I must be honest. The information you are sharing about this individual is of a most crucial and sensitive nature. I have not met this man, nor can I truly say that I know him, or fellowshipped with him in person. I find his story very intriguing and astonishing.
Is it possible that God is even able to forgive such a man as this? I realize that this woman he took to wife, Janis, did not take on her husband's name but I do not know the particulars. Was it one of those "common-law" sorts of "marriage"? Did she divorce her husband for fornication? Did her husband divorce her for fornication? Actually, just how was she married without her former husband's name? (Not that any of this is my personal business but it makes for an interesting study in the possibility of Jesus Christ's immense capacity for forgiveness - or not.) Please give me all the juicy details.
We see before us a caricature of a ravenous wolf, a deceiver, a what did you call him? An egg sucking weasel or something like that... without any hope of redemption because... ???
He sinned?
He confessed his sins?
He married a woman who sinned and also confessed her sin?
Evidently you have judged him for a reprobate and you have sentanced his damnation for him. He is hopeless... his spouse is hopeless. Without a doubt their children must be hopeless also because what Holy God would even think about sanctifying such a hopeless union. Correct? They are altogether lost in their sins with no hope of repentance or salvation. He is a Judas who should just go hang himself. We should all take up a collection and purchase a nice mill stone for him. It would have been better that he were never born. Is that it?
I am sorry, I need more information. I would like to know what this man's cardinal sin was. Out here, in the real world, where people have those "real lives" that you speak of in your first address to me, people sin. Of course, I am not even suggesting that this is a good thing.
We can overlook the fact that this man was stripped of his two sons but can we overlook the fact that he was also robbed of his daughters? It would seem to me that there was a great deal that he was forced to endure and had little control over because he relinquished control prior to the age of 30. Oh yes, he blew it BIG TIME! We should make him pay for the sins of his youth ... dearly and severly. Prison was too good for him! How dare he get off the hook so easily and call himself a christian!
All sorts of ideas come to mind here. I am having visions of Catholic torture devices dating back from the times of those glorious Inquistions. We should put this radical in an iron maiden and leave him to die a slow, miserable, and torturous death or perhaps skin him and his wife alive and roll their bodies in salt. Are you salivating yet?
Well your eminance... I don't have all the details so I really shouldn't judge. Yet I judge without convicting because the conviction is not adequate for me to pass sentance on my brother. I admit that the story is shocking to say the very least. Even so; I cannot say that God is incapable of saving these two people, or forgiving them, or that they are not currently saved, or that they don't have the Holy Ghost, or any of that sort of thing. I have not seen them, I do not live with them, I do not truly know their personal lives.
To be quite honest, I find the matter very perplexing. You say that you have spoken with the daughters of this man... Is it possible that you are personally connected in some way? Did this event occur at the time he was in prison? I believe you said so. How much control did he have at his disposal to stop the man who raped his daughters while he was in jail? This is a rather dramatic story.
I must be frugal in judgment here, having access to so little of the details, but it is quite apparent that you have already passed your personal sentance on these two. In fact, it would seem that you have made it your mission to warn the world about him and his ilke. There is something about the spirit in your approach that I personally find disagreeable, unethical, and pharisiacal and it is this that causes me to proceed with caution. Your demeanor seems highly biased and extremely accusatory - hardly the attributes of a true bishop.
You have falsely accused me on several occasions (for which you do openly demonstrate no remorse or apology) and I wonder if you do not also falsely accuse several others. Perhaps you need serious help. Perhaps you project your own guilt on others that they should become your scape goat. Of course I am only speculating: you do not know me and I do not know you. This much is certain with respect to the individuals of whom you speak: God knows their hearts.
If the case be that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance and that it is in ALL goodness and righteousness and truth... aren't you even ashamed to be speaking of such things?
Rather, you falsely accuse, you rail, you point, you blame (you obviously do not judge righteously because you have already falsely judged me), you berate, you criticize, you are intemperant in your accusation, and there is little about your spirit that is gentle... shall I add to this list of faults? Will you retaliate and tell me all mine also? You have yet to apologise or admit one fault. If this man has indeed already repented of his past and has made his peace with God, I would prefer to have this St.Radical for a bishop in my church before you...
Far better a formeregg sucking weasel for a bishop than a live viper. I have yet to see your e-mail seeking validation of who I am, sir. I assure you that I am not this man and I speak truly, unlike you. Your very actions betray your character: it is not a godly spirit.