MondayMorningInsight - Leadership & Encouragement for Church Leaders

How Christians Made A Religion Report Lose His Faith

Posted by: Todd
Posted on: Sun, July 22, 2007
Viewed 137
(23) comments so far

Take a few minutes to read William’s amazing (and sad) story.

Unfortunately, this scenario doesn’t happen only to religion reporters. It also happens to pastors and church workers who see so much injustice and politics in the church that they want out (and by ‘out’, I mean, as far away from the church as they can get.

Do you know any such former pastors/church leaders? What is their story? (Maybe you are one such leader… tell us about your journey).

Todd

William Lobdell was a religion reporter for the Los Angeles Times. I say was, because he recently stepped down from this position. In this words of William, "When Times editors assigned me to the religion beat, I believed God had answered my prayers. As a serious Christian, I had cringed at some of the coverage in the mainstream media. Faith frequently was treated like a circus, even a freak show. I wanted to report objectively and respectfully about how belief shapes people's lives. Along the way, I believed, my own faith would grow deeper and sturdier. But during the eight years I covered religion, something very different happened..."

Comments

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Jim from NJ on Mon, July 23, 2007

It was not only the pedophiliac priests in the catholic Church that disgust me (as much as they did). Rather I felt the leaders of the church thought more of protecting the church than protecting the people. Setting those wolves over the flocks of sheep was abominable. Yes there is sexual misconduct on the protestant churches, mainline, pentecostal, evangelical, and any other tradition you can think of. People will sin. That doesn’t excuse it, but it does explain it. But what do you do with the sin when it is uncovered? Do you deal with it openly (as it appears the leaders at Ted Haggard’s church did) or do you hide it? That is what makes people question organized Christianity, if not God himself.

As for TBN and the many other Prosperity Gospel promoters, it is right to call all people associated with them to distance themselves. I, myself, will watch certain of their programs as I come across them while channel surfing - Billy Graham, biblical movies, Kirk Cameron, etc. Should I stop doing that? I certainly don’t support TBN with any donations (Sorry, but if I see Jan Crouch’s 23 pounds of pink hair again, I think I will bust a gut). Christian leaders have a responsibility to denounce heresy and blasphemy just as Paul did in the Gospel.

I enjoy Strang Communications’ Charisma magazine and applaud Lee Grady’s editorials about the abuses in some charismatic churches, but then I turn the page and see a full page ad for some “Name it and claim it” seminar.

If we continue to turn our backs and ignore these actions, then we also are guilty.

As for the reporter, I can’t see evidence of a deep faith in him. It appears his faith was shallow. His conversion experience was pushed by emotionalism and it does not appear that he was discipled on his way to become a more mature Christian. Sometimes we care more about people before they accept Christ than we do afterwards.
Josh on Mon, July 23, 2007

Hey, I just wrote this to the author:

Hey William,

Totally understand your article. I’ve been there, done that. Religion doesn’t work for me. I disagree with you on faith, though, because while religion doesn’t work for me, Jesus does. Jesus got peed off at the religious people screwing over people, and in a rare occurence of rage from the Son of God, he started whipping people and throwing over tables.

The reason I am telling you this is because I feel for you and what you wrote and I truly believe that if Jesus was on earth today, he’d be whipping a lot of religious leaders and tearing up a lot of church buildings.

Josh
Another Jeff on Mon, July 23, 2007

This writer and I are in the same place spiritually. I was a member of a SBC church. There was no pedophilia or any other such scandals just alot of passive aggressive behavior. I saw behaviors that caused me to question whether a faith in Christ really changes anyone. I saw some good things but I just wondered if wasn’t just due to a committed lifestyle choice rather than any kind of true spiritual salvation. What’s worse, if you ask these hard questions, you are ridiculed and pushed away because you are not mature. I agree with the post that said sometimes we are more concerned about those outside of Christ than those who have accepted. I’ve been a Christian for 13 years and I’m questioning it more than ever.
Daniel D. Farmer on Mon, July 23, 2007

Josh, I hear what you’re getting at, but I’d be careful before claiming that Jesus whipped humans. Did he fashion a whip out of cords? Yes. Did he drive out the animals, and those selling them from the temple? Yes. But he also taught us to turn the other cheek, and to love our enemies (which is what the cross was all about). Portraying Jesus as a vindictive hypocrite-hater strikes me as quite dangerous.

Nevertheless, I whole-heartedly concur with you that like he had hard words for the religious leaders in his day, Jesus might have hard words for many of us. Blaming Catholics won’t do.

My two cents.

-Daniel-
Monte Sahlin on Mon, July 28, 2008

It is not just the Catholic Church; it is all churches. We have all failed at times to live out the gospel we proclaim. And institutions are especially likely to behave badly. it is, in part, because of the concept that corporations (even nonprofit, religious corporations) are amoral entities not held to any moral standards. That concept has become so pervasive in America today that it leads to this kind of disaster. We need to actively work to hold congregations and religious organizations to a higher standard. The organizations need to be held to a higher standard than individual believers. The collective sin of bad corporate body language preaches more effectively than anything we can say, write or broadcast. This reporter’s story clearly documents that fact. Lawyers, insurance people, etc., who work for churches and religious organizations need to be firmly told that they are incompetent to make decisions about corporate body language and the mission of the church. Those decisions need to be made by religious leaders based on simple, straight-forward Scripture and prayer. We are doing more damage than good in the world right now. We are increasing the number of unbelievers at a greater pace than we are bringing people to Jesus, and it is because of the greed, defensiveness, dishonesty and “accepted ways of doing business” that pastors, bishops and denominational executives engage in. This is the most serious missional problem in America today!
Paul Wilkes on Mon, July 28, 2008

It is so sad as we look around and see what is happening within the “Christian church”. I myself have experienced many things that would not be pleasing to our saviour Jesus Christ. I have on many occasions had to remind myself of the Scipture’s instruction to fix our eyes on Jesus! To see much of what is done in Jesus name is sad and would be discouraging! I believe we need to hed the warnings of scripture and be more discerning and stand up against the prosperity and the abuse that is taking place. The TBN situation is not helpful and should be highlighted as an abuse of truth!

We are seeing many being deceived and need to be careful!

I thank God for his grace and mercy!
Thomas C. Smith on Mon, July 28, 2008

I think a reality check here is to go back to what Jesus himself said about this exact problem in his day. In Mat. 13:1-9, Jesus told about a farmer sowing seed’s, and what happened to those seed’s. Was Jesus talking about this very thing? Yes, emphatically yes.

Jesus said that:

“Some fell along the path”, these are those who hear the word, but do nothing about it.

“Some fell on rocky places”, where their faith was shallow.

“Some seed fell among thorns”, They want to be a Christian, but it is more important to them to be like the other people in the world.

“Still other seed fell on good soil”, these are the true Christians, those who love the Church and God.

This was the lesson our kids had this last week at our yearly Centrifuge youth camp, at Jenness Park in California. They spent a lot of time examining this in their own lives, and most did not like what they saw in themselves and their friends. A lot of them repented from the same attitudes that our reporter friend, William Lobdell was suffering from.

I agree with the one who said, “that the ones who brought him to Christ should have mentored him more”, however this ultimately rest’s with the individual. We are responsible for our relationship with Christ, not the world, not a priest, not a pastor, not a spouse, just us, we are after all a priesthood of believers. As a pastor and a worker with our youth, I often tell our kids, “Do not put your faith in me, I am a sinful human and will let you down, sometimes at the exact time when you will need me the most. Instead put you faith in Jesus alone”.

If we give Jesus the true importance that He deserves in our lives, we may have crises of faith, and sometimes waiver, but we will always come back to where the true comfort is, Jesus The Christ.

As I told one of our people just recently, God is good,,,,,, All the time,,,,, Him, and Him alone, Amen!
notebooker on Sat, August 09, 2008

Have faith in your hearts