PEOPLE IN PRINT
January 1, 1989
Help to Keep From Falling
Perils of Power: Immorality in the Ministry by Richard Exley, Honor Books, $9.95
Reviewed by Dave Wilkinson, pastor, Moorpark (California) Presbyterian Church
Immorality in the ministry. We've read the stories and felt the embarrassment.
Richard Exley, pastor of Christian Chapel in Tulsa, Oklahoma, writes: "I will never forget the moment I learned of the Jimmy Swaggart tragedy. A squall of disoriented emotions swept over me-disbelief, shame, anger, grief."
To be honest, I was not as pained as Exley by the fall of some of the televangelists. Perhaps, in a sinfully smug, mainline church way, I had never expected anything more. But I am pained by the downfall of some of my own friends-from whom I had come to expect a lot more. I read Exley's book to try to understand this epidemic. I was not disappointed.
Exley's thesis: "All sexual sin is not rooted in lust-at least not initially. When a local-church pastor commits adultery, it is usually with someone with whom he has developed a relationship. It is good gone awry. What began as legitimate ministry-a shared project, or a giving of comfort-becomes an emotional bonding, which ultimately leads to an illicit affair." He quotes Carlfred Broderick, who writes in Couples: "With a little help from rationalization, the sympathy leads smoothly into tenderness, the tenderness to the need for privacy, the privacy to physical consolation, and consolation straight to bed."
Exley identifies two types of men who are especially vulnerable to sexual temptation. (There are no women pastors in his book.)
The first is the man for whom "ministry hasn't really lived up to his expectations. It seems he is never free from criticism, at least not for long. Things aren't so good at ...
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