When Ordination And Adultery Marry Each Other

When a high profile pastor in the Western world is exposed of his moral failures, the ripples emanating from it travel to every corner of the globe in a lightning speed of the internet. With the exception of one or two that I have heard of, most never make it back to the pulpit for the rest of their life after the catastrophe. Although the West is moving away from the Bible, but it is still unable to break free from the Biblical morality. Humanists and Atheists like David Silverman are trying to construct purely a godless society, but they also breathe the same air of Judeo-Christian morality that demands humans to adhere to a higher moral standard than what our natural instincts wish to dictate. So, when a pastor fails in his or her morality in the West, there is no forgiving. The voices coming from every corner say; “You have disqualified yourself for the pulpit".

But I live in the East where shame is more important than morality. And, this same does not come from moral failures; it comes from losing one's face, place, power and position in the society or church for this case. So, if I can keep my face, place, power and position, then, I don't necessarily have to be a moral person. The thing is; power and position provide me the resources to cover up my immorality.  Even if I am exposed of my moral indiscretions, multiple as they may be, I don't have to leave the pulpit. I can coerce my church leadership and members into agreeing what I want to. At the most, I can lay low for a year or two but not more than that. I must come back to the pulpit because once I gain back my place, power and position, I have no shame!

I started to serve the Lord full time since 1986 in far western part of Nepal.  But I had no concept of ordination back then.  I remained an “un-ordained” pastor until 2001. In 1998, I was sent to South Korea for theological education. And to everyone, I introduced myself as a Pastor (mind you, a pastoral position has a high regard in Korea).  Eventually a church hired me to become the pastor for their English language worship service. The office asked me to send my ordination certificate. Alas! I had none! I told them, I don't have a certificate and I never knew it was necessary to have one. They realized how ignorant and naive I was about the dignity of the pastoral office.  The church had about ten thousand members and the pastor was in his early 40s. He was the founder, he started this church in his twenties and now it had become one of the fastest growing mega churches in Korea.  Seeing me not that much younger than himself, he took me aside and asked all about my past ministry experience.  Satisfied he was though, but I could not serve the communion and baptism until I would be ordained under his denomination. We became good friends and in 2001, he took me under his leadership and ordained me under Presbyterian Church in Korea.  And, to my surprise, I did feel a great deal of difference from not being an ordained pastor! The title: "Minister" suddenly became so close at home than what I used to feel when I used to read it in books only.  A sense of higher moral responsibility began to press on my shoulders and it was a good feeling.

Sadly, this pastor friend of mine suffered some moral indiscretions some years ago (possibly a trap orchestrated by the opposition). The mega church went down with it.  But my pastor is still the minister there; the fledgling congregation has started to pick up the pieces though.  I heard the members have started to return after realizing the possibility of foul play by some evil elders of his church.

Coming home to my own country, we are blessed (cursed) with good many examples of ministers who have done wonderfully well even in the midst of their actual sexual misconducts and extramarital affairs. They may be caught or brought out, but who cares!  As long as they can keep the power in their hands, there is no shame of falling in sexual sins.

I was once terribly penalized (totally ostracized and chased out of the city) by a denomination I wished to minister in for protesting some of the misconducts of their resident western missionary.  But when one of their top leaders had an extramarital affair with his office secretary, they did everything within their power to hide it and in matter of about one year that man was back in the pulpit!  There is no shame in the East for moral failure; the same is in losing one's face, place, power and position.  If you can keep all of these, you can even have multiple mistresses and still be called the Most Right Reverend!  And on top of that, if no one is giving you Ordination and conferring on you all kinds of titles and degrees, you can do it yourself.  Just call a few innocent members of your church, buy some vestments, and take some pictures. That's all.  After all there is hardly any difference between Ordination and Adultery!