Originally Posted by
Colonel
In my opinion there are far too many ministers who have acquired an extremely poor reputation with the world and for good reasons (bad teaching, bad behavior, lack of repenting from either). The question is if they belong in the limelight and to which degree by now. The world will always find fault, paint things black, deny and reject and call people liars but there is such a thing as adding fuel to the fire. A good reputation with outsiders isn't an easy thing to restore, the world simply isn't that likely to forgive and forget and especially not those "stupid Christians". It's just a fact.
Here's an example from the wikipedia article I linked earlier :
Following adverse publicity of an impending visit to the United Kingdom, in August 2012, Bentley was made the subject of an exclusion order barring him from entering the country. The UK government's home office stated, 'The government makes no apologies for refusing people access to the UK if we believe they are not conducive to the public good. Coming here is a privilege that we refuse to extend to those who might seek to undermine our society.'[40]
In December 2012, following the death of Croydon MP Malcolm Wicks, Bentley was criticised in the UK press after remarking that the MP's death was "the Lord's justice" for the role Wicks played in barring Bentley from entering the country
Though I don't discount the possibility of God killing someone as judgment even in this age of the gospel of grace, there is no way that he is going to do that simply because the person was involved in barring some minister from entering the country. That is ridiculous and tells me (and sadly the world as well) a whole lot about the minister's perception of himself and his own importance. Did he repent from making that statement ? Probably not and that is a huge problem. Even if he had, it would still be a problem because it would be very difficult to undo the impression that such a statement (it could well be seen as murderously vindictive based on very little) creates in a world that isn't quick to forgive and forget to begin with.