Let's just pray for the families hurt by this man and the congregation that will  need to recover from this scandal.  Maybe Tedd Haggard's Church can give them some pointers. 

This is a sick, sad story.  It's also an old one.  This man's horrible behavior has been an open secret for a long time.  Why do Christians follow these people?  Why, why, why?  I just don't get it.  Shouldn't this make our skin crawl?  

By the way, as I write this there's a google ad with a grinning devil in a pimp suit and shades trying to sell me "Warrant" ring tones.  It's kinda creepy.   I don't think of myself as easily unnerved, but I gotta admit that this one is a bit worse than the "LOVE BUTTON". 

It makes me wonder about human nature.  Ad men know us better than we know ourselves.  For some reason the Ad men think we're gonna go haring off to buy "warrant" ring tones because they're being offered by a grinning devil in a red pimp suit. 

Are we?  Is that the appeal of men like Earl Paulk?   Will people buy Christianity more readily from a grinning devil than a prosing saint?  

Yep.  You guessed it.  This has got me down.  Not to far down, mind you.  I'm sitting on top of the world right now; I'm blessed beyond measure.  I just don't like the shenanigans of Earl Paulk or the Ad men, and I despair at the darkness in the human soul that makes the strategies viable. 

Archbishop Earl Paulk Pleads Guilty

None of us can point a finger at anyone?

God is the final judge.  The Church certainly can and should exercise discernment and judgment in many areas, including False Prophets and Teachers, habitual sin, organizational impropriaties and that's the short list.

The "Judge not lest you be judged" passage in Matthew is the most misquoted, misunderstood passage in the Bible in this day and age in my opinion.  Non-Christians use it freely to tie into the post-modernist world we live in to silence Christians by introducing the thought that Christians therefore have no right to speak to issues in society with regard to moral conduct.

That's one thing.  I don't expect non-Christians to know and understand the Bible let alone worry about placing it in context.

More distressing to me, and I'm using your post as a launching pad so please don't take all of this personally, is that Christian's use the verse in precisely the same manner to attempt to silence criticism or caution expressed about public ministries who then hide behind this "defense" and go on to compound and increase the damage already done to the name of Christ and the Church because we need to be timid and accepting lest we should "God Forbid" criticize "God's annointed."

Well, I say "Hooey!"

Some of these public "ministries" need to begin to develop some internal accountibility in their organizations and hold themselved accountible in a manner to avoid the excesses that have been all too common in the media based ministries for far too long.  And if they won't, Christians need to raise up and in a straightforward manner address the excesses of these ministries in the same forum that they are operating in and make it clear that there are such things as False Teachers, Opportunistic Flim-Flam artists and Heretics at work in our society and the it does the Church at large no benefit to listen to those who would seek to defend it by seeking to prohibit any and all criticism because they can't be bothered to study their Bibles well enough to put a passage in context and recognize that it is not speaking of any and accountibility within the body.  We need a few more followers of Jesus, in my opinion, to follow Christ's example of purging the Temple of the Money-Changers!!

If this offends anyone, I'm truly sorry.

Just make sure when you respond to rebutt me that you follow your own standards, and "Don't Judge,"