Refreshing Accountability

Much has been written about the Rev. Ted Haggard scandal, covering such a wide variety of topics as personal hypocrisy, the psychological dangers of being a closeted homosexual, and the rise of Christian mega-churches. But one aspect of the story that I had not previously encountered was the internal infrastructure that allowed Haggard's New Life Church to quickly and efficiently remove him from his ministry.

The New York Times reports that one of the positive steps that Haggard took, when establishing the New Life Church, was to set up a clear and orderly mechanism for guaranteeing the accountability of the Church leadership.

In many ways, Mr. Haggard had sealed his fate ... by establishing a mechanism for accountability in his church that gave a committee of his peers ultimate authority to remove him. Years ago, Mr. Haggard had asked four of his closest friends, all senior pastors of their own churches, to serve as a board of overseers. They had only one function: if Mr. Haggard was ever accused of immoral conduct, they would act as judge and jury.

Mr. Haggard spelled out his system of checks and balances in bylaws that independent churches in the United States and overseas have adopted as a model. “All of our bylaws are really set up to protect our churches from us,” said Mr. Ware, the senior pastor of Victory Church in Westminster, Colo. “The same bylaws Ted wrote were the same laws by which he was dismissed.”

I do not often have kind words to say about the actions of Christian Fundamentalists in the United States, but in this instance they have performed admirably.

With the Democrats winning control of both houses of Congress in the midterm elections, perhaps now the US Congress will return to its role of oversight of the Executive Branch and bring some long absent accountability to the current administration.