Time to come clean

…While Emmanuel has set up a website for those affected by Fletcher, others are wrestling with a plethora of questions. ‘How could such a gifted evangelical leader do this?’ ‘Why hasn’t a man, who has preached for decades on purity, come clean?’ ‘Why didn’t the abused receive help far sooner?’ ‘Who covered up such dirt?’

The twin desire for transparency and justice is godly. Every case of abuse merits God’s judgement, but we are particularly angry when the impurity of one, so clean in our eyes, is uncovered. Such an exposé can feel like death, as feelings of aggrievement quickly turn to feelings of bereavement.

But when these initial emotions subside, where are we to look? Let me briefly suggest four places:

1. We look to those who ‘feel dirty’…

2. We look to our own uncleanness…

3. We look to those who have fallen foul…

4. We look to Christ, the living water…

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