Laurie Guy: Morality - let him who is without sin cast the first stone

Opinion

I was aghast at the news of Graham Capill's sexual crimes. What was particularly staggering was that here was a person who had headed the Christian Heritage Party for a number of years, fulminating against sexual evil yet been involved in it himself.

I had never been able to bring myself to vote for Capill and Christian Heritage. It all seemed too narrow and hard in its approach. Yet I have to acknowledge that Capill is a fellow evangelical Christian, even if his version has a fundamentalist shade which mine has not.

What adds to my distress is that Capill is not the only conservative Christian sex offender. Quite a number of prominent Christian leaders have been caught up in sex scandals of various sorts in the past few decades: Catholic priests, Baptist youth pastors, Pentecostal ministers and so on. No part of the Christian Church seems exempt, and that includes the evangelical Christianity that has continued to emphasise the importance of sexual purity.

It is particularly galling that among the fallen are those who have been most publicly prominent in urging traditional sexual values. When I researched the homosexual law reform debate of 1985-86, I was distressed to find that two key Christian leaders who had provided major leadership in the struggle against decriminalising acts of male homosexuality had subsequently been caught with their own pants down in breaches of traditional sexual morality.

The extent of these lapses indicates that conservative Christians have lost the high ground on issues of sexual morality, if they ever held such ground. Perhaps they have been at even greater risk than people of no faith by pretending that their sexual drive, which so powerfully affects us all - Christian and non-Christian alike - is fully under control.

My wife's response to the Capill news was, "I just don't understand how you men can do things like this". I don't understand, either. But I do recognise the power of sex as a driver for men. If conservative Christians are to maintain and advocate their sexual ethic, they will need to do it much more humbly and much less stridently than they have in the past.

In my research on the homosexual law reform debate, I came across numerous Christian letters addressed to Fran Wilde, the parliamentary leader of the movement for reform. While some were fair and reasoned, far too many were not. Some were downright evil in their tone: calling her "the whore of Parliament", expressing the wish that she might "rot in hell" and hoping that all her children would "become lesbians".

It would be better if conservative Christians got out of the political arena altogether in terms of trying to impose legislation concerning consenting, non-exploitative, adult, sexual behaviour (Christian Heritage and Destiny take note). What conservative Christians need to seek is not legislation but winning the hearts and minds of New Zealanders.

Quoting Bible verses, mounting political marches and adopting aggressive attitudes will not do this and may, in fact, be counterproductive. Humility, compassion and reasonableness might at least be a start. The Christian message of supportive and faithful marital relationships, of life-enhancing and loyal sex and of stable and secure family relationships might then get a better hearing.

Above all, those of us who are conservative Christians need to recognise that in the area of sexuality there is no "us" and "them". We all have the marvellous gift of sexuality. And we all face temptation to misuse it for purely selfish ends. It is a case of "there but for the grace of God go I".

Those who are Christians are fellow-strugglers with others in the stresses of life. Holier-than-thou claims should never be made or implied. The great Christian, C.S. Lewis, observed that in no way could he claim to be better than another person who was not a Christian. All he could claim was that he was better than he would have been if he had not been a Christian.

A poignant story from the early years of Christianity tells that when a brother who had sinned was turned out of the church by a priest, the fourth-century monk, Abba Bessarion, got up and went out with him, saying, "I, too, am a sinner".

It is in solidarity with society, recognising our own moral frailty, that we Christians should speak.

* Laurie Guy lectures in church history at Auckland University's school of theology, and also at Carey Baptist College.