The Pastor: Crusading/Obesession Version of Unintegrity
By now you may have heard about the Colorado pastor who was the president of the National Association of Evangelicals. He was a crusader against homosexuality and drugs who stepped down in disgrace from both his national role and his congregational pulpit, saying to his congregants the following:
“The fact is I am guilty of sexual immorality. And I take responsibility for the entire problem,” Haggard wrote. “I am a deceiver and a liar. There’s a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I have been warring against it for all of my adult life.”
People who try to war against that within them that feels “dark and repulsive” cannot win that ware through using willpower. Only through fully digesting the originating trauma and its healing it negative aftereffects can this occur. Too many people in leadership and spiritual positions deny the vital importance of doing psychological healing in order to live in integrity with one’s professed values.
The moral of the story is that, as I have put it for years now, “People function at the level of their wounds not their wishes.” Huge amounts of damage have been done in political, business and spiritual circles as a result of denying this vital fact.
To read more about this particular example, click here. I only ask you to compassionately keep in mind that this is but one of a vast universe of examples — today’s example. There are, sadly, plenty more where this came from, and in all walks of life and all religions.
