Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Epley
I have said nothing about SP personally. I have known him for years and at one time enjoyed hearing him. His direction will destroy what his Dad built. I love his parents and for that reason I wish I had kept my comments to myself. Not changed my mind about the good saints leaving I hope they all leave and would not have any problem telling him that. I pray he makes a reversal but honestly I have never seen it done when it is this blatant.
There are already two nonexistent congregations in that city over this very thing and this will probably be no different. I will be judged and measured by the same truth that will condemn him lest he repents.
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Years ago someone posted here about a pastor who was convicted of molestation, and it upset me so badly that I posted a scathing post to the newspaper website where the news of his arrest had been posted (publicly). What I failed to consider was that his children, who had been my dearly loved friends since childhood and all through high school, would also read what I had written. I verbally attacked their father for his terrible immorality, and in the process, I wounded my friends. My knee-jerk reaction caused a rift that I'm not sure will ever heal, and it also taught me a valuable lesson about the power of words to wound or kill "innocent civilians." E.g., when you're close to a situation, I've found it's usually best to bow out completely.
My only other comment is this: When you say something ambiguous like
"More than meets the eye", it has more damaging potential than stating something specific. I hope you just didn't think that through, and that you wouldn't deliberately state something vague to allow people's imaginations to run wild, but truthfully, I don't know you well enough to know whether or not you would do something like that.
I know there was an ultra-con pastor who once did something similar to my father when he left the AMF, making a statement like, "He committed a sin" and then leaving it at that. By the time the "rumor" got back to my parents, he had been accused of all sorts of things, INCLUDING adultery, because of that one vague, open-ended statement by a very respected minister. Knowing that track record among ministers for using such tactics to tear down a man's influence when he starts moving in a different direction from the rest of the group, it does make it hard to accept that you didn't state that for the purpose of titillation. I've sat around enough preachers' tables myself to know how ministers can shred other ministers with horrible ease. It was part of the "culture" that I detested. One of the things that I appreciate and respect in my current pastor is his absolute refusal to speak negatively or gossip about other ministers, no matter which side of the aisle they're on. It's an admirable trait that I want to emulate one day when I grow up.
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