In the age before the internet, there perhaps existed some natural limit to the number of times one could feel betrayed by his or her spiritual leaders. In our time, it sometimes is an almost bi-weekly occurrence. When the news of the “moral failings” of well-known Christian teachers and pastors come across our screens almost as often as that of mass shootings, one begins to wonder which of these two modern tragedies is more successfully eroding our national faith. Nihilistic violence may shock the soul, but continued spiritual betrayal is almost too much for the human heart to bear. For relational beings, nothing—not even death—is so disorienting as the divorce of trust and trustworthiness.
There are those who will say that Christians, of all people, should be the least surprised by the frequency and profundity of such failures. Original sin, G. K. Chesterton once quipped, is the only Christian doctrine which can be easily observed in the street. In the street, yes. But in the church? Yes, there too, Lord help us. And yet, what are we to make of this fact? Are these breaches of trust by our spiritual leaders simply inevitable? Should we even be shocked? Exactly what degree of cynicism does our doctrine of sin require?
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