respond to something like this?"
Let me lay out a couple of parameters
and then I would love to have some input on this.
1. Assume this accusation is against you or against your Pastor.
2. Assume this accusation is totally baseless and untrue.
3. Assume that there is some type of constituency involved
that is also being harmed by the mere accusation (e.g. a church, Christian college, etc.)
On the one hand,
there is definitely a view out there that to resign or step down is essentially an admittance of guilt. On the other hand,
if you do not resign, the organization you are part of generally gets accused of being involved in a cover-up, etc. It seems
that, in general, when there are accusations against police for false shootings, etc., the general policy is usually that
the officers in question are placed on some type of "administrative leave" while the investigation is ongoing.
So, what is the right response? Is there a third response? How would you recommend handling something like this? Assuming
(for the sake of discussion) that an accusation like this was made purely for political motives or due to some personal animosity
(it would not be the first time), how does this affect the concept of "blameless" and "of good report of them
which are without"? (I am not saying it should affect this, I am just asking the questions).
There
once lived a young boy in a small town who liked to tell false stories. His mother and father had attempted to stop this behavior,
with no success. The little boy had caused so much embarrassment for the family, that in desperation they went to their Pastor
for advice. The Pastor gave the young boy an assignment: “Take this bag of feathers and place one feather in front of
each house in the town.” Two hours later, the young boy returned. The Pastor then told him, “Go pick up all of
the feathers!” The young boy exclaimed, “That is impossible, they are floating all over town.” The Pastor
then stated, “That is the problem with telling stories about other people, once they are out of the bag, you can never
take them back.”
The church is NOT a place for false stories and Pastors of the church
often need to keep conversations confidential to facilitate admonition, forgiveness and reconciliation.
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