I read a tragic story today in the media about a gay pastor, Mark Bidwell, Steven Fitch, in the U.S. who hosted a sex and drugs party. Another gay pastor attended the event and died of a drug overdose. This was the most telling part of the account:
Bidwell told police he invited Fitch over to his house for sex and that he didn’t know anything about him.
911 dispatcher: “How old is he?”
Bidwell: “Honestly, I don’t even know. We just met today.”
I cannot help but wonder how a pastor of all people, someone who is commissioned with demonstrating and teaching the love of God the Father as revealed in Christ, can use people for sex so casually like this. How can a shepherd of God’s flock be using chrystal methamphetamine and having sex with someone he had just met that day did not know anything about?
I often tell people that when I was in the gay life I had sex with men whose names I never knew. Even after we had had sex, we still often did not know each other’s names. I always felt something wrong about that, and when I did often ask those men their names they would sometimes cry on my shoulder, because no one had ever asked them their names when having casual sex. One would expect this kind of anonymous hookup to happen among those who are not Christian, but a pastor? I would hate to think how God will view such shepherds, vis-à-vis
Ezekiel 34. I pray that this man, Bidwell, and his flock come to true repentance. A shepherd of Christ’s ought not to do these things, but needs forgiveness and regeneration; and those of us in ministry roles (including myself) need to be constantly on guard against sin (Prov. 4:23).