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TOUCHING A NERVE

Apparently most who read the April 3 issue found something in it to evoke a response. The flood of letters showed by a four-to-one ratio, for example, that computer online correspondents are enthusiastic about the new technology described in the News article "Cybershock." Nick B. Nicholaou, a ministry consultant, tells clients and audiences "the next ministry wave will be ridden by those offering communication services via one of the cyber networks." But some cautioned via e-mail about spiritual issues: "I can easily be caught up in the desire for more and better computers," says Mike Gagnon, "faster processors, bigger hard drives, cooler software … what the Bible calls greed."

Meanwhile, conventional letter writers ask if we can imagine Jesus communicating the gospel on the Internet or touching the afflicted while "hiding behind a computer screen." Henry Broadbent asks: "Suppose the shape of the Net becomes something we Christians find problematic?" Suggesting it may be a modern Babel, he adds, "This time, not bricks, but electronic machines; not mortar, but computer software."

A more sensitive nerve was touched in the articles about adulterous pastors. Writers of the dozens of letters received are almost equally divided over whether fallen leaders might be restored to ministry. One, writing from personal experience of grace and healing, says Jesus "did not treat sexual sin as a 'greater sin.' He was more concerned about the heart." Yet Vialo Weiss writes, "Adulterous pastors should not be restored to pastoral ministry. Adultery reveals a significant character flaw."

The accompanying excerpted letters reveal CT readers as articulate, insightful-and holding a variety of opinions.

TIMELY, CORRECT, AND RARE

* Reading the article ["Why Adulterous Pastors Should Not Be Restored," April 3], by Kent Hughes and John Armstrong, I was struck by two thoughts. The first was how timely, how correct, and yet how rare a statement this was-reiterating what has been the historic Protestant position on a now-controversial issue. The second was that such a view is almost certain to be treated as if it were denying the obvious-since so many ministers have fallen and been restored, it goes without saying that it is the right thing to do. Give a new view ten years of practice in our culture, and it will be assumed to be correct. Unlike the Bereans in the Book of Acts, most American Christians would rather appeal to what has been done than to what has been written.

- Craig Miller

Santa Clarita, Calif.

To all my friends who were hurt by the article, I say, "Keep on preaching anyway." Remember that grace means that you get what legalists say you do not deserve-another chance. Mount up, you broken-hearted brothers and sisters, lay aside the sin that once beset you, and again soar like eagles.

- Tony Campolo

St. Davids, Pa.

During several decades of traveling ministry, I personally dealt with over 40 ministers caught in adultery. The shocking truth was that in almost all cases, it was not the first time, but a continuing pattern. I concluded early that there is a great difference between a man being overtaken in a fault, repenting, and making restitution and the man who continues in an arrogant, planned program of sinning, which totally compromises, if not destroys, all the elements of integrity.

What I saw mostly were tears of remorse over being caught and exposed, without a willingness for the discipline to rebuild the qualities necessary for effective ministry.

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June 19 1995, Vol. 39, No. 7