You know from personal experience how destructive affairs are on your family. One family where the damage is multiplied further are with your church family. The church suffers from each affair, yet when the pastor is involved, the damage can be catastrophic. Pastors, like others are human. They have feelings and passions. They also have to deal with temptations. Although they face temptations like what happened in your marriage, when they fall, people not only loose faith in them, their faith in God is often shaken. Pastors are in unique positions which multiplies the impact of their actions. Their actions act as an example to the flock. Whether it is intended or not, other people will look to them for guidance, direction and inspiration.
One of the dangers with pastors is that people are vulnerable to their pastor. They automatically trust their pastor. With that trust, comes the vulnerability to being exploited. When spiritual passions become sexualized, they are hard to handle. Since there are so many similarities between spiritual and sexual arousal, some pastors confuse the two. Once they are confused or cross-wired, the results can be devastating. A pastor can build people up and encourage them like few others can. When they become corrupted, they often still have skills of encouragement, yet the power behind it is not heavenly, but has been replaced with fleshly energy. Helping skills combined with fleshly energy is a dangerous pairing.
Best Regards,
Jeff Murrah
