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I was thinking and reading and formulating my thoughts recently on Christian artists/entertainers and their personal lives and struggles (read: sin). The biggest challenge to what I'm about to write is to not come across self righteous about self righteousness. And it's really hard. But here goes:

Fact 1: We all have sin in our lives. We all have secrets that would horrify us if word got out.

Fact 2: Your most favorite Gospel artist is a sinner. Regardless of how it is rated in our minds, he or she is still a sinner.

I believe that if you are going to be in the professional music scene, then you have to accept the “celebrity” baggage that comes with a successful career. That is, if you get divorced, people will find out about it and you can't hide it. If you cheat on your taxes, and get caught, the industry will know. If you abuse drugs and get caught, your fans will hear about it. I also believe there are some things even celebrities have the right to insist on being private -- some things are built in to "human decency" and should always remain private. (I don’t need to know which artist had a fight last night with their spouse and all the details therein. I don’t need to know what brand of underwear so-and-so wears or even how much money they really make. Those things are really, truly, none of my business).

But, at the same time, if I never knew one ounce of "dirt" on an artist and even though they may be the most "dirty" one of us all, if I'm not distracted by that, his or her music can still minister.

And some may be totally turned off to listening to anything a "known sinner" has to say or sing. I can understand that to a degree. (Sometimes I think it may be more of "our" problem with putting singers on a pedestal of holiness than anything else, although that's another topic for another day).

I hope, on the other hand, that we can be honest to know that we've got secrets just as bad as the artist has. Ours just may not have been "found out publicly" yet.

I like the advice of Spurgeon when presented the problem of a pastor who sinned publicly. The advice: Let him sit on the back row of the church until his repentance becomes as notorious as his sin.

Maybe we should look at the definition of "public sinning." I'm not sure what all would be included, although, in the case of Imus: that would be a "public" situation.

If a SG artist blatantly sinned in front of a crowd on stage, that would be a "public" situation.

And the time needed to sit on the back row certainly would vary. For some people, it may take longer to make the repentance known.

(And by the way, as a side note, I’ve been taught and believe the Greek word for repentance is metanoia which is not change but instead to change one's mind; knowing who you are, who God is, what you've done and going to him with it. God does the changing work.)

No matter how much some artists repent, they're still shunned from the larger Christian community.

So, the problem still is and probably always will be: God will forgive & forget, but his people don't always.

God doesn't put "level" on sin. We do and there are some things we're willing to put up with and “allow” more than others.

Christians are supposed to be accepting of sinners (we’re still beggars, we just found bread). We’re supposed to love to each other (again, even the really bad sinners). The church is to be a soft and safe place (it has drifted from that in many cases).

And the church is to apply discipline in the case of non-repentance.

I'm afraid it seems there is too much "discipline" being applied to those who have already repented.

And by the way, why are we so concerned with how much the singers are sinning anyway? I mean, if you really, really, really get down to the heart of the matter: not sinning isn't even the point.

Jesus is the point.

We can't even sit together at his feet 'cause we're too worried about who has disappointed us lately with their scandals.

The scandals aren't the "main attraction."

Jesus is.

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