The Greatest Sin of the Church?

I've heard a lot over the last few weeks from the church about tolerance. Since Clay Aiken and Ray Boltz have "come out" the church has been gushing about acceptance, tolerance, and love.

The idea is that if we really have the love of Christ within us we will love and accept people regardless of their sin. Usually that translates in a more pragmatic way into tolerating, accepting, and, in some cases, even loving their sins.

With the rise of the "emergent" movement (neo-liberals; aka 'cool' liberals) and the old fashion liberals still pushing their weight around in the church, the church in the United States has quickly come to a place of disregarding Biblical mandates and standards for our own more "evangelical" mandates and standards.

My concern is the damage it causes in the church both spiritually as well as other ways. For example...

1) A pastor of a Kentucky church recently admitted to having an affair with the church secretary. He was a younger pastor and had a wife who was pregnant. The church, from what I understand, allowed him to get up during a morning "worship" service and tell them he was sorry for "hurting people" (he did not repent of his action). He then stepped down as pastor. Certainly the church had to do some public relations damage control and everyone else in the community heard, and said, things like: "Nobody is perfect." "He's just human." "We love him anyway."

He left his wife and moved to another state with the secretary.

Now my point is this: while everyone tried to cover up for his sin and reaffirm their love, tolerance, and acceptance of him; what did that tell his wife? What was his young, pregnant wife thinking when the church, in essence, justified her adulterous husband's actions? What about the soon to be born child? What would he/she say when he/she gets old enough to hear someone say: well, the old pastor was "just human"?

Shame on the "church"! (Notice I love to use "" all the time?)

2) "Love the sinner, hate the sin" is too cliche. It is archaic and rarely realized! Compassion without accountability is not compassion, it is sinful acceptance and tolerance of sin!

3) The suffering innocents... who cares for them? Who cares about the wife and family of the man who suddenly "discovers he has always been gay"? Even the church of today applauds the fact that he has "come to grip with who he really is." Who cares about the people that really suffer from the sins of those who are so readily & quickly being accepted?

I'm not arguing for "one strike you're out" mentality when it comes to Christians and sin, but why do we so quickly "restore" people in sin? (I'm talking about restoration without confrontation of the sin.) It seems we enjoy ignoring and eventually accepting it... or at least find that it is much easier than rebuking it as God's Word tells us to do.

We're slow to restore the usher who steal money from the offering plate... wait... we don't ever let them take up the offering again! (Query: Is complete restoration here on earth possible or even plausible?)

We're slow to restore the child rapist... wait... we never let them in the nursery again.

Maybe the drunkards and drug addicts shouldn't be paraded around as a jewel when they get "saved." Maybe, like everyone else in sin, they should be ashamed that they caused so much harm to a holy God and His creation. (Side Note: I think we need more testimonies in the church, but too often I feel like people are almost proud of the grotesque sin they have committed in their past, rather than ashamed of it.)

I realize this maybe isn't the most popular kind of post, but I just want to evaluate what I believe could be our greatest sin in the church today... because we are embracing sin while driving away the innocents suffering from that sin. (Greed, pride, slander, etc. could also be applied here.)

I have little to no tolerance for people seeking help from the church just to get themselves out of their own sinful jam.

So you're going to jail for beating your wife? I am more interested in ministering to your wife first... then, when you are ready for true/real repentance, we'll talk.

So your company is folding because you are embezzling money? I am more interested in ministering to those whose money you have embezzled first... then you.

So your sexual immorality is causing your spouse to leave you, I'm more interested in ministering to your spouse first... then you.

So you lied in a criminal court case, I'm more interested in ministering to those to whom you have attempted to do a great injustice to first... then you.

(Yes, I know, we're all guilty of sin... just not those sins.)

We've stopped talking about gossip in the church... we'd rather talk about abortion. We've stopped talking about divorce in the church... we'd rather talk about homosexual marriage. We've stopped talking about "little white lies"... we'd rather talk about drug addicts.

What do you think?