Cooper Stuff and Your Sins

"He who tolerates sin in himself, or excuses it in others, is not the friend of holiness, and therefore not the friend of Christ."

I watched the below video today, and wept through about half of it. But it may not be the half you would think.

I heard about the Michael Tait allegations pretty soon after the first exposé article came out. I was shocked, and disappointed, and worried. Shocked that Michael Tait, who had always seemed like a nice, friendly, safe guy and solid representative of Christ (literally, in one case), could do those things and somehow think it was OK to continue to do them for so long. Disappointed, because I've always liked the guy and enjoyed his work in Christian music. Worried that young (and even older) fans might turn away from Christ when they learned that this musician they looked up to had allegedly committed a long series not only immoral, but blatantly criminal acts. On that day I cried for the alleged victims of his abuses. And on that day I cried for the fans. That's who the first half of this podcast is about. I still have the same emotions for those people, but I've cried those tears already.

The second half of this podcast is about me. It's also about you, and John Cooper, and your pastor, and Michael Tait, and your youth leader, and the lady who sits in the row in front of you in church. And you. And me.

"He who tolerates sin in himself, or excuses it in others, is not the friend of holiness, and therefore not the friend of Christ." 

You know what? From time to time I commit sins. But sometimes I cut myself some slack in my mind. "It didn't hurt anyone. Nobody knows about it but me and God, and God forgives me."

But that quote about sin haunts me. It's not from the Bible, but it's from a smart person who knew things (you can find the quote in the podcast video at about 33:55). And even though it's not a Bible quote, it tracks with what the Bible says.

It's a long-ish podcast episode, but it's well worth the time. See you on the other side:

"He who tolerates sin in himself, or excuses it in others, is not the friend of holiness, and therefore not the friend of Christ."

I don't commit sins that would get me arrested. I don't abuse people as the Tait allegations describe. I don't do illegal drugs. But at some point, if the allegations are true, Michael Tait crossed over from being a man of God who shared the Gospel through music, to being a man who does terrible, inexcusable things and keeps them hidden. He was a Christian leader, now disgraced. I'm by no means famous, but I do serve on the worship team at my church. I also volunteer teaching preschoolers in Sunday School. At some level I'm a Christian leader, and I can't imagine myself crossing that line. But I bet Tait wouldn't have imagined himself crossing it either.

There's an old joke that many a preacher has told. A baby monkey found himself falling out of his bed every single night. "Mommy, why do I keep falling out of bed?" the baby monkey cried. His mother answered, "Baby, it's because you stay too close to where you got in!" I do not happen to believe that a person can easily lose their salvation, but in less than a week Tait lost the career he spent decades building, the respect of fans all over the world, and if allegations prove true, he could even lose his physical freedom. On top of that, he took the Newsboys down with him (radio stations across the country pulled their music and they lost their recording contract), and possibly DC Talk too, even though his DC Talk days seem to predate the alleged abuses. He absolutely fell out of his monkey bed. He seems to have repented, and I believe God is able and willing to forgive even these horrible acts, but Tait will never again have what he once had. And I don't want to run the risk of being the next "that guy".

So I'm going to try to sleep a little further from the edge of my monkey mattress. I'm going to edge closer to the center of God's will for me. Sometimes it's tough to live the way I know God wants me to. But I want my own sin to become intolerable to me. Hot, like a stovetop that I avoid touching because I know it hurts. I want to creep toward personal holiness, because I know that I may never make it to the center of the bed, but the closer I get, the less chance this monkey will have of spending the night on the floor!