Ted Haggard stuff

Ted Haggard stuff: Robert Miller discusses the difference between hypocrisy and weakness. He contends Haggard is not a hypocrite but a weak sinner.

Frederica Mathewes Green sees the scandal in terms of the passions, sinful impulses, which attack and overwhelm us. She also writes these very nice (yes, EO, I know) paragraphs :

The Greek word represented by this kind of “passion” is pathos. It means “suffering.” It is because we are helpless in our suffering that Christ came. He took on vulnerable human form and went into the realm of death and defeated the Evil One. Now we are invited to gradually return to health by fully assimilating the truth that sets us free—by assimilating the presence and life of Christ himself. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me,” St. Paul said. This life fills and changes us like fire fills a piece of coal.

In the Eastern Christian understanding, sins are not “bad deeds” that must be made up in order to satisfy justice. They are instead like bad fruit, which indicates a sickness inside the tree (the analogy Jesus uses in Matthew 7:7–8). Sin is infection, not infraction. And God not only forgives freely but also sent his Son to rescue us when we were helpless.

Mollie at Get Religion summarizes.