Walter Thomas "Tom" White, of VOM (Voice of the Martyrs), committed
suicide after the initiation of investigation on his alleged molestation
of a 10 year old girl. This is an Oklahoma (Bartlesville) incident.
I was first led to this case by DesiringGod.org's "You Don't have to Obey" article, which I believe is referring its unnamed incident to this one.
I then followed the story from Christianitytoday and other sources. Which led me to an OKlahoma pastor's blog, Wade Burleson, about how he wrote an open letter to the victim girl to encourage and comfort her and her father came across
the letter online and called the pastor up for appreciation. And what
follow were the comments of the articles here and there, by christians
on opposite sides of the case and on the articles.
Reading all
these, I must say I cannot reach any verdict for Tom White yet. If I
were to pick a guess, I would say Tom White is guilty, not because of
the vague information shared by Wade, but because of the fact that White
committed suicide.
I then remembered Pastor Stephen Chan's
message that those who truly believe in what they "preach" would pay
their lives for it (such as the case with Hitler, which was why he
committed suicide). In view of this, I could say White did take his job
seriously. In fact, over seriously, that he lapse in holding on to God's
grace caused his suicide. After this criticism, I have to say White's
zeal in his ministry is better than many 'sinners' in similar cases who
stayed on their ministries after their crimes.
This means the sanctity of a man of God is no joke.
Then
Wade Burleson was brought to my attention. I like his open letter and
how he shared the consequence of his post, contrary to some
commentators' objections. But from his own responses to comments, I
could finally pin point him as a very emotional person. Hopefully he's
not the Bill Gothard type, who believes white lies could be justified (A
solution Bill presented to many christian counsellors struggling
between confidentiality and the truth).
Curiously, I looked up on
Burleson, intending to find out about his theological stand and
denomination. I do not have much clue yet, even after reading about his dispute and resignation from SBC's IMB (International Mission Board).
I
would say Burleson is close to the charismatic movement type of
Evangelicals. That though I have no problem with his articles, I do see
him an emotional case in his comments as well as his resignation from
IMB. Regardless the differences, at least the IMB has extended a
welcoming hand to him still, while he just couldn't reconcile at all and
left. I would prefer one find the wisdom and love to fight on, should
one think one is right. Instead of being too offended by the request of
IMB for an apology, Burleson could suggest "I would be glad to consider
coming back, if we could talk about why I should or shouldn't
apologize".
The desire for truth proves one's true humility.