A thought question for all Christians, especially
Submitted by SGitNW - d on August 21 1999 at 17:21:32
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This is a thought question, no public reply is asked for. If you do not reply, I would encourage you to think about the question anyways. The question, part I: Who would you rather have as a minister or deacon: Someone who struggles daily with a particularly strong temptation and who stumbles every now and then, say, 0.1% of the time? Someone who occasionally struggles with that same strong temptation, and while he stumbles 0.1% of those occasional times, it's a lot less? In both cases, assume the person encounters minor temptations that are easy to brush aside every day (we all do). My answer: I would want a mix of deacons, but I do not know how I would answer this for a minister, probably someone who had been a daily struggler for a long time but is now an occasional struggler, PROVIDED that he or she remembered what it was like to struggle daily. There is something to be said for both: The first really knows what it is like to be tempted, and can be more compassionate and empathetic to members of the church who face daily struggles. The second won't be as distracted as the first, leaving more time and energy to serve the needs of the congregation. Another thing to keep in mind: for some people, God lightens the load of temptations. For others, he gives them the strength to fight them. There are ministers and deacons in both categories. The question, part II: If the struggle was against a sin you abhor (pretend you are an avowed prohibitionist in the 1920s and the sin was drinking, or name-your-own-most-hated-sin) BUT the person, rather than giving into temptation 0.1% of the time, secluded himself for an hour or a day or whatever until the temptation passed. Would your answer change? Everyone but SGitNW can stop reading here. It might get a bit offensive to some. I'm asking SGitNW to look at this as if a celibate homosexual who wants to be a deacon or minister in his church. I assume for the sake of arguement (JimF3, DON'T TAKE THIS PERSONALLY, I'm speaking to SGitNW in his own language, please bear with me) that homosexual behavior is viewed as a sin in your church. Would you rather have someone who struggles every day with the fact that he will be celibate for life, and secludes himself once every 3 years or so, or someone who only thinks about it a couple times a month, and who goes into seclusion every 50 years or so? -David ("d") |