I love sports. I love playing all sorts of sports, I’ve been involved in competitive leagues for sports as diverse as volleyball, softball, basketball, badminton, and ice skating. But I’m far from being an athlete. So I appreciate deeply those who are. I love watching the best of the best accomplishing incredible feats of athleticism.
Growing up in Ohio, I followed the Ohio State Buckeyes. I remember as a teenager watching their 2002 championship, pulled off in overtime against the Miami Hurricanes. I remember the 2014 championship that they won while I was in seminary. I love the Buckeyes and have cheered for them for most of my life.
One of the most successful coaches in Ohio State history is Urban Meyer. He coached the 2014 national championship game and during his seven years with the school, led them to an incredible 83-9 record, never losing more than two games in a single season. I think it can be pretty easily argued that he was the 2nd most successful coach in college football during his tenure at Ohio State.
But in the last month, Urban Meyer has been falling apart. He took a job coaching in the NFL with the Jacksonville Jaguars this past offseason. Within a few short months, he has lost any semblance of control. To the point where most analysts think he will no longer be coaching the team next year.
His collapse has little to do with on-field production. Jacksonville was the worst team in the league last year and wasn’t expected to be great this year either. Rather, it has had everything to do with his character. In the offseason, he tried to hire an assistant coach who had been credibly accused of numerous racist remarks directed towards players at the college level. And in the last few weeks, video came out of Meyer inappropriately touching a young woman at a bar in Ohio.
I wish I could say that I was shocked by these developments. But I am not. I don’t think many people who were paying attention would express surprise. By the end of Meyer’s tenure at Ohio State, word had leaked out about troubling character traits there. The worst of which, by far, were allegations that he had covered up an assistant coach’s domestic abuse in order to keep him on staff.
Yet Meyer kept his job for years after these allegations came to light. When he resigned (not “was fired,” but resigned) from Ohio State, he was given a lucrative contract to commentate on college sports by FOX sports. And just a year and a half later, he was given the reigns to an NFL team. Why was Meyer’s bad behavior constantly glossed over? Because he won football games. Success was deemed to trump character.
Unfortunately, this is a tale that has become all too common in the church in America. We have become inundated with a stream of occasions where a leader has been pushed ahead by their “success”, while lacking in character. It seems like we can hardly open the news from week to week without being confronted with the reality of some Christian celebrity turning out to have a massive lapse in character. And it’s not even a new trend. The line from Aimee Semple McPherson to Jim Bakker to Jimmy Swaggart to Ted Haggard to Mark Driscoll to Carl Lentz to Ravi Zacharias is a road paved with broken illusions. The illusion of character that worldly success (money, huge numbers at their churches, fame) lent to individuals who did not possess anywhere near the character that they tried to claim.
Often, I have seen the response to these types of cases in the church, both in regards to celebrities and to the fallen leaders of our own small churches, to be based around avoidance. A campaign of silence seeking to avoid the shame of the brokenness and failure of the leader, and of our own failure to recognize their brokenness. I believe that the motivations for this pattern are often good, a desire to cover over the shame of a fallen leader and keep that shame from infecting the perceived good of the leader’s ministry.
But while the motives may be pure, the results can often be destructive. Sharon Hodde Miller, who writes extensively on abuse in the church context, wrote, “When Noah passes out from drinking, his sons back in & cover him so as not to heap shame upon shame. I suspect this is what many Christians believe they’re doing when they excuse toxic leadership. But what they’re REALLY doing, too often, is not covering Noah, but killing Uriah.”
When we seek to cover up the hurt and shame from the fall of a leader, we can end up doing damage to the people who have been hurt the most in their fall. For if we are to cover up the failure of the leader, we must also cover up the pain of their victims. And I believe that the Bible would direct us to see that cover ups never work, and that they are even going directly against God’s plan for the healing of wounds by bringing them into the open air and the light of day.
Numbers 32:23 says, “Be sure your sin will find you out.” And in Luke 8:17 Jesus says, “For nothing is hidden, that will not be revealed.” Sin cannot be kept undercover forever. It will eventually come to light.
I believe that these passages present a challenge for us individually as Christians, to let our sins break from cover. To open up to a trusted brother or sister about our struggles and let the light of confession shine on the dark corners of our lives. To let go of our illusions of perfection and embrace the God who loves us in our brokenness.
But I believe these passages are also a warning to the church collectively about how we interact with the world around us. Because everyone else’s sins will also be found out someday! So often today I hear the urging to make common cause with individuals of low (or non-existent) character. To do this in order to make progress on a certain issue, or to protect a right, or to address a problem. And while there is certainly value in making common cause with those outside of the faith, we are not all called to live in monasteries after all, it is so important for us to not join in with evil.
Maybe this is a warning to us to not place success over character in our evaluations of potential leaders. To not toss our lot in with evil in order to accomplish what we see as a greater good. As Chrales Spurgeon famously said, “Of two evils, choose neither.” Our sins will find us out, let’s make sure it’s just ours and that we aren’t signing up to get found out for those of others too.