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Americans live in a celebrity-crazed culture.
Gazing at the lives of the rich, the famous, the beautiful, and the talented is a national spectator sport.
When celebrities stumble – when they burn through another marriage, or get caught by airport security with illegal drugs, or post something outrageous on social media – we hardly notice. We expect celebrities to live messed-up lives. We call it entertainment.
“Christian celebrities” are a different story.
When we place gifted preachers, best-selling spiritual authors, and Grammy-winning Gospel singers onto pedestals of public acclaim, we long for them to be peerless models of humility, moral purity, and grace. When they fall from those pedestals, as they so often do, their mistakes can rock the worlds of the fans who have unwittingly come to trust them as much as Jesus.
Earlier this week, Philip Yancey – whose books have sold 15 million copies over a period of almost 50 years – revealed to Christianity Today that he had engaged in an eight-year affair with a married woman.
“My conduct defied everything that I believe about marriage. It was also totally inconsistent with my faith and my writings and caused deep pain for her husband and both of our families.”
Yancey continued, “I have failed morally and spiritually, and I grieve over the devastation I have caused. I realize that my actions will disillusion readers who have previously trusted in my writing. Worst of all, my sin has brought dishonor to God. I am filled with remorse and repentance, and I have nothing to stand on except God’s mercy and grace.”
He concluded, “I am now focused on rebuilding trust and restoring my marriage of 55 years. Having disqualified myself from Christian ministry, I am therefore retiring from writing, speaking, and social media. Instead, I need to spend my remaining years living up to the words I have already written. I pray for God’s grace and forgiveness—as well as yours—and for healing in the lives of those I’ve wounded.”
Yancey’s fall from grace – a profound irony, since his most deeply loved book is What’s So Amazing About Grace? – is sure to have a shattering effect on the Christian community.
Twenty years ago, I heard a presenter make a compelling recommendation. He said, “Sit down and make a list of all the things that will happen to you if you mishandle your sexuality.”
He had done that, and he read his list out loud. He said that if he stepped away from God’s intentions for this area of life, then he stood to lose his marriage; the trust of his children; his capacity for experiencing intimacy; and his ability to worship. He’d undoubtedly end up facing guilt and fear; the temptation to become a hidden person; loss of character; crushing damage to his reputation and his ministry; weakness the next time he felt temptation; and the deep sadness that he would be passing on a legacy that would compromise his children’s ability to trust God.
For those who have spent time in the public spotlight, the consequences of moral failure can be incalculable.
When respected Christian leader Ravi Zacharias died in 2020, it gradually became clear he had concealed a grievous pattern of sexual misconduct. The global ministry he left behind collapsed. Many of Ravi’s books are still on my bookshelf. I have not felt led to open them for five years.
By stepping away permanently from ministry, Philip won’t be adding any new books to his extraordinary bibliography.
After this week, what will readers feel when they pick up classics like The Jesus I Never Knew and Disappointment with God? Perhaps sadness. Perhaps disillusionment. Perhaps betrayal. Perhaps a sense of complicity that all of us have participated in the creation of “Christian celebrities” – a contradiction in terms if there ever was one.
So let us pray for Philip and Janet Yancey. And for the others entwined in this heartbreak.
Let us remember that private actions have public consequences – often far beyond our ability to comprehend.
Let us remind each other that while even his most famous followers may stumble and fall, Jesus still stands.
And under the canopy of his forgiveness and grace, failure is never final.