Jesus told us all secret sins will one day come to light (Luke 12:2-3). And when they do, they cause immense harm to our ministry, destroy our credibility, and drag the name of Christ through the mud.
Hello Readers, hope all’s well. Today I present another End Times post.
Sigh, here we go again … AGAIN.
I wrote about this same topic only a month ago, back in Part 101. And yet, here we are again. Another Christian in a leadership position accused of rampant sexual immorality and misconduct. Will it ever end??
I don’t want to keep covering these stories, and this one will be the last for awhile. The reason I wanted to cover this one is because it got my blood up—it made me especially angry. But since I’ve already covered this topic so recently on my blog, I’ll try to keep my comments short today. And after today I don’t plan to write on these kinds of stories unless there’s a very compelling reason.
And in today’s story, I see a very compelling reason.
Is it possible to talk about this kind of thing too much?? Or can we never talk about it enough?? I don’t know the answer to that. I know it’s not helpful to only focus on the negatives. But clearly sexual immorality and misconduct is a huge problem in Christianity today. This can’t be tolerated, and it needs to be dealt with.
So then, let’s find out what happened this time ….
The Story so far
My facts today come from the story “Youth pastor, Christian camp director accused of inappropriately touching teen girls” by Jay Tokasz of The Buffalo News. It’s about a pastor named Wayne Aarum who manages a Christian youth camp called the Circle C Ranch in New York state.
He’s facing allegations of having touched teen girls in sexual ways for decades. Of course he denies those allegations. But what’s notable about the story is the number of victims coming out publicly—as in, not anonymously. There are more than 20 (!!) young women coming out publicly under their real names. That’s very significant, and you don’t often see that in these cases.
Another significant thing is that staff members have spoken out about Aarum’s behavior over the years. They knew his behavior toward teen girls was inappropriate.
Fancher said the camp had documented instances in which other camp leaders had approached Aarum about his actions.
“There was documentation of people going to Wayne and saying, ‘Hey listen, like, we love you, but you need to be careful of this.’ And this started 20 years ago,” said Fancher. “I, myself, personally 20 years ago sat down with Mr. Wes (Wayne Aarum’s father) and said, ‘I love Wayne with all my heart, but I saw him interact in a way that was just inappropriate.’ ”
Fancher said he also has heard firsthand accounts from women “who are truly victims.”
Youth pastor, Christian camp director accused of inappropriately touching teen girls by Jay Tokasz, The Buffalo News, April 7, 2021
You all know the expression, “where there’s smoke there’s fire,” right?? OK, well how about when there’s smoke and smoke and smoke and smoke?? What then??
This guy Wayne Aarum’s own staff members were calling out his behavior. That’s one thing other than the abuse that makes me so angry about this story. Why wasn’t anything done about him??
But let’s move on, I said I would keep my comments short today. So please check out the article linked above if you want the full details.
Sin Hurts Everyone
When we sin, it doesn’t only affect our lives. The impact is much wider than that.
All sins are a sin against God first, let’s start there. All sins lead us away from God instead of closer; all sins bring us closer to the devil instead of further away.
Next, any sins committed against another person leave one or more victims. Depending on what kind of sin it was, the victim may have to deal with trauma from the incident for the rest of their life. This does not honor God; it offends and angers Him. Christians are meant to be the light in this dark world, helping our fellow humans and leading them to Christ. We’re not supposed to harm and traumatize people!! We’re supposed to help them!! Harming others in any way does not honor Christ and does not bring Glory to God!!
And last, sins tear our ministry and family (our first ministry) apart. If you read the article linked above, you’ll see there are internal divisions in the Circle C Ranch now. The group is fracturing instead of being united. This weakens the group, and weakens its ministry. It distracts from their message. This is one impact sins have—they take whole Christian groups off course and create divisions.
Much like how the secret sins of Ravi Zacharias so severely harmed the credibility of his ministry (RZIM), it’s the same with any other ministry. Jesus told us all secret sins will one day come to light (Luke 12:2-3). And when they do, they cause immense harm to our ministry, destroy our credibility, and drag the name of Christ through the mud.
People look at the accused Christians involved and say that Christianity is nothing special or good if Christians act like this. These kinds of secret sins by Christians drag Christ’s name through the mud. And that makes me so angry. That’s one more reason I was so mad when reading this story. I’m tired of seeing Christ’s name get dragged through the mud like this.
I’M TIRED OF HEARING ABOUT CHRISTIANS ACTING IN SEXUALLY IMMORAL AND ABUSIVE WAYS!!! THIS HAS TO STOP!!!
*Sigh* ….
It’s just one more sign that we’re really living in the End Times, isn’t it. Listen up Christians, and take note: Satan is always on the prowl, trying to trip us up anyway he can. He knows our weaknesses, like lust or gluttony or whatever. And he targets Christian leaders because he knows if he can make the leaders stumble, it ruins their whole ministry. Like we see in this case, and many others.
Satan is coming for the Christian leaders, in the End Times!! Don’t let him get you!! Don’t let him take your ministry down!! STAY CLOSE TO THE LORD AND RESIST YOUR TEMPTATIONS!! WALK IN THE SPIRIT, NOT THE FLESH—CONTROL YOUR DESIRES AND APPETITES!!
THE DEVIL CAN NEVER “MAKE” US DO ANYTHING!! WE ARE ALWAYS IN CONTROL OF OUR OWN ACTIONS!! THE CHOICES ARE ALWAYS OURS!!
It’s weakness to blame our fall on the devil when the LORD Himself is our Father and gives us what we need to fight back on a Spiritual level. It’s every Christian’s own responsibility to control themselves, including their desires.
And this brings me to my final point.
Do the Right Thing
I said this back in Part 101, and I’ll say it again:
Any Christian in a position of leadership who can’t control their lust, they need to step down while they work on that. They need to step down NOW, before there are victims of sexual misconduct. They need to spend time on the sidelines with the LORD and battle their sins. They can come back a few years later, once they’re free from their vices and can control themselves.
The impact of sin is wide-ranging like I described above. The impact goes farther and is more harmful than we expect.
And none of those impacts honor the LORD. God Loves us but hates our sins—none of our sins bring Glory to God. They do the exact opposite, and lead us away from Him while also harming others.
Lust is a very common temptation. Any Christian—including Christian leaders—who struggle with lust should know they’re not alone. The LORD does not hate us by any means for our temptations or the fact we suffer from sexual lust. Jesus Christ Empathizes with us for every one of our temptations, since He Himself suffered all the same temptations we do. We can go to Jesus with our problems, and He will help us.
(14) Also, let’s hold on to the confession since we have a great high priest who passed through the heavens, who is Jesus, God’s Son; (15) because we don’t have a high priest who can’t sympathize with our weaknesses but instead one who was tempted in every way that we are, except without sin.
Hebrews 4:14-15 (CEB)
Since we have Jesus’ help available to us, the LORD expects us to use the help He has provided for us through His Son. It is our responsibility to control ourselves. And if we struggle with lust, it is our responsibility to fight the devil and deal with that. If we don’t control ourselves the consequences are on us, not the devil. Not when God has given us everything we need to fight the devil and our own sins on a Spiritual level.
So Christian leaders need to do the right thing. Whoever is struggling with their lust on this kind of level needs to step down—NOW. They need to swallow their pride, suffer a little embarrassment, and sit on the sidelines with the LORD for a few years. It’s infinitely better to do that than to create even one victim. Do the right thing.
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Until next time, be strong and do good!
Your new best friend in Christ,
99:9
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