This is one of those areas which just doesn’t sit well with humanistic ideas of justice, but does sit well with the grace, mercy and love of our mind-blowing God.

In other words, the truth that is spoken doesn’t change because of the sin of the messenger.

In God’s eyes, humanistic “big” sin is no worse than what we might consider “little” sin. We’ve all fallen short of His glory.

As Dan said though, if they continue down that sinful path, unrepentent, God will remove the gifts He’s given them and find someone who’ll do the job His way…or at least closer to His way.

Remember the situation of the fortune-teller girl, who spoke the truth but whose spirit wasn’t right (and was unrepentent), she had to be silenced.

It’s a fine line.

And I’m going to guess that my name not being on your blogroll is just a mishap, yes? I mean, seriously, you spent a weekend with my husband in Palm Springs and you don’t have my blog on your blogroll?

We’re gonna need to talk about that, my friend

Not according to The Bible. Phillippians 1:18 tells of how Paul purposed to rejoice in the declaration of God’s goodness and the declaration of Christ, regardless of whether the motives of the person making the declaration were selfish and insincere. Who are we as fellow sinners, let alone brothers and sisters in Christ, to declare the declaration of that truth null and void?

Phillippians 1:18 – “What does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice.”

some people screw up but have said some pretty impactful things that have come from God. i wholeheartedly believe that God uses people from all aspects of life. i believe we are called to be cultivators of culture. we weed out the bad in culture and pursue cultivating that which is good in culture. if someone says truth but is involved in some form of sin (which by the way, we all are guilty of that) we need to be able to process through cultivating those things that were truth & apply them & help that person to be restored as a brother/sister in Christ.

if God can speak truth through the mouth of a donkey, don't you think that God could do the same through a fallen man?

…sorry for the long rant!

I over eat. I eat way WAY too much. I don’t often reach out to those around me in need. I have used the lords name in vein, I know that I am not living fully to how God wants me to live. I used to be a drug addict, an alcoholic and I’ve had sex before marriage. I’ve even masturbated. *SIGH*

Heck, if you look at people’s lifestyles as a judgment on if we can read what they write, then go ahead and pull half of the Bible.

Henri Nouwen struggled with homosexuality his entire life, and that does not make what he wrote less true. The term “Wounded Healer” mean anything?

It’s not what we struggle with, it’s what we overcome. It’s not how we slip up, it’s how we recognize and move forward. Pulling his books, and judging him does not help him realize his Sins. Loving him, counseling him, and HELPING him might help him realize his lifestyle of sin and MAY make him want to overcome it.

Love your neighbors. You don’t have to read their books, but love them. If you don’t agree, then YOU don’t buy the book. period.

I love you guys. Really I do.

I am seeing a solid connection between the person speaking the truth, their integrity and the effectiveness of the communication of the truth.

I don’t have this all sorted out! This conversation is meant to be a journey to a Godly conclusion on this whole matter.

Keep the fodder coming!

On it’s own merit, someone’s character is a separate issue to the truthfulness of a claim. A doctor can be an arrogant jerk, but have a spot-on medical diagnosis. His view is true and his character has no effect on the truthfulness of his diagnosis, as a diagnosis.

Though this may be true about truth itself, it is different when the discussion turns to the “communication of” truth. Here, you don’t just have content, but content delivered by a person. This is where someone’s character can have an impact.

The impact is not on the truthfulness of the claim itself, rather, the impact is on the credibility of the truth claim. A well-known liar can speak truth all day and never be given the time of day because he has no credibility. Though the truthfulness of the claim is not threatened by character, the effectiveness of the truth claim is stunted because people don’t listen to the messenger because he has tarnished his credibility. Therefore they dismiss a true claim outright because it comes from a questionable source.

Therefore, someone with questionable credibility, is therefore going to be seen as having “questionable truth”. The truth is not questionable, the truth is true. However it is perceived as not credible because the messenger has caused this perception.
Truth is often the casualty of flawed character.

the issue is not whether the Bible is true or not because this dude wrote a book and its being pulled off shelves…the issue is this dudes books are being taken off the shelves, and his life is no longer true…and, his credibility is like a fat guy being your personal trainer…makes NO sense!