Help to Keep From Falling

Perils of Power: Immorality in the Ministry by Richard Exley, Honor Books, $9.95

Reviewed by Dave Wilkinson, pastor, Moorpark (California) Presbyterian Church

Immorality in the ministry. We've read the stories and felt the embarrassment.

Richard Exley, pastor of Christian Chapel in Tulsa, Oklahoma, writes: "I will never forget the moment I learned of the Jimmy Swaggart tragedy. A squall of disoriented emotions swept over me-disbelief, shame, anger, grief."

To be honest, I was not as pained as Exley by the fall of some of the televangelists. Perhaps, in a sinfully smug, mainline church way, I had never expected anything more. But I am pained by the downfall of some of my own friends-from whom I had come to expect a lot more. I read Exley's book to try to understand this epidemic. I was not disappointed.

Exley's thesis: "All sexual sin is not rooted in lust-at least not initially. When a local-church pastor commits adultery, it is usually with someone with whom he has ...