Much has already been spoken and written since last month’s blunder by Bryan Chappell, former stated clerk of the PCA church. If you are unaware, Dr. Chappell was being interviewed by the Gospel Coalition and along the way, in order to make a point, pulled a post-it note off his desk that listed a dozen or two men he believed to be scandalizers in the church. He went on to speak this untruth- that every one of the men on the list has either left his family, left the faith or taken his own life. Yikes.
I know, some better than others, roughly half the men on the list. Most of them I would consider friends. While I hate to see any of them falsely accused of infidelity, apostasy or murder, I confess I understand why each one of them might be considered a scandalizer. The accusation sticks.
I should be on that list. Alas, and wildly ironically, my scandals have rendered me insufficiently significant in the Reformed world to make Dr. Chapell’s list. I also have a long list of others who should be on the list. Collin Hansen, who performed the interview, should have been on the list. Steve Lawson should have been on the list. John Piper too. Joel Webbon should have been on the list. As well as Brian Sauve. Doug Wilson should have been on the list. You know who else should have been on the list? RC Sproul.
Why? Everyone on the list, all those I suggested should be on the list, and all those whose names I haven’t mentioned have brought scandal into the church. We have been regenerated, indwelt, redeemed, forgiven. We are the very bride of the one perfect Man. And we not only have a past, but a present, and a future too. We are Gomer, only we go back to our old ways more than once.
If there is a scandal in this scandalizer scandal it is that we have and we are believers who think ourselves superior to other believers, whether we are Dr. Chappell making his list or we are using him to make our grist for our mill. We who are appalled at Dr. Chappell’s faux pas are prone to pronounce our judgment on him, for the list, for who is on the list and for his first “apology” which no one would ever confuse with Psalm 51.
Those who are appalled at the men on the list, including the men on the list half of whom would likely have the other half on their own list, pronounce judgment on the names for their scandalizing behavior, which is rather more nuanced than what fits on a post-it. Our response, in short, is to cast blame on those whose tribe is farthest from us. What it ought to be is repentance.
There is nothing any of these men have done that is beyond my own sin. I crucified the Lord of Glory. So did they. So did you. Which is how we’ve all come to be forgiven, through the scandal of the cross. Which scandal ought to banish all others.
It’s always struck me how, in ministry, when someone’s sin becomes public, they’re often sidelined — but if it stays hidden, they continue leading as if nothing’s wrong. It seems accountability is more about exposure than integrity.