Boz is the brother of Tullian and GRACE was just as outspoken about the Tchividjian debacle. Boz hits the nail right on the head here. Tullian also spoke about forgiveness when he opened his new church and downplayed how he took advantage of one of the sheep entrusted to him. Savage does not speak with moral clarity of not only what he did but how he covered it up for two decades. This is not about being unforgiving. It is about being biblical.
"Woodson already has forgiven Savage, she said. "I will openly say that I forgave Andy a long time ago before I ever went public, and I had to do that just so I could move on with my own life without an apology. But that's very personal, as is his forgiveness between him and the Lord," she told RNS. There's a difference between forgiving someone and giving them a pulpit, Woodson added. Forgiveness doesn't negate justice, accountability and consequences. Woodson hopes Savage has repented. She has no problem with him sitting in the church pews, she said. But she believes he "biblically is disqualified" from a position of leadership in the church, she said. She pointed to 1 Timothy 3, which says church leaders must be "above reproach." She also is worried that his return to ministry would send a troubling message that the church is a safe place for abusers. That's why, she said, she feels called to "shout it from the rooftops that this is not OK." The news of Savage's possible return to the pulpit was retraumatizing, Woodson said. Now that the initial shock has passed, she feels a "new spark" to continue to speak out for abuse victims in the church. "As Christians, we are called to speak to certain injustices, and having a wolf back in the pulpit over vulnerable people is certainly an injustice that I am willing to stand on the platform and speak against," she said."
Why is it that only Jules Woodson seems to read their bible in this situation? There should be a vast difference between forgiveness and giving someone back a pulpit after they have disqualified themselves. Forgiveness does not negate justice, accountability and consequences. After he assaulted Jules Woodson he did have to leave his church but that was only so he could avoid being exposed and because Woodson refused to listen to the "stay quiet" demands of leadership. Yes, he now stepped down from highpoint but only after being confronted by his past and now he gets to open his own church? Those are not consequences. They are sabbaticals.
Jules Woodson is right. Andy Savage disqualified himself from ministry over 20 years ago and has been living on stolen time ever since. Steve Bradley and Larry Cotton are equally disqualified for trying to cover this up and should not be in ministry either. So many have been near apoplectic over the go home faux outrage and all we have for Jules Woodson is crickets. That is an unbiblical inconsistency that must be corrected. No one says anything about the Jules Woodson's of the world while Dr. Michael Brown continues his Scooby-Doo investigation to determine if Todd Bentley should be restored to ministry for a second time! Mark Driscoll stole $250,000 dollars from his sheep to cheat the NY Times bestseller list and then bragged about running his sheep over with the Mars Hill Bus and now he has a new church. Ted Haggard has a church in Colorado. His bio page brags about his time as the president of the National Association of Evangelicals. No mention of how he was busted doing crystal meth with a male prostitute. The evangelical landscape is littered with the victims of pastors who abused their power and their sheep only to come right back into a new position of power piously crying about forgiveness. As a church we need to start getting restoration right. We forgive them and then tell them to go home.
Reverend Anthony Wade -- October 31, 2019
