When a teacher or Christian leader falls into sin, or is revealed to have sinned, it is reasonable to look at their expressed theology and ask whether there is anything in it that might have led them to be vulnerable. It is not reasonable - because it is simply logically fallacious - to move directly from 'this person sinned' to 'therefore their theology must be wrong'. That is just incorrect. A person can have good theology, in the sense that what they think and say is orthodox and biblical, and still sin. We all know that, I hope.
There is a discussion to be had over the best way to understand the relationship between sin and temptation, and whether there is perhaps a category for disordered desire that is best understood as neither sin nor temptation, but the result of sinfulness in a different way. That we all have such disordered desires is evident to anyone who is not self-deceived. It is not at all evident, to me at least, that there is an obvious and orthodox way to understand and talk about these desires, though there are certainly some ways that are obviously heretical. It would be foolish in the extreme to judge any serious attempt to understand and express these things purely on the basis of any one exponent's sin. Let me say it again, this sort of ad hominem argument is fallacious.
That doesn't mean that there isn't a conversation to be had about whether there is a better way to understand and express our fallen state, with all its attendant guilt. There almost certainly is. Nor is it to rule out of court the question of whether ideas and beliefs have consequences; of course they do, and so it is sensible to carefully and cautiously ask whether there is a connection between a person's theology and their sin. But that can't be presumed, and rarely is it as self-evident as some people seem to make out.
I wonder sometimes (and now is one of those times) whether the way some Christians write and speak about others, particularly others who have fallen into sin, is not in itself expressive of disordered desire - not, of course, in the sexual realm. The good desire to be right twisted into the wrong desire for others to be shown to be wrong. The joy in seeing people we disagree with cast down. I am not pointing fingers at anyone in particular. I am just dismayed by tone; perhaps I am really just dismayed by the internet.
Anyway, all this is apropos of nothing in particular. Just be careful out there, okay?
